World Bank Appoints Trump Nominee David Malpass As President

Senior U.S. Treasury official David Malpass was appointed president of the World Bank Group, placing a loyalist of President Donald Trump at the helm of the development lender.

Malpass was unanimously selected to serve a five-year term from April 9, the World Bank’s executive board said in a statement on Friday.

Trump nominated Malpass in February, choosing a loyal supporter who had been sharply critical of China and called for a shakeup of the global economic order. No other countries proposed any candidates to challenge Malpass.

Before his nomination, Malpass portrayed the World Bank as too big, inefficient and reluctant to cut funding for developing countries that grow into dynamic emerging markets.

He pushed the bank to lend less to China, arguing the world’s second-biggest economy has the financial resources to support itself.

Malpass succeeds Jim Yong Kim, who stepped down Feb. 1 to join an investment firm. The position of World Bank president has historically gone to an American, while a European has led its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund.