Trump is expected to name billionaire Wilbur Ross to run the Commerce Department

President-elect Donald Trump has selected his campaign finance chair Steven Mnuchin as his nominee to be the Secretary of the Treasury, transition officials said.

Mnuchin spent 17 years working at Goldman Sachs, an investment firm that has produced multiple secretaries of the Treasury, and went on to produce Hollywood blockbusters, before taking the helm of Trump's fundraising operation this year.

His selection is the latest example of Trump tapping an insider as he staffs the government and attempts to keep his pledges to 'drain the swamp' and 'Make America Great Again.'

President-elect Donald Trump has selected campaign finance chair Steven Mnuchin to be the next Treasury secretary, transition officials said

During the campaign, both Trump and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders blasted rival Hillary Clinton for having delivered paid speeches to Goldman Sachs, a firm that produced past Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Henry Paulson.

The New York Times reported Mnuchin's likely pick.

'We are very focused on lowering business taxes, making sure that U.S. corporations are competitive around the world, bringing back cash from all around the world that's sitting offshore and I think the American public is focused on that,' Mnuchin told CNBC in August.

Trump has pledged to slash taxes, scrap a Pacific trade deal, remake NAFTA, and impose tariffs on trading partners that take away U.S. jobs.

Cabinet positions require Senate confirmation.

Mnuchin is engaged to Scottish-born actress Louise Linton

Investor Wilbur Ross, Jr. speaks to the media at Trump Tower in a hat he says he got at the meeting

In another move to fill out his economic team, Trump is expected to tap billionaire Wilbur Ross to serve as the next secretary of Commerce.

Ross appeared at Trump Tower on Tuesday, and spoke briefly to reporters afterward while wearing a camo 'Make America Great Again' hat.

'It was a good enough meeting that they gave me a proper rain hat,' Ross quipped.

Democrats immediately blasted the Mnuchin pick.

'So much for draining the swamp. Nominating Steve Mnuchin to be Treasury Secretary – a billionaire hedge fund manager and Goldman Sachs alumnus who preyed on homeowners struggling during the recession – is a slap in the face to voters who hoped he would shake up Washington,' said Democratic National Committee spokesman Adam Hodge.

'Trump is already heading into office as the most corrupt, conflicted, and unpopular president-elect in history, and now he’s breaking his signature promise to the voters who elected him,' Hodge added.

Mnuchin, 53, cut his teeth at one of the world's most powerful investment banks. His appointment collides with some of Trump's populist rhetoric from the campaign, where he vowed to close the 'carried interest' loophole and regularly inveighed against big banks and companies that move jobs overseas.

Mnuchin's father also worked at Goldman Sachs starting in 1957, the Wall Street Journal reported, and spent his career there while specializing in a type of block trading.

When he founded Dune Capital, Mnuchin got financial backing from liberal financier George Soros, who was one of multiple capitalists who appeared in a sinister-looking Trump campaign video in the final days of the election.

Trump said during the campaign that 'hedge fund guys are getting away with murder,' and called for doing away with a tax loophole, even as he called for creating a new 15 per cent rate for those who engage in business partnerships.

Although Trump was outraised by Hillary Clinton, his campaign brought in $255 million to Clinton's $513 million, much of it under Mnuchin's tenure, enough to keep the race competitive with assistance from outside groups despite opposition from many prominent members of the establishment.