Trump names critic to lead World Bank

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump introduced David Malpass, a Treasury official he has nominated to lead the World Bank, as the “right person to take on this incredibly important job.”

Malpass, who is now Trump’s undersecretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department, has been a sharp critic of the 189-nation World Bank. He has argued that the bank, a lending institution with a focus on emerging countries, has concerned itself too much with its own expansion and not enough with its core missions, like fighting poverty. Malpass would succeed Jim Yong Kim, who left in January three years before his term was to end.

Malpass, 62, made clear that his focus at the World Bank would include furthering the Trump administration’s agendas for developing countries. One major initiative, he said, would be to implement changes to the World bank that he and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin helped negotiate.