President-elect Donald Trump has named hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as the next U.S. Treasury secretary, ending weeks of speculation about the key Cabinet appointment.
Bessent, an enthusiastic Trump supporter and donor, is the founder, CEO and chief investment officer of the investment firm Key Square Group. He also served as an economic adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign and was one of the president-elect’s most successful fundraisers, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.
“I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States,” Trump said in a statement emailed to Newsweek on Friday night. “Scott is widely respected as one of the World’s foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists. Scott’s story is that of the American Dream.”
“Scott has long been a strong advocate of the America First Agenda,” he added. “As a lifelong Champion of Main Street America and American Industry, Scott will support my Policies that will drive U.S. Competitiveness, and stop unfair Trade imbalances, work to create an Economy that places Growth at the forefront, especially through our coming World Energy Dominance.”
In an opinion article published by Fox News last week, Bessent praised Trump’s plan to impose across-the-board tariffs on all U.S. imports, a policy proposal that has faced heavy criticism, as a valuable “negotiating tool with our trading partners.”
However, Reuters reported earlier on Friday that Bessent’s “years of inconsistent performance” as a money manager had led to “a nearly 90% decline in his hedge fund’s assets,” although he benefited from his relationship with Trump and placing recent bets on gains for the U.S. dollar and the stock market had led to “a double-digit percentage profit so far in 2024.”
Who is Scott Bessent?
Bessent, 62, was born in Conway, South Carolina and currently has a home in the state’s most populous city, Charleston. He is a Yale University graduate and taught there as a professor of economic history from 2006 to 2011.
According to Washington Post White House economics reporter Jeff Stein, Bessent is “a longtime friend of King Charles III and Queen Camilla” and “close friends with Princess Firyal of Jordan and socialite Blaine Trump,” the president-elect’s former sister-in-law.
While Bessent is strongly backed by Trump and a selection of his allies, some details of this biography might be viewed less favorably by other supporters of the president-elect.
From 2011 to 2015, Bessent served as the chief investment officer for Jewish investor and philanthropist George Soros—a Democratic mega-donor who is often a favorite target of pro-Trump conspiracy theories.
Bessent, who has been described as “Soros’ protege,” first worked for Soros Fund Management in the 1990s, becoming the head of the firm’s U.K. office before starting his own firm in 2000.
Trump’s nominee is also married with two children to former New York City prosecutor John Freeman. If confirmed by the Senate, Bessent would become the first openly gay person to be officially confirmed as a Trump Cabinet member.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who is also openly gay, briefly served as Trump’s acting director of national intelligence in 2020 but was never confirmed by the Senate. Current Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is the first openly gay person to officially serve as a Cabinet secretary.
Billionaire Elon Musk, a more recent Trump ally and donor, blasted Bessent last week in a post to X, formerly Twitter, as the “business-as-usual choice” for treasury secretary while expressing support for Howard Lutnick, the billionaire CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, to serve in the role instead.
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