If confirmed by the Senate, billionaire Scott Bessent would become the first openly gay cabinet secretary in a Trump administration and under any Republican president in U.S. history.
On November 22, President-elect Donald Trump announced his selection of Scott Bessent, one of his top economic advisors, as Secretary of the Treasury in his new administration.
"Scott has been a strong advocate of the America First agenda for years and will help usher in a new golden era for the U.S., solidifying our position as the world's leading economy, innovation hub, investment destination, and ensuring the dollar remains the global reserve currency," Trump said in a statement.
If confirmed, Bessent would succeed Janet Yellen and make history as the first openly gay cabinet member in a Republican administration. The U.S. already has its first openly gay cabinet member, Pete Buttigieg, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden as Secretary of Transportation and confirmed by the Senate in February 2021 with bipartisan support (86-13).
In 2020, Trump appointed Richard Grenell, also openly gay, as acting Director of National Intelligence, but that position was not a formal cabinet role and did not require Senate confirmation.
A Life of Resilience and Success
Born in 1962 in Conway, South Carolina, Bessent aspired to attend the U.S. Naval Academy to serve his country but was disqualified due to his sexual orientation. He later enrolled at Yale University, initially pursuing a career in journalism, but pivoted after a failed bid to become editor of the Yale Daily News.
In 1984, Bessent graduated with a degree in political science. "I walked into the career center and met Jim Rogers, a famous money manager from New York City, who was looking for interns. He even let me sleep on the office sofa," Bessent once shared. Rogers, a partner of George Soros, co-founded the Quantum Fund in 1973.
Bessent began his career working for short-seller Jim Chanos in the late 1980s before joining Soros Fund Management (SFM) in 1991. Over the next decade, he helped execute high-stakes financial strategies, including the famed short sale of the British pound during the 1992 Black Wednesday crisis, which earned SFM over $1 billion in a month.
In 2011, Bessent became Chief Investment Officer at SFM. He departed in 2015 after raising $4.5 billion, including $2 billion from Soros, to establish Key Square Group, a macro hedge fund.
As of December 2023, Key Square manages assets worth approximately $577 million. Reports indicate that Bessent and Soros, now 94, have not been in contact for years.
A Close Ally of Trump
Though Bessent once supported Democratic causes, including Al Gore's presidential campaign in the early 2000s, he has been a staunch supporter of Trump for nearly 30 years, thanks to his friendship with Robert Trump, the late younger brother of the president-elect. He fully backed Trump's 2016 presidential bid and has continued his support, contributing approximately $3 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign and the Republican Party.
"I’m all in for Trump. I’m one of the few on Wall Street who’s openly supporting him," Bessent said in an interview last weekend.
Bessent is openly gay and married to John Freeman, a former New York City prosecutor. The couple lives in South Carolina with their two children born through surrogacy. "If you’d told me in 1984, when AIDS was devastating lives, that I would one day be legally married with two children, I wouldn’t have believed you," Bessent said in a 2015 interview.
Economic Vision for the Trump Administration
Economists view Bessent as a pragmatic choice for the Treasury post, especially given his background in financial markets. If confirmed, he would be the second Treasury Secretary under Trump with ties to Soros, following Steven Mnuchin.
Bessent has advocated for reducing the trade deficit and supports Trump’s tax-cut policies. He has criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for "reckless spending" over four years, which he claims has exacerbated the national debt. He also took issue with the Federal Reserve’s delayed response to inflation in 2021 and its aggressive rate cuts in September.
Bessent has urged Trump to adopt a "3-3-3" policy: reducing the federal deficit to 3% of GDP by 2028, achieving 3% GDP growth through deregulation, and boosting oil production by three million barrels per day.
In a Fox News op-ed on November 15, Bessent defended Trump’s proposed tariffs on imports, dismissing economists' warnings about inflationary risks. During Trump’s first term, he initiated a trade war with China, imposing tariffs on most imports from the country. For his second term, Trump plans to impose a 60% tariff on Chinese goods and a general 10-20% tariff on imports from other nations.
"Tariffs can act as economic punishment without imposing sanctions. If you disagree with a country’s trade policies, you can penalize them through tariffs. It’s also a response to currency manipulation," Bessent explained in an October Financial Times interview, describing tariffs as "a negotiating tool to achieve better trade deals."
(According to ABC News, AP, WSJ)
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