Scott Bessent

Scott Kenneth Homer Bessent ( ; born August 21, 1962) is an American government official and former hedge fund manager serving since 2025 as the 79th United States secretary of the treasury. He was formerly a partner at Soros Fund Management (SFM) and founded Key Square Group, a global macro investment firm.

Bessent graduated from Yale College in 1984. In 1991, he was hired by Soros Fund Management, eventually becoming the head of its London office. In this role, in September 1992, he was a leading member of the group that profited by $1 billion on Black Wednesday, the British Pound sterling crisis. He made another $1.2 billion profit for SFM in 2013 betting against the Japanese yen. After he left the Soros Fund in 2015, he established Key Square Group, a hedge fund.

A major donor, fundraiser, and economic advisor for the Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign, Bessent was nominated for treasury secretary by Trump in November 2024 and confirmed by the United States Senate on January 27, 2025, by a vote of 68–29.

Bessent is the second openly gay man to serve in the Cabinet of the United States (after Pete Buttigieg) and the fifth openly gay man to serve in a cabinet-level office (after Demetrios Marantis, Richard Grenell, Pete Buttigieg, and Vince Micone). As the U.S. secretary of the treasury is fifth in the United States presidential line of succession, he is the highest-ranking openly LGBT person ever to serve in the federal government of the United States.

Early life and education

Bessent was born on August 21, 1962 in Conway, South Carolina, the oldest of three children of Barbara (née McLeod) and Homer Gaston Bessent Jr., a real estate agent. His mother married five times and his father went bankrupt due to bad real estate investments. He is of French Huguenot and Scottish descent. He has one living younger sister, Paige; his other younger sister, Wyn, died in 2022 after an illness. John Jenrette, a member of the United States House of Representatives best known for being willing to take a bribe and being caught by Abscam, is Bessent's uncle.

Bessent got his first summer job at age 9. In 1980, he graduated from North Myrtle Beach High School, where he was voted "most likely to succeed". He considered attending the United States Naval Academy but was unwilling to lie about his sexuality. In 1984, he earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in political science from Yale College. Bessent planned to be a journalist. In college, he was an editor of ''Yale Daily News'', president of Wolf's Head Society, and treasurer for the class of 1984. He was chairman of the 1984 Yale Alumni Fund and assistant to the director of athletics.

Investing career

Bessent secured an internship with Jim Rogers after meeting him at a Yale Career Center event. After graduation, Bessent worked at Brown Brothers Harriman and then for Jim Chanos at Kynikos Associates. He joined Soros Fund Management (SFM) in 1991, eventually becoming head of the London office. In 1992, Bessent was a leading member of the team whose bet on the Black Wednesday collapse of the British Pound sterling earned the firm over $1 billion.

After resigning from SFM in 2000, Bessent founded a $1 billion hedge fund, Bessent Capital. The fund closed in 2005. Bessent has said he learned that he should not change his style or the firm's approach because of investor preferences. He was also a senior investment adviser to fund-of-funds Protégé Partners. Bessent returned to SFM as chief investment officer from 2011 to 2015. His bet against the Japanese yen in 2013 yielded more than $1.2 billion in profit in three months.

From 2006 to 2011, Bessent was an adjunct professor of economic history at Yale, where he taught three courses.

Key Square Group

Bessent left SFM in 2015 to launch Key Square Group, a hedge fund named after a spot on the chessboard, with Michael Germino, who had been the global head of capital markets at SFM. It received a $2 billion anchor investment from George Soros. Key Square uses geopolitics and economics to make macro investments. Its main fund returned 13% in 2016 but declined or broke even every year from 2017 to 2021 before making major gains in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The inconsistent track record scared away clients. Assets under management shrank from $5.1 billion in 2017 to $577 million in 2023 and the number of institutional investors declined from 180 to 20 over the same period. It earned "double digits" percentagewise in 2024.

As part of a prearranged deal, in 2018 the firm returned Soros's investment as it took in other assets. Its investors include Australia's sovereign wealth fund, Future Fund.

Bessent announced that he would sever ties with the group as Treasury Secretary.

Early involvement in politics

In 2000, Bessent hosted a fundraiser for Al Gore at his home in East Hampton, New York. That year, he also donated $1,000 to John McCain. In 2007, he donated $2,300 to Barack Obama and in 2013, he donated $25,000 to Hillary Clinton's campaign. At that time, he was described as a Democrat who supported liberal causes.

In 2016, after the election of Donald Trump, Bessent donated $1 million to Trump's 2017 presidential inaugural committee. In 2023 and 2024, he donated more than $1 million to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

In February 2024, Bessent hosted a fundraiser in Greenville, South Carolina, that raised nearly $7 million for Trump's 2024 campaign. In April 2024, he was a host of a Palm Beach, Florida, fundraiser that raised $50 million for Trump's campaign. In July 2024, Bessent was a key economic adviser to Trump. He proposed a three-point economic plan for Trump modeled on Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's "Three Arrows" economic policy.

Secretary of the Treasury (2025–present)

Nomination and confirmation

On November 22, 2024, President-elect Trump announced his intention to nominate Bessent to serve as the United States Secretary of the Treasury in his second administration. Earlier, Elon Musk supported Howard Lutnick for the post, calling Bessent a "business-as-usual choice" and saying, "Business as usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another."

On January 16, 2025, Bessent appeared before the United States Senate Committee on Finance. At the hearing, he defended plans to impose tariffs, supported tax cut extensions, and called for tougher economic policies on China and Russia.

On January 21, the United States Senate Committee on Finance advanced his nomination to the Senate floor by a 16–11 vote. On January 27, The Senate voted 68–29 to approve his nomination. That day, a man in possession of multiple Molotov cocktails and a knife intending to murder Bessent was arrested at the United States Capitol. In April 2025, 140 of Bessent's Yale classmates sent him a letter warning that he was aiding the United States' descent "into fascism". In a statement, Bessent called the letter "equal parts odd and sad", adding that he had never met most of the signers.

Tenure

On January 28, 2025, Bessent was sworn in as the 79th secretary of the treasury by Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh. On January 31, Bessent gave Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team access to the Treasury Department's payment system, which sends out $6 trillion annually in payments from federal agencies and contains millions of Americans' personal tax information. On February 3, Bessent was named the acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; he immediately ordered the agency to halt all work. Also on February 3, Bessent and acting United States Secretary of Commerce Jeremy Pelter were tasked with implementing a United States sovereign wealth fund.

In April 2025, Bessent reportedly clashed with Musk, who served as a Senior Advisor to President Trump, with the two having engaged in shouting matches. Bessent reportedly shouted "Fuck you!" at Musk during their confrontations. Bessent criticized Musk for overpromising and under-delivering budget cuts with DOGE. Musk replied by calling Bessent a "Soros agent" and accusing him of having run "a failed hedge fund". The two feuded over who would serve as the acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue; Trump initially named Gary Shapley, Musk's preferred candidate, but Shapley was soon replaced by Michael Faulkender, Bessent's preferred pick, after Bessent lobbied Trump.

Tariffs

In April 2025, after Trump announced widespread tariffs, Bessent warned countries against retaliating, promising escalation. He then dismissed the drop in stock values and said he did not expect a recession. On April 9, Trump paused many of the tariffs; Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick were credited with convincing Trump to do so. Bessent has advocated pushing for concessions from U.S. trading partners to restrict their economic relationships with China in order to isolate China and gain leverage over it in potential trade talks.

Views

Domestic

Bessent has described the U.S. as a "barbell economy", arguing that while it has powerful financial and raw material sectors, it also possesses a weakened middle class. He opposes raising the U.S. federal minimum wage, arguing that it is "more of a statewide and regional issue". Bessent supports lowering interest rates as a way to ease housing, credit card, and auto loan costs for low-income Americans.

Bessent is pro-crypto, supporting federal regulations on stablecoins. He has favorable views of gold, calling it a historical "store of value". He opposes the theoretical establishment of a U.S. central bank digital currency. Following President Trump's plan to phase out the penny, due to its negative seigniorage, Bessent expressed support for changing the composition of the nickel to cheaper materials.

Bessent supports strong dollar policy, differing from Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who have spoken in favor of weak dollar policy. He supports the establishment of a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, and has proposed including GSEs within the fund. Bessent has endorsed permanently extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and favors ending federal income tax on tips, overtime, and Social Security.

Bessent supports nuclear power. He also supports reducing government intervention into the economy, arguing that private-sector jobs offer faster wage growth, while advocating for easing Supplementary Leverage Ratio regulations on banks.

Federal Reserve

In a 2024 interview in ''Barron's'', Bessent proposed an alternative to any plan by Trump to replace Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, which was "to nominate and seek Senate confirmation of Powell's replacement well over a year before Powell's term ends in May 2026". This has been called the "shadow Fed chair" because the confirmed candidate could forecast Fed decisions (forward guidance) after May 2026 while the incumbent chairperson makes decisions on present Fed policies. In essence, the plan would weaken the Fed chair's ability to present forward guidance for most of 2026. Bessent described this proposal as forward guidance on who the Fed chair will be. He later "walked back" the idea.

Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, told ''Barron's'' the idea would "create a lot of noise in the market" and create a situation where investors would have to decide which Fed chair, the present one or the future one, had the greater influence on the Federal Open Market Committee's decisions.

Foreign

In 2022, Bessent praised Trump and former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe for containing China. He called China "ever more antagonistic".

Bessent has praised Trump's proposal to implement broad tariffs on foreign nations. In a November 2024 Fox News op-ed, he wrote that the "U.S. opened its markets to the world, but China's resulting economic growth has only cemented the hold of a despotic regime" and argued tariffs "are a means to finally stand up for Americans". Bessent argued that Trump's pledges to impose blanket 20% tariffs on all imports "were maximalist positions that would probably be watered down in talks with trading partners". In March 2025, amid Trump's threats to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico, Bessent defended the tariffs, saying, "access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American Dream."

Personal life

Bessent resides in Charleston, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C. He belongs to the Huguenot Church, a religious association whose expansion his ancestors supported in 1680.

Bessent is openly gay and married former New York City prosecutor John Freeman in 2011. They have two children, born through surrogacy.

Bessent has had close friendships with King Charles III and Robert Trump. Robert's ex-wife, Blaine Trump, is the godmother of Bessent's daughter.

Board memberships

Before becoming treasury secretary, Bessent sat on the university council at Yale University. He and his sister donated the Bessent Library to Yale University. Bessent has endowed three scholarships at Yale: one for students who are first-generation college matriculants, one for students from South Carolina, and one for students from the Bronx.

Bessent chaired the investment committee and is a former member of the executive committee on the board of trustees of Rockefeller University. He formerly served on the board of God's Love We Deliver, an organization founded to deliver meals for homebound people with AIDS. He is a trustee of Classical American Homes Preservation Trust (renamed the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation), and a former board member of the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston. Bessent is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Philanthropy

Bessent opened two foundations in 2022, and created the McLeod Rehabilitation Center at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville, South Carolina. He also supports the King's Trust in London and the Harlem Children's Zone in New York City. He has supported restoration of the Nathaniel Russell House, a National Historic Landmark in Charleston.

Wealth

Bessent has bought and sold at least 20 homes, valued in total at over $127 million, many of which he renovated. On at least eight of them, he lost money. In 2007, Bessent bought a house in Bedford Hills, New York for $11.3 million. He sold it in 2011 for $7.1 million, losing at least $4.2 million. In 2007, Bessent purchased a unit at One Sutton Place South that formerly belonged to a sister of John F. Kennedy for $12 million; he sold it, at a loss, for $9.5 million in 2009. In 2010, Bessent bought a 9,719-square-foot house in Miami Beach for $9.5 million; he sold it for $14.5 million in 2014 after a renovation. In 2010, he bought a 10,665-square-foot home in Southampton, New York, for $9.95 million; he sold it for $19 million in 2019 after a renovation. He took a loss on his unit at 720 Park Avenue, buying it for $19.25 million in 2017 and selling it for $15 million in 2021. In 2016, Bessent bought the 9,407-square-foot John Ravenel House for $6.5 million. His renovation received an award from the Preservation Society of Charleston in 2021. He sold the property in March 2025 for $18.25 million plus $3 million for the furnishings and fixtures; it was the highest price ever for a house in Charleston.

As of December 28, 2024, Bessent's net worth was at least $521 million, according to his financial assets disclosure by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, although his actual net worth is speculated to be much higher. At that time, he owned more than $50 million in each of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF, and the Invesco QQQ, as well as over $50 million in each of U.S. Treasury bills, Chinese yuan, and Japanese yen.

References

Further reading

* Steven Drobny
"The Stock Operator: Scott Bessent,"
Inside the House of Money

External links

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1962 births
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