Who is Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent?

Scott Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager who has helped raise money for Donald Trump, is the president-elect’s pick to lead the Treasury Department.

Bessent has been advising Trump on economic policy and has been a frequent presence at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club over the past two weeks.

The announcement of the job, which requires Senate approval, was supposed to come earlier but had been stalled because of intense infighting among Trump’s top advisers — including transition chairman Howard Lutnick — over who should get the job.

“Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s leading international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists. Scott’s story is the American Dream,” Trump said in his announcement.

Bessent, 62, has been involved in financial companies for over 35 years.

Born and raised in Conway, South Carolina, Bessent graduated from Yale University in 1984.

After graduating from Yale in 1984, Bessent went to work for various investment firms.

He worked for Democratic megadonor George Soros from 1991 to 2000, where he was managing partner. He later returned to Soros Fund Management (SFM) – the private investment firm that manages assets for the Open Society Foundations – as Chief Investment Officer from 2011 to 2015.

Bessent has also been associated with Brown Brothers Harriman, The Olayan Group, Kynikos Associates and Protégé Partners.

Economists from both sides of the aisle believe that Bessent is a middle choice.

Bessent made large donations in support of Trump and served as a financial advisor. He has also made several television appearances on behalf of the newly elected president.

Obsessed spoke at a conference run by the Manhattan Institute in June, where he laid out a three-point economic plan that he intended to propose to Trump.

“Well, I can even advise him to campaign on three arrows,” Bessent said. “That would be 3% real economic growth, and how do you get that? Through deregulation, more US energy production, killer inflation and forward guidance on empowering people to make investments – so the private sector can take over from this bloated government spending. “

Bessent, who is gay, lives in New York City with his partner and two children.

As the long-awaited Treasury election continued, Elon Musk threw his support behind Howard Lutnick over Scott Bessent.

“Would be interesting to hear more people consider this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback. My view (for what it’s worth) is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually effect change, ” Musk wrote on X. “Business-as-usual is bankrupting America, so we have to change one way or another.”