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Scott Bessent
Scott Kenneth Homer Bessent (/ˈbɛsənt/ BESS-ənt; born August 21, 1962) is an American investor and hedge fund manager who has served as the 79th United States secretary of the treasury since January 28, 2025.[1] He was a partner at Soros Fund Management and the founder of Key Square Group, a global macro investment firm.[2][3] A major donor, fundraiser, and an economic advisor for the Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign,[4] Bessent was nominated by Trump in November 2024 to be the United States secretary of the treasury and confirmed by the United States Senate to the office on January 27, 2025 by a vote of 68–29.[5][6] He is the first openly gay treasury secretary and as fifth in the presidential line of succession, he is the highest-ranking openly LGBT person in American history.[7] Early life and educationScott Kenneth Homer Bessent was born on August 21, 1962,[8] the oldest of three children of Barbara (née McLeod) and Homer Gaston Bessent Jr., a real estate agent.[9][10][11] He is of French Huguenot ancestry.[12] Bessent earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Yale University in 1984.[10][13] While in college, he was an editor for The 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.[10][14] Career as investor and hedge fund managerBessent interned with investor Jim Rogers.[15] After graduation, he worked at Brown Brothers Harriman, Kynikos Associates (Jim Chanos), and others.[16] Bessent joined Soros Fund Management (SFM) in 1991 and was a partner there throughout the 1990s, eventually becoming head of the London office.[9][17][18][19][20] In 1992, Bessent was a leading member of the team whose bet on the Black Wednesday collapse of the British pound garnered over $1 billion for the firm. His bet against the Japanese yen in 2013 brought additional profit.[21][22] After resigning from SFM in 2000, Bessent founded a $1 billion hedge fund.[9][23] The fund closed in 2005. Bessent has said he learned that he should not change his style or the construct of the firm because of investor preferences.[16] He was also a senior investment adviser to fund-of-funds Protégé Partners.[24][17] Bessent returned to Soros Fund Management and was chief investment officer from 2011 to 2015.[18][25] He left in 2015 to begin a new firm, Key Square Group.[19][20][2][3] From 2006 to 2011, Bessent was an adjunct professor of economic history at Yale, where he taught three courses.[16][17] Key Square GroupBessent founded Key Square Group in 2015 with Michael Germino, who had been the global head of capital markets at SFM.[26] Key Square uses geopolitics and economics to make macro investments.[21] Key Square received a $2 billion anchor investment from George Soros.[27] At the end of 2017, Key Square's assets were $5.1 billion.[27][28] Key Square's main fund returns increased by 13% in 2016 but lost money 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.[29] As part of a pre-arranged deal, in 2018 the firm returned the Soros capital as it took in other assets.[27] Its investors include Australia's sovereign wealth fund, Future Fund.[28] Bessent announced that he would sever ties with the group as Treasury Secretary.[30] Early involvement in politicsIn 2000, Bessent hosted a fundraiser for Al Gore at his East Hampton, New York, home.[31] He has also donated to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.[32] In 2016, Bessent donated $1 million to Donald Trump's 2017 presidential inaugural committee.[33] In 2023 and 2024, Bessent donated more than $1 million to Donald Trump's 2024 campaign.[34] In February 2024, Bessent hosted a fundraiser in Greenville, South Carolina, that raised nearly $7 million for Trump's 2024 campaign.[35] In April 2024, Bessent was a host for a Palm Beach, Florida, fundraiser that raised $50 million for the Trump campaign.[36] In July 2024, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that Bessent was a key economic adviser to Trump.[37] He proposed a three-point economic plan for Trump modeled on Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's "Three Arrows" economic policy.[38] Secretary of the Treasury (2025–present)Nomination and confirmationOn 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.[39][40][41] Bessent is the first openly gay secretary of the treasury, the second openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet secretary of an Executive Department after Pete Buttigieg, and the fifth openly gay person to serve in a Cabinet-level capacity, including interim officeholders and offices elevated to Cabinet-rank (after Demetrios Marantis, Richard Grenell, Buttigieg, and Vince Micone).[42][43] Bessent appeared before the United States Senate Committee on Finance on January 16, 2025. During the hearing, Bessent defended plans to impose tariffs, supported tax cut extensions, and called for tougher economic policies on China and Russia.[44] The United States Senate Committee on Finance advanced his nomination to the floor of the United States Senate in a 16–11 vote on January 21, 2025.[45] The Senate voted 68–29 to approve his nomination on January 27.[46][47] TenureBessent was sworn in as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on January 28, 2025.[48] Social engagementBoard membershipsBessent sits on the university council at Yale University.[14] Bessent and his sister donated the Bessent Library to Yale University.[49] 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.[49] Bessent chaired the investment committee and is a former member of the executive committee on the board of trustees of Rockefeller University.[50][51] Bessent formerly served on the board of God's Love We Deliver, an organization founded to deliver meals for homebound people with AIDS.[14][52] He is a trustee of Classical American Homes Preservation Trust (renamed the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation),[53] and a former board member of the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina.[50][54] Bessent is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[14][50] PhilanthropyBessent opened two foundations in 2022, and created the McLeod Rehabilitation Center at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville, South Carolina.[55][56] He also supports the Prince's Trust in London and the Harlem Children's Zone in New York City.[55] Bessent has supported restoration of the Nathaniel Russell House, a National Historic Landmark in Charleston, South Carolina.[57] ViewsIn article in fall 2022 commemorating former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Bessent wrote "President Trump’s most enduring achievement may have been to wake the United States and the world to the growing dangers of an ever-more-antagonistic China. In response, Abe’s greatest foreign policy achievement was taking this awakening and developing a multilateral solution for containment."[58] Bessent has praised Trump's proposal to implement broad tariffs.[59] In a Fox News op-ed in November 2024, Bessent 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".[60] Regarding Trump's pledge to impose blanket 20% tariffs on all imports, Bessent argued that these "were maximalist positions that would probably be watered down in talks with trading partners".[22] Shadow Fed chair proposalIn a 2024 interview in Barron's weekly newspaper, Bessent proposed an alternative to any plan by President Trump to replace the Federal Reserve chairman 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 present forecasts on future Fed decisions (forward guidance) after May 2026, while the present Fed chair is making decisions on present federal reserve policies. In essence, the plan would weaken the ability for the Fed chair to present forward guidance for the majority of 2026.[61] As Bessent had described the plan on an October 11, 2024 broadcast on Bloomberg Radio:[62]
Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, said to Barron's that the idea would "create a lot of noise in the market", and that it creates a situation where investors would have to decide on which Fed chairman, the present one or the future one, had the greatest weight in terms of the decisions the FOMC, the Federal Open Market Committee, which is the main policy-setting committee of the Federal Reserve.[63] In response to the shadow Fed chair proposal, Senator Elizabeth Warren stated:[64]
Personal life Bessent resides in Charleston, South Carolina,[65] and belongs to the Huguenot Church,[66] which his ancestors helped to build in 1680.[12] Bessent and his husband, former New York City prosecutor John Freeman, have two children, a son named Cole, and a daughter named Caroline.[67] In 2016, Bessent purchased the historic John Ravenel House, owned by John Ravenel and inherited by his son St. Julien Ravenel and his wife Harriott Horry Ravenel. The building restoration project was awarded the Preservation Society of Charleston's Carolopolis Award in 2021. The mansion, known as the "Pink Palace", is located on Battery Street in Charleston.[55][68][69][70] In November 2024 the home was listed for $22,250,000.[71] As of December 10, 2024, the sale was under contract.[72] Bessent's net worth was valued at least at US$521 million, according to Bessent's financial assets disclosure by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics dated December 28, 2024.[73][74] References
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