US President-elect Donald Trump on Friday named billionaire Scott Bessent as his US Treasury secretary, choosing the hedge fund manager to help execute an agenda promising tax cuts and tariffs.
Bessent, who is chief executive officer of Key Square Group, has called for an extension of tax cuts from Trump’s first term, wants to reassert US energy dominance and believes it is necessary to deal with the budget deficit.
“Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists,” Trump said in a statement.
Photo: AP
“He will help me usher in a new Golden Age for the United States, as we fortify our position as the world’s leading economy,” he said, adding that Bessent would also help “reinvigorate the private sector, and help curb the unsustainable path of federal debt.”
The nomination of Bessent — who recently served as an adviser to Trump — would put him at the forefront of rolling out the president-elect’s economic plan, from seeing tax cuts through the US Congress to managing ties with countries like China.
The position carries influence over both domestic and international policy.
With Trump promising sweeping tariffs on allies and adversaries alike, all eyes would be on how his new Treasury chief walks the line between supporting these efforts and fanning trade tensions that might roil the global economy.
The US Department of Treasury has oversight across a range of areas, from federal finances to bank supervision. It also oversees US sanctions.
Bessent has in recent times called for tax reform and deregulation to spur growth.
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, he said this would be key to “restarting the American growth engine” and helping keep prices in check.
American Bankers Association president Rob Nichols in a statement said that Bessent’s “years of real-world experience in financial markets will serve him well in leading a department critical to the global economy and the nation’s banks.”
Bessent has defended Trump’s position on trade, saying on Trump ally Roger Stone’s radio show that the president-elect wants free trade, but “we haven’t had fair trade, we haven’t had reciprocal trade.”
This month, Bessent in an opinion piece for Fox News called tariffs “a negotiating tool with our trading partners,” adding that it was “a means to finally stand up for Americans.”
Bessent, who is from South Carolina, attended Yale University and served as chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, the macroeconomic investment firm of billionaire George Soros.
In 2015, he raised capital, including US$2 billion from Soros, to start his own hedge fund.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS