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.
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
RSS