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.
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