President-elect Donald Trump picked billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as his choice for the secretary of the United States Treasury.
In a statement, Trump hauled Bessent, a financial advisor and significant contributor to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, as “one of the world’s foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists.”
Trump expressed his unwavering backing for the America First agenda and called Bessent’s journey “the American dream.” On the occasion of America’s 250th anniversary, Trump said that Bessent would assist the United States enter a new era by strengthening its position in the global economy and guaranteeing that the dollar would continue to be the world’s reserve currency.
Along with Bessent, Trump promised to “make America rich again, prosperous again, affordable again, and, most importantly, great again.”
If approved by the Senate, Bessent, who resides mostly in Charleston, South Carolina, with his husband and two sons, would become the first openly gay Secretary of the Treasury.
All you need to know about Bessent’s husband and kids
John Freeman, a former prosecutor in New York City, is openly gay and stated in an interview that he had aspirations of attending the Naval Academy as a young man, but he decided to not hide his sexual orientation.
According to reports, Bessent’s affiliation with Trump is a recent development as the former employee of George Soros has not been overtly a Republican.
Bessent, however, has been acquainted with the Trump family for decades, including Fred Trump, the real estate tycoon and father of Donald Trump.
In an interview with Yale Alumni Magazine in 2015, Bessent stated, “If you had told me in 1984, when we graduated [from Yale], and people were dying of AIDS, that 30 years later I’d be legally married and we would have two children via surrogacy, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
Bessent, the founder of the macro investment firm Key Square Group, has a net worth of $1 billion, as per Celebrity Net Worth.
In addition to North Carolina, Bessent owns homes in London, England and Lyford Cay, Bahamas.
He is an enthusiastic home remodeler who has served on the boards of the American Friends of the Louvre and the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust. He was recognised for his restoration of the John Ravenel House in Charleston.
He is also good friends with King Charles III and Queen Camilla, and he hosted Camilla when she came to the United States for the first time.
