President-elect Donald Trump said he will nominate hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as secretary of the Treasury, in a statement Friday night.
Bessent, 62, is the founder of the Key Square Capital Management hedge fund and has worked on and off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed, he will be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He is a deficit hawk and has said he would work to lower the U.S. national debt.
Bessent, a billionaire, is a past supporter of Democrats, but has become a strong supporter of Trump.
“This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he told Bloomberg in August.
He supports Trump’s plan to extend tax cuts and said tariffs during a second Trump administration would be directed primarily at China.
In a statement, Trump said “Scott is widely respected as one of the World’s foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists.”
