On Friday Donald Trump announced hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as his treasury secretary nominee, which if confirmed by Congress would give him one of the most powerful offices within the incoming administration.
Bessent is the founder and CEO of investment firm Key Square Group, which he launched with a $2 billion anchor investment from trading tycoon George Soros in 2017. Since 2016 Bessent has provided significant financial support to Trump, and during the 2024 election cycle he joined the Republican presidential nominee at campaign rallies and served as one of his economic advisors.
In a statement sent to Newsweek on Friday Trump said Bessett is “widely respected as one of the World’s foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists.” He added: “Scott’s story is that of the American Dream.”
Before becoming a solid Trump supporter Bessent made significant financial donations to both Republican and Democratic candidates, including Barack Obama and a Super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton.
According to Open Secrets, a website containing a database of political donations, on 20 March 2007 Bessent donated $2,300 to Obama, who had embarked on his ultimately successful run for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
On 28 June 2013 this was followed by a $25,000 donation to ‘Ready for Hillary,’ a Super PAC supporting the presidential aspirations of Clinton, who clinched the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination before losing the subsequent election to Trump.
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Speaking to Forbes Andy Pollina, who for two years in the early 2000s worked with Bessent at his then company Bessent Capital, said: “When I knew him he was a liberal and supported Democratic causes.”
Bessent has a longstanding relationship with billionaire philanthropist Soros, who has donated large sums to various liberal causes—making him into a hate figure for some conservatives. Soros, who is Jewish, has also become a popular target for right-wing conspiracy theories.
During his career Bessent worked for Soros twice, and the Hungarian business tycoon provided critical anchor funding for both Bessent Capital and Key Square Group.
Newsweek contacted Bessent for comment via Key Square Group on Saturday by email outside of regular office hours. Trump’s 2024 presidential transition team was also contacted by email.
Bessent’s appointment was opposed by business tycoon Elon Musk, a powerful figure within Trump’s inner circle since appointed to co-head the newly created Department of Government Efficiency along with Vivek Ramaswamy.
In a post on X earlier this month Musk said Bessent is “a business-as-usual choice” adding that “business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another.”
Instead, he suggested Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick would make a good treasury secretary.
On November 15 Fox News published an article by Bessent in which he spoke out in favor of tariffs, which Trump pushed heavily during his presidential election campaign, describing them as “a negotiating tool with our trading partners.”
During the election campaign Trump suggested he could impose an across the board tariff of at least 10 percent on all imports, rising to 60 percent for those coming from China.