Scott Bessent
Scott Bessent | |
|---|---|
Official portrait, 2025 | |
| 79th United States Secretary of the Treasury | |
| Assumed office January 28, 2025 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Deputy | Michael Faulkender |
| Preceded by | Janet Yellen |
| Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau | |
| In office February 3, 2025 – February 7, 2025 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Deputy | Zixta Martinez |
| Preceded by | Zixta Martinez (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Russell Vought (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Scott Kenneth Homer Bessent August 21, 1962 Conway, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse |
John Freeman (m. 2011) |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Yale University (BA) |
Scott Kenneth Homer Bessent (/ˈbɛsənt/ BESS-ənt; born August 21, 1962) is an American government official and former hedge fund manager serving since 2025 as the 79th United States secretary of the treasury. He was formerly a partner at Soros Fund Management (SFM) and founded Key Square Group, a global macro investment firm.
Bessent graduated from Yale College in 1984. In 1991, he was hired by Soros Fund Management, eventually becoming the head of its London office. In this role, in September 1992, he was a leading member of the group that profited by $1 billion on Black Wednesday, the British Pound sterling crisis. He made another $1.2 billion profit for SFM in 2013 betting against the Japanese yen. After he left the Soros Fund in 2015, he established Key Square Group, a hedge fund.
A major donor, fundraiser, and economic advisor for the Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign, Bessent was nominated for treasury secretary by Trump in November 2024 and confirmed by the United States Senate on January 27, 2025, by a vote of 68–29.
Bessent is the second openly gay man to serve in the Cabinet of the United States (after Pete Buttigieg) and the fifth openly gay man to serve in a cabinet-level office (after Demetrios Marantis, Richard Grenell, Pete Buttigieg, and Vince Micone). As the U.S. secretary of the treasury is fifth in the United States presidential line of succession, he is the highest-ranking openly LGBT person ever to serve in the federal government of the United States.