Scott Bessent, Gay Wall Street Investor, Named as Cabinet Pick
In an unlikely first, President-elect Donald Trump has named Scott Bessent, a gay billionaire, as his pick for Treasury Secretary, according to a statement released to numerous media outlets including CNN. If confirmed by the senate, the Associated Press reports Bessent would become the first Senate-confirmed, out LGBTQ+ Cabinet Member during a Republican administration. Previously, Pete Buttigieg became the first out LGBTQ+ Senate cabinet member when he was confirmed as transportation secretary in 2021 under the Biden administration.
Bessent previously worked under George Soros, a Democratic megadonor whose net worth is estimated at $7.2 billion according to Forbes. Soros has been a frequent supporter of progressive movements, in contrast to Bessent’s current political track, making him a frequent target of criticism from conservative figures such as Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones, and even an apparent bombing attempt in 2018 which led to the arrest and sentencing of Cesar Sayoc, according to BBC.
Bessent has donated to multiple Democratic figures, including former president Barack Obama and former presidential candidate Hilary Clinton. However, Bessent left Soros’s operations in 2000, and in 2015 founded the hedge fund Key Square Management. He advised Trump on economic policy during the campaign trail and recently wrote an opinion piece for Fox News defending Trump’s proposed tariffs, which have received heavy backlash.
“Our size gives us market power and the ability to dictate terms,” Bessent wrote in the piece published November 15. “Other countries need us more than we need them. We have but to use that power.”
In July, the proposed tariffs were dissented against by 16 Nobel-Prize winning economists, in an open letter that warned against Trump’s economic policies, according to CBS.
“For a country like the U.S., which is embedded in deep relationships with other countries, conforming to international norms and having normal and stable relationships with other countries is also an imperative,” the open letter states. “Donald Trump and the vagaries of his actions and policies threaten this stability and the U.S.’s standing in the world.”
Image courtesy of CNN
