To build an expected economic strategy around increasing customs duties and reducing taxes, the 47th president-elect Donald Trump chose billionaire and hedge fund manager Scott Bessent on Friday, November 22. The next Treasury Secretary is an ardent promoter of political control over the Federal Reserve, the American central bank, and calls in particular for the elimination of public subsidies, deregulation of the economy and an increase in national production of energy.
Long cited among the favorites for this position, Scott Bessent, 62, is close to Donald Trump from the start, to whom he was one of the main donors for his 2024 campaign. “He will help me launch a new golden age for the United States, by solidifying our role the world’s leading economy, center of innovation and business creation, destination of capital, while ensuring that the dollar remains, without question, the world’s reserve currency”, declared the President-elect in a press release published on social networks.
According to the American press agency Associated Pressif confirmed in office, Scott Bessent will also be the first openly LGBT+ minister confirmed by the Senate in a Republican administration. He is married, and had two children via surrogate mother. Currently, Pete Buttigieg is the Senate-confirmed LGBT+ prime minister under a Democratic administration, appointed by President Joe Biden to lead the Department of Transportation.
A controversial past among the Republicans
If Scott Bessent’s political ideas are in line with conservative economic principles, part of his career is viewed with suspicion by Republicans. A graduate of the renowned Yale University, Scott Bessent began his career in 1991 within SFM, the investment company of billionaire George Soros, a true bête noire of conservatives and support of the Democratic Party. A long-time Republican donor, he also, according to the New York Timesgave money to some Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
He finally left SFM for the first time in 2000 in order to launch his own investment fund. After an initial failure, he returned in 2011 before resigning again to launch Key Square Group. “Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s greatest international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists,” Donald Trump publicly said in his statement, before asserting that “Scott’s story is that of the American dream.” Emerging as one of Trump’s senior economic advisors over the past year, he has become particularly critical of the Democratic economic agenda, warning of a “Kamala Crash” if the Democratic candidate is elected.
Drastic tax cuts and control by the Fed
If his nomination is confirmed by the Senate, Scott Bessent will take over a department with broad responsibilities, such as financing government operations and paying its bills, including Social Security and veterans’ benefits. He will also have control of financial institutions like the Fed (the central bank), over which he would like to establish greater government control. Like Donald Trump, who already suggested during his last term that presidents should have a say on interest rates.
It will have to increase and sustain the tax cuts made during Donald Trump’s first term (2017-2021), which will expire in 2025. Its mission will also be to manage the reduction of the public deficit, and the control of the federal debt which reaches 36,000 billion dollars. He will also have to manage trade relations with the United States’ main partners, including China, and implement the radical sanctions recently adopted against Russia.
A minister more measured than President Trump
Above all, he will have to find a way to make concrete many of Donald Trump’s unconventional economic ideas, which include calling for the elimination of taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits. He also wants to impose tariffs of up to 50% on imports and enact higher import duties on goods from certain countries.
In a post-election interview with CNBC, Scott Bessent already tempered some of the policies proposed by Donald Trump, measures that economists say could trigger a new surge in inflation.
Because the new Secretary of the Treasury is considered more measured than the one with whom he competed for the position, Howard Lutnick (ultimately designated Secretary of Commerce) and who had support in Donald Trump’s entourage, notably that of the billionaire Elon Musk. Comparing the two men, Elon Musk estimated on his X account that Scott Bessent “would be a choice of status quo, while Howard Lutnick would really implement the change” wanted by Donald Trump.