Scott Bessent raised money for Democrats before backing the president-elect’s “America First” brand of economic populism
US President-elect Donald Trump has tapped George Soros’ former chief investment officer to lead the Treasury Department. Scott Bessent, who fundraised for Democrats during his time with the liberal financier, now backs Trump’s “America First Agenda,” the incoming president said.
Trump announced Bessent’s nomination on Friday, amid a series of other cabinet picks including Republican Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer for Labor Secretary and former NFL star and Texas state lawmaker Scott Turner for Housing and Urban Development Secretary.
”Scott has long been a strong advocate of the America First Agenda,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “On the eve of our Great Country’s 250th Anniversary, he will help me usher in a new Golden Age for the United States, as we fortify our position as the World’s leading Economy, Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurialism, Destination for Capital, while always, and without question, maintaining the US Dollar as the Reserve Currency of the World.”
As treasury secretary, Bessent will have influence over US financial and tax policy, public debt, and sanctions.
Bessent is the founder of Key Square Group, a global investment firm. During the 1990s, however, he worked as the chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, and led the fund’s London office when Soros made more than a billion dollars betting on the collapse of the British pound in 1992.
Bessent hosted a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in 2000, the same year that he left Soros Fund Management. He has since donated to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but in recent years has abandoned his support for the Democratic Party and become an enthusiastic supporter of Trump’s protectionist brand of economics.
In 2016, Bessent donated $1 million to Trump’s 2017 presidential inaugural committee. Earlier this year, he raised several million dollars for Trump, before joining the Republican’s campaign as an economic adviser.
Bessent told Financial Times last month that he supports Trump’s policy of using tariffs to redress trade imbalances with foreign nations, but predicts that Trump’s proposed 20% blanket tariffs on all imports would be “watered down” during negotiations with foreign leaders.
