The American president-elect, Donald Trump, announced this Friday that the billionaire Scott Bessentinvestor and fund manager, is his choice to occupy the position of Secretary of the Treasury of his future Government.
“Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s leading international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists,” the Republican said in a statement published a few minutes after the press announced the appointment.
Bessent is the founder of the macroinvestment firm Key Square Group. In the last election campaign he hosted a fundraising event for the Republican in South Carolina and Trump has described him in the past as one of the brightest minds on Wall Street.
Bessent will bring to the Treasury a deep knowledge of the bond and currency markets, as well as his experience during years as a fund manager for George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and megadonor to liberal causes, one of the figures most criticized by some Republicans like Trump. Worked for him 1991 to 2000 and also from 2011 to 2015.
The chain CBS News He highlighted this Friday that he will be the first member of an openly gay Republican cabinet.
In the event that his nomination is validated by the Senate, Bessent awaits a crucial role in overseeing a broad portfolio that will span international trade, taxes, financial regulation and U.S. sanctions.
“As a lifelong advocate for everyday people and American industry, Scott will support my policies that will boost American competitiveness and stop unfair trade imbalances, and will work to create an economy that puts growth at the forefront, especially for through our coming global energy dominance,” Trump said in the statement.
In his Government, in addition, Bessent will help him “mark the beginning of a new golden era for the United States” in which its position as “the main economy in the worldcenter of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, destination of capital”, at the same time that the dollar continues to be “the reserve currency of the world”.
The diary Washington Post has pointed out that people close to Trump’s transition team point out that the financier caught their attention in part because of his negative predictions about the impact of an eventual Democratic victory in past elections. November 5.
A native of South Carolina, he is married to former New York prosecutor John Freemanwith whom he has two children, a situation that is not mentioned in the biography provided today by Trump.
A biography in which it does appear that he is a member of the French Huguenot Church of Charleston and that due to family financial anxiety he accepted his first summer job at the age of nine.
The Treasury position was most important vacancies that were still left in the future Trump Administration, which have caused controversy for putting, among others, the anti-vaccine Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of Health or a former Fox presenter investigated in the past for sexual abuse, Pete Hegseth, in Defense.
In favor of tariffs?
One of Trump’s main campaign economic proposals is the imposition of tariffs on products that come from abroadespecially from China, and therefore needs to surround itself with like-minded policy makers.
The Treasury Department is the main agency in charge of the fformulation of economic policies of the federal government and, although the United States Trade Representative (which will be Howard Lutnick) is the one who takes the initiative on tariffs, the Secretary of the Treasury usually also plays a central role in this matter.
As the newspaper recently pointed out Politicalalthough Bessent’s opinions a priori were closer to rejecting protectionism, in recent months – and especially days – “he has tried to shape his tariff positions.”
He made this clear in an opinion article published in Fox News last Friday, which may have weighed to tip the balance in his favor: “Tariffs are a means to finally defend the Americans,” he pointed out bluntly.
China’s growth “has done nothing but consolidate the dominance of a despotic regime,” while in the United States the manufacturing base has been “emptied” and “key vulnerabilities for national security” have been created, the article continued. It contains several times two of the words most repeated by the former president, China and tariffs.
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