Trump picks billionaire investor Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary
Al Jazeera
The hedge fund manager will be responsible for implementing president-elect’s pledges to cut taxes and raise tariffs.
US President-elect Donald Trump has picked hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to serve as Treasury secretary in a blitz of announcements after his choice for attorney general said he was withdrawing.
The 62-year-old Bessent, founder of the investment firm Key Square Capital Management, was tapped to execute an economic agenda expected to be built around cutting taxes and imposing tariffs.
“Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists,” Trump said in a statement late on Friday.
“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,” he said, adding that Bessent would also help “reinvigorate the private sector, and help curb the unsustainable path of federal debt”.
The choice for Treasury secretary, a protracted process, was the most anticipated by the US business and finance community, given Trump’s plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend and potentially expand the raft of tax cuts enacted during his first term.
