Trump has nominated Scott Bessent, a billionaire investment manager who is gay, as secretary of the Treasury. Bessent, if confirmed, would be the first out member of the LGBTQ+ community to lead the department. His nomination still doesn’t mean Trump is an ally, however
Bessent, if confirmed by the U.S. Senate, would be the first out member of the LGBTQ+ community to be Treasury secretary and one of only a few to ever hold a Cabinet or Cabinet-level position.
“Scott has long been a strong advocate of the America First Agenda,” Trump said in a statement Friday, confirming earlier reporting by several major news outlets that Bessent would be the Treasury nominee. “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 Capital, while always, and without question, maintaining the U.S. Dollar as the Reserve Currency of the the World’s leading Economy, Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurialism, Destination for World.”
Bessent, 62, is the founder of Key Square Capital Management, a hedge fund. His background may upset some of the MAGA crowd, however. From 2011 to 2015, before starting Key Square, he was chief investment officer at Soros Fund Management, a hedge fund founded by George Soros, and Bessent had worked for Soros’s firm at various times since 1991. Soros is a major donor to Democrats and a bête noire of the far right. Some right-wingers claim — falsely — that Soros pays protesters who turn out to support liberal causes. But “Trump liked [Bessent’s] billionaire bona fides and the fact that he converted to the MAGA movement after working for Soros,” CNN reports.
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