A South Carolina native, Bessent graduated from Yale University and began his career at Brown Brothers Harriman, one of the nation’s oldest investment firms.
He made a name for himself in the 1990s while working for Soros, a major Democratic donor, betting against the British pound and Japanese yen.
In 2015, he launched his own fund, Key Square Capital Management, which is known for its investments based on big-picture economic policies.
He also taught economic history at Yale University, served as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and as a director of the Rockefeller Institute.
She and her husband, a former New York City prosecutor, married in 2011 and have two children. He is known for his philanthropy in South Carolina, where his family roots are deep.
Bessent defended the tariffs, which are a key part of President Trump’s protectionist policies, arguing that opposition to them is rooted in political ideology rather than what he sees as “economic thinking.”
But he also characterized Trump’s support for such a border tax as a negotiating tool, suggesting that the president-elect is not necessarily committed to aggressively raising taxes.
This stance makes him more moderate than others whose names have been mentioned for the Treasury role, such as former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
However, Bessent has strongly supported Trump’s embrace of the cryptocurrency industry. This support would make him the first Treasury Secretary to publicly advocate for cryptocurrencies and would send a clear signal that Trump is serious about establishing the United States as the “crypto capital of the Earth.”
In an interview with Fox News last summer, Bessent said he believes cryptocurrencies are a good fit for the Republican Party’s ethos and that Democrats have overreacted to scammers like Sam Bankman-Fried.
“Cryptocurrency is about freedom,” he said.
