Scott Bessent Age, Husband, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Scott Bessent

• Scott Besent was born in an affluent family of early settlers who were in good financial state for almost 250 years. His mother got married 5 times, and his biological father later went bankrupt because of bad real estate investments.

• His uncle, John Jenrette, a member of the United States House of Representatives, was caught by Abscam while taking a bribe.

• Bessent started working at the age of 9 in his first summer job and later graduated from high school in 1980, being voted ‘most likely to succeed.’

• He wanted to join the U.S. Naval Academy, but didn’t apply because he didn’t want to lie about being gay at the time.

• In 1984, Bessent completed his political science degree from Yale, where he held several leadership roles, including editor, treasurer, and society president.

• After college, he got an internship with Jim Rogers and later worked at Brown Brothers Harriman and Jim Chanos’s firm, Kynikos Associates.

• In 1991, he joined Soros Fund Management and led the London office. In 1992, he helped the firm earn $1 billion by betting against the British Pound.

• He left Soros in 2000 and launched Bessent Capital, a $1 billion hedge fund that later shut down in 2005 due to strategic mismatches.

• He then advised Protégé Partners and, from 2006 to 2011, taught three economic history courses as an adjunct professor at Yale.

• In 2007, he bought a Bedford Hills home for $11.3 million and sold it in 2011 for $7.1 million.

• He also purchased a unit at One Sutton Place South in 2007 for $12 million, selling it in 2009 for $9.5 million.

• In 2010, he bought a Miami Beach home for $9.5 million and another home in Southampton, New York, for $9.95 million.

• Bessent returned to Soros in 2011 as Chief Investment Officer, where in 2013 he made a $1.2 billion profit betting against the Japanese Yen.

• In 2013, he donated to Hillary Clinton, but in 2017, he gave $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration.

• He sold the Miami Beach property in 2014 for $14.5 million, and the Southampton home in 2019 for $19 million, both after renovations.

• In 2015, he launched Key Square Group with Michael Germino and received a $2 billion anchor investment from George Soros.

• Key Square earned 13% returns in 2016, but had weak performance between 2017 and 2021, leading to client exits and asset reduction.

• In 2016, he purchased the 9,407-square-foot John Ravenel House in Charleston for $6.5 million and later renovated the entire property, which earned him an award from the Preservation Society of Charleston in 2021.

• The firm rebounded with strong profits in 2021, 2022, and 2023, but assets had already dropped from $5.1 billion to $577 million.

• In 2022, Bessent launched two foundations and helped create the McLeod Rehabilitation Centre at Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville, South Carolina.

• In 2017, he bought a unit at 720 Park Avenue for $19.25 million, and sold it in 2021 for $15 million.

• The number of institutional clients fell from 180 to 20, though 2024 returns were in double-digit percentages.

• In 2018, the firm returned Soros’s money as part of a pre-agreed deal and continued with new investors like Australia’s Future Fund.

• In 2024, Bessent announced he would leave Key Square to become U.S. Treasury Secretary under Trump’s administration.

• In 2024, he opposed raising the U.S. federal minimum wage, stating it should be handled by states and regions, not the central government.

• Bessent has supported many politicians, including hosting an Al Gore fundraiser in 2000 and donating to both McCain and Obama.

• Between 2023 and 2024, Bessent gave over $1 million to Trump’s re-election and hosted fundraisers raising $7 million and $50 million, respectively.

• In 2024, he became Trump’s economic adviser and proposed a 3-point plan inspired by Japan’s Three Arrows economic policy.

• On November 22, 2024, Trump nominated Bessent as Treasury Secretary, though Elon Musk criticised him as a business-as-usual choice.

• On 16 January 2025, Bessent appeared before the Senate Finance Committee and supported tariffs, tax cuts, and tough policies on China and Russia. On 27 January, the Senate confirmed him with a 68–29 vote.

• The same day, a man was arrested for planning to attack him at the Capitol. In April 2025, 140 Yale classmates sent a letter accusing Bessent of supporting fascism, which he dismissed as odd and sad.

• On January 28, 2025, Bessent was sworn in as Treasury Secretary by Justice Brett Kavanaugh in Washington, D.C.

• He became the first gay Secretary of the Treasury and the second out gay man to serve in the Cabinet of the United States (after Pete Buttigieg).

• As the secretary of the treasury is fifth in the United States presidential line of succession, he also became the highest-ranking openly LGBTQ+ person in American history.

• On January 31, he gave Elon Musk’s team access to the Treasury’s $6 trillion payment system and private taxpayer data.

• On February 3, he became acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and immediately stopped its activities.

• That same day, Bessent was asked to co-develop a U.S. sovereign wealth fund with the Commerce Department.

• He sold the Ravenel House in March 2025 for $18.25 million, plus $3 million for furnishings, marking Charleston’s highest home sale.

• In April 2025, he clashed with Elon Musk during heated meetings. Musk called Bessent a ‘Soros agent’ and mocked his hedge fund’s performance, while Bessent criticised Musk’s overpromises in government cost-cutting.

• They fought over IRS leadership. Trump first picked Musk’s choice, Gary Shapley, but later replaced him with Bessent’s pick, Michael Faulkender.

• In April 2025, Trump announced broad new tariffs, and Bessent warned other countries not to retaliate or they would face stronger actions.

• He said stock market drops didn’t bother him and denied that a recession was coming due to the new tariffs. On 9 April 2025, Trump paused some tariffs after Bessent and Commerce Secretary Lutnick convinced him to change course.

• Bessent supports using U.S. trade policy to isolate China economically and push allies to reduce business ties with it.

• He is a supporter of nuclear power and less government control in the economy, saying private-sector jobs grow wages faster.

• He has been close friends with King Charles III and Robert Trump. Robert’s ex-wife, Blaine Trump, is his daughter’s godmother.

• Before becoming Treasury Secretary, Bessent served on Yale’s university council and donated the Bessent Library with his sister.

• He also funded three Yale scholarships for first-generation students, those from South Carolina, and students from the Bronx.

• Bessent was chairman of the investment committee at Rockefeller University and served on its executive board.

• He has also served on the board of God’s Love We Deliver and was part of the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust (now Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation).

• He was on the board of the Spoleto Festival USA and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

• He also supported the restoration of the Nathaniel Russell House in Charleston, a National Historic Landmark.

• As of late 2024, he held over $50 million each in SPDR S&P 500 ETF, Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF, Invesco QQQ, U.S. Treasury bills, Chinese yuan, and Japanese yen.

• Over his lifetime, Bessent bought and sold more than 20 homes worth over $127 million, including both profit and loss sales.

• In June, after Musk was removed from the Trump administration, Bessent compared their working styles and said, “I think Elon probably fancies himself more of a Viking. I think I’m more of a ninja.”

• MAGA podcaster Steve Bannon claimed that during an internal meeting, he told Musk, “You’re a fraud. You’re a total fraud,” following which Musk body-slammed him “like a rugby player.”

• While he did not confirm this, Trump confirmed that there was an argument between the men.

• During The Post columnist Miranda Devine’s ‘Pod Force One’ podcast, he praised Donald Trump and said that, “The biggest misunderstanding about him is his love for people.”

• Although he doesn’t have any experience working in the government, he read the biography of America’s 25th president, William McKinley, to prepare for his role.

• He was impressed by Trump’s political and financial viewpoint during his first stint as the US President, and predicted in 2023, 18 months before the 2024 election, that Trump would clear the nominations and become the 47th US President.

• His children have adopted the surname Bessent-Freeman and study in Europe.

• Though he has openly declared that he is gay, he doesn’t talk much about his personal life or any details about it.

• He also owns a home in the Bahamas and art and antiques worth $1 million to $5 million.

• He is a supporter of the Teach Children to Save Day initiative that focuses on educating children and teenagers about saving money and spending wisely.

• His colleagues have described him as humorous and tough at the same time. One of his colleagues in 2006, Lee Morgan, wanted to put his apartment on rent.

• A man who came started asking weird questions like if he could build a bookshelf cabinet and if his mother could come visit him. While Morgan was getting frustrated, Bessent stood in one corner and laughed. Morgan later found that the man was an actor whom Bessent hired to jokingly frustrate him.