Editor-DN
Washington:
US President-elect Donald Trump on Friday named billionaire Scott Besant as his Treasury secretary, picking the hedge fund manager to help implement an agenda that promises tax cuts and tariffs.
Besant, chief executive officer of Key Square Group, has called for an extension of the tax cuts from Trump’s first term, wants to restore American energy dominance, and believes the budget deficit will This is important to deal with.
“Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s greatest international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists,” Trump said in a statement.
“He will help me usher in a new golden age for the United States, as we strengthen our position as the world’s leading economy,” he said, adding Besant. That “will also help revive the private sector, and help stop the unsustainable path of federal. debt.”
The nomination of Besant — who most recently served as Trump’s economic adviser — puts him in charge of the president-elect’s economic plan, from seeing tax cuts through Congress to managing relations with countries like China. Will be at the forefront of advancing.
The position affects both domestic and international policies.
With Trump promising massive tariffs on allies and opponents alike, all eyes will be on how his new Treasury chief walks the line between supporting those efforts and stoking trade tensions. Which can destroy the global economy.
The Department of Finance oversees various departments, from federal finance to bank supervision. The portfolio also monitors US sanctions.
Besant has recently pushed for tax reform and deregulation to spur growth.
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, he said it was key to “restarting the engine of American growth” and helping keep prices under control.
‘All in’ for Trump
He has also defended Trump’s stance on trade, saying on Trump ally Roger Stone’s radio show that the president-elect wants free trade but “we don’t have fair trade, we don’t have reciprocal trade.”
This month, Besant called the tariffs “a negotiating tool with our trading partners” in an opinion piece for Fox News, adding that it is “ultimately a means for Americans to stand up.”
Besant, who is from South Carolina, attended Yale University and served as chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, the macroeconomic investment firm of billionaire George Soros.
In 2015, he raised capital, including $2 billion from Soros, to start his own hedge fund.
In his interview with Stone, Besant said he had known the Trump family for 30 years and was a friend of the president-elect’s brother.
“I was all for President Trump. I was one of the few people on Wall Street who supported him,” he told Stone.
(Other than the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
