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Source: Forbes
Trump’s new ruling team has begun to take shape, but the biggest variable is still the crucial position of the Treasury Secretary.
Becente is a protégé of hedge fund tycoon George Soros and now fully supports Trump.Come and meet this person who may become an important person who controls the direction of US economic development.
Original title: “Scott Bescent emerges and may become a candidate for US Treasury Secretary”
In 2006, Lee Morgan, a 32-year-old investment analyst, was about to move to Australia to start a new job, so he was preparing to sublease his apartment in West Village.He recalled that the first person to see the house was a “quirky” man and asked him a long list of questions: Can you install bookshelf on the wall?Can you invite friends to your house?”If my mother comes to see me, we will sleep in the same bed.” The man said, and Morgan became more and more confused as he heard it.”She’s standing outside now.”
The person outside the door couldn’t help laughing and burst into laughter.This person is Morgan’s former boss, Scott Bessent.
“He hired an actor to play with me,” Morgan recalled. “He was very smart and humorous, but his sense of humor might be a bit weird.” After six weeks in Australia, Morgan returned home and joined BayCente’s new hedge fund company, where she worked for two and a half years.
“He can quickly associate, make connections, and have an incredible sense of humor,” said another person who worked closely with Becent. “It’s his huge advantage, allowing him to use humor on various occasions.Resolve the problem.”
Today, Becent has become a popular candidate for the Trump administration’s U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee.(He and Howard Lutnick are considered the most powerful contenders in the position.)
If the nomination is successful and confirmed by the Senate,Cente will be responsible for formulating and recommending financial, economic and tax policies, becoming one of the important decision makers in the world’s largest economy.
Charming, wit and “excellent” macroeconomic minds helped Becente rise on Wall Street, and now it has promoted him to emerge in the political field.Trump once called him “handsome and one of the best people on Wall Street.”
Born in South Carolina, Bescente, 62, has been linked with some of the world’s wealthiest investors and the most influential policy makers over the years.
From liberal billionaire George Soros (who once served twice) to one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest families to the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he is familiar with him.
Former colleagues at all stages of his career praised his investment vision and also mentioned his cold Wall Street style.“He looks a little restrained and calm, but he’s also tough,” said one who once worked with him at Soros Fund Management. “He won’t tolerate being stupid.”
“He is a very calm, unemotional person,” said Becente, a former subordinate of Soros. “We have been involved in some deals that took 12 to 16 months. If at the last moment, things happen.Change, Scott’s ideas will also change. He has the ability to give up decisively.”
Becent and Trump have known each other for many years.
According to Morgan, Besent is close friends with Blaine Trump, the wife of Trump’s late brother Robert Trump.Bescent had donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration committee in 2016, and he fully supported him in this election.He participated in Trump’s campaign rally and became his key economic adviser, and also donated $3 million to support Trump and other Republican candidates and committees.
Bescent is good at grasping the psychology of the listener and serving his preferences, which makes him a rising star in the “Trump Universe”.“(Trump) is very insightful in economic policy,” Becent said in a telephone interview with Forbes on the eve of the election.He was preparing to leave Yale Club and fly to Pittsburgh and Grand Rapids for the last two rallies of the Trump campaign.“He has a lot of topics to discuss.”
Now Becent also has many topics to talk about.“I have been quite low-key and not very much in my life,” he said in a telephone interview about the economic difficulties of the United States.One of his biggest concerns is government spending.“We have never had such a high budget deficit in non-recession or non-war times.”
Becente worked for George Soros twice in the 1990s and 2010s, a relationship that has raised concerns among some Trump supporters.Soros, 94, is a Democratic big money-maker and a supporter of the left-wing cause, and is also the target of many right-wing conspiracy theories.Last year, a user said on X that “Soros led” North African immigrants “invaded” Europe, and Elon Musk, now Trump adviser, echoed that Soros wanted to “erode the foundation of civilization” and accused him of”It’s nothing more than destroying Western civilization.”When Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sued Trump in 2023, many Republicans, including J. D. Vance, claimed that Prague was “buyed” by Soros.(Soros once donated to a progressive criminal justice reform organization, which subsequently provided funding for the campaign in Prague.)
“He is one of the few people who are not afraid (Soros),” said one who reported to Becente. “I think the two of them are a pretty strong combination.” Others declined to discuss.Becente’s relationship with Soros.
Compared to some of Trump’s hardcore MAGA supporters, Becent took a more moderate path.
Currently, he lives in South Carolina with his husband and two children, who have been married for 13 years.Born in Little River Town, South Carolina, he got his first job at the age of nine, and then completed his studies at Yale University with three part-time jobs, but he still owed $24,000 in loans.He originally planned to become a journalist, but after failing to become editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily, he began to consider other businesses.One day, he saw a recruitment message at the Employment Center: Jim Rogers, a well-known New York City fund manager and alumnus, was looking for an intern.“He even drove conditions that he could sleep on the office sofa, which was crucial to me at the time,” he recalled in a 2015 interview with Yale Alumni magazine.
Becente later returned to his alma mater to teach financial history courses to undergraduates.His courses include Financial Boom and Bust in the 20th Century and Hedge Funds: History, Theory and Practice.
Bescent, who has lived and worked in two major financial centers, London and New York for many years, supported Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 1999 and donated $25,000 to Hillary Clinton’s Political Action Committee in 2013.
“When I knew him, he was a liberal, supporting the cause of the Democratic Party.” Andy Pollina recalled that he worked with Bessent Capital in the early 2000s at Bessent Capital.Two years.
Marlene Jupiter became friends with Bescent in the late 1980s.She was selling options and derivatives at the investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, a junior trader at the Saudi family-owned Olayan Group, which belongs to Jupiter.One of the clients.
Jupiter said Bescent has always been a conservative stance, but he is a “moderate New York-style thinker, financially conservative.” Years later, Jupiter was suspected of her former employer Dijie’s potential employerDefamation of her and filed arbitration with the New York Stock Exchange, and Becent testified for her.”He stepped forward and gave me support,” she recalled.
In 1991, Becente entered the London office of Soros Fund Management, where he appeared to be the head of global research.
He allegedly played the role behind the scenes in one of Wall Street’s most famous deals the following year: Soros shorted the pound.The deal shocked the UK financial market and brought Soros Fund $1.5 billion in just one month.”Scott was in London at the time. He told me, ‘There was a big problem in London’s real estate market. We think the UK economy is going down,'” recalls Stanley Druckenmiller, a billionaire hedge fund manager.road.Druckenmiller, one of the key planners of the deal, mentioned the matter earlier this month in a podcast episode of the Norwegian Central Bank.
“Scott studied under Stanley Druckenmiller,” said an analyst who had worked for Becente.“He likes big bets with controllable risks.”
In 2000, Becente started his own business and founded Becente Capital, which received $200 million in seed funds provided by Soros.However, he failed to reproduce his past achievements after working alone.
“Most of the fund’s funds (by 2002) were lost,” recalled former colleague Polina, who mentioned that the hedge fund market had undergone a “hard time” at the time.In 2006, Becent Capital closed down and returned funds to external investors.
After briefly working for Protege Partners, Becente returned to Soros Fund Management in 2011 as Chief Investment Officer.As soon as he returned, he started another historic currency transaction with Soros and made another big profit: shorting the yen.According to two people familiar with the matter who asked to be anonymous, they also met with then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at that time.
One of the people insiders said, “In 2011, George and Scott met with Abe, and they both advised Abe, and Abe also revealed to them what was later called ‘Abe Economics’. He is an academictype of people, but also understand how the real world works.”
“He is very respected in the trading and policy circles, and even policy makers are willing to communicate with him,” said another former colleague.”They all want to hear what he thinks.”
In 2017, Becente left the Soros Fund again to found Key Square Capital, which also received Soros’ support this time, and received up to $2 billion in startup investment from him.According to Bloomberg, Bescent finally returned the “most of” funds in 2018, and the fund shranked from its peak of $4.5 billion to less than $600 million today.
Now, Becent is preparing to open a new chapter.
He recently praised Trump, who may be his boss on Fox and Friends, called him the “most insightful leader in economics” he met and predicted that the next four years will be a goldera.”We can revive manufacturing. We can achieve energy dominance. We will also usher in a technological boom,” Becent said enthusiastically.“I have had a fulfilling career and it would be great if I had the opportunity to give back to the country with what I had learned throughout my life.”
Becent is obviously taking the initiative to take the initiative to win Trump’s words.However, doing so can also backfire.The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the hard lobbying of Becent and rival Howard Lutnick angered Trump.As a result, there is another candidate for the nomination of the Finance Minister: Fox Business Network host Larry Kudlow.
One thing is certain: everything has not yet been settled, and Trump may still have unexpected actions.
