By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn and Morgan Rimmer, CNN
Washington (CNN) — The Senate confirmed Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary on Monday, elevating the hedge fund supervisor to the brand new administration’s high monetary job as President Donald Trump forges forward on an bold financial agenda.
The vote was 68-29.
As head of the Treasury, 62-year-old Bessent faces strain to handle the federal debt restrict and work with congressional Republicans to increase Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. He’ll additionally need to deal with Trump’s plans to enact tariffs on items coming in from Mexico, Canada and China, which poses dangers for the American economic system.
Throughout his affirmation listening to earlier this month, Bessent voiced help for making the 2017 tax cuts everlasting and argued that the difficulty with the federal funds is spending, and never revenues. He additionally claimed that Trump’s financial plans would decrease shopper prices and enhance wages.
Bessent, who suggested Trump on financial coverage throughout his marketing campaign, is the founding father of hedge fund Key Sq. Capital Administration. He beforehand was the chief funding officer at Soros Fund Administration, a hedge fund began by Democratic megadonor George Soros. Bessent is the primary out homosexual Treasury secretary and the primary LGBTQ Senate-confirmed Cupboard member in a Republican administration, in response to The Related Press.
When Trump named Bessent as his decide for Treasury secretary in November, he touted him as a “strong advocate of the America First Agenda,” and stated that he would “usher in a new Golden Age for the United States, as we fortify our position as the World’s leading Economy, Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurialism, Destination for Capital, while always, and without question, maintaining the US Dollar as the Reserve Currency of the World.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable Information Community, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Firm. All rights reserved.
