Bessent Becomes Second Trump Treasurer With Hamptons Ties

The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s appointment of billionaire and former Hamptons homeowner Scott Bessent to serve as the next secretary of treasury — the administration’s second treasury secretary with Hamptons ties.

The Senate voted 69-29 to confirm Bessent’s nomination on Jan. 25, with three Democrats not voting. He is the second openly gay cabinet member ever, first out gay cabinet member of a Republican administration, and the second hedge fund manager to be named treasury secretary after Trump’s prior pick for the role, Southamptonite Steve Mnuchin. Bessent explained the reason he supports Trump’s proposed tariffs during the hearings.

“One will be for remedying unfair trade practices … For a more generalized tariff as a revenue raiser for the federal budget … [and] tariffs can be used for negotiations,” he told the senators. He also expressed support for Trump’s tax cuts, saying: “If we do not renew and extend them, then we will be facing an economic calamity, as always with financial instability, that falls on middle and working class people.”

Trump previously selected ex-U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), the former congressman for the East End, to serve as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and nominated Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, a Jericho native who owns a home in Bridgehampton, to be the next U.S. Secretary of Commerce. They were not confirmed as of press time.

Bessent, who served as chief investment officer for George Soros’s family office until 2015, owned Wyndecote — one of the original Southampton summer colony cottages — from 2012 until 2019. He spent millions of dollars renovating the home, built in 1886, which he bought for $10 million and listed for $22 million. Its high-profile visitors were said to include the Duke of Windsor and the King of Spain.

Bessent replaces Janet Yellen, who served in the role under President Joe Biden.