(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5632353&forum_id=2).#48325040)

Imagine their seething when we elect Tulsi as the first female POTUS

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5632353&forum_id=2).#48326645)

"Shinzo-kun... I must honor him"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5632353&forum_id=2).#48325066)

After resigning from SFM in 2000, Bessent founded a $1 billion hedge fund.[5][15] The fund closed in 2005. Bessent has said he learned that he shouldn’t change his style or the construct of the firm because of investor preferences.[9]

In 2011, Bessent returned to SFM as Chief Investment Officer.[10][17] Bessent served as SFM's CIO until 2015, when he left to begin a new firm, Key Square Group.[11][12]

Bessent founded Key Square Group in 2015 with Michael Germino, who had been the global head of capital markets at SFM.[18] Key Square uses geopolitics and economics to make macro investments.[13]

Key Square received a $2 billion anchor investment from George Soros.[19]

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5632353&forum_id=2).#48325096)

the other candidate is the ceo of a third-tier sell-side shop. if trump can get away with picking the smarter guy without risking loyalty, that's ideal.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5632353&forum_id=2).#48325139)

https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/the-ex-soros-executive-who-is-trumps-new-obsession-4be2d493

The Ex-Soros Executive Who Is Trump’s New Obsession

Scott Bessent wasn’t involved when the former president was in office. Now he is Trump’s go-to economic adviser.

“One of the most brilliant men on Wall Street.” “Respected by everybody.” “A nice-looking guy, too.”

This is how former President Donald Trump recently described Scott Bessent, a little-known hedge-fund manager, onetime Al Gore supporter and George Soros’s former top investor.

Bessent, in some ways an unlikely ally for Trump, has become his latest obsession. Trump sang Bessent’s praises at an August rally in North Carolina, then surprised him by having him come onstage. On Thursday, Trump called Bessent “one of the top analysts on Wall Street” during a speech before the Detroit Economic Club.

Bessent, founder of the investment firm Key Square Capital Management, caught the former president’s attention last year when he publicly backed Trump as many peers in the finance world were still coalescing around Nikki Haley.

Bessent, 62 years old, decided to go all-in when he saw that the legal cases against Trump were helping, not hurting, his approval rating. He told people the phenomenon reminded him of a stock that rises despite bad news, a bullish sign for some investors.

Now Bessent is Trump’s go-to economic adviser. He passes campaign officials note cards with economic data and messages that Trump references on the stump. Bessent’s name has been floated for positions such as Treasury secretary should Trump recapture the White House.

The billionaire investor has known the Trump family for decades, though he didn’t become close with the former president himself until recently. He is friends with Blaine Trump, the ex-wife of Donald Trump’s late brother, Robert.

Bessent visited Trump early this year at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, where they discussed ways Trump could convert his ideas into policy.

Bessent is friends with Sen. JD Vance (R., Ohio) and was among the few on Wall Street advocating for Trump to choose Vance as his running mate. He also is friendly with John Paulson, another investor seen as a potential Treasury secretary under Trump.

This account is based on conversations with more than a dozen people familiar with Bessent and his deepening relationship with Trump.

From the South to Soros

Bessent grew up in small-town South Carolina. His mother, a local businesswoman, was married five times, including twice to Bessent’s father, who went bankrupt because of bad real-estate investments. His father’s setback, as Bessent tells it in public speeches, shook the family and compelled him to get his first summer job at the age of 9.

Bessent, who is gay, considered attending the U.S. Naval Academy but was unwilling to lie about his sexuality. Instead, he attended Yale University and went into investing after meeting and working for James Rogers, Soros’s first partner.

Bessent joined Soros Fund Management in 1991. He was one of the driving forces behind the firm’s enormous bet that the British pound would collapse after he spotted marked weakness in the U.K. housing market. The wager netted the firm more than $1 billion in 1992.

Bessent was Soros’s chief investment officer from 2011 to 2015 and ran the firm for a time. He scored kudos again, in 2013, for a successful bet against the Japanese yen.

He left in 2015 to launch Key Square. Named after a spot on the chessboard, Key Square specializes in macro investing, or predicting big-picture market moves using economic and geopolitical information.

Key Square had years of unremarkable performance until it gained about 31% in its main fund in 2022. Still, its assets have shrunk over time: The firm managed about $550 million, including borrowed money, as of June. It also consulted on investments for an unnamed $11 billion endowment and develops ideas and places trades for other hedge funds while splitting the profits.

Bessent is reserved and known to spout obscure economic data. He is married to a former New York City prosecutor, John Freeman, and they have two children. He primarily lives in Charleston, S.C., where the pair preserves historic mansions.

Moving toward Trump

While Bessent is well-respected on Wall Street, he doesn’t have the name recognition of financial heavyweights such as JPMorgan Chase Chairman and Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, assuaging Trump, who worries about aides stealing his spotlight.

Bessent “takes the goals of what President Trump is trying to do and helps translate them to public policy,” said Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign. Miller said the financier has also helped the campaign raise money.

Paradoxically, Bessent’s past association with Soros is a positive to Trump, who is impressed with the billions Soros has made in financial markets and sometimes asks what it was like working for Soros. Bessent hasn’t spoken with Soros in years.

Bessent didn’t agree with a lot of work done by Soros’s nonprofit, Open Society Foundations, though he didn’t see a conflict working for him. In 2014, however, when some people at the foundation wanted to restrict the fund from making investments in companies doing business in Israel, Bessent went to Soros and threatened to resign. The idea was dropped. Spokespeople for Soros Fund Management and the foundation said their organizations never pursued any restrictions on Israel-related investments.

Over the years, Bessent has mostly given to Republican candidates, donating more than $15 million, but he also helped some Democrats. He hosted a fundraiser for Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000 at his Hamptons home, but also donated that year to Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain.

In 2016, Bessent told people they were underestimating Trump’s chances. After Trump won the election, Bessent scored a big win betting on a market rally and later gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee.

Bessent also has taken sides in the types of culture fights Trump picks. In 2020, he lobbied to get the headmaster reinstalled at his son’s former Manhattan school, St. Bernard’s, after concerns about the school turning too liberal.

‘3-3-3 and the ‘Kamala crash’

Bessent regularly speaks with Trump and aims to add intellectual depth to Trump’s economic pronouncements, which can be thin on details. He has advised Trump to pursue a “3-3-3” policy: cutting the budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product by 2028, spurring GDP growth of 3% through deregulation, and producing an additional 3 million barrels of oil or its equivalent a day.

Bessent, who has long been worried about the U.S.’s heavy debt, thinks the only way it can be reduced is by boosting growth, which increases tax revenues.

Trump is a fan, partly because Bessent has been willing to make public predictions about how well the U.S. economy will do if Trump wins. In a reference to so-called black swan events that unexpectedly move markets, he has called Trump an “orange swan.”

He also has been outspoken about how dire he thinks the consequences will be if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the election.

“Kamala Harris will start with the Kamala crash in the stock market,” Bessent warned the crowd when he took the stage at Trump’s rally in North Carolina. “Then it will be the Kamala crash in the economy.”

Bessent has proven eager to defend Trump’s proposed economic policies, even in potentially hostile environments. Earlier this month, at a conference hosted by the financial publication Grant’s, Bessent argued for tariffs and “carefully calibrated” interventions to “reorient the international economic system to better serve the needs” of Americans.

Later, a person attending the conference screamed at Bessent, saying Trump’s policies only helped “the billionaires.” Bessent appeared momentarily startled. Then he hit back, citing a rise in real wage growth and progress for “the bottom 50%” under Trump.

Bessent has never run a large organization such as the Treasury Department, so it isn’t clear how he would handle a job of that stature in a potential Trump administration. Some friends are optimistic.

“If you can navigate both George Soros and Donald Trump, you’re capable of managing people,” said Stanley Druckenmiller, who worked with Bessent at Soros Fund Management and is the firm’s most recognizable alum.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5632353&forum_id=2).#48325208)