Trump’s Treasury Department chose Bessent to sell the assets to avoid conflicts, the NY Times Reuters reported
(Reuters) – President Donald J. Trump’s Treasury Secretary-elect, Scott Bessent, plans to divest himself of dozens of funds, trusts and investments in preparation for his new role, The The New York Times (NYSE:) reported on Saturday.
In a letter to the Treasury Department’s ethics office, the money manager described steps he would take to “avoid any real or perceived conflict of interest should I be confirmed as Treasury secretary,” the report added.
He also said he would close Key Square Capital Management, the investment firm he founded, and resign from his family’s Bessent-Freeman Foundation and Rockefeller University, where he was chairman of the investment committee, the Times reported.
A spokesman for Bessent declined to comment.
Trump nominated Bessent on November 23. Reuters has not seen the document cited by the Times, but previously reported that a source said that if he takes the job in the new administration, Key Square could be terminated, sold or put into “dormant mode.”
On Friday, Trump repeated the financial arrangement he made during his first term, leaving day-to-day management of the multibillion-dollar real estate, hotel, golf, media and licensing portfolio to his children when he enters the White House.
