On Friday, President-elect Donald Trump named his choice to be the next head of the Treasury Department, hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, who like the former president and others in his orbit is a former Democrat turned Republican.

Bessent previously donated to former President Barack Obama's campaign as well as failed 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton before later going all-in for Trump in 2016, according to Newsweek.

He also has prior financial connections to billionaire progressive investor George Soros, but claims to have paid back those early investments into his company and to have severed ties with the leftist philanthropist.

Trump names Scott Bessent as Treasury pick

In a Truth Social post on Friday, President-elect Trump announced that Bessent, whom he hailed as "one of the World's foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists," was his nominee to be the next Treasury secretary.

Trump went on to praise Bessent, the founder and CEO of Key Square Group, as a "strong advocate" of his America First agenda who would "help usher in a new Golden Age" for the U.S. by advising and overseeing the implementation of Trump's various economic and monetary policies.

Yet, while Bessent appears to be a big supporter of Trump's MAGA agenda, media scrutiny has revealed that he hasn't always been aligned with the Republican Party.

Bessent previously donated to Democrats before switching to support GOP

According to Newsweek, citing the Open Secrets database of political donations, Bessent once gave $2,300 to Democratic then-Sen. Obama's presidential campaign in 2007, then in 2013 contributed $25,000 to the "Ready for Hillary" super PAC that supported Clinton's presidential run in 2016.

The New York Times reported that Bessent had also previously been a fundraiser for Democratic nominees Al Gore and John Kerry in 2000 and 2004, and according to a fellow Gore fundraiser, Democratic donor Will Trinkle, Bessent, who would be the first openly gay Treasury secretary, "was very supportive of the causes and the people that we supported."

Indeed, Newsweek noted that former Bessent colleague Andy Pollina, who worked with Trump's nominee in the early 2000s, said in a Forbes interview, "When I knew him he was a liberal and supported Democratic causes."

However, per The Times, it is estimated that Bessent has made upwards of $15 million in political donations over the years, with all but around $300,000 of that total going to Republican politicians and causes, including $1 million to Trump's Inauguration committee in 2016.

Bessent previously worked with, was supported by Soros

Newsweek also reported that Bessent was once a protege of Soros who twice worked for the progressive billionaire's companies and received initial anchor investments from him totaling more than $2 billion for his own Bessent Capital and Key Square Group.

Yet, according to Barron's in October, Bessent has claimed to have fully repaid the initial investments from Soros and that he hasn't spoken with him in years, and while he praised Soros' wisdom in the realm of investment strategy, he distanced himself from the billionaire's political work.

Meanwhile, that Barron's article also outlined a plan formulated by Bessent to essentially sideline Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whose term expires in 2026, with the early nomination and confirmation of his eventual replacement as a sort of "shadow" Fed chair who could get a headstart on guiding future changes in Fed policy.

Bessent, who is also a believer in the power of tariffs on foreign goods as an economic negotiating tool, has unveiled a "3-3-3" plan that aims to boost domestic oil production to 3 million barrels per day, obtain 3% economic growth through deregulation, and reduce the federal deficit to just 3% of the GDP, which in theory would unleash economic prosperity across the nation and around the world.