Dorothy Ha, Contributing Photographer

Two Yale alumni — Vivek Ramaswamy LAW ’13 and Scott Bessent ’84 — were named to prominent positions in President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration.

Ramaswamy, along with Elon Musk, will co-lead the newly proposed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — a new presidential advisory commission that seeks to reduce excess federal spending and restructure federal agencies. 

Bessent, who has taught three college seminars at Yale and previously donated to the University, was nominated to serve as secretary of the treasury, a position for which he needs to be confirmed by the Senate. If confirmed, he would follow Yale alumna Janet Yellen GRD ’71, who was appointed by President Joe Biden. 

“Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists,” Trump wrote in a statement released on Truth Social.

During his time at Yale, Bessent served as a News editor at the News. That year, Steven Mnuchin ’85, who served as treasury secretary during Trump’s first term, served as publisher of the News on the board with Bessent.

Bessent — who was in Branford College — was also president of Wolf’s Head, treasurer for the class of 1984, chairman of the 1984 Alumni Fund and assistant to the director of athletics. He was also awarded the John Proctor Clarke Prize for outstanding service and leadership within Yale College.

In a 2015 interview, Bessent shared that while in college, he originally wanted to do journalism, he decided to “consider doing something else going forward” after he lost an election to lead the News. Thus, after graduating from Yale College with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1984, Bessent went on to work at various hedge funds, including Soros Fund Management. 

After graduation, Bessent remained involved with Yale. He sat on the University Council, an advisory body to the Yale president. Between 2006 and 2011, he also taught three courses at Yale: “Twentieth Century Financial Booms and Busts,” “Hedge Funds: History, Theory and Practice,” and a class about the financial panic between 2007 and 2009.

Bessent supported the Democratic Party in the past, hosting a fundraiser for former Vice President Al Gore and donating to former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton LAW ’73. 

By 2011, however, Bessent had become a major donor to Republican politicians. In 2016, Bessent gave $1 million to Mr. Trump’s inauguration. And while he was not part of Trump’s first term as president, Bessent was an economic advisor for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Bessent advocates for deficit reduction and deregulation and calls for spending cuts and shifts in existing taxes to offset the costs that the tax extension would add to the federal deficit.

“Scott will support my Policies that will drive U.S. Competitiveness, and stop unfair Trade imbalances, work to create an Economy that places Growth at the forefront, especially through our coming World Energy Dominance,” Trump wrote when announcing his Treasury pick.

If confirmed, Bessent will be the second openly gay Cabinet secretary in United States history and the first openly gay cabinet member in a Republican administration. 

Ramaswamy, a 2024 presidential candidate who ran against Trump before joining his team, graduated from Yale Law School in 2013. During his time at Yale, he met Vice President-elect JD Vance LAW ’13 and was a part of the Jewish intellectual discussion society Shabtai.

Before Yale, he graduated from Harvard in 2007 and co-founded a private social networking website while working at the Hedge Fund QVT Financial. After graduating from Yale, he founded Roivant Sciences, a biotechnology firm, and has amassed a net worth of $950 million in 2023, according to Forbes. 

“These two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Trump wrote in a press release of Ramaswamy and Musk, who will co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency.

Ramaswamy has proposed drastic reform and restructuring to the federal government, such as eliminating the Department of Education, the FBI and the IRS by executive order. He also agrees with plans to cut the federal workforce by 75 percent and slash foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Ramaswamy said he plans to cut “the $500 billion-plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended.”

“The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long,” Ramaswamy and Musk wrote in Wall Street Journal in November. “That’s why we’re doing things differently. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians.”

During Trump’s first administration, four members of his 16-person cabinet were Yale alumni, and three other alumni held prominent leadership roles in the administration. As of early December, Ramaswamy and Bessent have been the only Yale alumni named to the second Trump administration

Donald Trump will take office on Jan. 20, 2025.

Correction, Dec. 3: Trump has not nominated Ramaswamy and Bessent but tapped them for positions.