Appointments and Executive Changes

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      Scott Bessent, Trump’s Pick for Treasury Secretary, Doesn’t Fit the President-Elect’s Loyalist Mold

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      A hedge-fund titan who worked for George Soros. A deep-rooted Southerner with a fondness for high-end real estate. A gay man, married with children. Who is Scott Bessent?A capitalist with a soft spot for royalty. A deep-rooted Southerner with a fondness for stylish New York locales. A gay man, married with children, who has embraced a Republican Party that has sometimes vilified elements, and individuals, of the L.G.B.T.Q. movement.Such are the crosscurrents coursing through the biography of Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary. The appointment would give him vast power over the nation’s economic plans — and place him fifth in line for the presidency, potentially the highest governmental position ever held by a gay person.A hedge-fund titan with a formidable professional pedigree, Mr. Bessent, 62, has been a quiet presence in New York’s social scene since the 1990s, when he worked for George Soros, the liberal megadonor and financier, eventually managing tens of billions of dollars in assets.He counts among his friends a group of elegant socialites and women of the world, Capote-ian swans of a different era, including the president-elect’s former sister-in-law Blaine Trump, Princess Firyal of Jordan and Queen Camilla, whom he once hosted at his Hamptons home — and forced to smoke her cigarettes outside. He is friends, too, with King Charles III, who has regularly hosted him at Buckingham Palace. Mr. Bessent no longer has a home in New York City, and is instead schooling his two children, Charlotte and Cole, ages 11 and 15, in London with his husband, John Freeman, a former assistant district attorney in the Bronx, whom he married in 2011. The family also has homes in Charleston, S.C. — the state where Mr. Bessent was raised — and in Lyford Cay, a gated community in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, which advertises itself as “one of the Caribbean’s most elegant and exclusive enclaves.”But Mr. Bessent’s family history is also pocked with hardships, including two bankruptcies for his father — a decade apart, in 1969 and 1979 — and the 2022 death of his younger sister, Wyn Nicole Bessent, who had worked as a public defender and seemingly lived a simpler life far removed from her brother’s glittering existence.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Storm King to Begin 2025 With Nora Lawrence as Executive Director

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      The family-run Hudson Valley sculpture park inaugurates its 65th anniversary year with fresh leadership, a $53-million upgrade and new acquisitions.Storm King Art Center, the 500-acre outdoor museum, announced on Tuesday that Nora Lawrence, its artistic director and chief curator, will succeed its president, John P. Stern, as the institution’s leader in January. It also announced a series of commissions and acquisitions, and a solo show by the Brazilian visual artist Sonia Gomes.It is the first time that Storm King — founded in 1960 by Stern’s grandfather, Ralph E. Ogden, and father, H. Peter Stern, in New Windsor, N.Y. — will be stewarded by someone from outside their family.In choosing Storm King’s inaugural executive director, the board decided to forgo a typical search and unanimously select Lawrence, who rose through the ranks over 13 years, starting as an associate curator.From left, the artist Sarah Sze and Lawrence on the grounds of Storm King in 2021.Lila Barth for The New York Times“There is no one more qualified to take the helm than Nora Lawrence, with whom I’ve had the privilege of working closely and whose artistic vision has helped make Storm King the international destination that it is today,” Stern wrote in a statement. He took the reins from his father in 2008 and now, at age 64, will transition to a position as the board’s president and senior adviser; his two sisters also serve on the board of the nonprofit organization.The generational change — Lawrence is 45 — is part of the “transformation from Storm King being a wonderful, family-led organization to becoming increasingly a more public-facing organization in every way,” said Adam D. Weinberg, a Storm King board member, who stepped down as director of the Whitney Museum last year.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump elige a un ex embajador en México como subsecretario de Estado

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      Christopher Landau es un abogado de larga trayectoria e hijo de un diplomático veterano que se desempeñó como embajador en tres naciones de América Latina.El presidente electo Donald Trump anunció el domingo que había elegido a Christopher Landau, abogado y otrora embajador en México, para ser subsecretario de Estado.De ser ratificado por el Senado, Landau trabajaría con el secretario de Estado para llevar a cabo la política exterior de Trump, que tiene varios componentes básicos: frenar la inmigración ilegal, imponer aranceles para tratar de impulsar la industria manufacturera estadounidense, mantener a Estados Unidos fuera de las guerras y conseguir que los aliados paguen una mayor parte de los acuerdos de defensa militar.Trump ha dicho que entablará conversaciones con autócratas para intentar llegar a acuerdos, entre ellos Vladimir Putin de Rusia, Xi Jinping de China y Kim Jong-un de Corea del Norte.Trump ha elegido al senador Marco Rubio, de Florida, como secretario de Estado. Rubio está pendiente de ratificación por el Senado, al igual que Landau.Trump hizo el anuncio sobre Landau en una publicación en las redes sociales el domingo por la noche, al indicar que Landau trabajaría con Rubio “para promover la seguridad y prosperidad de nuestra Nación a través de una Política Exterior de Estados Unidos Primero”.Debido a su experiencia en el trato con México, Landau podría recibir el encargo de gestionar la migración y los aranceles, lo que implicaría la coordinación con otras agencias estadounidenses. Trump ha prometido deportar a un gran número de inmigrantes indocumentados. En el anuncio, Trump dijo que Landau había ayudado a reducir la inmigración ilegal cuando era embajador.Landau fungió como embajador de Trump en México de 2019 a 2021, año en el que dejó el país después de que Trump perdiera su intento de reelección ante el presidente Joe Biden. Landau trabaja en la oficina de Washington del despacho legal Ellis George y tuvo una carrera de tres décadas como abogado antes de convertirse en embajador. Graduado por la Facultad de Derecho de Harvard, Landau trabajó como secretario de los jueces de la Corte Suprema Antonin Scalia y Clarence Thomas.Landau estuvo vinculado al Departamento de Estado antes de ser nombrado embajador por Trump. Nació en Madrid, de padre diplomático estadounidense. Su padre, George Landau, sería más tarde embajador en Paraguay, Chile y Venezuela. En su vida adulta, el Landau más joven llegó a ser director de la Fundación Diplomacy Center, un grupo sin ánimo de lucro que sostiene un museo sobre la diplomacia estadounidense dentro del Departamento de Estado.Al igual que Landau, Rubio, el elegido de Trump para secretario de Estado, tiene un gran interés por América Latina. Es hijo de inmigrantes cubanos y, como miembro del Comité de Relaciones Exteriores del Senado, desempeñó un papel influyente en la política sobre Venezuela en el primer gobierno de Trump.Landau fue ratificado por el Senado para ser embajador en México, y se espera que no tenga muchos problemas para ser aprobado de nuevo para el nombramiento.Edward Wong cubre asuntos globales, la política exterior estadounidense y el Departamento de Estado. Más de Edward Wong More

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      Matea Gold Named Washington Editor of The New York Times

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      Ms. Gold, a managing editor at The Washington Post, is the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the paper.Matea Gold, a managing editor at The Washington Post who until recently was a contender for the newspaper’s top editing role, is joining The New York Times as a senior editor in its Washington bureau.Ms. Gold will be Washington editor for The Times, reporting to its newly appointed Washington bureau chief, Dick Stevenson, the company said on Monday. She starts in January.Since May 2023, Ms. Gold, 50, has been a managing editor overseeing The Post’s political, local and investigative coverage. She was previously the newspaper’s national editor, leading a staff of 150 journalists. Ms. Gold joined The Post more than a decade ago from The Los Angeles Times and has served in a variety of roles, covering politics as a reporter and shepherding ambitious political investigations.Under Ms. Gold’s supervision, The Post’s national staff contributed to Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Post’s national staff also won a Pulitzer for a feature article on the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and end the constitutionally protected right to abortion.Her departure is the latest in a series of high-profile exits from The Post news and opinion departments in recent months.The newsroom has been in turmoil since Will Lewis, the company’s chief executive, abruptly forced out the paper’s top editor, Sally Buzbee, in June. Matt Murray, the former top editor of The Wall Street Journal, has led the newsroom on an interim basis since then. Several journalists from the opinion section stepped down from their positions after Jeff Bezos, the paper’s owner, decided shortly before the U.S. presidential election that the paper would not endorse a candidate for president.The Post is searching for a permanent top editor for its news department. Ms. Gold had been considered a candidate for executive editor of The Post, according to two people familiar with the search process. Other candidates include Clifford Levy, a former deputy managing editor of The Times and now the deputy publisher of Wirecutter, The Times’s product recommendation site, and The Athletic, its sports site, the people said. Mr. Murray is also a candidate, the people said.One of the final hurdles is an interview with Mr. Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, who weighs in on hiring decisions for top positions.Ms. Gold joins The Times amid changes in the top ranks of its Washington bureau. The Times announced in November that Elisabeth Bumiller, who had led the bureau since 2015, would be stepping down from that role and returning to reporting. Mr. Stevenson, who has worked at The Times in various reporting and editing jobs for nearly 40 years, will be taking over for her in January. More

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      Trump Picks Former Ambassador to Mexico for Deputy Secretary of State

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      Christopher Landau is a longtime lawyer and the son of a veteran U.S. diplomat who served as ambassador to three nations in Latin America.President-elect Donald J. Trump announced on Sunday that he had picked Christopher Landau, a lawyer and former ambassador to Mexico, to be the deputy secretary of state.If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Landau would work with the secretary of state to carry out Mr. Trump’s foreign policy, which has several core components: stemming illegal immigration, imposing tariffs to try to jump-start American manufacturing, keeping the United States out of wars and getting allies to pay for a greater share of military defense arrangements.Mr. Trump has said he will talk with autocrats to try to reach deals, including Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China and Kim Jong-un of North Korea.Mr. Trump has picked Senator Marco Rubio of Florida to be secretary of state. Mr. Rubio is awaiting Senate confirmation, as is Mr. Landau.Mr. Trump made the announcement about Mr. Landau in a social media post on Sunday night, saying Mr. Landau would work with Mr. Rubio “to promote our Nation’s security and prosperity through an America First Foreign Policy.”Because of his background in dealing with Mexico, Mr. Landau could be tasked with handling migration and tariffs, which would involve coordinating with other U.S. agencies. Mr. Trump has promised to deport large numbers of undocumented immigrants. In the announcement, Mr. Trump said Mr. Landau had helped reduce illegal immigration when he was ambassador.Mr. Landau served as Mr. Trump’s ambassador to Mexico from 2019 to 2021, when he left after Mr. Trump lost his re-election bid to President Biden. Mr. Landau works in the Washington office of the law firm Ellis George and had a three-decade career as a lawyer before becoming ambassador. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Mr. Landau worked as a clerk for the Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.Mr. Landau had ties to the State Department before he was appointed ambassador by Mr. Trump. He was born in Madrid, to a father who was a U.S. diplomat. His father, George Landau, later became ambassador to Paraguay, Chile and Venezuela. In his adult life, the younger Mr. Landau became a director of the Diplomacy Center Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports a museum about American diplomacy inside the State Department.Like Mr. Landau, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Trump’s pick for secretary of state, has a keen interest in Latin America. He is the son of Cuban immigrants, and, as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he played an influential role on Venezuela policy in the first Trump administration.Mr. Landau was confirmed by the Senate to be ambassador to Mexico, and he is expected to have little problem being confirmed again for the new position. More

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      Elon Musk and the Tech Billionaires Steering Trump’s Transition Team

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      The involvement of wealthy investors has made this presidential transition one of the most potentially conflict-ridden in modern history.The week after the November election, President-elect Donald J. Trump gathered his top advisers in the tearoom at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, to plan the transition to his second-term government.Mr. Trump had brought two of his most valued houseguests to the meeting: the billionaire Tesla boss Elon Musk and the billionaire co-founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison. The president-elect looked around the conference table and issued a joking-not-joking challenge.“I brought the two richest people in the world today,” Mr. Trump told his advisers, according to a person who was in the room. “What did you bring?”Mr. Trump has delighted in a critical addition to his transition team: the Silicon Valley billionaires and millionaires who have been all over the transition, shaping hiring decisions and even conducting interviews for senior-level jobs. Many of those who are not formally involved, like Mr. Ellison, have been happy to sit in on the meetings.Their involvement, to a degree far deeper than previously reported, has made this one of the most potentially conflict-ridden presidential transitions in modern history. It also carries what could be vast implications for the Trump administration’s policies on issues including taxes and the regulation of artificial intelligence, not to mention clashing mightily with the notion that Mr. Trump’s brand of populism is all about helping the working man.The presence of the Silicon Valley crew during critical moments also reflects something larger. Silicon Valley was once seen as a Democratic stronghold, but the new generation of tech leaders — epitomized by Mr. Musk — often has a right-wing ideology and a sense that they have an opportunity now to shift the balance of power in favor of less-fettered entrepreneurship.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Kennedy Center’s Chairman Won’t Depart After All

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      As the nation’s capital prepares for a second Trump administration, the performing arts center announced that its chairman would not step down in January as planned.The White House was not the only Washington institution planning to welcome new leadership in January. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts had announced that its longtime board chairman, David M. Rubenstein, would step down in January and had appointed a search committee to find a successor.But last month, shortly after the presidential election, the Kennedy Center announced that Mr. Rubenstein, a private equity titan who has led its board of 14 years, would stay on in the position until September 2026.The decision ensures continuity at a moment when the Kennedy Center, like much of Washington, is preparing for a second Trump administration. (On Sunday, President Biden is expected to attend the Kennedy Center Honors as it celebrates Francis Ford Coppola, the Grateful Dead and Bonnie Raitt; President-elect Donald J. Trump did not attend the ceremonies during his first term.) But it also raises questions about why the center failed to find a new chair.Deborah F. Rutter, the center’s president, said that on Nov. 15 the board’s search committee decided to keep Mr. Rubenstein on in part because the center is in the quiet phase of an endowment campaign, making a leadership transition “really tough.”“We looked at the needs of the Kennedy Center in a variety of different ways moving forward,” she said in an interview. “It is important for us to have somebody who knows the center and who knows and can play the leadership role that we need.”Mr. Rubenstein, a co-founder and co-chairman of the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, has given the center $111 million over the years. He was initially appointed by former President George W. Bush. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump Defends His Imperiled Pick for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth

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      President-elect Donald J. Trump gave a public show of support to his embattled choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, on Friday morning, saying in a social media post that he will be “fantastic” in the job and that he has a “military state of mind.”Mr. Hegseth has spent the last two days fighting to stay as Mr. Trump’s choice to lead the Pentagon amid mounting news reports alleging troubling behaviors over time including rape, sexual assault, financial mismanagement and drunken behavior, which he denies.Mr. Trump’s post on Truth Social amounted to a public dare to Republican senators, a number of whom have expressed private concerns about Mr. Hegseth, to vote against his wishes. The president-elect until now has put relatively little of his own capital on the line for Mr. Hegseth and has even floated alternative candidates, such as Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, for the job.But on Friday, Mr. Trump doubled down publicly on his initial choice.“Pete Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep, much more so than the Fake News would have you believe,” Mr. Trump wrote. “He was a great student — Princeton/Harvard educated — with a Military state of mind. He will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense Defense, one who leads with charisma and skill. Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”A string of damning news articles have reported problematic behavior. One woman filed a police report in 2017 accusing him of rape, which he denied and said was a consensual encounter. He entered into a settlement agreement with her that included a payment of money years later. The New York Times reported that Mr. Hegseth’s mother sent him an email in 2018 during a contentious divorce saying he had “abused” many women in different ways over the years. NBC News reported about concerns about Mr. Hegseth’s drinking, and The New Yorker reported that he had been accused of mismanagement of groups he had previously led.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More