President Donald Trump has a running one-liner for his Treasury secretary, and it has nothing to do with tariffs or interest rates. Scott Bessent, 64, said on the Oct. 3, 2026, installment of “The Axios Show” that the president likes to tease him about the romantic hopes he keeps dashing among First Lady Melania Trump’s friends.
“He’ll occasionally tell me, he goes, ‘You’re breaking Melania’s friends’ hearts,'” Bessent said during the lengthy sit-down with Axios co-founder Mike Allen. He then relayed the rest of the president’s line: “They see you on TV, and they want an intro, and we have to break the news to them.”
Whose Hearts Are Actually Breaking
The news, in this case, is that Bessent is both gay and long since spoken for. He is married to John Freeman, a former New York City prosecutor; the two wed in 2011 and have two children, Cole and Caroline. So the heartbreak belongs squarely to the first lady’s friends, and the notion that Melania Trump herself has any reason to be put out is strictly part of the joke.
Bessent said the president is not bothered by his sexuality. “I think that’s one of the reasons we have such a great team,” he said.
A Cabinet First, Fifth in Line
Bessent is the first openly gay man to serve as Treasury secretary and the second openly gay Cabinet secretary, after Pete Buttigieg. He is also the first openly gay Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate under a Republican president, and the highest-ranking out official in Cabinet history. His post places him fifth in the presidential order of succession; Buttigieg, who was the highest-ranking out official in President Joe Biden’s administration, stood 14th in line as Transportation secretary.
The job also keeps him in front of the cameras that started all the trouble. On Sept. 20, Bessent spoke with reporters after meeting Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng at JPMorgan Chase headquarters in New York.
Confirmed in 2025, days into Trump’s second term, Bessent has consistently said he believes he was chosen for his qualifications rather than his biography. Allen asked him about the memorable formulation he used at his Senate confirmation hearing, when Bessent said the president tapped him “not because of my sexual preference, not because Treasury secretaries with green eyes do better,” but because he was the best candidate. He stood by it.
Yale Instead of the Naval Academy
Bessent did acknowledge one place where his sexuality altered his path: he turned down an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy because he is gay, and went to Yale instead. Once he reached Wall Street, he said, being openly gay did not significantly affect his career, though, as he put it, “it makes you aware.”
He suggested the worry shaped the corner of finance he chose. Money management, he said, comes with a scorecard, while fields such as sales, trading and relationship management involve far more subjectivity.
Criticism Over Treasury Discrimination Forms
Bessent’s department has drawn criticism on a related front. In June 2025, House Democrats pressed him to reverse a Treasury proposal to remove sexual orientation and gender identity as explicitly listed grounds for sex discrimination complaints on the department’s Equal Employment Opportunity forms, warning that the change could confuse employees about their rights and discourage them from reporting. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a gay New York Democrat, criticized the proposal in comments to The Advocate at the time.
The Axios conversation also found an audience outside the economic press. On an Oct. 6 Bulwark podcast episode, hosts Catherine Rampell and Sam Stein devoted a segment to the interview under the headline “Scott Bessent’s Interview Got Weirder by the Minute.”
As for the secretary at the center of it, his position has not budged: he maintains that his sexuality played no part in Trump’s decision to put him at Treasury, and that the job came to him on the merits. The introductions, however, remain unavailable.