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Gay and Married Cabinet Member Says Trump Tells Him He’s ‘Breaking Melania’s Friends’ Hearts’ Because He’s off the Market
People
Joseph Konig
Mon, October 5, 2026 at 3:51 PM EDT
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview over the weekend that President Donald Trump tells him he’s breaking the hearts of first lady Melania Trump’s friends
In Bessent’s telling, the first lady’s friends ask to be introduced and are told that he is gay
Bessent, 64, is the highest-ranking LGBTQ official in U.S. history and the first Senate-confirmed, openly gay Cabinet secretary to serve in a Republican administration
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview over the weekend that President Donald Trump tells him he’s breaking the hearts of first lady Melania Trump’s friends after they ask to be introduced and are told he is gay.
“He’ll occasionally tell me: ‘You’re breaking Melania’s friends’ hearts. They see you on TV and they want an intro, and we have to break the news to them,’” Bessent said on The Axios Show, published Saturday, Oct. 3.
Bessent, 64, is the highest-ranking LGBTQ official in U.S. history and the first Senate-confirmed, openly gay Cabinet secretary to serve in a Republican administration. He’s only the second ever after Biden administration Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
He married John Freeman, a former New York City prosecutor, in 2011. The couple has two children, Cole and Caroline.
In the Axios interview, Bessent said he didn’t think his sexuality held him back in his lucrative financial career after he declined to go to the U.S. Naval Academy as a teenager in 1979, in part because he was gay.
“In 1979, when I was 17 years old, I wanted to fight for my country. My father had just experienced extreme financial difficulties. I wanted to attend the U.S. Naval Academy,” Bessent said during his confirmation hearing in January 2025. “I was offered by our congressman in the sixth district of South Carolina an appointment but was unable to take that appointment because of my sexual preference.”
“I sit here knowing that President Trump chose me because he believes I’m the best candidate, not because of my sexual preference, not because treasury secretaries with green eyes do better,” Bessent continued last year. “And I think it is a tribute to President Trump that he looks at people as people.”
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In the Axios interview, Bessent reiterated that Trump is unbothered by his sexuality, adding the anecdote the president tells about the first lady’s friends.
“I think that’s one of the reasons we have such a great team,” Bessent said.
The former hedge fund manager who used to work for Democratic megadonor George Soros and donated to Democratic presidential campaigns started giving to Trump’s political operation after the 2016 election and became a major fundraiser to the 2024 campaign.
He served as an economic adviser on the 2024 campaign and was nominated to serve as treasury secretary after Trump won.