Scott Bessent calls the Giving Pledge well-intentioned but ‘very amorphous,’ growing from ‘a panic among the billionaire class’

Bessent (Credit: Michael M. Santiago—Getty Images)

At the DealBook Summit hosted by the New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent criticized the Giving Pledge, calling it “very amorphous,” while at the same time hailing the “incredible gift” from Michael and Susan Dell, who donated $6.25 billion of their fortune to fund “Trump Accounts” for young children.

Bessent, who had a legendary decades-long career in the financial services industry, including many years at Soros Fund Management, dialed back the clock to 2008 and what he saw on the front lines of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to explain what he sees as a pivotal moment in philanthropy.