Scott Bessent is no longer a soybean farmer
- - Scott Bessent is no longer a soybean farmer
Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAYDecember 21, 2025 at 4:05 AM
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is no longer in the soybean business and the details of his $12.4 million divestiture are now public.
Bessent raised eyebrows in late October when he told ABC’s Martha Raddatz that he, too, felt the pain of the agricultural trade war with China, saying, “I’m actually a soybean farmer.”
The claim set off a frenzy of online memes and commentators skewering the 63-year-old Ivy League graduate rolling up his sleeves and firing up the combine.
In truth, Bessent disclosed early in the Trump Administration that he owned several thousand acres of farm land in North Dakota through a limited liability partnership. He was supposed to divest those holdings 90 days after taking office, by April 28.
In August, government ethics officials warned in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee that the secretary failed to comply with the rules and needed to sell the land. Bessent's Treasury ethics officials explained that the "assets are illiquid and not readily marketable."
The August letter said Bessent "would be recused from particular matters affecting these assets." But that was just weeks before Bessent flew to Malaysia to meet with Chinese counterparts and hash out the framework of a deal that crucially included a commitment to buy American soybeans.
The Treasury Department unveiled the Trump accounts website, with the IRS noting that parents will have to file the new Form 4547.
In early December, he announced in an interview on CBS News' "Face the Nation," that his run as a farmer had finally concluded: “I run a soybean farm,” he told host Margaret Brennan, who quickly pointed out he invests in the farm.
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“People in my family go out and work on it. I actually just divested this week as part of the – my ethics agreement, so I’m out of that business,” Bessent said.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden slammed the slow divestment process this week in a statement to USA TODAY.
“The point of requiring federal officials to sign and comply with these agreements is to prove that people in power are putting the interests of the American people ahead of their own," Wyden said. "This wildly corrupt administration makes a mockery of ethics as an overall matter, so it’s no shock that Bessent treated his legally-binding ethics agreement like it was more of a pinky swear.”
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Soybean prices jumped in late October after the announcement of the trade deal with China from $9.80 to $11.12 per bushel.
On Dec. 8, the Trump administration also rolled out a $12 billion relief plan for farmers.
So who bought Scott Bessent’s soybean farm?
Records obtained by USA TODAY reveal the transactions that resolved the conflict of interest for the Treasury Secretary as he plays a direct role in negotiating with China to buy 12.5 million metric tons of soybeans.
For years, Bessent’s husband, John Freeman, was listed as a managing partner of a legal entity called High Plains Acres LLP, along with Scott Bradford, of Victoria, Minnesota.
The company owns more than 5,000 acres spread across 23 parcels in six North Dakota counties, according to the latest annual report filed with state officials. Bessent’s ethics disclosure forms say the properties earned him hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent and revenue sharing annually.
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To clear the ethics hurdle, Bessent wrote in a December disclosure that he struggled to divest the farmlands “due to their illiquid nature,” but that he would divest no later than Dec. 15.
Sure enough, on Dec. 15 on the dot, recorders' offices in the six tiny North Dakota towns received the paperwork that sold all 5,000-plus acres from High Plains Acres to another outfit called Glacial Ridge LLP.
Glacial Ridge, formed just days earlier, is managed by the same Scott Bradford and his wife, Lyn Bradford, according to state filings. They paid more than $12 million for the farm land – roughly $2,300 per acre.
Cropland in East Central North Dakota, where Bessent owned parcels, increased from an average of $1,981 per acre in 2018 to $3,413 per acre in 2025, according to a review by Agweek. This means his business partner got a bargain.
Bradford is Bessent’s longtime friend and former roommate at Yale University. Bessent is a 1984 graduate of the school. According to archived databases, Bradford played forward on the Yale hockey team between 1981 and 1985. The school confirmed he graduated in 1985 with degrees in political science and economics.
Bradford, when reached on the phone by a reporter, hung up without answering questions.
Bessent's office confirmed the secretary signed the required ethics documents and divested all the property in question. His spokesmen declined to answer questions about which family members helped harvest the soybeans or his relationship with the Bradfords. Freeman, Bessent's husband, did not respond to emails seeking comment.
At Yale, Bessent missed out on the editor job at the Yale Daily News, the student newspaper. He told an alumni magazine it was a turning point as he switched from an aspiring journalist to thoughts of becoming a money manager.
The publisher of the student paper at the time, coincidentally, was Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s first Treasury Secretary from 2017 to 2021.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Details of Scott Bessent's soybean farms revealed
Source: “AOL Breaking”
