Stanley Druckenmiller is respected on Wall Street.
The veteran investor has not run his own hedge fund in 30 years or spent down years at a family office that he has overseen for the next 14 years, according to people familiar with his returns.
The influence of the 71-year-old billionaire is now expanding beyond the world of high-paying money, with two protégés firmly established within Donald Trump’s inner circle.
Through Scott Bescent, the Secretary of Treasury to the US President, and Kevin Wahsh, the leading candidate to become the next Federal Reserve Chairman, Druckenmiller’s views on economic policy have suddenly become more consequential.
The founder of Duquesne Capital Management and alumni of George Soros hedge funds are in regular contact with Bessent and Warsh, according to people familiar with the relationship.
People close to Druckenmiller explain that he has the mysterious ability to identify promising deals and quickly change his position when circumstances are needed.
“There’s Stan in the Macro, then everyone else,” Bescent told the Financial Times, adding that Druckenmiller was away from the pack “from a performance perspective, from a respect perspective, and from an analytical perspective.”
Less than two months into his second term, Trump has exploded the norms of international fiscal that macro traders such as Druckenmiller have long thriving, overturning global trade through massive tariffs, ripping anti-briety rules and heading towards protectionism.
Druckenmiller has supported other Republicans, but he has not donated to Trump’s campaign. But he now has a direct line to the administration’s most important economic thinkers.
After graduating from high school in Virginia, Druckenmiller went to Boudin, a small liberal arts college in Maine, where he got a job at the National Bank of Pittsburgh, where he felt an affinity for both the city of Industrial Pennsylvania and investment. While working for a local lender, he started Duquesne for around $800,000.
Druckenmiller received his big break in 1988 when George Soros hired him for a hedge fund.
He first hired Bescent in the Soros Fund Management over 30 years ago. Alongside Soros, the two fell infamously for the company by shorting the British pound in 1992 in a move that took away history as a trade that “beated the Bank of England.” Bessent then launched Key Square Capital, his own hedge fund, which was launched with money from Druckenmiller.
Warsh has been working as a partner at Duquesne since 2011. Since 2011, when Druckenmiller transformed it into a family office, after he left his previous role as Fed governor over policy disagreements.
Kevin Worsh, former US Federal Reserve © Samuel Corum/Bloombergscott Bessent, US Treasury Secretary © Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg
In 2017, Worsh was defeated by Jay Powell as Freed Chair to replace Janet Yellen’s Trump. More recently, he has also been fighting for the role of Treasury Secretary, creating a temporary nasty dance while having a close relationship with Drucken Miller’s protégé.
Druckenmiller has coached dozens of investors over his long career, but he is particularly close to Bessent and Warsh.
Druckenmiller and Warsh are constantly communicating, people who are familiar with the relationship, digest new information with texts or quick calls, and say more than dozens of times a day.
According to people familiar with their communications, Bescent is also in frequent contact. They said that Cole’s nature is now different and that only Druckenmiller shares his views in the market.
The pair embody the way Druckenmiller interprets markets and economic policies, and say those familiar with their arguments are familiar with their arguments, reflecting “Stan’s language” to convey their position.
Druckenmiller and Warsh declined to comment.
For many years, Druckenmiller has not been embarrassed to share his views on economic policy, particularly since closing his hedge funds to outside investors.
For over a decade, he has been sticking to the US budget deficit. He exploited what he viewed as overexpenses on qualifications such as Medicaid and Medicare in Social Security and Medical Assistance Programs. And during the pandemic, inflation has skyrocketed as he publicly criticized the Fed for waiting too long to raise interest rates.
He doesn’t always do that right. Druckenmiller joked that he predicted six of the past four at his October meeting, admitting that he “predicts a recession like I have done.”
Some of Druckenmiller’s views clash with Trump’s plans. For example, the president’s proposed tax cuts include cutting back on tips, overtime and social security payments – it doesn’t work out well on the debt of the country that is rising above 36tn.
But Druckenmiller has supported Trump’s cost-cutting efforts since taking office, according to people familiar with his ideas.
Druckenmiller’s clients rave about him. Ken Langone, co-founder of the billionaire Home Depot, met Drucken Miller while at the National Bank of Pittsburgh, invested in Duquesinne decades ago, describing Drucken Miller as “genius” and “the best investor I’ve ever known”, praised both his “character” and “integrity.”
Langone said he spoke with Druckenmiller on the same day he spoke with the Financial Times in early February and discussed “everything Trump is doing.”
Druckenmiller did not support Trump’s reelection. During the campaign, he said that industrial policies of both the Republican candidate and his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, were “equally bad.”
“I grew up in America as a certain model of president. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan were one of my lifetimes – there was certain dignity and behavior in the office,” he told Bloomberg in an October television interview. “I don’t judge anyone who wants to vote for Trump, but for me it’s just a red line, so I’ll write it down to someone when I go to the poll.”
Wall Street insiders also appreciate Druckenmiller.
“If I were a policymaker – if I was in the Treasury or the Fed, I would like (Drackenmiller) opinions because he has a very keen understanding of what the market is saying.” “He can really make the market signal a god.”
Another veteran investor said: “Stan can read the market in ways no one else can. He is an iconoclast that doesn’t take anything for granted, including his own views and beliefs. This will quickly make him pivot with agile and turn bad situations into his victory.”
But while Druckenmiller has many fans, some observers have expressed concern about the drawback that there may be two domestic economic policymakers who own similar worldviews.
“There’s an echo here,” said Andrew Levin, a professor at Dartmouth University who worked for the Fed as a special advisor to monetary policy. “When there are a lot of people who are watching things the same way, and those people are making decisions, there’s only a big risk of mistakes.”
In any case, anyone who decides to appointed Trump in 2026 with the Federal Reserve is set to be more influential than ever, as one banker said.
