Niles E. French

## The Honorable  Dr. Niles French  KG KBE FBA DPhil

 French Manor, Simsbury
 Connecticut, US

 Christ Church, Oxford

Presidential Medal of Freedom
 with distinction (2010)

 Princess of Asturias Award (2020)

**Sir Niles Elliot French** KG KBE FBA DPhil (born May 1, 1970) is a British and American politician, behavioural economist, and academic who is the incumbent President of the United States. He previously served as president pro tempore of the United States Senate, United States senator from Connecticut, the 78th United States Secretary of the Treasury. A member of the Democratic Party, French identifies as a Social liberal, Keynesian, and a distributist. French is the highest ranking Jewish-American politician in American history.

Raised in Simsbury, Connecticut, and London England, French was educated at Eton College before studying behavioural economics at Christ Church Oxford where he eventually earned his doctorate in 1997. French also worked at the International Monetary Fund Europe Office in Paris under Jeremy Heywood until 1996. French became the youngest Senator in American history when he was elected to the US Senate from Connecticut in 2000. He is in his fourth term in the Senate. As a Senator he has championed legislation in welfare, climate change, and economic stimulus. In 2008, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with Paul Krugman for his work in the 2008 Financial Crisis. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Obama in 2010. He was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Jack R. Davtaen in 2020.

In April 2023, he announced his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election, and in June 2024 he reached the delegate threshold needed to secure the Democratic nomination. On August 11, he announced he had selected Representative Inés Arrimadas of Montana as his running mate. On November 3, 2025, the race was called in favour of the French-Arrimadas ticket. He and Arrimadas were sworn in on January 20, 2025.

French is a controversial figure in American politics. He has been praised as a gentleman politician whose upper-class and European mannerisms and bipartisanship are often seen as civil and polite in an increasingly polarised age. Critics view him as a radical figure, and some of his positions especially his opposition to capitalism, have been criticised as socialist or even communist despite French being a distributist. As a result of his penchant for vintage clothing and luxury goods in addition to his aristocratic mannerisms, French has been dubbed "America's Young Fogey".

## Early life

French was born in Simsbury, Connecticut to then Lieutenant Governor Frasier C. French II and his wife Claire Astruc-French, a psychiatrist of Jewish descent from Quebec. Growing up French had a brother by the name of Bertram Wilberforce French. Their father would go on to become serve Connecticut as its Governor before being appointed as the Ambassador to the United Kingdom by then President Jimmy Carter In the first ten years of his life, French suffered from a speech impediment and a lisp which he reduced through speech therapy and recitation of poetry, mainly Robert Burns and Shakespeare. In addition, due to his time spent in the United Kingdom he speaks in a Trans-Atlantic accent

## Education and Academic Career

Due to his father's appointment as Ambassador to the United Kingdom , French and his brother attended Eton College where French was the class president and head of the debate team. French graduated as his class' valedictorian and was admitted into Christ Church, Oxford the following fall. There he majored in psychology and behavioural economics. There he was the captain of the fencing and squash teams in addition to being an active member of the Oxford Union. He graduated Summa Cum Laude before working at the IMF headquarters in France under the direction of Jeremy Heywood. Later, French returned to Oxford, on a Rhodes Scholarship, to complete his master's degree and PhD then teaching at universities including his alma mater and Paris Nanterre University. Among his students was future French President and Co-Prince of Andorra Emmanuel Macron.As an academic, French created the Connecticut or Oxford school of economics which combines Keynesian economics with distributism.

## Political career

After working in the IMF and teaching for a few years, French was elected to the Senate, to the same seat held by his father and great-great-grandfather, in 2000 as the youngest Senator in American history. As a Senator, French chaired the Finance, Armed Services, and Appropriations Committees.In his early years in the Senate he was often seen working under the tutelage of future-Vice President Joe Biden and Presidents pro tempore Robert Byrd and Daniel Inoyue. Throughout his years in the Senate, French has pushed legislation on various issues including climate change, economic stimulus, and civil rights. In 2008, he pushed stimulus legislation to resolve the financial crisis based on his economic theories. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Paul Krugman that December. In 2020 French became President pro-tempore of the Senate and was appointed as Secretary of the Treasury by Jack R. Davtaen becoming the second Nobel Laureate to join the Cabinet after Steven Chu. He announced his candidacy in the 2024 election in April of 2023. He defeated President Robert Turner in the 2024 Democratic primaries becoming the first person to defeat an incumbent President in the primaries since 1952. During the campaign, French has been the victim of an assassination attempt in West Virginia. French was projected by the Associated Press, Fox News and others on November 3, 2025 as the winner of the 2024 United States presidential election, with the highest vote share of any candidate in U.S. history. French was elected the 48th president of the United States in November 2024, defeating the Donald Trump Jr. He is the second President pro-tempore (after John Tyler in 1841) to become president. He is also the first president whose home state is Connecticut (although others were born in there), and the first Anglo-Catholic and Jewish-American President in addition to being the first Secretary of the Treasury to become President. French is the second President with a PhD after Woodrow Wilson. French was inaugurated at noon on January 20, 2025.

## Personal Life

French is the grandson of Colonel Frasier C. French I, an American fighter pilot, who served in the Royal Air Force in Eagle Squadron in the Battle of Britain prior to the United States' entry into the war. French's grandfather is one of a few American recipients to the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest award for valour. French is also descended to explorer, discoverer of Machu Picchu and former Governor and Senator from Connecticut Hiram Bingham III and Tiffany & Co. heiress Alfreda Mitchell through their son Hiram Bingham IV, a diplomat who helped over 2,500 Jews escape during the Fall of France, through his paternal grandmother. His sister Elizabeth French is the Governor of California. French is also descended from King Charles II and other English and Scottish monarchs through his ancestor Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield, Charles II's illegitimate daughter. French is also a descendant of Samuel Seabury, the first bishop of the Episcopal Church and a leading Loyalist.

He and his family have been very close to the British royal family. Following the birth of each of their children the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex named French, his wife, and his parents as godparents. Writing about his experiences during his father's tenure as Ambassador, he wrote:

"Her Majesty became like another grandmother to me. When we met at the age of 9, she and the Duke of Edinburgh welcomed us with open arms and over the course of many years began to treat us like her own."

In 1995 French became engaged to Audrey Pontmercy, a conductor, composer, and violinist and a descendant of Napoleon and Claude Monet. French had first met Audrey at Oxford in 1988 where she was studying music and they began dating the year later. French proposed to her using an heirloom engagement ring after he had gained the blessing of her father.. The couple were married at American Cathedral in Paris, in a ceremony at which the Sarum Rite Mass was celebrated in Latin. A Catholic priest also blessed the union due to Pontmercy being a Roman Catholic unlike French.

In 2000 the couple purchased a mansion in Washington DC where they live with their five children and their Pembroke Welsh corgi Winston . The house was owned by William Howard Taft following his presidency and during his tenure as Chief Justice. While in Connecticut, they stay at the family seat in Simsbury. They have also been known to visit their country homes in French's mother's native Quebec.

In addition to his native English and French, French has fluency in six other languages Latin, Russian, Aramaic, Biblical and modern Greek, in addition to classic and modern Hebrew. French learned French from his Quebecois mother and French is generally used in the French household. French learned Latin in order to understand Anglo-Catholic Mass. He learned Russian in order to be able to read the works of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Turgenev in the original.

French is a devout Episcopalian and Anglo-Catholic regularly known to attend Mass conducted in Latin at the Washington National Cathedral and Church of St. Paul's, K Street in Washington DC. Following his tenure as Ambassador to the United Kingdom, French's father became more focused in his ministry eventually becoming the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. However French's religious views are very liberal. French is known to be very pro-LGBTQ+ as a politician and on a personal level including with his bisexual daughter, Henrietta French. French is also a member of the Society of King Charles the Martyr, an Anglican devotional society revolving around his ancestor and patron saint King Charles I, and an active Freemason in the Scottish Rite actively attending the Grand Lodge of Connecticut and the House of the Temple, in Washington D.C. French is also an active member of the the Real Club de la Puerta de Hierro when in Spain.

## Personal Wealth

French's net worth is estimated at over $100 million which made him one of the wealthiest Senators within the Senate and Congress as a whole doing his tenure. In his latest tax returns, the IRS attributes the

majority of his wealth to his real estate properties in Connecticut and Quebec many of which have been in the family since the late 17th century. French has been photographed wearing suits from Henry Poole & Co and watches from Jaeger-LeCoultre and is known to be very fond of Cuban cigars, 40 year old Single Malt Scotch whiskey, and expensive antiques, like Fabergé eggs, among other luxury goods. However according to the IRS, French donates the vast majority of his government salary to charities such as the Carter Center, Fridays for Future, and animal shelters in his home state.

## Distinctions

French has received honorary degrees from the Cornell University (2005), University of Cambridge (2008), University of Bologna (2011), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2012), and Stanford University (2018)

   French also received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his work in the 2008 Financial Crisis along with Paul Krugman. In 2020, the Princess of Asturias Foundation awarded french the Princess of Asturias Award. French has also been knighted by the Queen in 2009 as a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. And in 2013, French was made a Knight Companion of the Garter by the Queen. As a British subject, he is permitted to use the style of *Sir*. French also honoured by France when he was made a Commander of the Order of Academic Palms in 2009 and eventually a Commander of the Legion of Honour in 2010. In 2020, French was appointed as a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Pope Leo XIV.

In 2008, French was on the cover of *Time Magazine* in recognition of his work during the crisis. French was named *GQ's* Best Dressed Man of the Year in 2020 and appeared on their June 2024 issue.

On 2010, Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction‍—‌for "his years of service to the people of Connecticut, the United States, and the world-at-large as a statesman, economist, and academic.". It was one of two awards by Obama of the Medal of Freedom with Distinction; other recipients include Ronald Reagan, Colin Powell, Joe Biden and Pope John Paul II.