Bessent, Lutnick in Final Push for Trump Treasury Secretary Pick

Billionaire Elon Musk voiced support for Howard Lutnick in the race to be President-elect Donald Trump’s next Treasury secretary as warring camps make final pushes for the coveted cabinet post.

Author of the article:

Bloomberg News

Nancy Cook, Saleha Mohsin and Annmarie Hordern

Published Nov 16, 2024  •  4 minute read

Scott Bessent, left, and Howard Lutnick Photographers: Vincent Alban, Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg Photographer: Vincent Alban, Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg Photo by Vincent Alban, Christopher Goodn /Photographers: Vincent Alban, Ch

(Bloomberg) — Billionaire Elon Musk voiced support for Howard Lutnick in the race to be President-elect Donald Trump’s next Treasury secretary as warring camps make final pushes for the coveted cabinet post.

The infighting has delayed decisions on Trump’s economic picks even as he rushes to fill many other posts in his incoming administration. 

Musk said on his social media platform X that he saw the Cantor Fitzgerald LP CEO as a disruptor compared to Key Square Group LP founder Scott Bessent, another contender for the position who met with Trump on Friday.

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Allies of both Bessent and Lutnick have been lobbing in calls to Trump, which is creating tension and increasing the chance that another candidate rises up, people familiar with the decision making said. 

Trump himself has appeared frustrated with the infighting and staff are looking for alternatives, with Robert Lighthizer, Senator William Hagerty and Apollo Global Management Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Rowan among the names in the mix. 

Lutnick was a key support to Trump’s fundraising in the final months of the campaign and he has helped lead the team’s transition to the presidency. Because of that, some key advisers are looking at what else Lutnick might take — if not Treasury — such as a plum ambassadorship, according to people familiar with the decision.

In the end, it’s up to Trump, who isn’t sharing his opinion very publicly, some of the people said. 

Musk said he sees Bessent as “a business-as-usual choice” while Lutnick “will actually enact change,” and encouraged others to weigh in publicly on the decision. 

Lutnick is currently working as a co-chair of Trump’s transition effort. Bessent was still at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club, on Saturday.  

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Musk’s post was in response to veteran investor Kyle Bass, who wrote that Bessent was “eminently more qualified than Howard Lutnick to run the US Treasury” and understood “markets, economics, people, and geopolitics better than anyone I’ve ever interacted with.”

Lutnick’s past campaign donations could complicate matters as he vies for the cabinet post. He gave $2,700, then the maximum, to Hillary Clinton’s campaign on June 30, 2015, Federal Election Commission records show. He also donated in the 2016 election cycle to Kamala Harris’ Senate campaign, along with other politicians in both parties.

A representative for Lutnick declined to comment as did Bessent. 

Musk has been a regular presence by Trump’s side since Election Day, sitting in on transition meetings and calls and meetings with foreign leaders and earning his own appointment to a panel examining government efficiency. But the limits of his political influence were seen this week, when Senate Republicans elected John Thune from South Dakota over Florida’s Rick Scott – whom Musk had publicly endorsed – as their next leader.

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Lobbying efforts for the Treasury job, which will sit at the center of Trump’s ambitious agenda to overhaul tariff and tax policy, have intensified in recent days, with jostling for the position spilling into the headlines. Larry Kudlow, Trump’s former National Economic Council director, informed the president-elect’s team that he did not want a role in the new administration. 

Here’s the latests from the transition:

Trump Backs Whatley

The president-elect used a gathering Friday night at his Mar-a-Lago club to publicly endorse Republican National Committee co-chair Michael Whatley for another term, CNN reported.

Trump invited Whatley up to the stage during a donor meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference at his estate and offered him the job, which Whatley accepted. The North Carolina attorney has led the committee alongside Lara Trump, the president-elect’s daughter-in-law, since March, when chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was removed from the post at Trump’s urging.

Trump’s nomination of Senator Marco Rubio as US secretary of state has fanned calls for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to appoint Lara Trump to serve for the next two years.

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On the Democratic side, US Ambassador to Japan and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is weighing a bid to run for chair of the Democratic National Committee, Axios reported.

Staff Secretary

Trump announced Saturday he would name William Owen Scharf, one of his attorneys, as staff secretary, a critical behind-the-scenes role at the White House that determines the flow of documents into and out of the Oval Office.

“Will is a highly skilled attorney who will be a crucial part of my White House team,” Trump said in a statement. “He has played a key role in defeating the Election Interference and Lawfare waged against me, including by winning the Historic Immunity Decision in the Supreme Court.”

Trump’s first staff secretary, Rob Porter, was among a tight cadre of senior aides during his first term and dated Hope Hicks, the White House communications director. But the pair became tabloid figures — and Porter resigned — after domestic abuse allegations leveled by two former wives surfaced.

Energy Job

Trump also announced on Saturday that he would pick Chris Wright, who runs a Colorado-based oil and natural gas fracking services company, to lead the Energy Department.

—With assistance from Amanda Gordon, Bill Allison, Justin Sink and Joshua Green.

(Updates throughout)

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