The fight for a key position in Donald Trump’s Cabinet is intensifying, as business leaders, billionaires and Wall Street executives all push the president-elect to choose his preferred candidates to lead the Treasury Department.
Hedge fund manager Scott Bessent and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick emerged over the weekend as two of the leading contenders for Treasury secretary, an important economic position that will play a critical role in the president-elect’s plan for increase customs duties on imports. .
However, sources said The New York Times that Lutnick, who is co-chair of Trump’s transition team, has annoyed the president-elect by spending too much time with him in recent weeks. Trump also reportedly bristled at Lutnick’s performance as transition leader, believing he could have manipulated the efforts to his benefit.
Lutnick is the preferred candidate of Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who publicly threw their support behind the candidate over the weekend. Musk’s very public fight for the role has also irked Trump and his top aides in recent days, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Howard Lutnick speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 conference. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also backed Lutnick, citing his outspoken support for the cryptocurrency.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, weighed in on the debate in an article on X on Saturday. “My view is that Bessent is a status quo choice, while @howardlutnick will implement change. The status quo is driving America to bankruptcy, so we need change,” Musk wrote in a post Saturday morning, hours before sitting alongside the president-elect at Madison Square Garden for an event. UFC.
Kennedy, Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, also supported Lutnick in his own messageciting his support for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Unlike many other traditional financial companies, Cantor Fitzgerald embraced crypto by announcing the launch of Bitcoin financing services at the Bitcoin conference in July.
Sources told the Times that Trump was also considering former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh and Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan for the job. Two other candidates: a billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson and former director of Trump’s National Economic Council Larry Kudlowboth withdrew from the race.
Scott Bessent, the founder of hedge fund Key Square Group, reportedly met with Trump’s transition team several times.
Bessent has met the transition team several times since Trump’s election victory on November 5 – most recently on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Sources close to the decision-making process told the Financial Times that Trump’s advisers are seeking assurances from candidates that they will commit to the president-elect’s plans to pass significant tariffs — a centerpiece of his economic agenda that he has frequently previewed during the 2024 election campaign.
Sources also said a dark horse candidate could still emerge, with several citing Robert Lighthizer, the former U.S. Trade Representative during Trump’s first term, as a potential candidate.
Trump is also considering appointing Lighthizer, a major supporter of tariffs who helped wage his trade war with China during his first term, as “trade czar,” sources told the newspaper. Newspaper last week.
