The competition for a significant role in Donald Trump’s Cabinet is intensifying, as industry leaders, wealthy investors, and Wall Street figures are advocating for the president-elect to select their favored individuals to helm the Department of the Treasury.
Over the weekend, hedge fund manager Scott Bessent and Cantor Fitzgerald’s CEO Howard Lutnick emerged as prominent contenders for the position of Treasury Secretary—an essential economic role that will be pivotal in the president-elect’s initiative to increase tariffs on imports.
Nonetheless, insiders informed The New York Times that Lutnick, who serves as co-chair of Trump’s transition team, has been a source of irritation for the president-elect by being overly present in his vicinity during the last few weeks. Reports suggest that Trump was also displeased with Lutnick’s leadership as transition chief, suspecting that he might have skewed the process for his own advantage.
Lutnick is the candidate favored by Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., both of whom publicly endorsed him over the weekend. Musk’s high-profile advocacy for this role has also irked Trump and his closest advisors in recent days, as detailed by The Wall Street Journal.
Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, expressed his opinion on the matter in a Saturday post on X. “In my opinion, Bessent represents the conventional choice, while @howardlutnick is poised to implement meaningful change. Business-as-usual is leading to America’s financial decline, so change is necessary,” Musk stated in a post on Saturday morning, just hours before joining the president-elect at a UFC event at Madison Square Garden.
Kennedy, who is Trump’s selection for Secretary of Health and Human Services, also endorsed Lutnick through his own message, highlighting Lutnick’s support for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Unlike many conventional financial firms, Cantor Fitzgerald has welcomed cryptocurrency, launching Bitcoin financing services during the Bitcoin Conference in July.
According to the Times, Trump is evaluating other candidates including former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh and Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management, for the Treasury Secretary role. Additionally, two other contenders—billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson and Trump’s previous Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow—have stepped back from consideration.
Bessent has engaged with the transition team several times since Trump’s electoral win on November 5, with his latest meeting reported to have occurred on Friday, according to the Wall Street Journal .
Sources close to the internal deliberations relayed to the Financial Times that Trump’s advisors are looking for guarantees from prospective candidates that they will support the president-elect’s strategy to impose substantial tariffs—an essential element of his economic plan that he frequently highlighted on the 2024 campaign trail.
Additionally, it has been suggested that an unexpected candidate could come forward, with a number of people mentioning Robert Lighthizer, the former U.S. Trade Representative during Trump’s first presidency, as a potential choice.
Trump is also contemplating the idea of appointing Lighthizer, a strong advocate for tariffs who played a significant role in executing his trade conflict with China during his initial term, as a “trade czar,” insiders reported to the Journal last week.
