By Brian Schwartz and Andrew Restuccia
A messy fight over who should be President-elect Donald Trump's Treasury secretary has played out privately at Mar-a-Lago in recent days. It all spilled into public view on Saturday.
Two of Trump's most powerful allies, Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., used social media to signal their support for billionaire businessman Howard Lutnick to lead Treasury, as Trump continues to deliberate on the crucial post.
Musk's support for Lutnick even went as far as to discredit another finalist for the job, investor Scott Bessent, whom Trump has expressed great admiration for and who is considered a top contender. Late Friday, it appeared Lutnick had begun to fall out of the running for the job, people familiar with the matter said, prompting Musk and Kennedy to make their cases in public on Saturday.
The last-minute burst of public support for Lutnick, the chief executive of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, puts pressure on Trump to choose him amid a fierce public and private lobbying campaign over the job that has pitted Lutnick against Bessent. Musk and Kennedy collectively have nearly 210 million followers on the social-media platform X.
Musk, who has been advising Trump on personnel, wrote on X, his social-media platform, that Lutnick would "enact change."
Musk wrote: "Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback. My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change. Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another."
Asked for comment, Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, "President-elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration. Those decisions will continue to be announced by him when they are made."
A spokeswoman for Bessent didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk didn't return emails seeking comment.
Since winning the election, Trump has announced more than two dozen members of his incoming administration. On Saturday, he said he would tap Liberty Energy Chief Executive Chris Wright to lead the Energy Department.
The fight over Treasury secretary has become a proxy battle over the direction of Trump's second term, with Bessent emerging as the clear favorite among some who prefer a more steady approach and Lutnick winning the backing of many of Trump's more die-hard supporters.
Trump's next Treasury secretary could be one of the most consequential members of his cabinet. The Treasury chief would play a central role in crafting the 2025 tax overhaul legislation. This person would also likely be a key interlocutor with foreign leaders when it comes to trade negotiations. Musk has emerged as one of Trump's top advisers on foreign and domestic policy, particularly on the federal budget, and Musk's relationship with this Treasury pick could go a long way toward determining how successful a budget overhaul might be.
The push by Musk on social media coincides with a behind-the-scenes effort by the Tesla CEO and his allies to see Lutnick become Treasury secretary. In private meetings, Musk has been weighing in to Trump on who should serve in the role, according to people familiar with the matter.
Musk, some of the people explained, has argued to Trump that if Lutnick were to become Treasury secretary he would be someone who can work better with financial institutions, including the big banks on Wall Street. Earlier this week, Lutnick caught wind from Trump's allies that he might not end up becoming Treasury secretary and turned to Musk to help him try to get the job, these people said. Lutnick didn't ask Musk to publicly endorse him, another person said.
Musk's public support for Lutnick comes after Bessent's supporters reached out to the SpaceX CEO for an endorsement of their preferred candidate for Treasury secretary, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
Musk has been in close proximity to Lutnick ever since Election Day. The two have been photographed together in meetings with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Lutnick's having allies close to Trump and on the ground at his private club gives him a potential advantage over Bessent when it comes to the larger campaign for Treasury secretary. But Bessent, the founder of the investment firm Key Square Capital Management, has also spent time at Mar-a-Lago and met with the president.
Kennedy, who Trump tapped this week to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, wrote on X on Saturday afternoon that "Bitcoin will have no stronger advocate" than Lutnick.
Bitcoin advocates have complained about the Biden administration's attempts to rein in and regulate the cryptocurrency market. After initially dismissing Bitcoin, Trump during the campaign embraced it and said he would do more to promote it. The price of Bitcoin has hit new highs since Trump's election.
Under Lutnick's leadership, Cantor Fitzgerald has embraced cryptocurrency, which many large companies avoid, endearing him to the crypto industry and its allies. Cantor Fitzgerald manages most of the stablecoin Tether's reserve assets, including more than $80 billion of Treasurys. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the federal government is investigating Tether for possible violations of sanctions and anti-money-laundering rules.
Lutnick's alliance with Musk has led to an endorsement of another technology executive and Trump ally: Palmer Luckey, the founder of defense technology company Anduril Industries. Luckey on X pointed to Bessent's past work with an investment fund founded by George Soros and alleged the longtime investor isn't a fan of Trump's policies. Bessent was the chief investment officer at Soros Fund Management from 2011 to 2015.
"Alignment with the agenda America voted for is of utmost importance this time around," Luckey said. "Bessent worked for Soros for a decade and doesn't even agree with Trump's policy proposals."
For his part, Trump lavished praise on Bessent during the presidential campaign, saying he was "one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street" and that he was "respected by everybody."
Bessent and his allies have launched a lobbying campaign of their own. Bessent has won the endorsement of some of Trump's economic advisers, including former National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, who the president-elect briefly considered for top economic position in his second term.
Kyle Bass, an investor and longtime critic of China's leadership, told the Journal in a text message that he thinks Lutnick is going to try to take too much attention away from Trump's accomplishments as president if he's selected as Treasury secretary.
"Bessent is the clear choice for Treasury secretary. Lutnick should have a great and important position but the producer shouldn't be the star of the movie," Bass said.
Fellow investor James Fishback told the Journal in a statement that he too believes it should be Bessent, not Lutnick, as Treasury secretary. "Scott Bessent would be an outstanding choice to help drive prosperity for American businesses and workers," he said.
Bessent has defended Trump's agenda on television and in recent op-eds. After some of his critics argued to Trump's advisers that Bessent hadn't sufficiently signaled support for the president-elect's pledge to impose a series of stiff tariffs, the longtime investor wrote an op-ed for Fox News praising them.
"For months, economic commentators parroted the Harris campaign's misleading talking point that tariffs are a 'sales tax,'" Bessent wrote this week, pushing back on concerns that tariffs will raise prices for consumers. "Like much of economists' conventional wisdom, this view is fundamentally incorrect."
All of the jockeying has at times annoyed Trump and his senior aides, according to people familiar with the matter, prompting some close to him to wonder whether the president-elect will choose a different candidate altogether. Among those Trump's advisers have discussed for the job: Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan.
Write to Brian Schwartz at brian.schwartz@wsj.com and Andrew Restuccia at andrew.restuccia@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 16, 2024 16:46 ET (21:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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