Elon Musk publicly endorsed a member of President-elect Donald Trump's inner circle over the weekend for the crucial Cabinet position of Treasury Secretary, weighing in on a brewing fight between supporters of the two finance leaders both vying for the job.
Hedge fund manager Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and current co-chair of his transition team, have emerged as the two leading candidates for Treasury Secretary -- an important economic position that will play a critical role in the president-elect's plan to raise tariffs on imports. Two other candidates -- billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson and Trump's former Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow -- have both taken themselves out of the running for the job.
Bessent has met with the transition team multiple times since Trump's electoral victory on Nov. 5 -- most recently on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported. However, other high profile members of his inner circle are now publicly throwing their weight behind Lutnick.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, weighed in on the debate in a post on X on Saturday. "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," Musk wrote in a post on Saturday morning, hours before he would sit beside the president-elect at Madison Square Garden for a UFC event.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, also backed Lutnick in his own post, citing his support for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Unlike many other traditional finance companies, Cantor Fitzgerald has embraced crypto, announcing the launch of Bitcoin financing services at the Bitcoin Conference in July.
But the very public fight over the role has reportedly annoyed Trump and his top aides in recent days, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Sources familiar with the decision-making process told the Financial Times that Trump's advisors are seeking assurances from the candidates that they would commit to the president-elect's plans to enact significant tariffs -- a centerpiece of his economic agenda that he previewed frequently on the 2024 campaign trail.
Sources also said a dark horse candidate might yet emerge, with several naming 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 tariff proponent who helped wage his trade war with China during his first term, as a "trade czar," sources told the Journal last week.