Donald Trump has thrown two more names into the ring to become his future treasury secretary after becoming increasingly annoyed with Elon Musk’s favorite Howard Lutnick, according to a report.
A battle emerged over the weekend between two key candidates in the running to manage the country’s finances: Lutnick, chief executive of Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, and Scott Bessent, founder of Key Square Capital Management.
The position, leading the nation’s domestic and international economic and fiscal policy, will play a crucial role in the president-elect’s plan to implement blanket tariffs on imports. Both Lutnick and Bessent are supportive of Trump’s trade tariff policies.
But Lutnick, Trump’s current transition chair, has gotten on the president-elect’s nerves lately and so appears to be falling out of favor for the job, a source familiar with the matter told The New York Times.
According to the source, Trump has grown annoyed that Lutnick has been spending too much time around him and has also questioned whether the American billionaire has been manipulating the transition process for his own gain.
On Friday, Lutnick allegedly caught wind of his fractured relationship with the president-elect and turned to Musk to help buoy support, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Musk obliged, publicly throwing his support behind Lutnick in a post on X on Saturday.
“My view [for what it’s worth] is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas [Howard Lutnick] will actually enact change,” Musk wrote on X.
Trump’s health secretary pick Robert F Kennedy Jr also threw his support behind Lutnick. “Bitcoin will have no stronger advocate than Howard Lutnik,” he posted on X.
But the flurry of public support over the weekend has made Trump wary, prompting the president-elect to consider other candidates for the job, according to the Journal.
According to the Times, Trump is said to have thrown two new names into the ring: former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh and Apollo Global Management chief executive Marc Rowan.
Warsh, who Trump has branded smart and handsome, was in the running to lead the Federal Reserve in 2017, while Trump is said to have made clear to people close to him that he is very impressed with Rowan.
Trump’s former director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow, and billionaire investor John Paulson have both bowed out of the running.
Now, Trump is expected to invite the contenders to interview with him this week at Mar-a-Lago before making his decision.
Lutnick was photographed on Trump Force One on Saturday as he traveled to New York for UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, while Bessent met with Trump’s transition team Friday.
