Elon Musk is backing Donald Trump’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick to lead the Treasury Department, touting the billionaire CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald as a potential secretary who “will actually enact change” from the most powerful economic post in Trump’s cabinet.
Musk labeled another prime contender for the post, hedge fund CEO Scott Bessent, a “business-as-usual choice,” he posted on X, the social media network he purchased two years ago. “Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another.”
Musk also said that it would be “interesting to hear more people weigh on this for @realdonaldtrump to consider feedback” and that he would be “open to” interviewing Bessent and Lutnick on the X spaces platform.
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“President-elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second administration,” Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “Those decisions will be announced when they are made.”
Bessent could not be reached for comment.
Treasury remains one of the largest outstanding question marks in Trump’s new cabinet, and Musk’s public backing of Bessent marks an escalation in a growing battle between different factions of the president’s camp.
Lutnick is a Wall Street powerbroker who has been jockeying for the position and has used his role on the transition to exert control in determining what information flows up to the president-elect as he weighs personnel decisions, POLITICO reported on Friday.
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But Bessent, who had maintained a lower public profile while serving as one of Trump’s primary advisers during the campaign, emerged as a top contender on the role in the final days of the race and has maintained a torrid schedule of media appearances and op-eds to broadcast how Trump’s agenda will benefit markets and the economy. Other prominent Trump loyalists and Wall Street players have publicly backed Bessent for the role — including Trump’s former National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and Steve Bannon. (Kudlow had also been rumored to be in the running, but reportedly took himself out of consideration on Friday.)
At stake is the role of Treasury secretary, a powerful position whose jurisdiction includes financial markets, the issuance of U.S. debt, economic national security matters, tax policy and the strength of the dollar. Voter perceptions of the economy were a driving factor in Trump’s election to a second term — 68 percent of voters described the nation’s economy as “not so good” or “poor” in the network exit poll, and 70 percent of those voters supported Trump — and the incoming president is notoriously sensitive to how markets respond to policy decisions and the political environment.
“U.S. markets initially rallied on Trump’s win. Markets began discounting Scott Bessent as U.S. Treasury Secretary,” Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass posted on X on Saturday morning. “The moment Howard Lutnick decided he wanted the job, the markets sold off. The markets are telling Trump that Bessent is certainly the best choice for the position.”
Musk, the world’s richest man, has been a ubiquitous presence at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida club and residence, throughout the transition.
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Lutnick has previously said he’s consulted extensively with Musk about ways to cut government spending. The duo appeared together on stage at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in the week before the election.
“Me, Elon Musk and Trump are going to figure it out,” Lutnick said in a podcast interview last month, describing plans to curtail spending.
Lutnick said he informed a gleeful Musk in a meeting before the election that Trump would move ahead with the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency if elected.
“That’s what you’re supposed to do,” Lutnick told investor and podcaster Anthony Pompliano. “If you have the greatest capitalist in America, and you can make him happy, that’s pretty good.”
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