As President-elect Donald Trump makes a flurry of selections to fill out his incoming administration’s Cupboard, the lobbying for key positions has been fierce behind closed doorways — and typically publicly.
Now billionaire and key Trump ally Elon Musk is looking for extra direct public enter into the decision-making course of for no less than one prime submit: the pinnacle of the Treasury Division.
“Can be attention-grabbing to listen to extra folks weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to think about suggestions,” Musk, who Trump has already tapped to co-lead a fee tasked with growing authorities spending effectivity, posted Saturday on the X social media platform he owns.
Musk then used the remainder of his submit to change into the primary participant within the public ballot he was proposing. He endorsed Howard Lutnick, the CEO of economic companies agency Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chair of Trump’s transition staff forward of Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2025, over hedge fund supervisor Scott Bessent.
Musk mentioned in his submit that “Bessent is a business-as-usual alternative, whereas @howardlutnick will really enact change.”
“Enterprise-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we want change,” he mentioned.
Each Lutnick and Bessent have been talked about as doable picks to steer the Treasury Division. Bessent is taken into account the extra typical, business-friendly alternative. He’s skeptical about cryptocurrency, whereas Lutnick has instructed it might be used for folks to pay their taxes.
A short while later, Trump’s choose to steer his Well being and Human Providers Division, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., additionally endorsed Lutnick, posting on his personal X account, “Bitcoin is the forex of freedom, a hedge in opposition to inflation for center class Individuals.”
“Bitcoin could have no stronger advocate than Howard Lutnik,” he wrote, misspelling Lutnick’s final title.
Trump has already introduced many picks in latest days, together with his alternative for Secretary of State, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and legal professional normal, former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Treasury is an important slot he has left to fill, however the president-elect additionally has but to announce selections for different roles, together with the heads of the Schooling and Labor Departments — and plenty of main potentialities have been jockeying to enhance their standing with Trump.
Individually, Trump mentioned he’d picked a member of his authorized staff and former federal prosecutor, Will Scharf, as assistant to the president and White Home employees secretary.
That announcement got here as Republican Home Speaker Mike Johnson was at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Seashore, Florida, this weekend, and assembly with the president-elect. Trump was additionally set to go to Saturday evening’s UFC heavyweight championship battle between Stipe Miocic and Jon Jones at New York’s Madison Sq. Backyard.
Apart from a day journey to Washington this week to fulfill for almost two hours with President Joe Biden, and individually tackle Home Republicans, Trump has been spending his time since his Election Day victory at Mar-a-Lago, which has hosted galas and conservative occasions all through the week,
A return to Madison Sq. Backyard means revisiting the place the place a comic brought on an uproar at a Trump rally final month by likening Puerto Rico to a “floating island of rubbish.” But Trump continues to relish visits to New York, the place he lived for many years.
Trump additionally has been near Final Preventing Championship President Dana White for greater than twenty years.
White hosted a 2001 UFC battle at Trump Taj Mahal, a former casino-hotel in Atlantic Metropolis, New Jersey, and Trump has regularly attended UFC matches since – together with throughout his 2024 marketing campaign. Trump has turned up at fights lately with well-known entourages, together with White, musician Child Rock and former Fox Information Channel host Tucker Carlson.
In 2018, throughout Trump’s first time period, he and White starred in a UFC video the place the then-president was referred to as the “Combatant In Chief.”
As Trump has strengthened his grip on the nationwide Republican Get together over the past near-decade, White’s private political profile has grown exponentially. White spoke on the 2016 and 2020 Republican conventions, and when the get together gathered in Milwaukee this previous July. He additionally addressed the gang at Trump’s Florida victory get together within the wee hours of the morning after Election Day.
“That is what occurs when the machine comes after you,” White mentioned then. “What you’ve seen over the past a number of years, that is what it appears like: couldn’t cease him. He retains going ahead. He doesn’t give up.”
