Quest To Be Trump’s Treasury Pick Heats Up Between Bessent, Lutnick

(Bloomberg) -- The jockeying for Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary is spilling into public view, as Scott Bessent racks up key endorsements and the president-elect’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick makes a play for the job himself.

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Lutnick’s emergence as a candidate for Treasury came as a surprise to Trump in recent days, according to people familiar with the matter. When the Wall Street executive’s name was presented in a meeting, Trump said that was the first time he’d heard of Lutnick’s interest, they said.

Trump allies have negatively compared Lutnick’s approach to that of former Vice President Dick Cheney, in which he ran the search for George W. Bush’s running mate — a job he ultimately took. A representative for Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald LP, declined to comment.

While infighting over titles and jockeying for power were hallmarks of Trump’s first term, that is now potentially disqualifying, according to a person familiar with the process. The president-elect has little tolerance for candidates attacking others vying for the same jobs, the person said. Susie Wiles, who will serve as Trump’s White House chief of staff, is credited with running a more professional campaign, compared to Trump’s prior runs.

People close to Trump were irked by Lutnick seizing the spotlight on television and at events in the final weeks of the campaign, while being entrusted with managing the transition.

Lutnick helped raise millions of dollars for Trump’s presidential bid. He has publicly aligned with the president-elect’s economic ideology, touting the benefits of tariffs and amplifying Trump’s latest calls to trim the budget deficit and make the government more efficient through cost-cutting.

Lutnick is among those pushing back against nominating Bessent, saying the hedge fund manager is soft on key protectionist pledges, including tariffs, according to people familiar with the matter. They warn that Bessent is too similar to Steven Mnuchin, who was Trump’s Treasury chief during his first administration.

Mnuchin was viewed by some as lukewarm on tariffs and served as a bulwark against some of the former president’s trade policies. Bessent and Mnuchin have both worked for funds with close ties to billionaire George Soros, a major Democratic political donor.

Bessent, in a recent op-ed for The Economist magazine, wrote that “broad-based tariffs” would be an effective way to re-balance international trade.

Key Endorsements

Bessent has earned the support of a wide-range of leaders across Trump’s coalition, including the bombastic long-time ally Steve Bannon and Ralph Reed, the founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition — a group that mobilizes evangelical Christian voters.

Bannon said Bessent “has a skill-set that’s perfect for this moment in history.”

“The debt is the single biggest national security issue facing the United States,” he said in a phone interview. The US national debt pile is roughly $28 trillion, nearly 100% of gross domestic product.

“We need a Treasury secretary who is highly sophisticated in global capital markets, actually trades and understands those global capital markets,” he added.

Bannon and Reed’s public support for Bessent, the founder of macro hedge fund Key Square Group, adds to a chorus of voices seeking to sway Trump, who has yet to make a decision about his selection.

Others in contention for the Treasury job include Robert Lighthizer, who served as Trump’s first-term trade representative, and Jay Clayton, the former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Treasury secretary nomination could come as soon as this week.

“President-Elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration. Those decisions will be announced when they are made,” Karoline Leavitt, a Trump transition spokesperson, said in a statement.

Lighthizer has already begun creating plans for tariffs involving China and the European Union. The Treasury Department has much broader portfolio, including debt management, financial stability work, economic sanctions and overseeing the Internal Revenue Service.

Lighthizer may end up with a role within the White House overseeing trade policy across the administration, Bloomberg News has reported. Bannon said that he has “the utmost respect” for Lighthizer and his work renegotiating trade deals “for working class people.” Lighthizer did not respond to a request to comment.

Trump’s transition efforts are off to a busy start, with him having announced picks for key roles, including Fox News personality Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense, John Ratcliffe to head the Central Intelligence Agency, and billionaire Elon Musk and former primary opponent Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a government cost-cutting venture, among others.

--With assistance from Yiqin Shen, Jenny Leonard and Amanda Gordon.

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