Trump's pick for Treasury secretary shows there's a limit to Elon Musk's influence
Brandon Bell/Pool via AP
- Elon Musk has become one of Donald Trump's strongest political allies.
- Musk recently said his choice for the influential Treasury secretary role would be Howard Lutnick.
- Trump ultimately went with hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, however.
As President-elect Donald Trump assembles the key players to drive his new administration's agenda, Elon Musk is rarely far away.
From meetings at Mar-a-Lago in Florida to a weekend UFC match in New York, Musk has been a mainstay of Trump's political orbit in recent months. The Tesla CEO spent at least $119 million supporting the president-elect's 2024 campaign.
Musk is poised to be a high-profile player in Trump's second term. He's expected to serve as a co-lead of the forthcoming Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside onetime GOP presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy.
There seems, however, at least for now, some limit to Musk's influence on Trump.
Trump tapped hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, the founder and chief executive of Key Square Group, to be his next Treasury secretary on Friday. Bessent, a Wall Street veteran and a top economic advisor to Trump, emerged as a favorite of the president-elect while on the campaign trail this year.
Last Saturday, however, before Trump decided, Musk shared his thoughts about the Treasury job, writing in a post on X that Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick would be a stronger choice.
"My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change," Musk wrote at the time. "Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another."
Days later, Trump nominated Lutnick as commerce secretary. If confirmed by the Senate, the veteran businessman — who strongly supported the president-elect's campaign — is set to drive the administration's trade policy.
That Trump went his own way in selecting Bessent for what is seen as the top economic role in any presidential administration may be an early sign of the limitations of Musk's relationship with the president-elect.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump sought advice from Wall Street leaders for the Treasury spot, and his advisors told him that analysts would view Bessent as a stabilizing figure.
Bessent's economic worldview has largely mirrored Trump's. Shortly after the election, the hedge fund manager argued in an op-ed that the country's competitiveness "has been weakened by destructive energy policies and the channeling of investment toward a quixotic energy transition."
"Allowing the private sector rather than the government to allocate capital is crucial to growth," he wrote. "Overhauling the regulatory and supervisory environment will encourage more lending and reinvigorate banks."
It's the sort of message that Trump touted as he campaigned for a second term. And, in his announcement of Bessent's nomination, he continued in that same vein, remarking that Bessent will "help me usher in a new Golden Age for the United States."
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.