Elon Musk has publicly weighed in on Donald Trump’s choice for US treasury secretary, one of the remaining key incoming cabinet nominations the president-elect will make in the coming days.
Mr Musk urged followers on X to support a candidate that would not be “business as usual” and “will actually enact change” as he threw his support behind Mr Trump’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick to lead the treasury department.
Mr Lutnick, former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a firm that lost 658 employees in the 9/11 attacks, is believed to be up against Scott Bessent, the founder of capital management firm Key Square who has said he wants the US to remain the world’s reserve currency and use tariffs as a negotiating tactic.
“My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change,” Mr Musk posted on Saturday. “Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another.”
Mr Musk urged his followers to “weigh in on this for Donald Trump to consider feedback”.
Mr Lutnick told the Wall Street Journal recently that whomever Mr Trump hires will “be loyal to the policies of the president”, telling the outlet: “For my whole life I was a fiscal conservative, social liberal…The Democratic Party moved away from me.”
Both Mr Lutnick and Mr Bessent are supportive of Mr Trump’s trade tariff polices, a tactic he used against China during his first term. “Tariffs are a means to finally stand up for Americans,” Mr Bessent wrote in an op-ed on Fox News on Friday.
But both candidates argue that lowering taxes would offset the higher import costs and promote economic growth.
But some economists have warned that tariffs could weaken growth, boost inflation and lower employment. A recent paper by the Peterson Institute for International Economics predicted inflation would climb to at least 6% by 2026, and consumer prices would be 20% higher over the next four years.
Mr Musk’s intervention in the battle between Mr Lutnick and Mr Bessent for the key post – one who advises the president on economic and fiscal matters, including spending and taxes – comes amid anxiety over the space and transport entrepreneur’s proximity to mr Trump. Mr Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, is set to co-chair an advisory department, the department of government efficiency, or Doge, in the new administration to cut departments and reduce as much as $2 trillion federal spending.
According to the Washington Post, some in Mr Trump’s circle expressed surprise that Mr Musk would weigh in on the choice of treasury secretary. “People are not happy,” one said, according to the outlet, adding that Mr Musk was acting as a “co-president”.
Mr Musk, who spent more than $100 million in support of Mr Trump’s campaign, has been a near constant presence around the president-elect, including sitting in with Mr Trump on a call with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
On Saturday Mr Musk appeared to mock Mr Zelenskiy’s claim Ukraine is an independent country that could not be forced to the negotiating table with Russia, posting on X that the Ukrainian leader’s “sense of humour is amazing”.
Mr Musk and Mr Trump later on Saturday sat together ringside at New York’s Madison Square Garden, site of a widely-criticised pre-election rally, for a UFC title fight. Alongside them were house speaker Mike Johnson, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Joe Rogan, Tulsi Gabbard, and Vivek Ramaswamy, who is set to head Doge with Mr Musk. – Guardian