PALM BEACH, Fla. — As President-elect Donald Trump makes a flurry of picks to fill his incoming administration’s Cabinet, the push 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 decision-making for a minimum of one prime job: that of head of the Treasury Department.
“It can be attention-grabbing to listen to extra folks chime in on this matter for @actualDonaldTrump to think about suggestions,” Musk, whom Trump has already tapped to co-lead a fee tasked with growing the effectivity of presidency spending, posted on the social media platform Saturday media X owned by it. .
Musk then used the rest of his tenure to develop into the primary participant within the public survey he was proposing. He endorsed Howard Lutnick, CEO of monetary companies agency Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chairman of Trump’s transition workforce forward of Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2025, over hedge fund supervisor Scott Bessent.
Musk mentioned in his put up that “Bessent is a enterprise as standard selection, whereas @howardlutnick will truly implement the change.”
“Business as standard is driving America bankrupt, so we want a change,” he mentioned.
Both Lutnick and Bessent have been talked about as alternatives to steer the Treasury Department. Bessent is taken into account the extra typical and business-friendly selection. He is skeptical in regards to the cryptocurrency, whereas Lutnick instructed it might be utilized by folks to pay taxes.
Shortly thereafter, Trump’s choose to steer his Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., additionally endorsed Lutnick, posting on his X account: “Bitcoin is the forex of freedom, a hedge towards inflation for middle-class Americans.” .”
“Bitcoin may have no stronger advocate than Howard Lutnik,” he wrote, getting Lutnick’s final title improper.
Trump has already introduced many picks in current days, together with his picks for secretary of state, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and lawyer common, former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.
The Treasury is an important put up he has left to fill, however he has but to announce picks for others, together with the heads of the Education and Labor departments – in addition to the Treasury – and plenty of prime prospects are working to enhance their place with Trump. .
Musk’s put up got here as Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Beach, Florida, this weekend, and deliberate to satisfy with the president-elect later Saturday. After that, Trump will journey to Saturday night time’s UFC heavyweight championship combat between Stipe Miocic and Jon Jones at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Except for a day journey to Washington this week to satisfy for almost two hours with President Joe Biden and individually tackle House Republicans, Trump has spent his time since his Election Day victory at Mar-a-Lago, which hosted gala evenings and conservative occasions in the course of the week,
A return to Madison Square Garden means revisiting the place the place a comic precipitated a stir at a Trump rally final month by evaluating Puerto Rico to a “floating island of rubbish.” Yet Trump continues to get pleasure from visits to New York, the place he has lived for many years.
Trump has additionally been near Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White for greater than twenty years.
White hosted a 2001 UFC combat on the Trump Taj Mahal, a former casino-hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Trump has incessantly attended UFC matches since then, together with throughout his 2024 marketing campaign. Trump just lately appeared on the clashes with well-known entourages, together with White, musician Kid Rock and former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson.
In 2018, throughout Trump’s first time period, he and White starred in a UFC video by which the then-president was referred to as the “fighter in chief.”
As Trump has tightened his grip on the nationwide Republican Party over the previous decade, White’s private political profile has grown exponentially. White spoke on the 2016 and 2020 Republican conventions and when the occasion met in Milwaukee final July. He additionally addressed the gang at Trump’s victory occasion in Florida within the early morning hours after Election Day.
“This is what occurs when the automotive chases you,” White mentioned on the time. “What you’ve got seen over the previous few years, that is what it appears to be like like: I could not cease it. He continues to maneuver ahead. Don’t hand over.”
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