PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) 鈥� As President-elect makes a flurry of choices to fill out , the lobbying for key positions has been fierce behind closed doors 鈥� and sometimes publicly.
Now billionaire and key Trump ally is calling for more direct public input into the decision-making process for at least one top post: the head of the Treasury Department.
鈥淲ould be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback," Musk, who Trump has already tapped to co-lead a commission tasked with , posted Saturday on the X social media platform he owns.
Musk then used the rest of his post to become the first participant in the public poll he was proposing. He endorsed Howard Lutnick, the CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chair of Trump鈥檚 transition team ahead of Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2025, over hedge fund manager Scott Bessent.
Musk said in his post that 鈥淏essent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change."
鈥淏usiness-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change," he said.
Both Lutnick and Bessent have been mentioned as possible picks to lead the Treasury Department. Bessent is considered the more conventional, business-friendly choice. He is skeptical about cryptocurrency, while Lutnick has suggested it could be used for people to pay their taxes.
A short time later, Trump's pick to lead his Health and Human Services Department, , also endorsed Lutnick, posting on his own X account, 鈥淏itcoin is the currency of freedom, a hedge against inflation for middle class Americans.鈥�
鈥淏itcoin will have no stronger advocate than Howard Lutnik,鈥� he wrote, misspelling Lutnick's last name.
Trump has already announced many picks in recent days, including his choice for Secretary of State, Florida Sen. , and attorney general, former Florida Rep .
Treasury is the most important slot he has left to fill, but the president-elect also has yet to announce choices for other roles, including the heads of the Education and Labor Departments 鈥� and many leading possibilities have been jockeying to improve their standing with Trump.
Separately, Trump said he'd picked a member of his legal team and former federal prosecutor, Will Scharf, as assistant to the president and White House staff secretary.
That announcement came as Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, this weekend, and meeting with the president-elect. Trump was also set to head to Saturday night's fight between Stipe Miocic and at New York's Madison Square Garden.
Except for a day trip this week to meet for nearly two hours with President Joe Biden, and separately address House Republicans, Trump has been spending his time since his victory at Mar-a-Lago, which has and conservative events throughout the week,
A return to Madison Square Garden means where a comedian caused an uproar at a Trump rally last month by likening Puerto Rico to a 鈥渇loating island of garbage.鈥� Yet Trump continues to relish visits to New York, where he lived for decades.
Trump also has been close to Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White for more than two decades.
White hosted a 2001 UFC battle at Trump Taj Mahal, a former casino-hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Trump has frequently attended UFC matches since 鈥� including during his 2024 campaign. Trump has turned up at fights recently with famous , including White, musician Kid Rock and former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson.
In 2018, during Trump's first term, he and White starred in a UFC video where the then-president was called the 鈥淐ombatant In Chief.鈥�
As Trump has strengthened his grip on the national Republican Party over the last near-decade, White鈥檚 personal political profile has grown exponentially. White spoke at the 2016 and 2020 Republican conventions, and when the this past July. He also addressed the crowd at Trump鈥檚 Florida victory party in the wee hours of the morning after Election Day.
鈥淭his is what happens when the machine comes after you,鈥� White said then. 鈥淲hat you鈥檝e seen over the last several years, this is what it looks like: couldn鈥檛 stop him. He keeps going forward. He doesn鈥檛 quit.鈥�
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Will Weissert, The Associated Press
