Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire who became President-elect Donald Trump’s “first pal,” appeared to publicly pressure Trump on economic policy and a key Cabinet nomination on Saturday.
In a post Saturday on for a century. Hours later, Musk posted that Howard Lutnick, Trump’s transition co-chair, would be a better choice than hedge fund executive Scott Bessent for Treasury secretary.
“My view is that Bessent is a status quo choice, while @howardlutnick is actually going to implement change,” Musk posted. “The status quo is bankrupting America, so we have to change somehow. »
Musk also encouraged his nearly 205 million followers to take action.
Musk’s endorsement of Lutnick is likely to exacerbate substantial confusion, if not fear, in Trump’s orbit regarding the central role Musk appears to play in the new administration’s personnel and policy decisions.
The president’s allies were grateful for Musk’s financial and political support during the campaign, but his growing influence angered some of Trump’s supporters. Several people in Trump’s entourage expressed surprise Saturday that Musk was publicly pushing for his choice for a crucial economic role while the president-elect was still considering his decision.
“People are not happy,” said a person in contact with campaign officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to reflect private conversations. This person said the statements suggested Musk was acting as a “co-chair” and potentially overstepping his new role in Trump’s orbit.
Musk, who spent more than $100 million supporting Trump’s campaign, has been at Trump’s side since he was elected the 47th president of the United States, participating in phone calls with foreign leaders, participating in transition meetings and appearing on the golf course with the president-elect’s grandchildren at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. Musk also spent a lot of time with Lutnick at Mar-a-Lago in the days after the election.
Musk and Trump still appear close: Musk, Lutnick and several of Trump’s top aides were scheduled to travel with the president-elect from Florida to New York to attend a UFC fight at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. But Musk’s constant presence and increasingly public contribution have begun to irritate transition officials who feel radically unfamiliar with Washington’s methods, according to people familiar with the dynamic.
Musk has publicly praised many of Trump’s choices. But his support for Lutnick ahead of any public announcement — and his call to gather opinions on the subject — marked a less deferential approach to Trump’s hiring decisions.
Bessent and Lutnick have battled for Treasury secretary over the past week, with each candidate’s allies posing as those in charge of the transition. Lutnick asked Trump to choose him for the role, while Bessent met with Trump to interview for the cabinet post at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, although no final decision on the nomination has yet been announced. Bessent reaffirmed his commitment to Trump’s agenda several times last week, publishing a Fox News opinion piece on the importance of tariffs and a Wall Street Journal op-ed disparaging economists who doubted Trump’s record .
These behind-the-scenes maneuvers were on full public display Saturday with Musk’s tweet and a follow-up X-rated message from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick for health secretary, endorsing Lutnick. Presidential choices for cabinet positions generally do not publicly influence choices for other positions before those decisions are made.
The behind-the-scenes jostling between Bessent and Lutnick’s allies also continued Saturday, when Trump received information that Lutnick was a major donor to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, according to people familiar with the conversations who said spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose internal discussions.
A person close to Lutnick’s relationship with Trump rejected any attempt to question the financier’s loyalty to Trump, noting that Lutnick’s political donations have long been scrutinized and that his relationship with Clinton grew out of their work rebuilding New York City after 9/11. , when Clinton was in the Senate.
“It’s a friendly joke between them,” explained the person. “Howard is friends with the Clintons and friends with Trump. I mean Tulsi (Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence) was a Democrat until yesterday. It’s not serious.
Still, the impasse over the top economic position has led some Trump officials to wonder whether he might turn to a third candidate. Trump trade adviser Robert E. Lighthizer, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee) and Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan have been floated as potential alternatives to Bessent and Lutnick’s feuding, according to two people close to him. of the file, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Although he did not specifically say he was contradicting Trump, Musk also publicly welcomed Argentine President Javier Milei’s decision to cut tariffs on Saturday.
“Good decision,” Musk wrote on X in reaction to an article on Milei “REDUCE IMPORT TAXES.”
Milei, a libertarian who has been embraced by other far-right world leaders, has also been embraced by Trump’s conservative circles. At a recent America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-a-Lago — where Musk and Trump were photographed with Milei — the Argentine president praised Musk, saying X was helping to “save humanity.”
Musk endorsed Trump shortly after the former president was injured in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, and used the remainder of the election season to invest heavily to help him win the elections.
After the election, Trump announced plans to create a “Department of Government Effectiveness,” an outside agency to advise the White House, led by Musk and entrepreneur-turned-conservative firebrand Vivek Ramaswamy.