Trump’s Transition Chair Howard Lutnick Keeps Shooting Himself in the Foot

He could be the incoming Treasury Secretary by now, Trump advisers say, but he won’t ‘shut the fuck up.’

Donald Trump and Howard Lutnick in September 2024. (Photo by Adam Gray / AFP via Getty Images)

DONALD TRUMP’S TRANSITION TEAM CO-CHAIR Howard Lutnick could very well become the next United States Secretary of the Treasury—if only he can stop self-sabotaging.

Lutnick, the billionaire CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, has earned a reputation at Mar-a-Lago of being too competitive, too aggressive, and too thirsty for the political limelight. Over his relatively brief time in Trump world, he has earned the enmity of some insiders, who suspect him of leaking to the media and trashing potential rivals to excess. There is also a belief that he has undercut others, starting last month with an appearance on CNN in which he declared that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would not end up being nominated to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Trump announced last week that he does indeed intend to name Kennedy to the post.

Swagger and self-promotion often lead to poor results inside Trump’s orbit. That’s the ambit of the boss. When Lutnick has done it, it has led to eyerolls and mocking whispers, all of which have dimmed his once-bright prospects for secretary of the treasury. As Trump has named others to top cabinet posts at breakneck speed since winning the election a dozen days ago, that coveted financial position—in which the secretary’s signature is scrawled on U.S. currency—remains vacant. 

“The boss would’ve probably named Howard secretary by now but Howard doesn’t know how this place works,” said a Trump adviser briefed on the transition process. “He should get the job. He just needs to learn to keep his head down and shut the fuck up.”

Lutnick does not have as extensive history with Trump as other advisers. But he was supposed to play the role of professional in the room, as he helped chart out a White House in waiting that would avoid the missteps that followed the last time Trump won the presidency, in 2016.

But while this transition has been smoother than that last one, it has also proved far more chaotic than Trump hands would have preferred, with news of some potential appointees leaking before the team has time to attempt to frame the story to their liking, according to six officials and advisers who spoke to The Bulwark on condition of anonymity.

Trump’s decision to pick Kennedy after Lutnick dismissed him wasn’t the only embarrassing mishap for the transition chair. Trump tapped Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on Wednesday to become the next attorney general without Lutnick’s involvement, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

Two days before, on Monday afternoon, word of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s nomination to become secretary of state leaked to the New York Times just hours after Rubio had a sitdown with Lutnick at Mar-a-Lago. The leak annoyed Trump advisers, people close to Rubio, and the other Trump adviser vying for the job—former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell—who had not been informed a decision had been made.

“Ric has been a loyal foot soldier for Trump and this is no way to treat him by blindsiding him,” a Trump adviser said. “No one benefited from this leak except whoever leaked it. If this was Lutnick, it’s no way to win a cabinet spot.”

Ultimately, it took two days to announce the Rubio pick, a delay that Trump insiders said was caused by the need to clean up after the early leak.

There’s also a growing concern at Mar-a-Lago that, despite the swift pace of decisions on top-level cabinet positions, progress remains slow elsewhere. In particular, there is worry that the second- and third-tier agency positions won’t be far enough along for Trump when the 78-year-old takes office.

“President Trump won a historic election with a clear mandate from the American people,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said. “He will nominate high-caliber individuals who will serve their country, represent the American people, and carry out President Trump’s pro-America agenda the people overwhelmingly voted for.”

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WHILE AT MAR-A-LAGO FOR HIS transition meetings, Trump is often shadowed by Lutnick as well as billionaire adviser Elon Musk. Lutnick has an ally in the Tesla and X CEO who, on Saturday, denigrated hedge fund executive and fellow treasury secretary shortlister Scott Bessent.

“My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change,” Musk wrote on X. “Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another.”

Bessent, who has appeared on Roger Stone’s radio show and Steve Bannon’s podcast to tout his candidacy, later reached out to speak to Musk. He has twice visited Mar-a-Lago.

Where Trump will ultimately land on the treasury secretary role is one of the few remaining major questions with regard to his incoming cabinet. That it has spilled out into a messy public fight speaks to both the stakes of the post and the degree of acrimony that has shrouded the selection process.

People familiar with the process say they’ve been surprised at how aggressively Lutnick has maneuvered for the job, believing that he both enlisted Musk to wage a social-media pressure campaign on his behalf and that it could potentially be too much for Trump. 

“It’s not landing well,” said a Mar-a-Lago insider privy to private conversations about the pick. “Lutnick has worked him [Bessent] over like nothing I’ve ever seen. He just savages the guy, dirties him up at every chance he gets. . . . Howard is a nice guy when you meet him, but he’s a savage, incredibly aggressive, and the question is if it has gone too far.”

Beyond personality, there’s a policy component to the competition between Lutnick and Bessent. Lutnick has been a more vociferous supporter of Trump’s desire to hike tariffs as high as 20 percent on all imports into the United States. Bessent is a favorite of Wall Street and banking CEOs and he often flatters Trump, publicly crediting any good economic data with the markets getting giddy for the incoming presidency.

But Lutnick allies point out that Bessent once worked for Democratic moneyman George Soros’s hedge fund. Bessent backers, meanwhile, say Lutnick has potential conflicts of interest because he has said he manages the cryptocurrency Tether, which the Treasury Department is deciding whether to financially sanction, according to the Washington Post.

Trump hasn’t expressed any clear misgivings about Lutnick to others, but those familiar with the president-elect say he has shown signs of wanting to move on to other potential appointees. Recently, Trump has mused about possible treasury picks by seeming to look past Lutnick and focus instead on Bessent or longtime friend and Fox show host Larry Kudlow, who headed the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term. Last week, Kudlow said he wasn’t interested in the post.

“When the president starts saying, ‘What about this guy?’ it’s a sign he still has some questions about Howard,” said a second insider. “Howard looks like the favorite, but this is a decision of one. And ‘The One’ goes back and forth all the time over who he wants. But when he makes a decision, it’s his and his alone. And it’s final.”

Lutnick learned that lesson last week when Trump nominated Kennedy to be secretary of health and human services just two weeks after Lutnick had categorically declared that Kennedy was “not getting a job for HHS.” 

“That pissed off Bobby and it might have steeled his resolve to get the post,” said a Trump adviser in contact with Kennedy’s team. The adviser noted that Lutnick’s appearance and comments had caught the team by surprise.

Kennedy and Lutnick made up and, on Saturday Kennedy followed Musk’s lead and offered his support for Lutnick’s treasury bid. In a post on X, RFK Jr. praised Lutnick’s embrace of Bitcoin even as he misspelled the executive’s name: “Bitcoin is the currency of freedom, a hedge against inflation for middle class Americans. . . . Bitcoin will have no stronger advocate than Howard Lutnik [sic].”