How Howard Lutnick lost his epic battle for Trump’s Treasury and a lot more
"The long knives are out for Howard Lutnick."
That's the assessment from a senior Trump transition member in the aftermath of what is being described as a nasty, hunger-games style, and weeks-long attempt by the brass-knuckled Wall Street CEO and current Commerce secretary nominee to block another Wall Street executive, hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, from being named Treasury secretary, and get the job himself.
As has been reported, he ultimately failed when, on Friday, President-elect Trump named Bessent, 62, his Treasury secretary nominee, to replace Janet Yellen if he is confirmed by the Senate as expected. What hasn't been fully reported is the full extent of Lutnick's effort to dislodge Bessent from consideration, promote himself, and how that effort will impact Lutnick’s standing in the White House if he makes it through Senate confirmation to run the Commerce Department.
At least for now, Lutnick's sharp-elbowed infighting over the Treasury pick has made him somewhat of an outcast with many key people in Trump land even before the president takes office, people associated with the Trump transition team tell FOX Business.
Of course, those sharp elbows have served Lutnick well during his long career on Wall Street, the past 30 years spent as CEO of the firm Cantor Fitzgerald. To be sure, Lutnick has many friends, including Trump himself, who say he’s both kind and generous. Others consider him a ruthless competitor in the rough-and-tumble world of trading and investment banking.
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But it’s unclear whether Lutnick’s hard push to become Treasury secretary and deny it to Bessent, hurt him with the person who matters the most on Team Trump: Donald Trump. The president-elect respects personal loyalty above all else and Lutnick appears to fit the bill. Trump, too, is an ambitious, famously aggressive businessman during his long years in New York City real estate. Trump remade the Republican Party, and won the presidency twice in part by aggressively attacking and mocking his opponents.
On Saturday, the president-elect, along with Lutnick and Tesla chief turned Trump confidant Elon Musk, lunched with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, according to a photo she shared on Musk’s social media platform, X.
In many ways, Lutnick is an odd fit to be playing a role in national politics, particularly in a Republican presidential administration. The 63-year-old Long Island native, was never very political by Wall Street standards and when he was, he mostly donated to Democrats, including Trump's Democratic opponent Kamala Harris when she ran for Senate in California years earlier.
In fact, he may be best known to the general public for his advocacy for families impacted by the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, where Cantor was headquartered. He narrowly escaped the carnage that day. Most people at his firm, 658 employees, perished during the attacks, including his brother.
Yet he and Trump have history. They're longtime friends. Lutnick appeared on Trump's reality TV show "The Apprentice," and after donating nearly $100 million to help get Trump elected, he emerged as among the president's top advisers.
When Trump won a resounding victory over Harris on Nov. 5, Lutnick was catapulted to the upper echelons of the Trump orbit, usually occupied by his sons, Eric and Don., Jr., a few close advisers and now his Vice President-elect JD Vance. He led the vetting process for various Cabinet picks on the Trump transition team.
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It was his vetting of one position in particular, Treasury secretary, that set the stage for Lutnick’s tenuous standing with many of his new White House colleagues. According to people with direct knowledge of the matter, Lutnick essentially tried to pick himself for Treasury secretary, maybe the most important Cabinet position given the importance of the economy to any presidency.
Along the way, he enlisted other Trump outside advisers, such as Musk, and even Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's Health and Human Services nominee, to do his bidding internally and publicly, these people say. At one point, Musk turned to X (formerly known as Twitter) to talk up Lutnick as the best possible candidate to run Treasury.
Lutnick made his move sometime during the week of Nov. 10, a time when Bessent was given every indication by the Trump transition team he was the lead candidate for Treasury, people close to Bessent say. Lutnick began to privately attack Bessent associations on Wall Street, they say, and his record as a hedge fund manager.
Many top Trump officials, including Vance and incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles remained supportive of Bessent for Treasury, people close to the matter say. While Lutnick’s move caught Bessent by surprise, with the help of Musk and Kennedy it managed to convince the president-elect to open the Treasury nomination process to other candidates.
Economist Kevin Warsh and Apollo Management chief Marc Rowan – who, based on their long history in the financial world, were far less committed to the MAGA populist agenda, including the use of tariffs to gain an edge in negotiating deals – emerged as candidates for the position along with Lutnick.
Lutnick hasn't spoken publicly about the matter, and through a spokeswoman, declined to comment for this report. But people inside the Trump campaign, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described Lutnick's motives as self-centered, a play to win Treasury secretary for himself either now or sometime in the future.
This article is the product of interviews with nearly a dozen people – all Trump supporters – and many directly related to the transition team who have direct knowledge of the matter.
A rep for Bessent declined comment but would not dispute details of this account. Similarly, a rep for Lutnick would not comment after reviewing details of this article.
A Trump transition spokesman, Steven Cheung, said in a statement: "President Trump has nominated the most remarkable and transformative Cabinet in American history, and both Mr. Lutnick and Mr. Bessent will implement the President's America First economic agenda. Both nominees have the experience and knowledge to ensure President Trump's history victory will reflect the will of the American people through pro-growth and pro-worker policies. Any assertion of disagreements between the two are totally unfounded and peddled by individuals who are trying to undermine the Trump Administration.
When Bessent was ultimately named the Treasury secretary nominee Friday night by Trump, the press release made no mention of the behind-the-scenes contretemps. Nor the background that Lutnick attempted to use against him.
Bessent, a South Carolina native, made his mark on Wall Street as a sophisticated investor mainly at the hedge fund run by far-left billionaire political activist George Soros. It was long before Soros, now retired, became a hated figure on the right for his support of progressive causes, including soft-on-crime prosecutors around the country.
But Bessent was no Soros political crony; yes, he did run his London operations and was behind maybe Soros' most famous profitable trade – the "shorting" or betting against the British pound in the early 1990s. But he never actively joined Soros' political efforts, either when he was working for the famed money manager or after.
Bessent now runs his own hedge fund, Key Square Capital, and has supported some Democrats, though he also gave to Republicans during his own long career on Wall Street.
He became a convert to MAGA Republicanism only more recently. He told friends he was outraged by the alleged lawfare used by the Biden administration and leftist prosecutors to prosecute Trump as he attempted a political comeback following his defeat in 2020 to Joe Biden for the presidency.
During his career, Bessent also showed lukewarm support to the economic policy that is both unique to Trumpism, and controversial in many circles, particularly in big business: Protectionism. Most of Wall Street rejects the use of tariffs and sanctions on trade based on free-market, philosophical grounds. Big business also operates across the world, including China, which will be the focus of U.S. trade animus once Trump takes office. Companies such as Walmart have already warned that consumers will bear the brunt if enacted through higher prices and slower economic growth when China reciprocates with tariffs of their own.
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But Bessent ultimately went all in on Trump trade policies as he threw his support for Trump trying to win back the White House in the 2024 campaign. He appeared with the president at rallies, explaining the use of tariffs to protect working-class jobs from foreign competition in television interviews and in op-eds. He ultimately became a favorite of the Trump inner circle, people like Wiles. and Vance, a powerful voice inside the Trump camp on the naming of Cabinet positions. Treasury was his for the taking.
Lutnick, according to people privy to his activities, was unfazed. He has his own long friendship with Trump and was in the inner circle as the head of vetting personnel in the transition team. Plus, he saw weaknesses in Bessent's resume that could be exploited.
People who know Lutnick and his ambition say such a gambit is completely in character. This is a guy who built a midsized firm, decimated by 9/11, into a formidable competitor. He’s known as a fierce competitor with an ego to match.
Running Treasury is something that most Wall Street executives want, but only few attain. The job is essentially that of the country's CFO, Its policy breadth cuts across all branches of government.
Howard Lutnick, a kid from Jericho, Long Island, who buried both of his parents before he turned 20, could have his name on the U.S. dollar bill.
When Lutnick went to work on Bessent, he did so with gusto, so much so that Bessent was caught off guard by the ferocity of the onslaught, people close to Bessent tell FOX Business. Lutnick, they say, harped on Bessent's Soros connection, his late conversions to MAGA economic policies on trade, and even said his fund was producing middling returns, they say.
The move caught others on the Trump transition team by surprise, as well. One senior Trump aide said, "Howard is acting like a baby," when this reporter asked about his activities. Maybe so, but whatever he did was taken seriously by Trump. FOX Business was first to report on Nov. 13 that Lutnick had placed himself firmly in consideration for the job.
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Adding insult to industry, Lutnick called Bessent, and said both of them were fighting for the same cause: Making Trump's presidency the most successful in history.
According to a person with firsthand knowledge of the conversation, Bessent replied that he was totally committed to the Trump cause, but added that he was aware of Lutnick’s efforts at undermining his chances to get the Treasury nomination.
At one point during the call, Bessent told Lutnick to "go f---" himself, this person said.
Lutnick's euphoria lasted about a week. While Trump opened the Treasury vetting process widely to others, (Blackrock's Larry Fink, a well-known Wall Street Democrat who was Trump's former money manager even received a call, though he immediately took himself out of contention, people close to him say), Lutnick's standing inside the Trump camp began to deteriorate.
Lutnick soon found himself nominated for Commerce secretary, a run-of-the-mill Cabinet position akin to being an ambassador inside the White House for the business community.
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Bessent's people then went about pushing the case for their man. Key Square's returns were better than what was being spun and his support of MAGA trade policies was among the most articulate of the entire team, they argued. The people Trump was interviewing – Warsh and Rowan – were capable but had their own baggage.
Rowan, they said, didn't really want the job (his rep denied this); Warsh was better suited to replace Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair when his term runs out in 2026. Neither have a record of articulating the core tenets of Trump's economic scheme: the use of tariffs to gain an edge in trade negotiations. Nor have they voiced concerns about jobs leaving middle America.
Trump met with both Warsh and Rowan last week, each for about 45 minutes, sources say. Lutnick, depending upon who you speak to, was continuing to diss Bessent, advocating for both Rowan and Warsh during this time. Yet Trump transition officials were growing increasingly wary of both – Rowan for his lack of MAGA street cred and Warsh because he is better suited for the Fed.
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Supporters of Bessent tell FOX Business that Lutnick’s Warsh support was an attempt to be considered once again for the Treasury job since Warsh would be a natural to replace Fed chair Jerome Powell when his term ends in 2026. Others say Lutnick pushed for Rowan because he believed Bessent got him demoted to Commerce. Indeed, Rowan spoke with Trump Friday in an attempt to make his case, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Bessent, meanwhile, was regularly speaking with Trump about his plans for the economy – how to grow it, cut the deficit and build back working-class jobs. Bessent spent much of Thursday at Mar-a-Lago, the president's Palm Beach resort, home and the transition headquarters, people close to the matter say.
He told a friend on Friday he was "feeling good... things are getting better."
A few hours later, he was named Treasury secretary.
As for Lutnick: "He’s made a lot of enemies throughout this Treasury process," the senior Trump official said.