(Yahoo! Finance) - The contest for treasury secretary is emerging as a key stumbling block in Donald Trump's presidential transition as candidates rise and fall by the day and top advisers make their arguments before millions of followers.
Last week, the top contenders appeared to be Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, and Scott Bessent, a former Soros Fund Management investing chief.
But the water is now murkier than ever after a weekend of even more intense back-and-forth unlike anything surrounding Trump's other picks so far.
"Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this," Elon Musk even asked his 200+ million followers on social media platform X on Saturday before making his own views clear.
"My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas [Lutnick] will actually enact change."
But even Musk hasn't been able to put an end to the debate, with Bessent still being pushed by prominent backers in Trump's orbit but new contenders apparently now in consideration.
On Sunday, the New York Times reported that Lutnick has "gotten on Mr. Trump’s nerves lately." The president-elect is now expected to meet this week with former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh and Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan in a sign he is unsatisfied with his choices. (Disclosure: Yahoo Finance is owned by Apollo Global Management).
A debate over politics as well as tariff policy
While much of the jockeying appears to be about not spooking the stock market with a controversial pick, much of the debate playing out in public appears to be about finding a candidate who is credible to business leaders but also on board with Trump's economic ideas, specifically tariffs.
Trump has long championed import duties as a potential "ring around the country" but the business community has often been much less sanguine about his ideas.
The attempt to bridge the divide has been on display for weeks.
"When was America great?" Lutnick asked the crowd at Madison Square Garden before the election and before discussing the 1890s as an era where "all we had was tariffs" and the economy was "rocking."
It got a cheer but was clearly designed to appeal mostly to Trump himself, who talked about the era of William McKinley pretty much nonstop on the campaign trail.
Bessent weighed in last week with a Fox News op-ed in which he argued that tariffs have a "long and storied history as both a revenue-raising tool and a way of protecting strategically important industries."
As for Rowan, when he was asked about a possible trade war during an appearance at Yahoo Finance's Invest conference last week, he downplayed the chances, saying, "Markets ... at the moment are not pricing in much for geopolitical risk."
He then quickly pivoted to arguing that Trump isn't a risk for global instability because of his strength.
The clear tension is that many of these candidates have often espoused more free trade efforts in the past and even, in the case of Warsh, have discussed "the false promise of protectionism."
How that would work in a Trump administration that appears determined to go ahead with high duties remains to be seen, but the prospect of the tariffs has already led to considerable unease in the business community about their effect on everyday items and manufacturing inputs.
A process that could drag on
President-elect Trump is expected to meet with his additional candidates this week, according to multiple reports, signaling a process that could continue in the days ahead.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee could also be in the mix
The president-elect's quickly changing preferences have already hung over the entire transition process after other picks have surprised political observers multiple times with conventional choices for other posts being discarded in favor of nominees that few saw coming.
Other candidates have publicly announced they aren't in the running for the job.
Last Tuesday, billionaire investor John Paulson took his hat out of the ring for contention, saying "complex financial obligations" would keep him in the private sector. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon also made it clear Thursday that he won't be working for Trump in the coming years.
Fox Business host Larry Kudlow was also briefly mentioned as a candidate before representatives of the anchor told multiple reporters he is looking instead to stay with the network.
The treasury secretary pick is also closely scrutinized, as it could be holding up other prominent economic choices, such as the next commerce secretary, National Economic Council director, and trade representative.
Trump has nonetheless gone ahead with other economic-facing posts, announcing Brendan Carr as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and Chris Wright as secretary of energy.
"Trump, of course, likes to do things a bit differently, as we've noticed," noted Puck News founding partner William D. Cohan on the latest episode of Yahoo Finance's Capitol Gains podcast.
By Ben Werschkul - Washington Correspondent
