(Yahoo! Finance) - The public drama surrounding most of Donald Trump’s cabinet choices so far came after they were announced, but not so much for the closely watched contest to become the next Treasury secretary.
The frenzy of that race is playing out before a pick is even made.
The two leading contenders — between private entreaties and Fox News appearances and op-eds — are making a case directly to the president-elect as well as through public signals to perhaps sway markets to their side.
Hanging over the entire process is President-elect Trump himself, who has already surprised political observers multiple times this week by discarding conventional choices for other posts and announcing nominees that few saw coming.
"Trump of course likes to do things a bit differently, as we’ve noticed," said Puck News founding partner William D. Cohan on the latest episode of Yahoo Finance’s Capitol Gains podcast.
One notable subplot in recent days surrounds Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, who is heading up Trump’s transition team but has also emerged as a candidate in his own right.
He's "interested in pulling a bit of a Dick Cheney here," Cohan added in reference to how Cheney famously headed up George W. Bush’s vice presidential search before securing the job for himself.
In addition to Lutnick, the other most oft-mentioned name these days is Scott Bessent, a former Soros Fund Management investing chief and regular campaign trail partner of Trump.
Bessent has long been considered a frontrunner for the job and appears set to meet with Trump Friday at Mar-a-Lago for a second face-to-face conversation.
There's also a whole stable of dark horse candidates who have appeared on varied lists and could rise in the hours and days ahead depending on Trump's preferences, from former trade representative Robert Lighthizer to Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman to former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn to Fox Business Network host Larry Kudlow.
On Tuesday, billionaire investor John Paulson took his hat out of the ring for contention for the job, saying "complex financial obligations" would keep him in the private sector. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon also made it clear Thursday he won’t be working for Trump in the coming years.
Public overtures (and private lobbying) for Scott Bessent
Much of the lobbying has taken place behind closed doors as Trump assembles his advisers at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to pick his team — and then quickly post them on Truth Social.
Aides have been circumspect, with Karoline Leavitt, a Trump-Vance transition spokesperson, telling Yahoo Finance only that "President-elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second administration. Those decisions will be announced when they are made."
As for Treasury, Scott Bessent, the current Key Square Capital Management CEO, has long been considered the favorite. He has has also been making a notably public case in recent days.
He was live on the set of Fox and Friends Thursday morning. "Any way I can help," he noted in an interview where he mostly lavished praise on Trump.
In recent days, Bessent has also published op-eds in both the Wall Street Journal and on FoxNews.com. He also hopped on with Trump ally Steve Bannon to discuss his vision for the US economy.
Bessent has also donated over $3.1 million to Trump and other Republicans during the recent election season, according to government records.
He is expected to meet with the president-elect again on Friday in Florida to discuss the role further.
Bessent also appears to have high-profile lobbyists helping his cause behind the scenes, with Semafor reporting on Thursday that Sen. Lindsey Graham is a leader in pushing Bessent, a fellow South Carolinian, for the job.
A late push from Howard Lutnick (and perhaps other candidates)
Lutnick is best known as the billionaire CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, who was first tapped to shepherd Trump’s picks as the co-chair of his transition effort.
"To me, this is an all-in moment," he said in his own Fox News appearance a few weeks back.
But that appears to have changed, with Lutnick now apparently throwing his hat in the ring for the top job himself and the Wall Street Journal reporting that he has made a pitch directly to Trump himself.
A representative for the Trump transition declined to comment on Lutnick's role.
Other names mentioned as more long-shot possibilities include Lighthizer, who was Trump's trade representative last time around and appears set for another role in Trump’s trade and tariff plans in one form or another.
Lighthizer has stayed close to Trump in recent years as the head of the Center for American Trade at the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned think tank.
Gary Cohn, the former Goldman executive who served as the director of Trump’s National Economic Council and is now vice-chairman of IBM, is another long-shot candidate.
Cohn left the White House in 2018 after publicly criticizing Trump’s response to a deadly rally by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, saying at the time that the Trump administration "can and must do better" to condemn hate groups
Cohn has more recently offered praise for Trump and his economic agenda but, in yet another Fox appearance this week, suggested he wasn’t in the running and said he was anxiously awaiting the result like everyone else.
“I’m actually happy he’s taking his time on the economic decisions,” Cohn added about Trump’s closely watched selection process.
By Ben Werschkul - Washington Correspondent
