Elon Musk publicly weighed in on Donald Trump‘s pick for U.S. Treasury Secretary, one of the remaining key cabinet appointments the president-elect will make in the coming days.

Mr Musk urged his supporters on Howard Lutnick, to lead the Treasury Department.

Mr. Lutnick, the former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a company that lost 658 employees in the Sept. 11 attacks, is reportedly competing with Scott Bessent, the founder of the capital management firm Key Square, who has said he wants states -United remains the world leader. reserve change and use rates as a negotiation tactic.

“My view is that Bessent is a status quo choice, whereas @howardlutnick is actually going to embrace change,” Mr. Musk said on Saturday. “The status quo is bankrupting America, so we have to change somehow. »

Mr. Musk urged his supporters to “provide feedback on this so that Donald Trump will take the comments into account.”

Mr. Lutnick recently told the Wall Street Journal that anyone who hires Mr. Trump would be “loyal to the president’s policies,” telling the outlet: “All my life I’ve been a fiscal conservative, a social liberal… The Party Democrat has moved away from me. .”

Both Lutnick and Bessent support Mr. Trump’s trade tariff policies, a tactic he used against China during his first term. “Tariffs are a way to finally defend Americans,” Mr. Bessent wrote in an editorial on Fox News on Friday.

But both candidates argue that lower taxes would offset rising import costs and promote economic growth.

But some economists have warned that the tariffs could weaken growth, boost inflation and lower employment. A recent paper from the Peterson Institute for International Economics projects that inflation will reach at least 6% by 2026 and that consumer prices will rise 20% over the next four years.

Mr Musk’s intervention in the battle between Mr Lutnick and Mr Bessent for the key post – the one who advises the president on economic and fiscal matters, including spending and taxes – comes amid concern as to the space and transportation entrepreneur’s proximity to Mr. Trump. Mr. Musk, the world’s richest person, is expected to co-chair an advisory department, the Department of Government Effectiveness, or Doge, in the new administration aimed at cutting federal departments and spending by up to $2 trillion. of dollars.

According to the Washington Post, some members of Mr. Trump’s entourage expressed surprise that Mr. Musk would intervene in the choice of Treasury secretary. “People are not happy,” one of them said, according to the outlet, adding that Mr. Musk was acting as “co-chair.”

Mr. Musk, who has spent more than $100 million supporting Mr. Trump’s campaign, has been an almost constant presence around the president-elect, including on a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

On Saturday, Mr. Musk appeared to mock Mr. Zelenskiy’s assertion that Ukraine was an independent country that could not be forced to the negotiating table with Russia, posting on humor of the Ukrainian leader is incredible.”

Musk and Trump met later Saturday at ringside at New York’s Madison Square Garden, the site of a much-criticized pre-election rally, for a UFC title fight. Alongside them were Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Joe Rogan, Tulsi Gabbard and Vivek Ramaswamy, who is expected to lead Doge with Mr Musk. – Guardian