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President-elect Trump, after racing through the first half of his Cabinet picks, is slowing his roll on one of the highest profile jobs — Treasury secretary — to consider more options, transition sources tell Axios.
- Trump will meet at Mar-a-Lago this week with two new candidates: Kevin Warsh, who was the youngest person to become a Federal Reserve Governor, and Marc Rowan, the billionaire CEO and co-founder of Apollo, the private-equity giant.
Why it matters: Trump, who has been decisive about the early wave of picks for his new administration, was dissatisfied with the earlier finalists for Treasury — hedge-fund manager Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick, co-chair of Trump’s transition, and CEO of the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald.
- The battle between the two is being called “a knife fight, with Mr. Lutnick as the primary aggressor,” according to the N.Y. Times, which first reported the new names.
State of play: Bessent and Lutnick remain in the hunt. But now they might be in a derby for a runner-up job — director of Trump’s National Economic Council, or perhaps Commerce secretary.
- It’s not clear Lutnick would take a backup job.
Behind the scenes: Lutnick has gotten on Trump’s nerves lately, with Trump privately expressing frustration that Lutnick “has been hanging around him too much and that he has been manipulating the transition process for his own ends,” The Times reports.
Between the lines: Trump cares a lot about pedigrees, and is obsessed with markets. That combination could make Warsh an attractive option.
- Warsh, 53, was a Fed governor from 2006 until 2011. He currently works with legendary hedge fund billionaire Stan Druckenmiller, who said before the election that the markets were predicting a Trump victory.
- Warsh’s long game is still Fed chair. But that could come later in Trump’s term.
- Rowan is worth at least $9 billion.