President-elect Trump has announced many major Cabinet appointments since his reelection to the Presidency on November 5, but one key position remains unfilled: Secretary of the Treasury.
One leading favorite for the position is Scott Bessent, an American investor and hedge fund manager known for once being the top investor for liberal megadonor George Soros. Trump has called Bessent "one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street" and met with Bessent at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Friday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
However, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, an outspoken Bitcoin advocate whose company serves as a custodian for billions of dollars worth of Tether's reserves, is also reportedly jockeying for the position. The New York Times reported that several leading crypto executives, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and executives at Circle, have been in contact with Trump's transition team, likely lobbying for Lutnick's appointment.
While other names have been floated — the WSJ reported on Friday that Trump was "irritated" by the aggressive campaigning on behalf of Lutnick and Bessent — Polymarket bettors now see the two men as having nearly equal odds of becoming the next Treasury Secretary, with a slight edge to Lutnick.
Lutnick currently has the edge with 49% odds as of Sunday morning Eastern time, while Bessent trails behind at 45%. In third place with merely 4% is Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2021, with other candidates' odds at 2% or less.
Lutnick's odds have grown significantly over the past day; his odds were around 20% for most of Saturday before skyrocketing early Sunday due to recent reporting. Bets on the treasury secretary have traded over $1 million in volume, according to Polymarket.
The increase also corresponds with Elon Musk's endorsement of Lutnick on X. "My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas [Lutnick] will actually enact change. Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another," the X owner wrote.
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