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Trump's Transition Chair Howard Lutnick Keeps Shooting Himself in the Foot
He could be the incoming Treasury Secretary by now, Trump advisers say, but he won’t ‘shut the fuck up.’
...
Lutnick, the billionaire CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, has earned a reputation at Mar-a-Lago of being too competitive, too aggressive, and too thirsty for the political limelight. Over his relatively brief time in Trump world, he has earned the enmity of some insiders, who suspect him of leaking to the media and trashing potential rivals to excess. There is also a belief that he has undercut others, starting last month with an appearance on CNN in which he declared that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would not end up being nominated to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Trump announced last week that he does indeed intend to name Kennedy to the post.
...
... while this transition has been smoother than that last one, it has also proved far more chaotic than Trump hands would have preferred, with news of some potential appointees leaking before the team has time to attempt to frame the story to their liking, according to six officials and advisers who spoke to The Bulwark on condition of anonymity.
Trump’s decision to pick Kennedy after Lutnick dismissed him wasn’t the only embarrassing mishap for the transition chair. Trump tapped Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on Wednesday to become the next attorney general without Lutnick’s involvement, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
Two days before, on Monday afternoon, word of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s nomination to become secretary of state leaked to the New York Times just hours after Rubio had a sitdown with Lutnick at Mar-a-Lago. The leak annoyed Trump advisers, people close to Rubio, and the other Trump adviser vying for the job—former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell—who had not been informed a decision had been made
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-transition-chair-howard-lutnick-treasury-secretary-wannabe-shooting-himself-in-foot
...
Lutnick, the billionaire CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, has earned a reputation at Mar-a-Lago of being too competitive, too aggressive, and too thirsty for the political limelight. Over his relatively brief time in Trump world, he has earned the enmity of some insiders, who suspect him of leaking to the media and trashing potential rivals to excess. There is also a belief that he has undercut others, starting last month with an appearance on CNN in which he declared that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would not end up being nominated to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Trump announced last week that he does indeed intend to name Kennedy to the post.
...
... while this transition has been smoother than that last one, it has also proved far more chaotic than Trump hands would have preferred, with news of some potential appointees leaking before the team has time to attempt to frame the story to their liking, according to six officials and advisers who spoke to The Bulwark on condition of anonymity.
Trump’s decision to pick Kennedy after Lutnick dismissed him wasn’t the only embarrassing mishap for the transition chair. Trump tapped Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on Wednesday to become the next attorney general without Lutnick’s involvement, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
Two days before, on Monday afternoon, word of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s nomination to become secretary of state leaked to the New York Times just hours after Rubio had a sitdown with Lutnick at Mar-a-Lago. The leak annoyed Trump advisers, people close to Rubio, and the other Trump adviser vying for the job—former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell—who had not been informed a decision had been made
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-transition-chair-howard-lutnick-treasury-secretary-wannabe-shooting-himself-in-foot
More at the link, and it doesn't even get around to Musk in the mix.
Not so much a team of rivals as a team of backstabbing assholes.