Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the preparations, personnel decisions and policy deliberations of Donald Trump’s transition. POLITICO Pro subscribers receive a version of this newsletter first. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren | Email Lisa | Email Megan SCOTT BESSENT. KEVIN WARSH. HOWARD LUTNICK. MARC ROWAN. All the supposed frontrunners for Treasury secretary have something in common — they’re Wall Street finance guys. That’s got the populist right freaking out. Protectionists in and out of President-elect DONALD TRUMP’s inner circle are terrified that none of the Treasury frontrunners will deliver on Trump’s most consistent — and potentially disruptive — economic campaign promise: across-the-board tariffs not seen in nearly a century, according to a person with direct knowledge of internal conversations, as well as dozens of public statements from populists in the past week. They’re pushing their own candidate: Trump’s former trade chief ROBERT LIGHTHIZER. And though he’s widely viewed as a long shot — if not out of contention for Treasury entirely — protectionists are going public with their campaign to get him named to the most powerful economic role in the Cabinet. The campaign — and continuing uncertainty about such an essential Cabinet job — points to simmering discontent in Trump’s world about the ultimate direction of economic policy: whether to deliver on high, universal tariffs, or shy away for fear that the duties will spook the stock market. It’s an unwanted redux of the same issue that plagued Trump’s first Treasury secretary, STEVEN MNUCHIN, who was always skeptical of Trump’s tariffs, even in their more meager, first-term form. In the past few days, populist figures in Trump’s orbit, like MICHAEL STUMO, the head of the protectionist nonprofit Coalition for a Prosperous America, have made explicit pleas for Trump to pick Lighthizer as Treasury secretary — and have trashed the finance frontrunners like Bessent. “Brash Wall Street/Finance guys are doing the hard sell for themselves. But the obvious choice as a knife fighter for Trump’s correct version [of] American economic rebirth is Lighthizer, who apparently is not selling himself,” Stumo said in a 14-post thread boosting the former trade chief. Others went after Warsh, whose name has risen in recent days. SKANDA AMARNATH , director of the think tank Employ America, noted that the former Federal Reserve governor wrote in 2010 that the “creep of trade protectionism is anathema to pro-growth policies” — a take that itself is anathema to populists in Trump world today. Other prominent figures like LAURA INGRAHAM have chimed in to say that the ultimate test for the Treasury secretary would be whether they agree with Trump on tariffs — a not-so-subtle dig at Bessent, who had downplayed tariff plans in multiple media appearances before the election, only to try to change his tune last week. The tariff discourse has even featured some of Lighthizer’s allies on the left, like his longtime friend LORI WALLACH, head of the left-leaning Rethink Trade group, who trashed Bessent and Lutnick as free traders. And New Right luminary SOHRAB AHMARI penned a full column in Compact Magazine — itself a fount of populist economic thought — about why Lighthizer is the best choice for Treasury. It’s not a spontaneous outpouring of goodwill for Lighthizer. The Bob-posting is coming at the direction of populist figures who are in “very, very high positions” among Trump’s inner circle, said one person with knowledge of the communications who was granted anonymity to talk about them. It’s clear that some of the Wall Street-affiliated candidates are trying to quell discontent about their tariff positions. Bessent last week penned an entire Fox op-ed about tariffs after West Wing Playbook noted mounting protectionist opposition to his bid for Treasury. And Lutnick has also fallen over himself to boost tariffs in cable news appearances — to the point of misstating some simple facts about global tariff rates, like what duties U.S. automakers face in other countries. But those comments ring hollow to the hard-core protectionists. Even in his pro-tariff op-ed, Bessent pushes for tariffs “used strategically.” To protectionists, that’s Washington code for opposition to the universal tariffs Trump has pledged. Still, even if Trump shies away from the current financier frontrunners for Treasury, he is unlikely to pick Lighthizer – a figure so well-known as a protectionist true believer and a Wall Street antagonist. That could open a lane for a compromise pick — someone who could calm Wall Street but who is still seen as MAGA to his core. Someone, perhaps, like Sen. BILL HAGERTY (R-Tenn.) who has long been a dark-horse candidate for the Treasury job and counts allies from Wall Street to Mar-a-Lago and even to Tokyo, where he served as Trump’s ambassador to Japan in the first term. Last month, both finance figures and MAGA die-hards like STEPHEN MILLER lauded Hagerty as a potential Cabinet pick, with Miller saying he is “MAGA as MAGA can get.” The Tennessee senator told West Wing Playbook last week that he’s “not participating” in any speculation about a Cabinet post. But he did point out that he’s in a good place to advocate for tariffs and sell them to skeptical Republicans in Congress, given his role last time around. “Certainly I can articulate the case very well because I served in the Trump administration when he did impose tariffs,” Hagerty said. “I’m acutely aware that we have an abundance of non-reciprocal trade relationships across the world. I have no doubt that we can come to a point as a conference that we can support President Trump’s efforts.” MESSAGE US — Are you STEVEN MNUCHIN ? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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