Trump’s transition chairs are both in limbo in his cabinet

Linda McMahon, who was once seen as a soldier to lead Donald Trump’s trade department, is privately frustrated that she has not yet been offered the position, two people familiar with the matter told Semafor.

McMahon’s status leaves both of the president-elect’s transition chairmen conspicuously without clear spots to land in his administration. Her co-chairman, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, has made a play to lead Trump’s Treasury Department — as the race for that post devolves into the kind of mudslinging more common on the campaign trail.

The delay in an offer to McMahon is seen by some of Trump’s allies as a sign that he is saving the commerce secretary job as a potential landing spot for someone else who misses out on a more prominent post. One of the people familiar with the matter described McMahon as “pissed off”.

A third person inside Trump’s network told Semafor that trade is less of a priority for the president-elect than other top national security and economic roles. The department, though much smaller in size than the Treasury Department, is playing a lead role in administering the Biden administration’s $3 billion bill designed to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing.

A spokesman for Trump did not immediately return a request for comment.

McMahon, who led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, has been fighting behind the scenes for months to lead Commerce; many people close to Trump still see her as the most likely person to get the job.

However, Trump may still offer the role to someone else, including one of the candidates he ultimately hands over as Treasury Secretary. Robert Lighthizer, who will be the steward of Trump’s aggressive proposals on tariffs and China, is a possible alternative choice to lead trade.

Trump has told allies he wants Lightizer to serve as the administration’s trade czarreported The Wall Street Journal, but has yet to formally announce any role for him.

“They want to find out how much power a tsar-like figure can have,” another person told Semafor in connection with the transition.

“Lighthizer wants some prominence, but he can’t be in the Treasury Department” because of his close ties to punitive tariffs, this person added. “The stock market will lose its brain.”

One dramatic wrinkle in McMahon’s situation: Her transition co-chair may challenge her in the Trump administration’s personnel battles this fall. A former Trump administration official said Trump may well decide to pick Lutnick as commerce secretary if he is passed over for the Treasury Department.

Both McMahon and Lutnick could also be in the running for the US ambassadorship to Britain, this former official suggested.