WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary.
The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency involved in financing new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position where connections with CEOs and the wider business community are crucial.
Lutnick, co-chair of Trump’s transition team, once appeared on Trump’s NBC reality show “The Apprentice” along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously headed Trump’s Small Business Administration. inner circle of the chosen ones.
Here are things to know about the billionaire who, if confirmed by the Senate, will lead the Commerce Department.
He was Elon Musk’s choice to head the Treasury Department
Elon Musk and others in Trump’s inner circle last week called on Trump to dump the previous frontrunner for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, in favor of Lutnick. Musk said in a post that “Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, while @howardlutnick will actually drive change.”
The Treasury Department’s role has been at the center of an unusually high-profile battle within the Trump world. At the same time, the situation is being closely watched in financial circles, where a disruptive candidate could have immediate negative consequences on the stock market, which Trump is closely watching. Trump has yet to decide on one of the key remaining vacancies in his proposed Cabinet.
The top remaining nominees for the role are Bessent, former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, and Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty, Trump’s former ambassador to Japan.
He is a strong supporter of Trump’s tariff plan
During his campaign, Trump proposed a 60% tariff on goods from China – and a tariff of up to 20% on everything else the United States imports. During his campaign, Trump portrayed taxes on imports as a bargaining tool to secure better trade terms and as a way to raise revenue to finance tax cuts elsewhere.
An advocate for imposing far-reaching tariffs, Lutnick gave his full support for Trump’s tariff plan during a CNBC interview in September. “Tariffs are a great tool for the president to use – we need to protect the American worker,” he said.
Mainstream economists are generally skeptical of tariffs, viewing them as a largely inefficient way for governments to raise money and promote prosperity.
His brother and hundreds of Cantor employees were killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks
Lutnick’s brother, Gary Lutnick, and 658 of Cantor Fitzgerald’s 960 employees were killed in the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The company lost two-thirds of its employees that day. Lutnick serves on the Board of Directors of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the Partnership for New York City.
After Cantor Fitzgerald settled a wrongful death and personal injury case against American Airlines and insurance companies for $135 million in 2013, Lutnick said, “We could never and will never take it for granted. For us, there is no way to describe this compromise with inappropriate words such as ordinary, fair or reasonable. All we can say is that the legal formality of this case is over.”
Trump’s announcement Tuesday about the nomination for the Commerce Department noted Lutnick’s loss — declaring him “the epitome of resilience in the face of unspeakable tragedy.”
He is a big supporter of cryptocurrency
Lutnick is a proponent of the cryptocurrency industry’s progressive goals, namely the cryptocurrency Tether.
Cryptocurrencies are forms of digital money that can be traded over the internet without relying on the global banking system. Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency.
“Bitcoin is like gold and should be free trade everywhere in the world,” Lutnick said at a bitcoin conference earlier this year. “And as the largest wholesaler in the world, we will do everything we can to achieve that. Bitcoin should be traded in the same way as gold everywhere in the world without exception and without restriction.”
Trump has taken a positive stance on cryptocurrencies — ever since announcing in May that the campaign would begin accepting cryptocurrency donations as part of an effort to build what it calls a “crypto army” ahead of Election Day. He also launched a cryptocurrency platform called World Liberty Financial with members of his family earlier this year.
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