President-elect Trump picked Lutnick, the CEO of investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, to be his next Commerce Secretary.
President-elect Donald Trump picked Howard Lutnick, a billionaire investor and veteran Wall Street CEO, as his next Commerce Secretary.
Trump, in a statement on Tuesday, also said Lutnick would “lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative.”
At Commerce, he will be responsible for enforcing the sweeping tariffs that Trump campaigned on — and for which Lutnick has expressed fervent, public support.
Lutnick, who rebuilt the investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald after the Sept. 11 attacks that killed almost 700 employees, had been little known outside of Wall Street. But he rocketed to prominencethis fall, after Trump named him co-chair of his transition team in August.
In recent days, Lutnick had been seen as a top contender to run Trump’s Treasury Department, in what has turned into a messy and public battle for the critical role.
As a leader of Trump’s transition Lutnick is responsible for hiring thousands of federal employees. But he’s now joining a Cabinet that is committed to firing many more, as Trump’s incoming administration promises to slash federal agencies and spending. (Trump has already appointed Tesla CEO Elon Musk to co-lead what he’s calling a “Department of Government Efficiency.”)
And Lutnick seems enthusiastic about the cost-cutting possibilities.
“How much do you think we can rip out of this wasted, $6.5 trillion Harris-Biden budget?” Lutnick asked Musk, his fellow billionaire Trump super-supporter, on stage at a rally in Madison Square Garden last month. When Musk replied with an estimate of “at least $2 trillion”, Lutnick raised his arm and let out a guttural whoop: “Yeeahhh!”Lutnick was marked by 9/11
Lutnick first rose to national prominence during tragedy: In 2001, Cantor Fitzgerald was headquartered near the top of the north tower of the World Trade Center.
