Trump names billionaire and longtime pal Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen financial services CEO and transition co-chair Howard Lutnick to be his commerce secretary.
Trump announced the news on Tuesday afternoon, saying that the billionaire and Cantor Fitzgerald chief executive “will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda.”
The president-elect added that Lutnick will have “direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative.”
The office is currently separate from the Commerce Department and has in the past usually been a cabinet-level position reporting to the president.
Lutnick has been active in the media defending Trump’s agenda and personnel choices in his role as co-chair of the transition, including explaining how Trump is set to use tariffs.
The Department of Commerce is likely to have an important role when putting in place some of Trump’s proposed tariffs on products imported into the U.S.
The CEO, who was also in the running to be Trump’s Treasury secretary, has been with Cantor Fitzgerald since 1983, becoming president and CEO at the age of 29.
Fellow billionaire Elon Musk backed Lutnick for treasury.
He lost both his parents early in life, his mother died when he was in high school and his father passed away during his first week in college, NBC News noted.
Lutnick also lost his brother in the 9/11 terror attacks.
“Tragedy struck on September 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, and Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 of its 960 New York-based employees, including Howard’s brother and his best friend,” Trump said in his statement. “He emerged from these events with an indomitable sense of purpose to rebuild the firm to honor those lost, support their families, and become a beacon of hope for those who remained.”
The financier has been one of the most vociferous supporters of Trump in the financial world and he has spent much of the last few weeks at Trump’s private Florida club Mar-a-Lago, as the transition team has been staffing up the next Republican administration, according to The Wall Street Journal.