The Senate on Tuesday voted 51 to 45 to substantiate Howard Lutnick to be President Trump’s commerce secretary, putting in one of many administration’s prime financial officers who will assist oversee an agenda round tariffs and protectionism.
Mr. Lutnick, who was the chief government of the monetary providers agency Cantor Fitzgerald, turned a central financial adviser to Mr. Trump over the previous yr and led his transition workforce. He has defended tariffs as a software to guard U.S. industries from worldwide competitors, promoted decrease company taxes and known as for an enlargement of power manufacturing.
As commerce secretary, Mr. Lutnick will tackle a broad portfolio that features defending U.S. enterprise pursuits worldwide and overseeing restrictions on expertise exports to international locations like China.
At his affirmation listening to final month, Mr. Lutnick mentioned he would take a tricky stance on the division’s oversight of expertise gross sales to China and again up U.S. export controls with the specter of tariffs. He mentioned the latest synthetic intelligence expertise launched by the Chinese language start-up DeepSeek had been underpinned by Meta’s open platform and chips bought by the U.S. firm Nvidia.
“We have to cease serving to them,” Mr. Lutnick mentioned of China, including, “I’m going to be very robust on that.”
As the US resumes financial negotiations with the nation, Mr. Lutnick is predicted to play a central function. Mr. Trump mentioned the brand new commerce secretary would oversee the work of the Workplace of the US Commerce Consultant, which is historically the hub of commerce coverage.
Mr. Lutnick will assume that accountability as Mr. Trump has already taken steps to upend the worldwide buying and selling system. The president has threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico, imposed tariffs on China and initiated a course of to start imposing so-called reciprocal tariffs on all U.S. buying and selling companions. The Commerce Division will work with different federal businesses to find out tariff charges for different international locations.
Mr. Lutnick may also be chargeable for overseeing and doubtlessly overhauling applications that had been prime priorities for the Biden administration. These embody subsidies to U.S. chip producers beneath the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act and an effort to supply broadband web entry to not less than 6.25 million households and areas throughout the nation.
Mr. Lutnick, who’s a rich investor, has a community of ties that might increase considerations about potential conflicts of curiosity as he leads the way in which on authorities insurance policies that might considerably have an effect on companies and markets, doubtlessly enriching former clients or companions.
For example, he has monetary pursuits within the mining business in Greenland via Cantor Fitzgerald. Cantor has invested in Crucial Metals, an organization that has proposed mining metals and minerals in Greenland as quickly as 2026. Mr. Trump has repeatedly proposed buying Greenland, which is an autonomous territory throughout the Kingdom of Demark.
A monetary disclosure submitting that Mr. Lutnick submitted final month confirmed government positions he has held or holds in additional than 800 particular person corporations. It additionally revealed that he acquired greater than $350 million in revenue, distributions and bonuses up to now two years from his community of economic providers and actual property corporations.
Mr. Lutnick, who labored on Wall Avenue for many years, gained nationwide consideration when most of the workers at Cantor Fitzgerald, the brokerage agency the place he was the president and chief government, died within the terrorist assault on the World Commerce Middle on Sept. 11, 2001.
