Reuters
Donald Trump has named investor Howard Lutnick, co-chair of his transition team, to head the US Department of Commerce.
In his announcement, Trump said Lutnick, chief executive of financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, would spearhead the administration's “tariff and trade agenda.”
Lutnick was also in the running for Treasury Secretary, a more prestigious position.
Trump has yet to make a decision on the closely watched post, which enjoys considerable authority in areas such as economic and tax policy.
The struggle over who to choose has become public. Over the weekend, billionaire Elon Musk promoted Lutnick to the role and criticized one of the alternative candidates, Scott Bessent, calling him too “business as usual.”
Lutnick, a self-described “strong capitalist,” praised Trump for proposing a “competitive growth model.”
During the campaign, he was a spokesperson for some of Trump's most controversial plans, including expanded tariffs and eliminating the income tax.
His embrace of these views has put him at odds with some on Wall Street, who have historically viewed tariffs as bad for U.S. businesses.
Commerce is smaller than the Treasury Department, with a staff of about 50,000.
It is a key player in areas where trade and national security interests collide, such as restricting technology exports to China or enacting tariffs to protect U.S. steel.
The department is also heavily involved in government efforts to boost domestic manufacturing and American businesses.
Beyond its role in the U.S.-China trade and technology war, its responsibilities include approving patents, publishing economic data and conducting the U.S. Census.
In the announcement, Trump called Lutnick “a dynamic force on Wall Street for over 30 years” and praised his transition work to find people to help staff the new administration.
He added that Lutnick would also have special responsibility for the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which is not officially part of the Commerce Department.
Who is Howard Lutnick?
Lutnick, a native of Long Island, New York, is a lifelong Republican and supporter of Trump, with whom he rubbed shoulders on the New York social scene. He appeared on Trump's reality TV show, The Apprentice, in 2008, according to the online film and television database imdb.
He joined Cantor Fitzgerald immediately after graduating in 1983 from Haverford College, which he attended on a scholarship. He lost both his parents when he was a teenager: his mother to cancer and his father to a medical error.
In ten years, he became president and CEO of the company. It is known today in part for its investments in crypto and its subsidiary in the real estate sector, the brokerage firm Newmark.
Lutnick's notoriety rose after the September 11 attacks, which killed more than 600 people working in the company's offices that morning, including his brother. He was not at work because he was taking one of his children to kindergarten.
Lutnick, who speaks with a New York accent and is known for his breezy style, cried on television days afterward.
Twenty years later, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said that day was a dividing line in his life, “before 9/11 and after” and that in the years that followed, “it was still so raw that it seemed like it was yesterday.”
