US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Howard Lutnick, co-chairman of his transition workforce, as his commerce secretary, a alternative that can carry a harder stance towards China from the incoming administration.
Lutnick will even lead the nation’s commerce and tariff agenda, with “further direct accountability from the Workplace of america Commerce Consultant,” Trump stated in an announcement.
Tariffs are a key a part of Trump’s financial agenda, and he has promised sweeping tariffs on all imports when he returns to the White Home.
Lutnick is CEO of economic companies agency Cantor Fitzgerald, and a Trump ally initially thought of a front-runner for Treasury secretary.
However he was as an alternative named to move Commerce, a smaller division that works to spice up U.S. business and performs a key position in coverage to shore up the U.S. semiconductor sector and scale back dependence on Asia.
Beneath President Joe Biden, the Commerce Division tightened export controls on vital applied sciences comparable to quantum computing and semiconductor manufacturing merchandise, focusing on entry by adversaries like Beijing.
The Trump administration might harden this stance.
Lutnick, through the US election marketing campaign, expressed help for a 60 % tariff degree on Chinese language items, together with a ten % tariff on all imports.
Each are among the many proposals Trump has raised, with the Republican taking purpose at international locations which were “ripping us off for years.”
Lutnick additionally beforehand lamented the lack of manufacturing jobs in america and offshoring to China.
“I completely agree with Donald Trump,” Lutnick instructed podcaster Anthony Pompliano final month.
In the identical interview, he criticized electrical vehicles as “coastal elite nonsense” and blamed China for being the supply of fentanyl in america.
This lethal drug, many instances extra highly effective than heroin, is chargeable for tens of hundreds of overdose deaths annually.
“China is attacking america from its core,” he accused.
CRYPTO SUPPORT
Lutnick was initially proposed to move the Treasury Division, however a dispute over the place got here to mild final weekend.
Trump’s chosen well being secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, expressed his help for Lutnick, saying on social media that “Bitcoin won’t have a stronger advocate” than him.
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, additionally endorsed Lutnick as a candidate for Treasury chief, calling the opposite main contender, hedge fund supervisor Scott Bessent, “a business-as-usual possibility.”
“The present state of affairs is bankrupting America, so we have to change a technique or one other,” Musk, whom Trump has tapped to guide a brand new Division of Authorities Effectivity, stated on social media.
Along with Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick runs monetary expertise agency BGC Group and actual property companies agency Newmark Group.
He graduated from Haverford Faculty and has a bachelor’s diploma in economics, in accordance with his biography on Cantor’s web site.
As co-chair of Trump’s transition workforce, Lutnick has been figuring out new hires for the president-elect’s administration.
