President-elect Donald Trump is tapping Cantor Fitzgerald LP chief executive officer Howard Lutnick to lead the Commerce Department, a central pick in an administration that will likely be shaped by sweeping tariff hike proposals.
“I am thrilled to announce that Howard Lutnick, Chairman & CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, will join my Administration as the United States Secretary of Commerce.
He will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday.
Lutnick, 63, is one of Trump’s most prominent Wall Street backers, bolstering his outreach to the financial community and embracing his populist agenda.
He criss-crossed the country in support of the president-elect, bemoaned the shift in American manufacturing jobs overseas, assailed “coastal elite nonsense” over electric cars and hammered high inflation as “the meanest thing you can ever do to your people.”
As co-chair of Trump’s transition team, Lutnick played a frontline role in preparing the incoming president to retake power and push through his conservative agenda with a team of like-minded loyalists.
The Commerce Department, which serves as liaison between the federal government and the private sector, will play a key role in facilitating Trump’s policies. The agency’s main objective is to promote domestic jobs and economic growth.
Trump has floated imposing a 10% or 20% baseline tariffs on all imports, and as much as 60% on imports from China — one of America’s top suppliers. Other possible targets for duty hikes include vehicles from Mexico and countries that abandon the U.S. dollar.
Some economists forecast that Trump’s tariff proposals could cause inflationary effects for consumers. Still, although the former president imposed 25% tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods during his first term, the impact ultimately remains unclear, according to Bloomberg Economics.
President Joe Biden left most of Trump’s tariffs in place, even adding some additional tax increases on semiconductors and electric vehicles from China.
