Trump administration: President-elect picks crypto pundit Howard Lutnick to lead US commerce department
US president-elect Donald Trump says he has chosen Howard Lutnick, chief executive of Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, to be his nominee for the secretary of commerce.
Trump made the announcement on his social media platform Truth Social.
Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration.
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The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather.
It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial.
An advocate for imposing wide-ranging tariffs, Lutnick told CNBC in September that “tariffs are an amazing tool for the president to use — we need to protect the American worker”.
Trump on the campaign trail proposed a 60 per cent tariff on goods from China - and a tariff of up to 20 per cent on everything else the United States imports.
Mainstream economists are generally sceptical of tariffs, considering them a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money and promote prosperity.
Lutnick had been considered for treasury secretary, a role that has been at the centre of high-profile jockeying within the Trump world.
At the same time, the treasury position is closely watched in financial circles where a disruptive nominee could have immediate negative consequences on the stock market.
The news comes after Elon Musk and others in Trump’s orbit called on Trump to dump previous front-runner for treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, in favour of Lutnick.
Musk said in his post that “Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change”.
with AP
