Lutnick supports President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda. He has called tariffs ‘a bargaining chip.’
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee announced on Jan. 23 that it will hold its hearing on the nomination of Howard Lutnick to be secretary of commerce on Jan. 29.
“Howard Lutnick is an excellent choice to lead the Department of Commerce, and his vast experience will serve him well in his mission to promote America’s unlimited entrepreneurial spirit,” the committee’s chairman, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), said in a statement.
“Mr. Lutnick will play a key role in unleashing unprecedented innovation and ensuring our nation’s job creators are well equipped to expand opportunities for good-paying jobs,” he said.
Lutnick supports President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda and has called tariffs “a bargaining chip.”
“I think we should put tariffs on stuff we make and not on stuff we don’t make,” he told CNBC in September, adding the United States should impose reciprocal tariffs on countries.
In his statement announcing Lutnick as his nominee for commerce secretary, Trump touted that Lutnick “has created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest administration America has ever seen.”
Lutnick is a proponent of broad tariffs.
“Everybody else is going to negotiate with us.”
Lutnick, a billionaire, was a co-chair of the Trump transition following the election, though he was named to the role before Nov. 5.
He was a major fundraiser for Trump in the 2020 and 2024 election cycles.
Lutnick is the chairman and CEO of financial services firms Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Group. He came to prominence after 9/11, as Cantor Fitzgerald’s office was located in one of the Twin Towers.
All of the company’s employees who were in the office that day lost their lives.
Lutnick survived because he was dropping off his sons for their first days of pre-school and kindergarten.