President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday he has chosen a key transition adviser and billionaire financial services executive, Howard Lutnick, to lead the Commerce Department.
Lutnick "will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative," Trump said in a release.
The Cantor Fitzgerald CEO has led and been the public face of Trump’s transition.
As co-chair of Trump's transition, Lutnick has been an outspoken advocate for Trump’s agenda, including explaining how he plans to use tariffs once in office. Lutnick is the CEO and chairman of financial services titan Cantor Fitzgerald. The Commerce Department will play a key role in executing some of Trump's proposed tariffs on goods imported into the United States.
Lutnick has been at Cantor Fitzgerald since the early 1980s when he graduated from Haverford College in Pennsylvania with an economics degree. Lutnick suffered immense personal tragedy at a young age, losing his mother while still a student in high school and then his father during his first week at college. Lutnick was working at Cantor Fitzgerald when terrorists targeted New York’s World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, the firm's headquarters. Hundreds of Cantor Fitzgerald employees, including Lutnick's brother, were killed.
Following the attacks, Lutnick became an outspoken advocate for the business community as New York worked to rebuild itself.
The commerce secretary announcement follows days of speculation over who might fill the remaining top Cabinet posts in the incoming Trump administration, including Treasury secretary, for which Lutnick was viewed as a top contender. Lutnick's pick was first reported by Punchbowl News.
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Still unknown is who Trump will select to lead the Treasury, a role for which Lutnick drew public support over the weekend from Elon Musk, the billionaire recently tapped to serve as the head of a new ‘Department of Government Efficiency.’
Musk has been a near-constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since the election, evincing his closeness to Trump.
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