By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-19 17:39:42 | Updated at 2024-11-23 16:12:23
3 days ago
Billionaire financier Howard Lutnick is expected to be nominated by Donald Trump to become Commerce Secretary.
Lutnick, 63, the co-chair of Trump's transition team, is expected to take the powerful position that will be in charge of enacting the president-elect's sweeping tariff reforms.
Like Trump, Lutnick is originally from the New York area and he serves as the CEO of a multibillion-dollar organization.
Currently, Lutnick serves as the chief executive of financial firms Cantor Fitzgerald and BCG Group.
Lutnick is expected to step back from those roles to focus solely on Commerce.
He has been a staunch Trump ally and even spoke at the Republican's infamous Madison Square Garden rally in the heart of Manhattan days before the November 5 election.
That rally earned widespread condemnation after a comedian joked that Puerto Rico was an island of trash, a comment many critics decried as racist.
Lutnick has a long and tragic history with the Big Apple. The firm he runs Cantor Fitzgerald had hundreds of employees die as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and Donald Trump attend a remembrance ceremony on the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 terror attack on the World Trade Center at Ground Zero, in New York City on September 11, 2024. Lutnick's brother and hundreds of Cantor Fitzgerald employees dies in the terrorist plot
Lutnick and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance together before the 9/11 memorial
Howard Lutnick attends the annual Charity Day hosted by Cantor Fitzgerald and The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund on September 11, 2023 in New York City
The financial firm's offices were in the World Trade Center when the planes hit decades ago.
Lutnick lost his brother in the attacks and has since organized annual fundraisers for the victims of the attacks.
Over the weekend, X owner Elon Musk posted on his platform that he was in support of Lutnick being nominated to Trump's Cabient, but not for Commerce secretary.
Musk said that Lutnick should be considered to run the Treasury Department.
The Tesla CEO also notably threw another man vying for the role, Scott Bessent, under the bus publicly in his post.
'Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for [Trump] to consider feedback,' Musk's post began.
'My view [for what it's worth] is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas [Lutnick] will actually enact change.'
'Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another.'
Donald Trump has been meeting with advisors in Florida to decide his future Cabinet
Brandon Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and Daniel LaVecchia attend Annual Charity Day hosted by Cantor Fitzgerald, BGC and GFI at BGC Partners, INC on September 12, 2016 in New York City
He was not the only Trump ally who came out swinging for Lutnick.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also went to bat for the New York financier.
'Bitcoin is the currency of freedom, a hedge against inflation for middle class Americans, a remedy against the dollar’s downgrade from the world’s reserve currency, and the offramp from a ruinous national debt. Bitcoin will have no stronger advocate than Howard Lutnick,' he wrote on X Saturday.
The financial baron was reportedly angling for the top job at the Treasury Department, but reports indicate that his aggressive positioning for that role irked Trump.
