President-elect Donald Trump on Nov. 16 nominated billionaire Howard Lutnick as the commerce secretary in his incoming administration.
Trump said in a statement that Lutnick would “lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative.”
Lutnick, 63, is the co-chair of the Trump-Vance transition team. He had been one of the leading contenders to succeed Janet Yellen at the helm of the U.S. Department of Treasury.
As Trump expanded his search for treasury secretary, former Federal Reserve Gov. Kevin Warsh quickly emerged as the favorite, topping Wall Street veteran Scott Bessent.
Lutnick, the chairman and CEO of investment giant Cantor Fitzgerald, received the endorsement for the Treasury post from Trump’s inner circle, including billionaire Elon Musk.
“Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will enact change,” the SpaceX and Tesla Motors CEO said in a Nov. 16 post on social media platform X. “Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Trump nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human, also backed Lutnick due to his support for bitcoin.
“Bitcoin will have no stronger advocate,” he said in a Nov. 16 post on X.
The Department of Commerce, presently headed by Gina Raimondo, will play a crucial role in Trump’s tariff plans.
On the 2024 election campaign trail, the president-elect proposed an across-the-board tariff of 10 to 20 percent on imports and levies ranging from 60 to 100 percent on goods from China.
He told CNBC that while it might raise prices on some consumer goods, it would push consumers to shift their preference to products manufactured in the United States. He also called using tariffs as a negotiating instrument a “win-win scenario.”
“Here’s the idea, you put a tariff out and say to the company, ‘Come to America, and you’re producing in America, you’re going to receive a tax credit for your tariff,” Lutnick said in an interview with the news network.
Tariffs could also be a revenue generator for the federal government, with Trump suggesting that the income tax could be eliminated in favor of trade levies.
Speaking at the Madison Square Garden rally last month, Lutnick appeared to endorse this strategy.
“When was America great?” he asked. “At the turn of the century, our economy was rocking. This is 1900, 125 years ago. We had no income tax, and all we had was tariffs.”
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
From The Epoch Times