President-elect Donald Trump has nominated billionaire financier Howard Lutnick, the co-chair of his transition team, as commerce secretary.
Trump announced the appointment on Tuesday, after several Trump associates including Lutnick had jockeyed for the position of treasury secretary. Lutnick, who is Jewish, had been considered one of the top candidates for that role.
Instead, he is poised to become commerce secretary, a cabinet member who oversees issues related to foreign and domestic trade. In the position, Lutnick will manage the tariffs Trump has repeatedly promised to enact upon taking office. Lutnick has expressed support for the plans, which were a key piece of Trump’s campaign and have elicited contentious debate among economists and retailers.
In a Tuesday statement, Trump said he was “thrilled” to announce Lutnick’s appointment, and that Lutnick will lead the administration’s tariff and trade agenda.
Trump said that, in his role as co-chair of the transition team, Lutnick “has created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen.”
The appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.
Lutnick, 63, is a member of Trump’s inner circle and is the CEO of finance firm Cantor Fitzgerald. He raised campaign funds for Trump and has taken on a prominent role on the president-elect’s team in recent months, speaking for Trump in the media, and earning plaudits from Trump family members and the campaign, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A New York native, Lutnick accompanied Trump to the grave of the late spiritual leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, last month.
Lutnick is a supporter of Israel-focused causes, including the first responder group United Hatzalah and Birthright, which organizes free 10-day trips to the country.
Before Lutnick was tapped as commerce secretary, several Trump advisers had pushed for him to take the treasury post, which is more prestigious. Health Secretary-designate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk, who has become one of Trump’s confidantes, had thrown their weight behind Lutnick, who Musk said “will actually enact change.” But The New York Times reported that Lutnick “has gotten on Mr. Trump’s nerves lately.”
Trump is expected to interview another Jewish billionaire investor, Marc Rowan, for the role of treasury secretary at Mar-a-Lago this week.
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