WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will nominate key transition adviser and billionaire financial services executive Howard Lutnick to lead the Commerce Department.
“He will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative,” Trump said in a statement announcing the pick.
The Cantor Fitzgerald CEO has led and been the public face of Trump’s transition.
It’s not clear yet what his selection for a Cabinet post would mean for his role in the transition going forward.
As co-chair of Trump’s transition, Lutnick has been an outspoken advocate for his agenda, including explaining how the president-elect plans to use tariffs once in office. Lutnick is the CEO and chairman of the 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 thanked Trump in a brief statement Tuesday evening.
“Thank you, President Trump for your trust in me to help Make America Great Again. As the next Secretary of Commerce, I will join the best administration the US has ever seen and unleash our full economic potential,” Lutnick wrote in a post on X.
Lutnick has been at Cantor Fitzgerald since the early 1980s when he graduated from Haverford College in Pennsylvania with an economics degree. He 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 City’s World Trade Center towers Sept. 11, 2001, 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.
An official for the transition did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Still unknown is whom Trump will select to lead the Treasury Department, 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.
