President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he will nominate Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary.
In a statement, Mr. Trump said Mr. Lutnick, who co-chaired Mr. Trump’s transition team, will lead his administration’s “tariff and trade agenda” with additional responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
“In his role as Co-Chair of the Trump-Vance Transition Team, Howard has created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest administration America has ever seen,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Lutnick, a vocal Trump supporter, was under consideration for the role of treasury secretary, but reportedly fell out of favor for the job amid tension with another contender, investor Scott Bessent.
Other reported candidates for commerce secretary included Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative during Mr. Trump’s first term, and Linda McMahon, the administrator of the Small Business Administration.
The Commerce Department is responsible for supporting U.S. businesses both at home and abroad. It often acts as an intermediary with other nations to negotiate trade deals and boost foreign investment.
There are 13 bureaus that make up the Commerce Department, including the Census Bureau, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Patent and Trademark Office.
The commerce secretary often works side-by-side with other members of the president’s Cabinet to carry out his economic agenda. During Mr. Trump’s first term, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was a key voice for advocating higher tariffs on China.
At Mr. Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally last month, Mr. Lutnick said the U.S. was most prosperous at the start of the 20th century when there was “no income tax and all we had was tariffs.”
Mr. Lutnick, 63, has known the president-elect for decades and helped fundraise for Mr. Trump’s 2020 campaign. After the election, Mr. Lutnick would go on television news programs to defend Mr. Trump’s economic policies.
Mr. Lutnick was CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald when Islamist terrorists slammed a pair of passenger jets into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The company’s headquarters were immediately above where one of the planes hit and 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees were among the more than 2,700 people killed that day in the Twin Towers.
He was not at the World Trade Center that day because it was his son’s first day of kindergarten. Since the attack, he has spent years rebuilding the businesses, hiring thousands of employees and raising money for victims’ families.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.