US president-elect nominates Lutnick, a Wall Street finance patient CEO, to lead his ‘tariff and waste and acquisition agenda’.
Published On 19 Nov 2024
United States President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Howard Lutnick, a billionaire and caput of nan finance patient Cantor Fitzgerald, arsenic nan adjacent US caput of commerce.
In a connection connected Tuesday, Trump hailed Lutnick – who has served arsenic co-chair of nan Republican’s modulation squad – arsenic “a move unit connected Wall Street for much than 30 years”.
“He will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, pinch further nonstop work for nan Office of nan United States Trade Representative,” Trump said.
The information is nan latest from Trump, who has named a increasing list of Republican friends and different loyalists to furniture posts since he won nan November 5 statesmanlike predetermination complete Democrat Kamala Harris.
As commerce secretary, Lutnick would beryllium successful complaint of a sprawling furniture agency that is progressive successful backing caller computer chip factories, imposing waste and acquisition restrictions, releasing economical information and monitoring nan weather.
It is besides a position successful which connections to CEOs and nan wider business organization are crucial.
Under President Joe Biden, nan Commerce Department stepped up export controls connected captious technologies for illustration quantum computing and semiconductor manufacturing goods, taking purpose astatine entree by adversaries for illustration Beijing.
Trump’s incoming management could harden this stance.
The Republican has promised to slap 10- to 20-percent tariffs connected each imports arsenic good arsenic a 60-percent tariff connected equipment coming specifically from China, which nan US views arsenic 1 of its apical geopolitical rivals.
Researchers astatine nan Peterson Institute for International Economics said successful August that a 20-percent tariff crossed nan committee alongside a 60-percent tariff connected China “would costs a emblematic US family successful nan mediate of nan income distribution much than $2,600 a year”.
But Trump and his friends person portrayed nan tariffs argumentation arsenic a cardinal plank of his “America First” overseas argumentation agenda.
Lutnick told CNBC successful September that “tariffs are an astonishing instrumentality for nan president to usage – we request to protect nan American worker”.
A autochthonal of New York City’s Long Island suburbs pinch a inheritance successful trading and existent estate, Lutnick has been 1 of Trump’s apical Wall Street advocates, hosting fundraisers and touting his policies successful nan media.
Speaking astatine a Trump run rally past period astatine Madison Square Garden successful New York City, he said nan US has been “letting nan remainder of nan world eat our lunch”.
“And it is clip to Make America Great Again,” he shouted.
Earlier successful his speech, Lutnick said nan first logic to re-elect Trump, however, was “because we must crush jihad”.
Before Tuesday’s nomination, Lutnick had been considered for caput of nan US Treasury, a domiciled that has been astatine nan centre of high-profile jockeying wrong nan Trump world.
Billionaire Elon Musk and others successful Trump’s orbit had called connected nan president-elect to dump nan erstwhile frontrunner for treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, successful favour of Lutnick.
“Bessent is simply a business-as-usual choice, whereas [Lutnick] will really enact change,” Musk wrote successful a societal media station connected Saturday.
Trump has yet to sanction a treasury secretary, but connected Tuesday he besides named nan tv expert and erstwhile Republican Senate campaigner for Pennsylvania Mehmet Oz arsenic nan administrator for nan Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Dr Oz, arsenic he is popularly known, is simply a Turkish American aesculapian expert who had a daytime talk show from 2009 to 2022.
Source
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Al Jazeera and news agencies