The Senate Commerce Committee moved to advance the nomination of billionaire banker Howard Lutnick to lead the Commerce Department to the Senate floor on Wednesday.
The nomination advanced out of committee on a party line vote other than Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who gave Lutnick a “yes” vote along with Republicans.
Lutnick, a longtime friend of President Donald Trump and CEO of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, will be charged with ushering in new crypto and tariff policy for the Commerce Department, if confirmed.
He’ll also take the lead on a new executive order from Trump establishing a sovereign wealth fund for the U.S. government.
The no-nonsense CEO is best known for leading Cantor through the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when he lost his brother and more than 600 coworkers in the attacks on the North Tower. Lutnick has been praised for his charitable work through Cantor Fitzgerald’s Relief Fund, which helps support families impacted by acts of terrorism, natural disasters and other emergencies.
HOWARD LUTNICK, TRUMP COMMERCE SECRETARY PICK, SAYS IT’S ‘NONSENSE’ THAT TARIFFS CAUSE INFLATION
Lutnick, who is supportive of strong tariffs, promised in his confirmation hearing to “use any and all authorities at its disposal to implement the president’s trade agenda.”
He claimed it’s “nonsense” to suggest tariffs cause inflation.
“The two top countries with tariffs, India and China, do have the most tariffs and no inflation,” Lutnick noted.
“A particular product’s price may go up,” he conceded, while arguing that levies would not cause broad inflation. “It is just nonsense to say that tariffs cause inflation. It’s nonsense.”
Lutnick also said he prefers “across-the-board” tariffs on a “country-by-country” basis, rather than ones aimed at particular sectors or products.
“I think when you pick one product in Mexico, they’ll pick one product. You know, we pick avocados, they pick white corn, we pick tomatoes, they pick yellow corn. All you’re doing is picking on farmers.”
“Let America make it more fair. We are treated horribly by the global trading environment. They all have higher tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers and subsidies. They treat us poorly. We need to be treated better,” Lutnick said. “We can use tariffs to create reciprocity.”
TRUMP’S BILLIONAIRE COMMERCE SECRETARY PICK VOWS TO SELL ALL HIS BUSINESS INTERESTS IF CONFIRMED
He said Trump was of a “like mind” that tariffs need to be simple. “The steel and aluminum had 560,000 applications for exclusions. It just seems that’s too many.”
Lutnick’s ties to the dollar-pegged cryptocurrency Tether also came under scrutiny during his hearing. Lutnick’s firm Cantor has around 5% ownership of Tether, valued at $600 million, the Wall Street Journal recently reported. Lutnick told lawmakers that his company had no equity in Tether, but had a convertible bond.
“I believe U.S. dollar stablecoins should be audited, should be completely backed by U.S. treasuries 100%,” Lutnick said during his hearing.
He has promised to sell all of his business interests if confirmed for the role.
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