{"id":1211,"date":"2025-04-28T19:16:39","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T19:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/howard-lutnick-trumps-buoyant-trade-warrior-flexes-his-power-over-global-business\/"},"modified":"2025-04-28T19:16:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T19:16:39","slug":"howard-lutnick-trumps-buoyant-trade-warrior-flexes-his-power-over-global-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/howard-lutnick-trumps-buoyant-trade-warrior-flexes-his-power-over-global-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Howard Lutnick, Trump\u2019s \u2018Buoyant\u2019 Trade Warrior, Flexes His Power Over Global Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since Howard Lutnick was tapped to serve as President Trump\u2019s commerce secretary, executives from some of the world\u2019s largest companies have been trying to win him over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Leaders of Nvidia, Facebook, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Alphabet have visited his newly purchased $25 million property in Washington \u2014 a 16,250-square-foot mansion that Mr. Lutnick, a billionaire, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=182ckTL2KBA\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">recently quipped<\/a> would be \u201cbig enough for my ego\u201d \u2014 to persuade him to adopt a business-friendly agenda.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As Mr. Trump ratcheted up tariffs to levels not seen in a century, Ford Motor, General Motors and other companies that have built their businesses around international trade reached out to Mr. Lutnick in the hope that he could persuade the president to take a less aggressive approach. Some chief executives have put in calls to the commerce secretary at midnight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick, 63, heads a department that both promotes and regulates industry, and he has been put in charge of overseeing trade. As a result, he has found himself in a position of incredible influence, as the go-between for a president imposing sweeping tariffs and the industries being crushed by them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A former bond trader who amassed billions on Wall Street, Mr. Lutnick has become one of the loudest salesmen for tariffs in an administration generally unified on their benefits. He has publicly echoed the president\u2019s message that big tariffs are needed to revive American industry, and that if companies don\u2019t like them, they should build factories in the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But in internal conversations in the administration, he has often been a voice for moderation. He argued in favor of Mr. Trump\u2019s pausing his global tariffs for 90 days after they sent convulsions through the stock and bond markets. And he has made the case to the president to grant relief to certain favored industries, helping them to win exemptions from billions of dollars of levies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After the country\u2019s biggest car companies argued to Mr. Lutnick that tariffs on Canada and Mexico would hurt the competitiveness of U.S. auto factories, Mr. Lutnick lobbied the president to secure a major exemption in March.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In April, Mr. Lutnick helped to push through exceptions that saved electronics companies from severe China tariffs, after he and other officials received calls from executives like Tim Cook of Apple and Michael Dell of Dell Technologies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump appears to regret granting such exclusions. He has groused to associates that he did not want to do them in the first place, and wrote on Truth Social in April that \u201cNOBODY is getting \u2018off the hook,\u2019\u201d saying electronics would be subject to other tariffs in the future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Companies have been left deeply confused about the direction of trade policy but more determined than ever to lobby for lucrative exemptions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick did not respond to a request for an interview. A spokesman for the Commerce Department declined to comment. The New York Times spoke with more than three dozen corporate executives and current and former employees of the Commerce Department, the White House and Mr. Lutnick\u2019s former Wall Street firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, and others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick is not always on the side of helping industry. Often he has employed the threat of tariffs or other aggressive tactics against businesses to encourage them to invest more in the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For example, Mr. Lutnick has paused disbursements to companies from the CHIPS program, a bipartisan, multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild America\u2019s semiconductor industry. Mr. Lutnick put pressure on some executives to increase their U.S. investments if they want to receive their funds, even though companies have already signed contracts for those payments, according to three people familiar with the conversations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He has also given companies the impression that they may get tariff relief by investing more in the United States, and discussed holding tariffs paid by companies in escrow, returning the money if they make U.S. investments. Companies including Apple, TSMC and Nvidia have announced investments since Mr. Trump began threatening tariffs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As a former investment banker, Mr. Lutnick seems particularly interested in novel ways to shore up government finances. He has backed Mr. Trump\u2019s plan of selling citizenship to wealthy foreigners with a \u201cgold card,\u201d and talked about the government\u2019s taking a cut from patents and innovations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick has floated renaming the Department of the Interior \u201cthe Department of American Assets\u201d and using tariff revenue to finance a new sovereign wealth fund. He has also spoken passionately about establishing a new \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/03\/establishing-the-united-states-investment-accelerator\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">investment accelerator<\/a>\u201d that aims to cut red tape for investors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick\u2019s supporters say he brings fresh thinking that is badly needed in Washington. But executives and foreign officials have described some of his proposals as zany or harmful, and come away from conversations deeply unsettled, half a dozen people familiar with the exchanges say.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And despite overseeing a sprawling government agency, Mr. Lutnick is working to further expand his reach.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He has been moving to take control of the customs service in order to make Mr. Trump\u2019s \u201cExternal Revenue Service\u201d \u2014 which would collect import taxes \u2014 a reality. Mr. Lutnick has also expressed interest in gaining authority over the U.S. Postal Service. After Mr. Trump gave him \u201ca whole 24 hours,\u201d in Mr. Lutnick\u2019s words, to figure out how to fix the post office\u2019s finances, Mr. Lutnick <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/03\/10\/nx-s1-5311969\/usps-privatization-trump-commerce-lutnick\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">suggested<\/a> merging it into the Commerce Department and using mail carriers to do the national census.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As a go-to adviser for the president, Mr. Lutnick has helped fan Mr. Trump\u2019s impulses and instincts. After Mr. Trump expressed concerns that the United States was losing influence over the Panama Canal, Mr. Lutnick had a friend set up two iPhones to record video of ship traffic through the canal, he told an audience at a conference in Washington in March. Mr. Lutnick shared the videos with Mr. Trump, and they lamented how much Chinese writing was on the side of the boats and shipping containers. \u201cThe Panamanians had sold out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Few of the ideas that Mr. Lutnick appears most enthusiastic about fall within the traditional purview of the Commerce Department, an agency with roughly 50,000 employees that oversees business, weather monitoring, fisheries, artificial intelligence and commercial space activity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Within the department, employees say morale has plummeted, as the administration has piled on work and slashed hundreds of jobs. Technologists and scientists who have devoted their careers to making the United States more globally competitive \u2014 one of the Trump administration\u2019s stated goals \u2014 say they have been left rudderless.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some Commerce employees said that Mr. Lutnick, unlike past secretaries, did not send a welcome email or give a welcome address, and that they did not know his email or see him in person for a month after his confirmation. Mr. Lutnick has told others that he planned to spend most of his time at the White House.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many employees believe Mr. Lutnick is focused on an audience of one: the man he refers to as \u201cDJT.\u201d Mr. Lutnick often speaks of the president\u2019s intuition, wisdom and prescience; has boasted of having regular Friday night dinners with Mr. Trump; and describes any day that he speaks to the president as a \u201cgood day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, said Mr. Lutnick had a \u201cunique chemistry\u201d with the president and \u201can instinct for finding hidden levers of power to implement policy.\u201d He described Mr. Lutnick as \u201cgarrulous, funny and irrepressibly buoyant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI think if you cut his head off, he\u2019d still be smiling,\u201d Mr. Kennedy said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, described Mr. Lutnick as \u201crelentless\u201d and said they were \u201cvery close partners\u201d in developing and executing trade policy. \u201cThe country is extremely fortunate to have him in public service,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At a dinner in the Australian Embassy in February where he gave the keynote speech, Mr. Lutnick said he had first brushed with Mr. Trump decades ago at New York charity dinners, after which they would go out and \u201cchase the same girls.\u201d The line was met with awkward silence, a person in attendance said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick told the group of foreign dignitaries and investors that the U.S. economy was greatest at the turn of the 20th century, when it had high tariffs on foreign products. He said Mr. Trump planned to construct \u201ca tariff wall\u201d around the United States and urged foreign countries to be on the right side of it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some foreign governments that have negotiated with Mr. Lutnick have described him as brash and aggressive. Canadian officials say he issued a series of devastating threats in a February phone call, warning that Mr. Trump could eject Canada from the intelligence-sharing group the Five Eyes and review the defense system that shields both countries from foreign missiles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mexican officials, in contrast, described Mr. Lutnick as tough but engaging, and said he was receptive to their arguments that automotive supply chains that run between the countries can be beneficial for U.S. factories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWith us, he was constructive,\u201d said Luis Rosendo Guti\u00e9rrez Romano, the Mexican deputy secretary for trade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick seems to be relishing his role in Mr. Trump\u2019s orbit. He threw himself a lavish confirmation party in February at his Washington home. Mr. Lutnick and his wife, Allison, mingled with senators, Wall Street traders and executives like Meta\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He has also embraced the media spotlight. Some of his near-daily TV appearances have set off alarm among Trump officials and allies, as well as charges from Democrats that Mr. Trump\u2019s billionaire cabinet is out of touch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In late March, Mr. Lutnick said in an interview that only a \u201cfraudster\u201d would complain about missing a Social Security check, and that his 94-year-old mother-in-law \u201cwouldn\u2019t call and complain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In April, Mr. Lutnick said in a TV interview that \u201cthe army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones \u2014 that kind of thing is going to come to America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While new to Washington, Mr. Lutnick served for more than 30 years as the chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, the New York brokerage firm, and carved out a substantial fortune in a brutally competitive industry. He also led BGC Group, a broker dealer, and was a top executive at Newmark, a commercial property firm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick\u2019s life was tinged with tragedy that made him more protective over friends and family and encouraged him to build an empire of wealth around them. He lost both his parents suddenly as a young man. And Cantor Fitzgerald lost hundreds of employees, including Mr. Lutnick\u2019s brother and best friend, during the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, where its offices were.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some former employees said Mr. Lutnick had treated them like family, taking them to Six Flags and the circus and buying them popcorn and cotton candy. Others recalled that Mr. Lutnick would leave the office to eat dinner with his family, then come back for meetings at 10 p.m., which he expected employees to attend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Jimmy Dunne, the vice chairman of Piper Sandler, an investment bank that has worked with Cantor, described Mr. Lutnick as \u201cvery intense and very tough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cYou go to battle with him or against him, you better be pretty secure because he\u2019s going to test you,\u201d Mr. Dunne said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t shy away from a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick described himself as a fiscal conservative and social liberal, and he has a history of supporting both Republicans and Democrats. But his strong support for Israel and conservative economics helped sway him toward Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Employees who had known Mr. Lutnick for a long time were surprised in 2020 to hear him question the results of the presidential election. In 2024, Mr. Lutnick was a major donor to Mr. Trump and then co-chair of his transition team. Mr. Lutnick vied to become Treasury secretary, but lost out to the hedge fund manager Scott Bessent. The hostility between the two men has not abated, despite their working together to persuade Mr. Trump to pause some of his tariffs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Reporting was contributed by <!-- -->Lauren Hirsch<!-- -->, <!-- -->Maggie Haberman<!-- -->, <!-- -->Jonathan Swan<!-- -->, <!-- -->Maureen Farrell<!-- -->, <!-- -->Tripp Mickle<!-- --> and <!-- -->Matina Stevis-Gridneff<!-- -->. <!-- -->Kitty Bennett<!-- --> contributed research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since Howard Lutnick was tapped to serve as President Trump\u2019s commerce secretary, executives from some of the world\u2019s largest companies have been trying to win him over. Leaders of Nvidia, Facebook, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Alphabet have visited his newly purchased $25 million property in Washington \u2014 a 16,250-square-foot mansion that Mr. Lutnick, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[897,277,899,753,272,273,900,246,197,898],"class_list":["post-1211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-buoyant","tag-business","tag-flexes","tag-global","tag-howard","tag-lutnick","tag-power","tag-trade","tag-trumps","tag-warrior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}