{"id":821,"date":"2025-01-29T19:25:03","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T19:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/lutnick-grilled-on-trumps-tariffs-and-china-during-confirmation-hearing\/"},"modified":"2025-01-29T19:25:03","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T19:25:03","slug":"lutnick-grilled-on-trumps-tariffs-and-china-during-confirmation-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/lutnick-grilled-on-trumps-tariffs-and-china-during-confirmation-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Lutnick Grilled on Trump\u2019s Tariffs and China During Confirmation Hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Howard Lutnick, a wealthy donor to President Trump who has been picked to lead the Commerce Department, defended Mr. Trump\u2019s plans to impose broad tariffs and said he would take a tough stance on technology sales to China during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If confirmed, Mr. Lutnick would lead on trade policy and oversee a broad portfolio of government programs touching on business promotion, technology and science. He told lawmakers that he favored \u201cacross the board\u201d tariffs to equal out America\u2019s trading relationships. He insisted that tariffs would not be inflationary, in contrast to forecasts by many economists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick said that American farmers, ranchers and fishers were being \u201ctreated with disrespect around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe need that disrespect to end. And I think tariffs are a way to create reciprocity, to be treated fairly, to be treated appropriately, and I think it will help our farmers, our ranchers and our fishermen to flourish,\u201d he said.<\/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\">Asked about China\u2019s recent advances in artificial intelligence, Mr. Lutnick said he would take a tough stance on the department\u2019s oversight of technology sales to China. He said that the recent A.I. technology released by Chinese firm DeepSeek had been underpinned by Meta\u2019s open platform and chips sold by the U.S. firm Nvidia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe need to stop helping them,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m going to be very strong on that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick also told lawmakers that he planned to \u201cstudy\u201d a $50 billion program created by Congress to bolster U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, but that he would get the money out the door \u201cappropriately\u201d and \u201ccorrectly.\u201d Mr. Trump has recently described the program, known as the CHIPS Act, as a waste of money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe need domestic manufacturing,\u201d Mr. Lutnick said. \u201cThe CHIPS Act was an excellent down payment to begin that process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick will play a key role in overseeing the CHIPS office, which was created in 2022 to help bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States from Asia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump has recently been critical of the program \u2014 even though the program had its origins with the Trump administration, when Trump officials held out the promise of subsidies to bring Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to the United States. T.S.M.C. has located its first U.S. hub in Phoenix and was promised $6.6 billion in grants by the Biden administration.<\/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\">Speaking to Republican lawmakers on Monday evening, Mr. Trump criticized the Biden administration\u2019s investments in the chip industry, saying that semiconductor manufacturers had \u201cleft us and went to Taiwan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe want them come back, and we don\u2019t want to give them billions of dollars like this ridiculous program Biden has. They already have billions. They have nothing but money,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As the head of the Commerce Department, Mr. Lutnick would be in charge of many other government functions that have enormous sway over the business and technology sectors. The Commerce Department is in charge of promoting business interests abroad, restricting exports by tech companies to protect national security and delivering government subsidies to the semiconductor and broadband industries, among other functions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The agency has 51,000 workers and an $11 billion budget. It also oversees the counting of the U.S. population during the census, the regulation of America\u2019s fisheries, patents, weather forecasting and the development of global technological standards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump has also said that Mr. Lutnick would lead the administration\u2019s trade policy more broadly, including overseeing the United States Trade Representative, a small agency that negotiates trade deals and levies certain tariffs. U.S.T.R. technically reports directly to the president, as well as to Congress.<\/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\">Mr. Lutnick is the chief executive and chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, a Wall Street brokerage, and holds leadership positions at BGC, another brokerage; and Newmark Group, a commercial real estate firm. Mr. Lutnick has promised to resign the positions if nominated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Through Cantor and his other firms, Mr. Lutnick has acquired holdings and executive positions in a stunning array of companies. Financial disclosures filed by Mr. Lutnick last week showed that he has or previously had executive positions in more than 800 companies, and had at least $800 million in assets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Democratic lawmakers questioned Mr. Lutnick about these financial ties, including Cantor Fitzgerald\u2019s investments in a cryptocurrency company called Tether. And in a letter addressed to Mr. Lutnick on Monday, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, called Tether \u201ca known facilitator of criminal activity that has been described as \u2018outlaws\u2019 favorite cryptocurrency,\u2019\u201d saying that the tool had financed Mexican drug cartels, terrorist groups and the North Korean nuclear weapons program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The connections with Tether \u201craise significant questions about your own personal judgment and the conflicts of interest that you will have if you are confirmed as Commerce secretary,\u201d Ms. Warren wrote to Mr. Lutnick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At his hearing, Mr. Lutnick denied any wrongdoing on the part of Cantor or Tether, saying it was like \u201cblaming Apple because criminals use Apple phones.\u201d<\/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\">\u201cIt\u2019s just a product,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t pick on the U.S. Treasury because criminals use dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For President Trump and his supporters, Mr. Lutnick\u2019s wealth and business success are a strong qualification for the role of Commerce secretary. But Democrats view Mr. Lutnick\u2019s financial ties with more skepticism, saying they could raise questions about his ability to put the interests of the American people ahead of those of himself and former business partners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The New York Times reported Wednesday that Mr. Lutnick also has financial interests in the mining industry in Greenland, through Cantor Fitzgerald. Cantor has invested in a company called Critical Metals Corp, which has proposed mining metals and minerals in Greenland as soon as 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump has repeatedly proposed purchasing Greenland, which is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Demark. The governments of both Denmark and Greenland say the territory is not for sale.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Lawmakers and with Vice President JD Vance \u2014 who made a brief appearance at the hearing \u2014 touted Mr. Lutnick\u2019s personal story, describing him as someone who had achieved great success despite facing adversity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick, a Long Island native, lost both his parents by the time he was 18, and became chairman of Cantor at just 35. He lost his brother and most of Cantor Fitzgerald\u2019s employees in the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. A longtime donor to Mr. Trump, Mr. Lutnick more recently became a key economic adviser and helped to lead his transition team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lutnick has argued in favor of Mr. Trump\u2019s economic vision, saying that lower corporate taxes, more oil production and tariffs will help to supercharge the U.S. economy. Mr. Lutnick is also a part of Mr. Trump\u2019s efforts to eliminate parts of the federal government, and has described himself as the founding force behind the so-called <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/howardlutnick\/status\/1845827179549982823?lang=en\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Department of Government Efficiency<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Howard Lutnick, a wealthy donor to President Trump who has been picked to lead the Commerce Department, defended Mr. Trump\u2019s plans to impose broad tariffs and said he would take a tough stance on technology sales to China during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday. If confirmed, Mr. Lutnick would lead on trade policy and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[203,553,552,554,273,199,197],"class_list":["post-821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-china","tag-confirmation","tag-grilled","tag-hearing","tag-lutnick","tag-tariffs","tag-trumps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821","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=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}