By Joe Light
President-elect Donald Trump's economic team is finally starting to take shape, and it appears one of Wall Street's foremost crypto advocates is getting a starring role.
Trump on Tuesday said he plans to nominate Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick to head the Department of Commerce. "He will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative," Trump said in a post on TruthSocial.
Lutnick, who is co-chair of Trump's transition team, had been seen as a leading contender to run the Treasury Department. As Commerce secretary, he would play a major role in investigating trade practices and administering tariffs, which Trump has said will be the centerpiece of his economic agenda.
Lutnick is also an outspoken supporter of the crypto industry. His firm has been a custodian for the reserves of the stablecoin company Tether.
As Commerce secretary, Lutnick would oversee major aspects of U.S. economic policy. The Commerce Department oversees agencies that collect demographic and economic data, such as the Census Bureau, and administers some stimulus programs and economic-development research. Crucially for Trump, it also oversees the International Trade Administration, an agency in charge of enforcing trade laws and investigating unfair trade practices.
A spokesperson for Cantor Fitzgerald didn't respond to a request for comment.
The pick seems to show the limits of the influence of some top Trump advisors, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Musk on Saturday publicly backed Lutnick to helm the Treasury Department, arguing on X that Lutnick "will actually enact change." Musk said the hedge-fund manager Scott Bessent, who at the time was considered the other leading contender for Treasury, was a "business-as-usual choice."
Trump has said the U.S. should put a 10% to 20% tariff on imports across the board, with tariffs of 60% or more on those from China. During the campaign, Lutnick gave vocal support to those plans, which led some Trump advisors to favor his appointment at the Treasury Department over other contenders whose backing seemed more measured. As Commerce secretary, Lutnick would have a more direct role in tariff policy than at Treasury.
"We need to protect the American worker. Finally someone's going to protect the American worker," Lutnick said in an interview with CNBC during the campaign, calling tariffs an "amazing tool" for the president. Some economists have said across-the-board tariffs could lead to a resurgence of inflation in the U.S.
Lutnick has called the tariffs a negotiating tool that could be used to convince other countries to bring down their own levies. He has said Trump would avoid the taxes on products U.S. companies don't make.
The job at Commerce would also likely mean Lutnick would play at least some role in setting U.S. policy on the digital assets industry, which crypto executives have said was unfairly targeted by enforcement agencies in President Joe Biden's administration. Under Biden, the Commerce Department researched ways to help the industry grow in the U.S.
At a Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tenn., earlier this year, Lutnick touted his firm as the "best investment bank for digital assets." He has vouched for the reserves of Tether, which offers the most widely used stablecoin, a type of crypto whose value is pegged to the dollar.
"I want to be clear, I am a fan of Bitcoin. Do I own Bitcoin? Of course I do," Lutnick said at the conference.
Write to Joe Light at joe.light@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 19, 2024 14:58 ET (19:58 GMT)
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