Howard’s beginning: the luck of Lutnick

With Elon Musk no longer sleeping in a cot in Washington, only one member of the White House inner circle comes close to matching Donald Trump’s net worth: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Commerce is usually a mid-tier cabinet post; even fervent political observers would be hard-pressed to name previous officeholders. But Lutnick has been one of Trump’s most impactful advisors in this second term. His ideas about tariffs have greatly affected the world’s economy, and have influenced Trump’s mercurial tariff pronouncements. Plus, he’s worth about $3 billion himself. Even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, himself a billionaire, is only worth about half as much.

Lutnick made his name as CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a major New York financial services company. After hundreds of Cantor employees, including Lutnick’s brother, died in the 9/11 attacks, Lutnick rebuilt the company and provided support to the families of the victims, which amounted to two-thirds of the company’s workforce. Trump later called Lutnick “the embodiment of resilience in the face of unspeakable tragedy.”

The two met in 2008, when Lutnick appeared on an episode of Trump’s TV show The Apprentice, but Lutnick wasn’t part of the conversation during the Donald’s first term. By the end of that term, he’d become a major Trump donor, and he stuck by Trump during the years of impeachment, the January 6 rebellion and exile. Lutnick is credited with raising $75 million for Trump’s 2024 capaign – and Trump rewarded Lutnick by making him co-chair of the presidential transition team.

Trump’s nomination of Lutnick for Commerce met with controversy and resistance. One critic called it “totally sketchy” and others said that Cantor Fitzgerald’s vast interconnected business ties made it impossible for Lutnick to be an impartial bureaucrat. “Howard has gotten out way over his fucking skis on this,” a senior Republican official told Politico.

The ballooning cryptocurrency industry was a particular space of concern, given Cantor Fitzgerald’s relationship with the controversial crypto company Tether, which issues a stablecoin tied to the value of the US dollar. Trump, who himself was about to make a vast fortune in crypto, hardly seemed to care, vowing to turn the US into “the crypto capital of the planet.” Who better to do that than Lutnick? “There’s nobody more loyal and capable than Howard,” Trump said.

Given that tariffs are the shining centerpiece of Trump 2.0’s economic program, it’s not surprising that Lutnick supports them wholeheartedly. For him, tariffs are not just economic tools, but weapons that the government can use to affect national security and industrial policy. In an April interview with CNBC, he touted tariffs as the key element in transforming the American economy and was thrilled that a president, for once, was listening to him.

“When I say to him we want fair trade, we want to be treated the way we deserve to be treated, that’s what’s happening now,” Lutnick said. “Finally, someone is behind the desk who is going to protect America. It feels great.”

On tariffs, trade and industrial policy, Lutnick sounds so much like Trump it’s hard to tell where one man’s monologue ends and the other’s begins. “The rest of the world’s markets have been taking advantage of the trading policy,” he told CNBC. “Our policies were designed to make you rich and make us poor.” It’s been a non-stop tariff blitz for months. Back in April, Lutnick said on CBS’s Face the Nation, “The tariffs are coming. [Trump] announced it – and he wasn’t kidding. The tariffs are coming. Of course they are.” On Newsmax around the same time, he said “tariffs are not inflation. It is outrageous that people think tariffs are inflation.”

In an economy run by two of America’s richest men, it’s hard to focus on, say, Lutnick’s efforts to onshore US semiconductor production. Tariffs take up all the oxygen. “Trump wants the people of America to appreciate these tariffs,” Lutnick said on Fox Business in November, “If he puts money into their pockets, they’ll better understand how important this is for America.” And there’s a literal plan to put money into the pockets of Americans, with the administration proposing a “tariff dividend” of $2,000. Why, with that, Americans could buy nearly 1/20th of a Bitcoin! “Yes, it’s going to make the country stronger,” Lutnick said.

Then there’s the matter of Lutnick’s sons. In May, he transferred his ownership shares in Cantor Fitzgerald to his four children. His “economic benefits” have ceased but the family still runs the firm – and Bloomberg said, “the grip on his businesses is bolted tight.” Lutnick’s son Brandon is CEO and chairman and another Kyle, is executive vice-chairman. They’ve out-Successionedeven the Trump family. Brandon Lutnick is leaning hard into special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, for crypto, even while his father pushes the President to establish a national crypto reserve.

“President Trump’s billionaire Commerce Secretary has been playing the ultimate Washington insider game to pad his family’s riches,” left-wing watchdog site Accountable.US said earlier this year. While it’s true the Lutnicks won’t be qualifying for a $2,000 tariff dividend check, it remains to be seen whether or not all boats rise with theirs.

Once upon a time, Kyle Lutnick was an aspiring rapper who performed under the name “Kxtz.” Though it appears he’s moved on, one residual lyric still seems relevant: “Until I run the game, I’ve got everything to gain.” But now Kxtz has put aside childish things. In November, Bloomberg reported that Cantor Fitzgerald was about to post a 2025 annual revenue of $2.5 billion, an all-time high and 25 percent more than the previous reporting period. “When you have a titan of industry and an indomitable personality like Howard, who was here for 40 years and ran the firm for 30 years, it can leave a significant vacuum when he leaves,” a Cantor official said. “The whole firm stepped up… and that’s because of Brandon. That’s because of Kyle as well.” The rich, it seems, are getting richer.

This article was originally published in The Spectator’s December 8, 2025 World edition.