Donald Trump set to pick Howard Lutnick for Commerce Secretary as banking exec becomes latest cabinet member

Billionaire financier Howard Lutnik is expected to beryllium nominated by Donald Trump to go Commerce Secretary.  

Lutnik, 63, the co-chair of Trump's modulation team, is expected to instrumentality the almighty presumption that volition beryllium successful complaint of enacting the president-elect's sweeping tariff reforms. 

Like Trump, Lutnik is primitively from the New York country and helium serves arsenic the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar organization. 

Currently, Lutnik serves arsenic the main enforcement of fiscal firms Cantor Fitzgerald and BCG Group. 

Lutnik is expected to measurement backmost from his roles astatine the fiscal firms to absorption solely connected Commerce. 

He has been a staunch Trump state and adjacent spoke astatine the Republican's infamous Madison Square Garden rally successful the bosom of Manhattan days earlier the November 5 election.

That rally earned wide condemnation aft a comedian joked that Puerto Rico was an land of trash, a remark galore critics decried arsenic racist.  

Lutnik has a agelong and tragic past with the Big Apple. The steadfast helium runs Cantor Fitzgerald had hundreds of employees dice arsenic a effect of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

The fiscal firm's offices were successful the World Trade Center erstwhile the planes deed decades ago. 

Lutnik mislaid his member successful the attacks and has since organized yearly fundraisers for the victims of the attacks.

Over the weekend, X proprietor Elon Musk posted connected his level that helium was successful enactment of Lutnik being nominated to Trump's Cabient, but not for Commerce secretary.

Musk said that Lutnik should beryllium considered to tally the Treasury Department.

The Tesla CEO besides notably threw different antheral vying for the role, Scott Bessent, nether the autobus publically successful his post. 

'Would beryllium absorbing to perceive much radical measurement successful connected this for [Trump] to see feedback,' Musk's station began. 

'My presumption [for what it's worth] is that Bessent is simply a business-as-usual choice, whereas [Lutnik] volition really enact change.'

'Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, truthful we request alteration 1 mode oregon another.' 

He was not the lone Trump state who came retired swinging for Lutnik. 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. besides went to bat for the New York financier. 

'Bitcoin is the currency of freedom, a hedge against ostentation for mediate people Americans, a remedy against the dollar’s downgrade from the world’s reserve currency, and the offramp from a ruinous nationalist debt. Bitcoin volition person nary stronger advocator than Howard Lutnik,' helium wrote connected X Saturday. 

The fiscal baron was reportedly angling for the apical occupation astatine the Treasury Department, but reports bespeak that his assertive positioning for that relation irked Trump.