Donald Trump has said he will nominate Wall Street investor Howard Lutnick, who has been critical of some of Ireland’s trade policies, to run his commerce department. He is also putting the billionaire in charge of imposing the sweeping tariffs the president-elect pitched to voters.
Lutnick, who is the co-chair of Trump’s transition team, had also been a contender to lead the Treasury department in the new administration. He is also the chief executive of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Trump announced that in addition to leading the Department of Commerce, Lutnick would also have “direct responsibility” for the office of the US trade representative.
If confirmed by the Senate, Lutnick would be responsible for shoring up US businesses and would play a central role in enacting Trump’s plan to impose sweeping tariffs on trading partners. The president-elect has proposed a 60 per cent tariff on Chinese imports as well as a universal tariff of up to 20 per cent.
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The tariffs threaten Irish exports to the US and Lutnick has previously criticised Ireland’s trade with the US. He wrote on X in November: “It’s nonsense that Ireland of all places runs a trade surplus at our expense. We don’t make anything here any more – even great American cars are made in Mexico. When we end this nonsense, America will be a truly great country again. You’ll be shocked.”
The main contributor to Ireland’s surplus with the US are exports of pharmaceutical and chemical products but there are also food, drink and other manufactured exports. These would all be potentially vulnerable if the planned imposition of blanket tariffs go ahead, though it remains to be seen if the US would ignore World Trade Organisation rules which say there should not be tariffs on essential drugs.
The 63-year old billionaire investor, who has never held a government position before, has staunchly defended Trump’s tariff policies as he has emerged as one of the president-elect’s biggest cheerleaders during the presidential election campaign, earning him top speaking slots at big rallies, such as at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
“When was America great? At the turn of the century, our economy was rocking! This was 125 years ago,” Lutnick told the crowd in New York. “We had no income tax. And all we had was tariffs.”
In recent days, Trump had considered Lutnick for Treasury secretary, but infighting between the investor’s camp and those backing Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager who was widely seen as the leading pick, upended the selection process.
Lutnick has earned the backing of Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur who has become a close adviser of Trump. Musk described Lutnick as a Treasury secretary who would “actually enact change”, in contrast with Bessent, who he dubbed the “business-as-usual choice”.
Beyond the Treasury secretary post, which is the most important economic job in a president’s administration, Trump has yet to decide on who will serve as director of his National Economic Council. – Financial Times
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