The text to Elon Musk: a picture of giant scissors. Musk’s text back: a picture of a sword.
The person on the other end: Howard Lutnick — Wall Street billionaire, MAGA believer and head-hunter-in-chief to Donald Trump, the next American president.“Me, Elon Musk and Trump are going to figure it out,” Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, told a podcaster shortly before Trump staged his comeback for the ages on Election Day.
Where, if anywhere, Lutnick might land in Washington is anyone’s guess. But if Trump asks, Lutnick is ready to serve, he’s said publicly. Treasury secretary is a possibility, but others are vying for that job too. Among them are Scott Bessent, a prominent hedge fund manager; Jay Clayton, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; and Robert Lighthizer, an economic adviser and China hawk during the first Trump administration.
Like Trump, Lutnick has bemoaned the move of US manufacturing overseas, slammed “coastal elite nonsense” over electric cars, and focused on the importance of taming inflation. He’s also criticized the cancellation of the extension of the Keystone XL pipeline — a move by President Joe Biden on his first day in office — and said China was attacking American workers by sending fentanyl to the country.
Lutnick is unusual among top names being reported as potential cabinet picks in that he’s a billionaire who still runs large private and public companies — which also stand to benefit from his involvement in government policy.
Any top government job should make questions over entanglements unavoidable and compel Lutnick — like anyone with such expansive business interests taking a job in a presidential administration — to divest assets or put them in a blind trust to avoid legal troubles. Guidance allows new officials to minimise capital-gains taxes, provided they invest the proceeds of any sale in an accepted investment fund like a broad-based mutual fund.
While still uncertain, the prospect of Lutnick’s departure leaves his 13,000 employees wondering who, if he moves on, would lead them after his 33 years at the helm.
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