Scrambling to construct an administration in the wake of his shock victory eight years ago, Donald Trump looked far beyond his inner circle, and those who ardently embraced his agenda. Not this time.
The president-elect has charged Howard Lutnick, a longtime friend, and one of the few high-profile figures in corporate America to vocally endorse his campaign, with recruiting officials who will deliver, rather than dilute, his agenda.
The CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, and co-chair of Trump’s transition team, has made no secret of his plan to stack the new White House with loyalists – and keep out anyone who threatens to derail his pledges.
Last time around, Trump “picked unfortunately”, Lutnick told NewsNation last month, describing the hires he made in his first term as “freshman” mistakes. “He’s the CEO. Why would you pick someone who’s going to try to go the other direction? That would be silly.”
Lutnick, who says he talks to Trump every day, was on the sidelines in 2016 and 2020 when his friend won and lost the presidency. In 2024, he went all in – raising millions of dollars and loudly making the case for his ally’s political comeback
Trump “is going to build the greatest team to ever walk into government”, Lutnick declared to a triumphant crowd at Madison Square Garden last month, with nine days left of the campaign. As transition co-chair, he is in charge of that construction.
Lutnick has suggested he is uniquely qualified for this task. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, he noted that Cantor Fitzgerald hired thousands of employees after most of its workforce died in the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. Its office had been in the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Inside the Palm Beach county convention center in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Lutnick watched from a few feet away as Trump addressed supporters for the first time after his victory. The financier was unavailable for an interview this week, according to a spokesperson.
Amid tentative talks on the transition over recent weeks and months, Lutnick has pointed to two central beliefs: that Trump can restore American wealth, and that the wrong people were recruited to work for the former president when he first took office.
On stage at Madison Square Garden, Lutnick explained what he thinks “Make America great again” actually means – and when, in his view, the US was sufficiently great: 1900. “At the turn of the century, our economy was rocking,” he claimed. “We had no income tax, and all we had was tariffs.”
As taxes rose, and tariffs fell, generation after generation of US political leaders allowed “the rest of the world [to] eat our lunch”, according to Lutnick, whose preferred course of action is clear: cut taxes and raise tariffs, as Trump has pledged.
Trump made a lot of promises ahead of his first term. He delivered on some – huge tax cuts that disproportionately benefited the very wealthy – but failed on many others, such as repealing Obamacare, cutting the federal deficit and making Mexico pay for the border wall.
Some of those who entered Trump’s orbit in 2016, such as the former ExxonMobil boss Rex Tillerson, who served as secretary of state, steered away from some of his impulses and instincts. This time, though, Lutnick has sought to discourage the former president from enthusiastically welcoming other, less steadfastly loyal, business figures into the fold.
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When Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, called Trump the other week, Lutnick claimed on Fox News that he sent his friend a video he filmed the night before, of his Alexa smart speaker. When asked to play Trump’s interview with Joe Rogan, it purportedly played the Prosecuting Donald Trump podcast instead. “Tell him to fix Alexa, and make it fair,” Lutnick recalled telling Trump.
But there are some figures, still relatively new to Trump’s orbit, whom Lutnick has been more open to. He recently endorsed vaccine conspiracy theories pushed by Robert F Kennedy Jr, who suspended his presidential run to back Trump this summer, after spending a few hours with the activist. Lutnick later wrote on social media that he and his wife “trust our doctors”, and that his family is vaccinated.
Trump’s operation has not universally embraced Lutnick. He stressed last month that the transition team was “solely focused” on ensuring the former president’s victory, after Politico reported that some Trump loyalists had grown alarmed that he had improperly mixed his own business with efforts to staff the administration.
Lutnick continues to run Cantor Fitzgerald, oversee a network of “blank-check” vehicles and vocally advocate for the possibilities of crypto. It remains unclear what precise role he will play once Trump re-enters the White House, but he wants to help lead a bid (alongside Elon Musk) to drastically cut federal spending as part of a government efficiency commission.
During a recent two-hour podcast appearance, Lutnick was in the midst of a detailed account of his ascent in finance when he stopped to describe his relationship with Trump. “He hears me,” Lutnick said of the president-elect. “He doesn’t always listen to what I say. He didn’t always do what I say. But he hears me.”
Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage