Some allies of Donald Trump have become displeased with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to the point where the 63-year-old could end up taking the blame for the economy’s downswing.
Among the reasons, Politico reported Tuesday, are Lutnick’s personality, being a “yes man,” and repeatedly getting ahead of—and contradicting—Trump’s messaging.
The report was based on interviews with 11 allies of the president, White House officials, GOP lawmakers, and others.
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“He’s trying to be a mini-Trump. I don’t think he got the memo that only Trump gets to be Trump,” a person close to the administration told the outlet. “It just reinforces that he doesn’t really know how to do the job.”
On two occasions, Lutnick gave conflicting messaging on tariffs when compared to Trump—once on CNBC last week and again Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press.
In the former instance, Lutnick said Trump’s tariffs on Mexico and Canada could be paused for a month. That occurred before Trump officially made that announcement, which he did just two days after he had put them on.
In the latter case, Lutnick said Americans should “absolutely not” prepare for a recession. Yet Trump, in an interview with Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo that aired later Sunday morning, didn’t rule a recession out. The stock market tumbled the following day.
Lutnick, in a CBS interview on Tuesday, seemed to get the memo, saying it would be “worth it” if Trump’s tariffs led to a recession.
Lutnick, White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Politico, is helping the administration with “delivering economic prosperity for the American people.”
Desai added that Lutnick’s “long and immensely successful private sector career makes him an integral addition to the Trump administration’s trade and economic team.”
Lutnick, a 2020 and 2024 Trump fundraiser, was chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, a Manhattan financial services firm, from 1996 until his confirmation earlier this year.
Yet that experience isn’t necessarily translating, according to another person close to the administration.
“Howard Lutnick has no respect from the CEO community. He was a broker’s broker. He was an institutional broker that not any CEO knew his name,” they told Politico. “They’re really missing connectivity to the business world.”
Meanwhile, Trump allies' public animus over the economy has been directed—unsurprisingly—at former President Joe Biden.
