U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is privately not a fan of Trump’s tariffs strategy, according to report

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a Haverford College alum and the school’s largest donor, is making waves in President Donald Trump’s administration, according to a far-ranging CNN article about him published Tuesday.

Lutnick was a major backer of Trump’s reelection campaign, donating $5 million to his PAC and raising $15 million in August at a fundraiser at his home in the Hamptons, on New York’s Long Island. He outspent longtime Trump supporters and became a major architect of the president’s cabinet as cochair of his transition team.

Lutnick is the CEO of financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald. On Haverford’s Main Line campus, he is a familiar presence, with buildings named after him, his best friend, and his company.

He was confirmed as commerce secretary on Feb. 18 with a 51-48 vote split along party lines. None of the Democratic senators from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware voted for his confirmation, though they each supported at least two other Trump nominees, and Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted for eight.

Here are takeaways from CNN’s dive into Lutnick’s reputation in the White House so far.

Lutnick has become a cheerleader for Trump’s trade war with a “near constant presence on cable television,” CNN reported. But he has privately told friends that he is “not thrilled” that Trump fractured trade relations with Canada and Mexico by raising tariffs from the start instead of using them as leverage down the line.

While his frequent television appearances have shown his public-facing loyalty to Trump’s tariffs agenda, they have not landed smoothly with everyone.

Two Fortune 50 executives told CNN that they have not been able to get meetings with Lutnick, as they have with other senior members of Trump’s administration, and one anonymous executive lamented that Lutnick is “too busy being on f— television.”

A White House official objected to that narrative to CNN and said that the secretary has been in regular contact with business leaders. White House spokesperson Kush Desai argued that all of Trump’s staffers are “playing from the same playbook” and are aligned on Trump’s agenda.

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Lutnick aggressively campaigned for himself to be treasury secretary instead of Scott Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager who used to be aligned with the Democratic Party and was picked for the role. Lutnick argued that he was most loyal to Trump’s tariffs agenda and even publicly secured the backing of Elon Musk.

That stunt resulted in transition aides comparing Lutnick to Dick Cheney, who selected himself after leading the search for George W. Bush’s 2000 vice presidential candidate. White House staff felt as if they had to pick sides during confirmation hearing preparations, and there is still lingering tension surrounding Lutnick and Bessent, CNN reported.

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Lutnick has what CNN described as a “New York brashness.” This has rubbed some the wrong way, but it has also been embraced.

Lutnick has excelled in a “good cop, bad cop” partnership with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum during trade negotiations with Canadian provinces, according to Kevin O’Leary, a Canadian businessman close to the Trump administration, who told CNN that Lutnick is “a really good bad cop.”

CNN reported that some of Trump’s allies are not pleased that Lutnick can be “fast and loose with the facts.”

Lutnick said ahead of the election that now-Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would not lead that department if Trump was elected. This was shortly after Kennedy publicly stated that Trump promised him control over public health in his new administration, and shortly before he was nominated for the role.

Lutnick also told CNN in October that Elon Musk would not work in the Trump administration but instead would write software he would give to the government.

He also recently struck a different tone from Trump about whether to expect a recession.

“I would never bet on recession,” Lutnick said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “No chance.”

Trump, on the other hand, said on Fox that he does not like to predict “things like that” and that there is “a period of transition.”