Donald Trump taps Haverford College mega-donor Howard Lutnick for commerce secretary

President-elect Donald Trump tapped Haverford College mega-donor and Wall Street financial executive Howard Lutnick to serve as secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Lutnick, a major backer of Trump’s campaign, was previously considered a top contender to be Trump’s treasury secretary — a high-powered role that answers directly to the president on all matters of the country’s economy.

But the recent introduction of dark-horse candidates — including Marc Rowan, a cofounder of Apollo Global Management and chair of the board of advisers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School — threw that prospect into jeopardy. Trump has not yet named his pick for treasury secretary.

» READ MORE: Donald Trump is considering two billionaires with strong Philly-area ties for his Treasury secretary. Who are they?

Punchbowl News first reported Tuesday that Trump would nominate Lutnick for commerce secretary instead.

Trump said in an afternoon statement that he was “thrilled” to announce Lutnick’s naming to the administration.

“[Lutnick] will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative,” Trump said.

Lutnick, 63, is CEO and chairman of the sprawling Manhattan financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, and also serves as Trump’s transition team cochair.

In that role, Lutnick has helped Trump source candidates for positions in his presidential administration. Trump named Lutnick cochair in August after attending a fundraiser at Lutnick’s home in the Hamptons of Long Island, N.Y. In all, Lutnick donated more than $10 million to the Republican’s campaign.

“Howard has created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen,” Trump’s statement said of Lutnick’s cochair role.

Lutnick’s ties to the Philadelphia region run deep.

The Long Island native graduated from Haverford College in 1983 and is the largest donor in the Main Line liberal arts college’s history.

Lutnick has given $65 million to the school, resulting in the Lutnick Library, the Gary Lutnick Tennis & Track Center, the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, and other facilities.

Lutnick also served for decades on Haverford’s Board of Managers, including stints as chair and vice chair, and was bestowed the school’s lifetime achievement award in 2016.

Lutnick, speaking with The Inquirer in October, credited much of his success to Haverford, which offered him a full scholarship as a freshman Division III tennis recruit following separate cancer diagnoses that claimed the lives of his mother and father.

Lutnick’s brother, Gary, was among the 658 members of Cantor Fitzgerald who died in the twin towers of the World Trade Center during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Lutnick was dropping his son off at school that morning, and went on to become a major name associated with the tragedy, rebuilding the firm and donating $180 million to victims’ families.

A Cantor Fitzgerald spokesperson for Lutnick did not return a request for comment.

The commerce secretary, while often overlooked by the public, plays an influential role in enforcing U.S. trade policy and aiding job creation.

The secretary is tasked with creating conditions for the country’s economic growth, represents its businesses, and oversees a department that spans 47,000 employees across the nation.

Less visibly, the department sits above a host of agencies with responsibilities such as enforcing telecommunications policy and issuing trademarks and patents, as well as those like the National Weather Service, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Minority Business Development Agency.

More importantly, the secretary enforces U.S. trade agreements.

One of Trump’s major economic proposals is to raise tariffs on foreign imports to trigger a “manufacturing renaissance” that would, in his vision, spur spending on American-made products (even as some economists cast doubt on that plan).

Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese products such as solar panels and washing machines during his first term, and has suggested levying more aggressive taxes between 60% and 100% on imports from the country in his second administration. That’s in addition to possible universal tariffs of 10% to 20% tariffs on imports from across the globe.

Lutnick would likely be responsible for leading the review process of any such tariffs, an area where the executive’s views are well known.

Lutnick’s pro-tariff stance was on full display at Trump’s late-October Madison Square Garden rally, where he hearkened back to the early 1900s, a period with “no income tax and all we had was tariffs.”

Lutnick also told CNBC in September that tariffs were an “amazing tool” for the president to use, particularly to “help the American worker.”

Cryptocurrency could also play a role in a second Trump administration, and Lutnick is a major proponent.

Lutnick’s Cantor Fitzgerald is one of a handful of firms allowed to trade directly with the Federal Reserve, giving it stalwart status on Wall Street.

But Lutnick’s firm delved into the developing and volatile cryptocurrency space in 2021, when it became a major backer of Tether, a “stablecoin” pegged to the U.S. dollar that is meant to offer stability to the industry and make it easier to convert crytpo into regular currency.

Lutnick has also pushed for Bitcoin, by far the most popular cryptocurrency, to be treated as a commodity similar to gold and oil.

Given that Trump reportedly wants the U.S. to build the “biggest and the best” cryptocurrency ecosystem to outcompete China’s — and to create a national Bitcoin reserve — it’s not hard to imagine Lutnick running a crypto-friendly Commerce Department.