Howard Lutnick
Howard LutnickReuters

US President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he had nominated Howard Lutnick, Chairman & CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, as the United States Secretary of Commerce in his administration.

“He will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative,” Trump said in a statement announcing the move.

Lutnick, 63, serves as the co-chair of Trump’s presidential transition team, and had been in a battle with Scott Bessent over the role of Treasury Secretary.

Lutnick, who is Jewish, joined Cantor Fitzgerald in 1983, and rapidly rose through the ranks to become President and CEO of the company at the age of 29.

On September 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 of its 960 New York-based employees, including Lutnick's brother, Gary Lutnick.

Lutnick is also a staunch supporter of Israel. In a recent interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Lutnick said that Trump “had clear, moral clarity when it came to Israel and what happened, and the way that he thought about what happened. That was huge to me.”

This past June, Lutnick announced that the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund would make a $7 million donation to support those impacted by the war in Israel, a portion of which would go directly to United Hatzalah.