Lori Wallach
Presidential candidate Donald Trump promised cheering crowds nationwide that he would impose across-the-board tariffs to generate revenue to replace income taxes and rebuild American manufacturing. This week, in a sign that he won’t fulfill that goal, President-elect Trump named billionaire investment bank CEO Howard Lutnick to lead his trade and tariff agenda.
Trump’s proposed two-for-one Cabinet seat deal — tapping Lutnik for commerce secretary but assigning him “additional direct responsibility for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative” — bodes ill for the working-class voters who delivered vital swing states and the presidency to Trump. Lutnick’s public statements reveal that he knows little about trade. His lengthy career on Wall Street has imprinted him with views about tariffs contrary to Trump’s and makes him highly susceptible to persuasion by every corporate lobbyist he encounters in the private jet hangar.
