Trump Taps LI Native Howard Lutnick for Secretary of Commerce

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, a Jericho native who owns a home in Bridgehampton, to be the next U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the transition team announced.

In the role, Lutnick will be tasked with carrying out Trump’s campaign promise to enact tariffs on products imported from other countries in a bid to boost American-made goods. 

“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. “In his role as Co-Chair of the Trump-Vance Transition Team, Howard has created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen.”

Lutnick’s nomination is the second Long Islander that Trump has picked for his cabinet after recently naming former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), who represented the East End in Congress, to be the next U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

Lutnick has worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, a high-profile Wall Street trading firm, for more than four decades. He survived the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center that claimed the life of his brother and 658 employees who were among the about 3,000 victims.

He has since dedicated himself to raising money to help 9/11 families — he serves on the Board of Directors of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum — and those impacted by other terrorist attacks and natural disasters worldwide.

The Jericho High School graduate bought his 40-acre Bridgehampton estate for $15 million in 2003 and later lost a lawsuit in which he tried to overturn a Town of Southampton denial of his request to build a basketball court on the property.