Lutnick’s Strategy Flummoxes Business Leaders and White House Aides

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WASHINGTON—Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has tried to sell President Trump’s trade agenda to American companies for months. Business leaders say they are often confused about what he wants.

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The former Cantor Fitzgerald chief executive has come to frustrate executives and senior White House officials, who have come away from interactions with Lutnick exasperated, according to roughly a dozen people who have interacted with him.

In private meetings with business leaders, Lutnick has browbeat executives to support Trump’s tariffs, while at other times expressing sympathy and telling them he wants to help their companies. Lutnick has taken contradictory positions on key issues, including on whether certain imports should be exempted from tariffs, executives say.

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Frustration with Lutnick is spilling over into public view as the stock market plummets, with hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman, a Trump ally, criticizing him on social media. The irritation at Lutnick partially reflects the challenge of representing a president known for making last-minute policy U-turns.

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Business executives have left their interactions with Lutnick wondering whether he adequately understands Trump’s thinking. Last month, Lutnick met with oil executives who were concerned about how the tariffs might be designed and wanted exemptions from Trump’s duties. But Lutnick said he didn’t want industry-specific exemptions, people at the meeting said. It would be like picking one lily from a field of lilies, Lutnick said, according to an attendee.

In the same meeting, he said there would be some exemptions on imports of products like mangoes that couldn’t be domestically produced at the level needed to meet U.S. demand, the people said. When Trump rolled out the tariff plan on Wednesday, there were no exemptions for mango imports. And Trump did give an exemption to the oil industry.

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Good lord.

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Those who have observed him say Lutnick has a knack for telling people what they want to hear.

In meetings with senators ahead of his confirmation, he sometimes delivered conflicting messages about trade. If a senator expressed concerns about tariffs and local industries that could be hurt, Lutnick told them not to worry about it, the people said. Tariffs are going to be used sparingly and would be targeted. In meetings with more Trump-aligned senators, he praised tariffs and stressed how important they were, people familiar with the meetings said.

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Oh yeah, this is as principled as you get.

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Lutnick has told associates he joined the government out of a desire to help the president, noting that he could afford to leave his lucrative private-sector job because he has already amassed vast wealth.

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Again, when this falls out, the ones enacting the policy will be insulated from it by the wealth they’ve already attained, and the rest of us will be the ones squeezed.

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White House aides grew frustrated when Lutnick went on television and called for eliminating income taxes for those making under $150,000 a year. White House staff later learned that he had talked about the idea at a private dinner with Trump, and the president seemed to like it, officials said. Members of Congress flooded the White House with questions: Was this going to be a new policy? It wasn’t, White House aides assured them.

White House staffers were also stunned when Lutnick went on Fox News in February and said the administration wanted to abolish the Internal Revenue Service. Several Trump aides said Lutnick hadn’t seemed to think through how the public might interpret the commerce secretary calling for the closing of the IRS in the middle of tax season.

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Is THIS how the conversation about getting rid of the income tax has unfolded?

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Lutnick has promoted the idea of a “gold card,” which would grant wealthy foreigners permanent U.S. residency for $5 million. Lutnick said the idea came out of a call between Trump, investor John Paulson and himself. Some in the White House have privately raised concerns that the idea is unworkable or potentially violates the law, but Trump loves the cards, which are emblazoned with his face. Lutnick has said he is already selling them.

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Of course Trump loves this idea for that very reason.

Imagine the optics of letting people buy citizenship for $5 million while deporting illegals (which I fully support), and the get out of jail free card has Trump’s face on it.

LINK

Keep pulling that curtain back and this 4D chess looks like a total mess.