Howard Lutnick, the Wall Street Billionaire Staffing Trump’s Cabinet

Donald Trump and Howard Lutnick at a Campaign Event

On Friday evening, August 2, Howard Lutnick, the Chairman and CEO of the Wall Street trading house, Cantor Fitzgerald, held a fundraiser populated by the super wealthy at his home in the Hamptons. The bash was to help presidential candidate Donald Trump shore up his sagging campaign coffers. Tickets went for $25,000 each or $50,000 if you wanted a photo with Trump. You could be listed on the program as a host for a mere $500,000. According to Lutnick, the event raised $15 million. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, Lutnick himself was responsible for a third of that amount. He wrote out a check for $5 million to the Trump campaign the Monday after the event.

Not long thereafter, Trump announced Lutnick as Co-Chair of his transition team, a post he shares with former World Wrestling Entertainment chief executive Linda McMahon. Lutnick is now widely reported to be the person overseeing the hiring of thousands of employees, including high level positions, in the Trump administration.

What is more than a little bizarre about the power that Trump has bestowed on Lutnick, is the fact that when Hillary Clinton ran against Trump for President in 2016, Lutnick held a similar big-donor bash for Clinton at his Manhattan mansion. In addition, in the 2015-2016 campaign cycle, Lutnick lavished donations on high profile Democratic races for Senate seats. FEC records show Lutnick supported Senate races by the following Democrats: Chuck Schumer, Chris Van Hollen, Evan Bayh, Tammy Duckworth, Catherine Cortez Masto and numerous others, including (wait for it) Kamala Harris.

It seems more than a little possible that Trump – a master of conning people into doing his bidding (who end up stripped of their law licenses or going to jail as a result) – may in this case be getting conned himself.

Lutnick told the Financial Times he is picking Trump’s staff based on the following criteria:

“They’re all going to be on the same side, and they’re all going to understand the policies, and we’re going to give people the role based on their capacity — and their fidelity and loyalty to the policy, as well as to the man.”

But Lutnick’s own loyalty to Trump looks sketchy, given his donor activities for Hillary Clinton and Senate Democrats in 2016.

In addition, Lutnick is far from Trump’s largest donor. He says he has given $10 million to Trump’s campaign. But the banking and oil heir, Timothy Mellon, contributed $125 million to Trump’s campaign.

One of Lutnick’s sources of power in the Trump circle is that he is a long-term supporter of Israel, which commands its own power base in the U.S. As The Intercept reported recently:

“Ahead of the 2024 cycle and amid growing public outrage over Israel’s war on Gaza, AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] made a bold pronouncement: Through its United Democracy Project arm and AIPAC PAC, it would spend $100 million on elections, about one-sixth of what outside groups spent on the 2020 presidential election.

“There are few congressional races that AIPAC sat out this year. Of the 469 seats up for reelection this year, AIPAC has spent money on more than 80 percent: 389 races in total. AIPAC has sought influence over 363 seats in the House and 26 in the Senate.”

New hires in the Trump administration may need to pass two loyalty tests: loyalty to Trump and loyalty to Israel.