Commerce nominee Howard Lutnick is latest Trump nominee with LI ties

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Commerce Secretary — Wall Street titan Howard Lutnick — is the latest Cabinet pick with Long Island roots.

Lutnick, the CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, grew up in Jericho and later became a central figure in the lives of several Long Island families whose loved ones died in Cantor’s World Trade Center offices on 9/11.

In the aftermath of the attacks, which also claimed the life of his younger brother, Gary, Lutnick promised to provide financial support for Cantor’s impacted families. He later established a charitable foundation to aid victims of terrorist attacks and natural disasters, including doling out $1.5 million in $1,000 gift cards to Long Beach school district families after Superstorm Sandy devastated the area in 2012.

Lutnick, who is currently serving as co-chairman of Trump’s presidential transition team, owns a 40-acre estate in Bridgehampton where he held an August campaign fundraiser for Trump that raised $15 million.

Trump on Tuesday announced Lutnick’s nomination to head the U.S. Commerce Department, ending weeks of speculation over where Lutnick would end up in Trump’s Cabinet. He was reportedly in the running for U.S. Treasury secretary, and had the public backing of billionaire Elon Musk for that coveted position.

"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 Lutnick’s appointment.

Trump has vowed to impose blanket tariffs on all imported goods — including a 60% tariff on goods from China and up to 20% on all other foreign made items. Lutnick has been publicly supportive of the proposal, which some economists argue will lead to an uptick in prices.

Trump has nominated other New Yorkers to serve in his second Cabinet, including former Long Island congressman Lee Zeldin of Shirley to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. He nominated real estate mogul Steve Witkoff, who owns a home in Southampton, to serve as special envoy to the Middle East and congresswoman Elise Stefanik of upstate New York as ambassador to the United Nations.

The Trump transition office did not respond to an interview request, but in a July 2002 interview with Newsday, Lutnick recounted his Jericho upbringing.

Jericho High grad

He was born July 14, 1961, the middle child of Solomon Lutnick, a history professor at Queens College, and Jane Lutnick, a sculptor and art teacher at the Long Island University's Brookville campus formerly known as C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University.

Howard Lutnick graduated from Jericho High School in 1979 and was inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 2005.

His mother died of lymphoma when he was 16 and a high school senior, and his father died a year and a half later, after being administered a lethal dose of chemotherapy drugs during treatment for cancer. Lutnik has said in interviews the experience of being orphaned forged a tight bond between he and his siblings Gary, and older sister Edie.

Lutnik graduated from Haverford College in Pennsylvania with an economics degree, and went on to work for Cantor. By the age of 29 he was named president of the global firm, and five years later he fought successfully for control of the company in a bitter court fight with the wife of Cantor's founder, as her husband was on his deathbed, according to news reports at the time.

On the day of the 9/11 attacks he was dropping off his son at kindergarten and was not in the office when the first hijacked plane struck the north tower of the World Trade Center, just below Cantor offices on the 103rd through 105th floors. His brother Gary, 36 at the time and a partner with the firm, was among the 658 Cantor employees who died.

"He basically would trade bonds during the day and at the end of the day spend every evening with me in my office assisting me in running the firm," Lutnik told Newsday in 2002.

Difficult decisions

Lutnik came under fire in the initial days after the attack, after he froze the paychecks of employees lost in the attack. He defended the move at the time, saying it was essential to keep the firm from immediately collapsing, and he pledged to provide financial support to the victims’ families, eventually releasing a compensation package in the weeks following the attack.

John Catsimatidis, the Manhattan billionaire who owns the WABC 770 AM radio station, told Newsday in a phone interview Wednesday that Lutnik, who was his neighbor for several years, is a "skilled negotiator, and will be a good negotiator for our country."

Catsimatidis, whose cousin John Katsimatides was among the Cantor employees killed in the 9/11 attack, said Lutnik cares deeply about New York and is a "very philanthropic person."