Howard Lutonic, a wealthy donor to President Trump to lead the Ministry of Commerce, defends Trump's plan to impose a wide range of tariffs, and will sell technical sales to China in a hearing session on Wednesday. He said he would take a tough posture.
When confirmed, Lutonic will lead a trade policy and supervise a wide range of portfolios in government programs, technology, and science. He told the Diet that he supported the “entire” tariff that collides with the whole country, not a specific product, to comparable to the US business relationship.
He believed that tariffs on China should be “the best,” but said that Europe, Japan, and Korean governments used the United States in trade. He said that American farmers, ranchers, and fishermen were “rude and treated around the world.”
“We need to end that rude. I think customs duties are a way to create mutualism, fairly handle, and treat them properly,” he said. Lutonic also claimed that tariffs would not cause inflation, but many economists say that tariffs are often given to consumers at least in a higher price.
Lutonic, in which China's recent progress in artificial intelligence, said that it would take a tough attitude to monitoring the technical sales department to China and back up US exports along with the threat of tariffs. He stated that the recent AI technology, released by Chinese emerging companies Deepseek, was supported by Meta's open platforms and chips sold by US company NVIDIA.
“We need to stop helping them,” he said about China and said, “I will be very strong about it.”
META's Spokesman said that various AI models were used to build a DeepSeek model, and that the META's open source AI platform LLAMA is not one of them.
Lutnick also tried to walk on a cautious line to help the United States to return semiconductor production from Asia to the United States when the Congress was created by Congress in 2022. Lutnick plays an important role in supervising the program created by a program known as The Chips Act.
Trump has recently been critical of the program and has been wasted money, despite the origin of the Trump administration. Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing companies agreed to build a chip factory in the United States in 2020 after providing promises for subsidies by Trump officials. The members later expanded their subsidies, including other companies. Last year, TSMC was awarded $ 6.6 billion from the Biden administration.
Mr. Trump said with Republican members on Monday evening, not to give them a subsidy, but threatened them with tariffs to bring companies to the United States.
“We want them to return to them, and we don't want to give them billions of dollars, like Biden's ridiculous programs,” said President. “They already have billions of dollars. They have only money, Joe.”
Lutonic said in a hearing on Wednesday that he supported American chip production and explained the chip program as “necessary and important.” However, he has repeatedly stated that he has “researched” the program and has refused to fully work on respecting the legal contracts that have already signed the government.
“I can't say what I haven't read,” he said.
As the head of the Ministry of Commerce, Lutonic will be in charge of a government program that is very upset in the business and technology field.
The Ministry of Commerce, which has 51,000 workers and a budget of $ 11 billion, restricts overseas business profits, restricts exports of technology to protect national security, and subsidies to the semiconductor and the broadband industry. I am in charge of providing it. We also supervise the US census, patents, weather forecasts, fisheries, and the development of world technical standards.
Trump also stated that Rutonic also led the government's trade policy, including supervising a US trade representative office. The agency technically reports directly to the President and Congress.
Lutonic has supported Trump's economic vision, stating that lower corporate taxes, reducing regulations, increasing oil production, and increasing tariffs will help charge the US economy. Lutonic explains that he is also part of Trump's efforts to eliminate some of the federal government, and that he is a powerful and cost reduction effort behind the so -called government's efficiency. Masu.
Lutonic, a long -standing donor to Trump, has recently become a major economic advisor and helped led his transition team. Lutnick is the highest executive and chairman of the Wall Street securities company Cantor Fitzgerald, and has a leading position at the NEWMARK Group, a commercial real estate company with another securities company. LUTNICK promised to resign when confirmed.
Congressmaker and Vice President JD VANCE, who appeared short in hearing, explained that they promoted Lutnick's personal story and had a great success in the adversity. Lutonic lost his parents by the age of 18 and became Cantor chairman at the age of only 35. Born in Long Island, he lost most of his brothers and Cantor Fitzgerald employees under the attack of the World Trade Center on September 11.
Through Cantant and his other companies, Lutonic has won the holding and executive jobs in various companies in a stunning various companies. Last week, Lutonic's financial disclosure has shown that he has more than 800 companies or has previously performed his duties and has at least $ 800 million.
For Mr. Trump and his supporters, Lutonic's wealth and business success is a strong qualification to the role of Secretary of Commerce. However, the Democratic Party states that Lutonic's economic relationships are considered more skeptical, and that they can question the ability to put Americans before themselves and former business partners. 。 At a public hearing, they asked Rutonic about his economic connection, especially Cantant Fitzgerald's investment in cryptocurrency companies.
In a letter addressed to Lutonic on Monday, Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic Party of Massachusetts, is called “known facilitator of criminal acts, which is said to be” my favorite “. The tool said it provided funds to Mexico's drug cartel. , Terrorist Group and North Korean nuclear weapon program.
Warren wrote to Lutonic, “I will ask you an important question about your personal judgment and if you are confirmed as the Secretary of Commerce.” 。
In his hearing, Lurtonic denied the custods and tethers' fraud, saying, “Criminals are blaming Apple because they use Apple phones.”
“It's just a product,” he said. “We don't choose the US Treasury because the criminals use dollars.”
Senator Amy Club Cur, the Democratic Party of Minnesota, asked Lutonic about the connection of business with Greenland. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Lutonic had economic interests in Greenland mining through Cantofitzgerald. Cantor invests in a company called Critical Metals Corp, which proposes Greenland mining metals and minerals in 2026.
Mr. Trump repeatedly proposes the purchase of Greenland, an autonomous territory in the Demark Kingdom. Both Denmark and Greenland say that territory has not been sold.
