Why The Cabinet Secretary Trump World Loves To Hate Isn’t Going Anywhere

When President Donald Trump has decamped to Mar-a-Lago during his second term, there's one Cabinet secretary who's joined him every single time. It’s the same man that the president summons to his table for ice cream sundaes most Friday nights to gossip and replay the week; the same man who was his first call to float some outlandish ideas, including annexing the Panama Canal and creating a $5 million “gold card” visa.

That man is Howard Lutnick. Yet talk to almost any Trump ally outside the White House and you’ll hear scant praise for the Commerce secretary. He's brash and impulsive, catering to Trump's worst instincts on tariffs that could jeopardize the economy, they whisper. His loud mouth is equally matched by his bad judgment, they steam. And he’s on the outs, his job hanging by a thread — or so the Trump orbit rumor mill goes.

But there’s more than a little wishful thinking among Lutnick’s detractors. While their knives have been out for Lutnick for months, some closest to the president say he’s not going anywhere — at least for now. His long, close relationship with the president — what Lutnick refers to as his “superpower” — has protected him amid the chaos of Trump world, even after the chaotic rollout of the president’s “Liberation Day” tariff policies that might have doomed any other Commerce secretary.

“They’re very simpatico on a lot of things. The president trusts him,” said one White House official, who, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to speak freely. The official dismissed the Lutnick haters as merely being jealous: “I think the discontent lies with people who are out of the loop.”

Trump and Lutnick’s relationship goes back at least three decades and spans both good times and bad. They became well acquainted at charity events around New York City and bonded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center that left 658 of the one-time Cantor Fitzgerald chief’s employees dead, including Lutnick’s 36-year-old brother. When Lutnick was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma cancer in 2021, Trump frequently called to check on him while he underwent chemotherapy.

And Lutnick excels at the two things Trump arguably values most: loyalty and money. When Trump turned into a pariah after Jan. 6, 2021, Lutnick still flew down to golf with him in Palm Beach. During rocky parts of the 2024 campaign, people close to Trump say Lutnick “stuck by the president” even on the grimmest days. Not to mention, he’s one of Trump’s biggest donors. He donated more than $10 million to Trump’s re-election, raising an additional $75 million for him by leaning on his Wall Street connections.

Indeed, it’s hard to imagine Trump firing a longtime friend like Lutnick, when he wasn’t willing to fire national security adviser Michael Waltz over Signalgate or Boris Epshteyn, the Trump loyalist who was accused by his colleagues on the transition of trying to shake down would-be Cabinet nominees, offering to promote them for money. (Epshteyn, who denied that report, isn’t working in the White House but isstill working to advance Trump’s interest on the outside.) Given the close relationship, Trump allies think it would take some sort of major scandal to topple Lutnick.

Of course, that relationship could suddenly sour, as has happened with plenty of Trump officials over the years. Many Trump allies are openly trash talking him to the boss, hoping he gets canned. What’s more, those who have worked with Trump say the time could come where he needs a fall guy on the economy — and who better than the man who has become the face of the messy, unpredictable tariff rollout?

A spokesperson for Lutnick declined to comment. White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement for this story, “As usual, the media is obsessing about palace intrigue from anonymous sources who aren’t even in the administration instead of focusing on President Trump’s historic action to address our country’s national emergency of persistent trade deficits.” Desai called Lutnick “an asset” for “President Trump’s all-star trade and economic team.”

But as long as Lutnick sticks around, Trump has a key ally and, per Lutnick critics, a sounding board who won’t curb his most reckless instincts. His detractors say he marches into the Oval Office and tells Trump whatever he wants to hear rather than providing an accurate accounting of possible blowback, although Lutnick defenders say that’s not true.

“People are going to shit talk. The president likes the secretary, and that's all that matters,” said an administration official who defended Lutnick.

For all the kvetching among others close to Trump, Lutnick is the one who has a regular ice cream date with the president.

Trump world’s favorite target

Despite Lutnick’s favored status with the president, he has had his fair share of mishaps since he quit the private sector and joined the Trump team. And the controversy has become particularly intense in recent weeks with Lutnick as one of the most public faces in the Trump administration’s trade war.

The issues began during the transition, when Trump’s inner circle chafed at Lutnick’s constant presence at Mar-a-Lago and complained that he appeared to mix private and official business, allegations he denied. Meanwhile, people in the broader Trump orbit began blaming Lutnick for not getting administration jobs.

Many of those allies took their problems with Lutnick straight to Trump. Some Trump insiders predicted Lutnick may get fired. Instead, he landed in the Cabinet.

Lately, White House officials have fingered him for high-profile fumbles on tariffs. Case in point: Who’s to blame for tariffing the penguins? Lutnick. A White House official said the Commerce Department handled making the graphics used in the announcement that included tariffs on a slew of largely uninhabited territories officials say were not supposed to face separate levies.

White House officials cringed when Lutnick suggested Social Security beneficiaries wouldn’t complain if they missed a check. Ditto when he said in March, as Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement loomed, that Americans should “absolutely not” brace for an economic downturn, and suggested “the army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones” would soon be Americans. (A person close to Lutnick says those comments were taken out of context.) Lutnick has even gotten out in front of the president at times, for instance, previewing a suite of auto tariffs on television that he wasn’t supposed to.

The recent blunders sparked another wave of gossip in Trump world that Lutnick was booking himself on television appearances without permission from the White House — and that top officials wanted him benched from TV.

Lutnick has also drawn criticism from business leaders desperate for certainty, many of whom say it’s been impossible to get straight answers from him on tariffs — or that even when he gives guidance, Trump contradicts him.

Billionaire hedge fund investor and longtime Trump supporter Bill Ackman in a post on X earlier this month even accused Lutnick of profiting from the tariff fight. (He later apologized for the remarks.)

Lutnick defenders dismiss the criticism as coming from frustrated allies who don’t want to blame Trump and are searching for a scapegoat. And it’s true Trump is the one driving the train on tariffs, often changing his mind and making Lutnick’s job — and that of his entire administration — more difficult.

Still, the negative narrative surrounding Lutnick is intensifying. This weekend, Lutnick went on ABC “This Week” to announce that carve-outs of electronics including smartphones and computers from the administration’s sweeping 145 percent tariff on China were only temporary, with semiconductor tariffs coming at a later date.

Almost immediately, members of the Trump orbit started complaining that Lutnick was once again freelancing, with the crescendo of protests making its way into the media. There were even rumors that he had gone on the show without getting the permission of the White House — assertions White House officials told POLITICO were false.

In fact, the president, Lutnick and other administration officials had ironed out the strategy earlier that weekend. They feared a Monday morning stock market boom following the electronic exemptions news — one that would then tank when investors learned about semiconductors levies coming later. Better to provide clarity sooner rather than let the stock market set off on another rollercoaster of a week, they figured.

Plus, Trump was furious about the narrative crystalizing in the media that he was “caving” in the trade fight with exemptions — a word he has come to hate, according to people close to him.

“What Howard said, literally, was what was written on the talking points sheet that we send to all our Sunday show surrogates,” the White House official said. “He adheres to the talking points and what we want out there. None of us have an issue with what he says. And if there was, we wouldn’t be booking him on a Sunday show.”

Two and a half hours after the Lutnick rumors began to surface over the weekend, Trumptook to Truth Social to back up his longtime New York pal.

‘He knows I love him’

The reasons Lutnick has survived, insiders say, all go back to his close personal relationship with the president.

The two men are of a similar mold: In-your-face, wealthy New Yorkers — at times written off by the city’s high society elite — who regularly put their foot in their mouth instead of mastering the polished niceties of Washington. Indeed, what many Trump insiders hate about Lutnick, the president actually appreciates, some say.

In a recent episode of the “All In” podcast, Lutnick gave a vivid accounting of their shared histories, including when Trump once invited him to be a special guest on “The Apprentice” and how Trump “still tortures” him for donating to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. (“He's just sassing me, okay? Because I gave him tons of dough. He knows I love him,” Lutnick said.) He joked that when they were young, Trump would pressure him to go out at night on the town.

“We’d chase the same girls, okay?” he said, going on to gush that Trump was “the most famous, the most fun, the most interesting person.”

While the nearly two-hour podcast showed how alike the two men can be, the episode was illuminating for another reason: It demonstrated why so many people in and around Trump’s administration loathe him.

During the episode, Lutnick boasted about how vital he has been to Trump 2.0, claiming credit for all sorts of ideas he says he pitched that Trump adopted, including: nudging Trump to choose a chief of staff like Susie Wiles (“She’s perfect for him”); the fast pace of Trump’s nomination process (“I was the recruiter in chief… I swear to you, I can be the greatest headhunter ever to live.”); helping execute on Trump’s gold visa and giving legs to the Panama Canal push; and coming up with the term “External Revenue Service,” Trump’s reference to the money he hopes Uncle Sam will recoup from tariffs.

He even tells an elaborate story in which he came up with the concept of DOGE, claiming he pitched the idea of what would become the Department of Government Efficiency on a long car ride with Trump one month before Election Day. (On that, too, he clashed with the rest of the administration: His proposition to have DOGE cut $1 trillion has been vastly scaled back to $150 billion due to other officials’ concerns about cutting Americans’ benefits.)

Lutnick, at least, appears aware of his own self-importance. He bragged on the podcast that he bought Fox News host Bret Baier's home for $25 million "so I have a nice house big enough for my ego to expand.”

But many around Trump are warning Lutnick shouldn’t get too comfortable in that mansion. Everyone in Trump’s world, they say, is dispensable — especially if you have no other friends. And Lutnick has spent little time making allies in Washington, instead investing only in his relationship with Trump.

“Everybody’s safe until they’re not,” said a White House ally.

Trump, the person said, is well aware no one but him would be upset if Lutnick got the boot.