President Donald Trump imposed sweeping 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imported into the United States Wednesday, a policy aimed at leveling the playing field for US manufacturing but a move that threatens to drive up prices on a broad range of consumer and industrial goods for Americans.

It’s the latest salvo in Trump’s multifaceted tariff plan aimed at correcting perceived trade imbalances and reigniting domestic industry. But it risks igniting a global trade war. The European Union, hit for the first time by higher US tariffs since Trump returned to the White House, retaliated within hours with countermeasures on US goods exports.

The tariffs on steel and aluminum mark the first time in Trump’s second term that a set of tariffs has been applied to all countries.

‘The Most Hated Guy On Wall Street’: The Unspoken Story Around Howard Lutnick, Trump’s Pick For Commerce Secretary

It’s a true, and undoubtedly inspirational, story. But Lutnick has a darker side, which emerges in court documents and conversations with people who have done business with him. For years, they say, he and his firm have been pulling money from people—clients, investors, colleagues—making Lutnick, according to one former partner, “the most hated guy on Wall Street.” His multibillion-dollar empire–which includes two publicly traded companies and a privately held investment bank—is a tangle of self-dealing, with recordkeeping issues that date back decades and infighting that continues to the present day. “The whole firm is about f——— people,” says another former employee. “It’s about squeezing people.”

Lutnick runs his firm through a partnership, but there is no doubt who has the ultimate say. Now worth more than $1.5 billion, Lutnick pays himself like a king, cutting into partnership profits. “He could do what he wanted,” says a former partner. According to a lawsuit filed last year in federal court, Lutnick made employees take 10% to 20% of their pay in partnership units, which sounded nice but caused problems when the employees tried to get their money out. Agreements allegedly gave Lutnick sole authority to stiff former partners whom he believed violated broadly defined non-compete provisions. An estimated 40% did not end up with all their money after departing, according to the lawsuit, which says it was all part of a scheme to fool employees and enrich Lutnick. “He only pays if he wants to pay you,” says another former colleague. Lutnick’s companies have moved to dismiss the suit.
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Cantor Fitzgerald interfaces all sorts of federal agencies and departments, raising obvious conflict-of-interest concerns. But while the Trump team considers people for agencies like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which fined Lutnick’s firm $6 million for bad record keeping in 2022, it seems likely that Lutnick is just plowing ahead, without worrying too much about complaints from ethics watchdogs. “He only cares about himself,” says one former employee. “Trump is president for his own personal gain. Howard Lutnick runs his business in the same way. These guys are peas in a pod.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2024/11/20/the-most-hated-guy-on-wall-street-the-unspoken-story-around-howard-lutnick-trumps-pick-for-commerce-secretary/