'Looks and smells bad': Republicans call out Wall Street CEO’s 'totally sketchy' role in Trump campaign
Wall Street billionaire and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick has been a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, aggressively fundraising for his 2020 and 2024 campaigns. Trump has tapped Lutnick and Linda McMahon to head his 2024 transition team, with Lutnick offering input on what a second Trump Administration would look like if he defeats Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in November and returns to the White House on January 20, 2025.
But according to Politico reporters Rachael Bade and Jasper Goodman, some "Trump insiders" believe that Lutnick is "improperly mixing his business interests with his duties standing up a potential administration."
In an article published on October 23 — less than two weeks before the election — Bade and Goodman report, "The alarm among Trump's loyalists has been compounded by the belief that Lutnick has tried to sideline a host of aides and advisers who worked in the first Trump Administration in hopes of instead filling the second administration with new people who could be personally beneficial to him. The concerns were described by two people close to Trump, who said they have risen all the way to the ex-president himself."
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The reporters add, "They have prompted speculation that Lutnick might be demoted or made to report to another Trump loyalist on transition matters."
Lutnick, according to Bade and Goodman, "rejects the double-dealing allegations" and "suggests they are a smear pushed by some ex-Trump officials associated with Project 2025."
But a GOP official, presumably interviewed on condition of anonymity, describes the Cantor Fitzgerald CEO's role in Trump's campaign as "totally sketchy."
The official told Politico, "The onus is on him not to use the power in an abusive manner, and that has not been the case."
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Richard W. Painter, who served as a White House ethics lawyer during George W. Bush's presidency, told Politico, "To have a guy who is in the crypto industry picking financial regulators, I think, is an invitation for trouble." And similarly, Aaron Scherb, senior director of legislative affairs for Common Cause, told Politico, "It looks and smells bad, even if it's not outright illegal."
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Read Politico's full article at this link.
