JOSH DUNLAP@JDunlap1974
🚨 BREAKING : Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s secret plot gets exposed: His family placed corrupt bets against Trump’s tariffs from the very start!
You can’t make this stuff up. While the rest of us suffered, they were scheming to make a fortune.
Just hours after the Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, outrage exploded over who stands to profit from the ruling: the family of Trump’s own Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick.
Before joining the administration, Lutnick ran financial giant Cantor Fitzgerald for three decades. When he entered government, he handed control to his sons.
Publicly, Lutnick championed Trump’s tariffs. Privately? His family’s firm reportedly bet millions that those same tariffs would be struck down.
Reports published in mid-2025 indicate that Howard Lutnick's former firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, is offering to buy the potential tariff refunds of companies. While Lutnick, now the Commerce Secretary, vocally supports the tariffs, his sons now run Cantor, which is effectively betting on the tariffs being ruled unlawful.
The details of the arrangement
What is being purchased: Cantor Fitzgerald is buying the rights to receive potential refunds for tariffs that companies have paid.
How it works: These rights are effectively a bet on the outcome of a legal challenge. If the courts ultimately rule that the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration were illegal, the companies would receive a refund. By buying the rights, Cantor Fitzgerald is able to collect that refund if and when it is issued
