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Some executives have come away from meetings with the commerce secretary confused and exasperated

WASHINGTON—Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has tried to sell President Trump’s trade agenda to American companies for months. Business leaders say they are often confused about what he wants.

Lutnick has played a supersize role in Trump’s first months in office, driving tariff discussions, meeting with dozens of business leaders, appearing on television and often standing alongside Trump.

The former Cantor Fitzgerald chief executive has come to frustrate executives and senior White House officials, who have come away from interactions with Lutnick exasperated, according to roughly a dozen people who have interacted with him.

In private meetings with business leaders, Lutnick has browbeat executives to support Trump’s tariffs, while at other times expressing sympathy and telling them he wants to help their companies. Lutnick has taken contradictory positions on key issues, including on whether certain imports should be exempted from tariffs, executives say.

Lutnick, 63 years old, is running point on Trump’s disruptive and combative trade agenda, which has rocked the stock market and unsettled governments around the world. When Trump unveiled his far-reaching tariffs last week it was Lutnick standing next to him in the Rose Garden, holding the large chart that explained the punitive measures against dozens of countries. It will also be Lutnick attempting to manage the economic fallout, Trump aides say, amid growing predictions that Trump’s trade agenda could tip the U.S. into a recession.

Frustration with Lutnick is spilling over into public view as the stock market plummets, with hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman, a Trump ally, criticizing him on social media. The irritation at Lutnick partially reflects the challenge of representing a president known for making last-minute policy U-turns.

Lutnick has been responsible for several of the administration’s most unorthodox ideas—some of them unvetted by staff—and his TV appearances have proven so challenging to White House officials that he was asked to curb them last month, according to senior administration officials.

He has openly mused about wanting to run for elected office himself, people who have spoken to him say.

Trump has asked why Lutnick is at the White House so often, and he has grown frustrated with his commerce secretary at times, advisers said, particularly when Lutnick grows emotional in White House meetings. White House officials said he is at the White House more than any other cabinet secretary.

“Secretary Lutnick has always been a staunch defender of President Trump’s America First agenda, and his immensely successful private-sector career makes him an integral member of and communicator for the President’s trade and economic team,” said Kush Desai, a White House spokesman. “The entire Trump administration is playing from the same playbook—President Trump’s playbook—to restore American Greatness from Main Street to Wall Street.”

Benno Kass, a Lutnick spokesman, declined to comment.

Lutnick, who has long been an associate of Trump’s on Wall Street, frequently touts his relationship with the president, telling associates they once caroused at Studio 54 in Manhattan, according to people who have heard his comments. Some White House advisers say he has exaggerated their closeness.

Lutnick has hosted fundraisers for Trump in the Hamptons and he co-chaired Trump’s presidential transition team, helping to identify personnel for hundreds of open jobs across the government. In the weeks before Trump took office, Lutnick lobbied to become Treasury secretary, but lost out to investor Scott Bessent. During the transition, he clashed behind the scenes with some senior advisers to Trump, people familiar with the matter said.

He often speaks like Trump, saying what is on his mind with a New York brashness. “We are the sumo wrestler of this world,” Lutnick said on CNN last week, explaining how the U.S. wouldn’t be bullied by other nations.

“Lutnick has sent the message that he is going to amplify the message of everything Trump says and serve as an ambassador to the public of the Trump brand. The broader view is he’s amplifying Trump, not curbing him,” said Kevin Madden, a longtime Republican strategist.

Asked if that is working, Madden pointed to the stock market: “You see the Dow ticker today.”

Mangoes and lilies

Business executives have left their interactions with Lutnick wondering whether he adequately understands Trump’s thinking. Last month, Lutnick met with oil executives who were concerned about how the tariffs might be designed and wanted exemptions from Trump’s duties. But Lutnick said he didn’t want industry-specific exemptions, people at the meeting said. It would be like picking one lily from a field of lilies, Lutnick said, according to an attendee.

In the same meeting, he said there would be some exemptions on imports of products like mangoes that couldn’t be domestically produced at the level needed to meet U.S. demand, the people said. When Trump rolled out the tariff plan on Wednesday, there were no exemptions for mango imports. And Trump did give an exemption to the oil industry.

Before a call between Trump and American auto executives last month, Lutnick told the executives they needed to be supportive of Trump and not critical of his policies or antagonistic in their questions, according to people with knowledge of the call. After delaying a meeting with top automaker CEOs earlier this year, Lutnick asked them to get on a video call so he could show them he was traveling with Trump on Air Force One, people briefed on the call said.

He has repeatedly told executives that he is in charge of the tariff portfolio and that they don’t need to deal with others in the administration, industry officials say. Lutnick often dominates the calls with long riffs, people on the calls say. At times, some executives say, Lutnick has been aggressive on calls.

At one point, he told steel executives that he wanted to help push through a deal for U.S. Steel to be bought by a foreign company. But later, he said he no longer could help make the deal happen, frustrating some involved, according to people familiar with the matter.

Those who have observed him say Lutnick has a knack for telling people what they want to hear.

In meetings with senators ahead of his confirmation, he sometimes delivered conflicting messages about trade. If a senator expressed concerns about tariffs and local industries that could be hurt, Lutnick told them not to worry about it, the people said. Tariffs are going to be used sparingly and would be targeted. In meetings with more Trump-aligned senators, he praised tariffs and stressed how important they were, people familiar with the meetings said.

Lutnick has told associates he joined the government out of a desire to help the president, noting that he could afford to leave his lucrative private-sector job because he has already amassed vast wealth.

The night he was confirmed, he threw a party at his opulent Washington mansion, complete with a putting and chipping green, a heated pool, a floor-to-ceiling wine display and a spa. He bought the house for $25 million from Fox News anchor Bret Baier.

‘Like President McKinley’

At a reception with executives last month, Lutnick said he came up with the idea for the Department of Government Efficiency and encouraged Trump to be more expansionist “like President McKinley,” a person who heard his comments said. Trump has mused about acquiring Greenland, taking back control of the Panama Canal and making Canada the 51st U.S. state.

People close to Trump have sometimes been annoyed by Lutnick’s propensity for proposing ideas to the president that haven’t yet been vetted, according to three White House officials.

White House aides grew frustrated when Lutnick went on television and called for eliminating income taxes for those making under $150,000 a year. White House staff later learned that he had talked about the idea at a private dinner with Trump, and the president seemed to like it, officials said. Members of Congress flooded the White House with questions: Was this going to be a new policy? It wasn’t, White House aides assured them.

White House staffers were also stunned when Lutnick went on Fox News in February and said the administration wanted to abolish the Internal Revenue Service. Several Trump aides said Lutnick hadn’t seemed to think through how the public might interpret the commerce secretary calling for the closing of the IRS in the middle of tax season.

Lutnick has promoted the idea of a “gold card,” which would grant wealthy foreigners permanent U.S. residency for $5 million. Lutnick said the idea came out of a call between Trump, investor John Paulson and himself. Some in the White House have privately raised concerns that the idea is unworkable or potentially violates the law, but Trump loves the cards, which are emblazoned with his face. Lutnick has said he is already selling them.

He has weighed in on topics far afield from commerce, particularly on immigration, senior administration officials said.

Trump so far seems to be sticking by him. As the president flew on Air Force One to Florida late last week, Lutnick appeared with Trump during a question-and-answer session with reporters.

“The tariffs give us great power to negotiate,” the president said. “They always have.”

Lutnick had put it differently one day earlier during a televised interview: “The president is not going to back off,” he said.

Johnson, GOP leaders urge House holdouts to back Senate-passed plan

WASHINGTON—House Republicans’ moves to advance President Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” this week have been cast into doubt by defections from GOP lawmakers worried that spending cuts are being pushed aside in a rush to enact tax reductions.

Republican leaders want to vote on a fiscal framework that would unlock a fast track to legislation carrying many Trump priorities, including tax cuts and new spending on border security and the military. Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) are hoping to show progress on extending expiring tax cuts to counteract the market chaos sparked in recent sessions by Trump’s tariff rollout.

“The American people are counting on us, and failure is not an option,” Johnson and GOP leaders wrote to lawmakers, emphasizing the importance of moving the process forward and insisting that the House won’t let the Senate dictate the text of a final bill.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump directed the House to pass the Senate measure quickly, saying it “will make, even the subject of World Trade, far easier and better for the U.S.A.”

But just when Trump needs Republicans to stay united, the House GOP conference is fracturing, endangering the prospect of quick action.

Republican opponents already have more than enough declared “no” votes to block the House from passing the version that came out of the Senate on Saturday. They argue that the Senate version fails to lock in enough spending cuts alongside tax cuts and that pushing it forward now risks unacceptably large budget deficits. Republicans control the House with a 220-213 majority, meaning they can’t afford to lose more than three of their own members on any legislation if all Democrats vote no.

Johnson has faced this kind of math before, and his playbook is clear: Have Trump lean on wavering House Republicans and promise critics a bigger say in the next phase, when final legislation is written. That general approach worked three times already this year—once to get Johnson re-elected as speaker, once on a short-term spending bill and once on the House version of the fiscal framework.

There are reasons to think this time could be different, despite top Republicans being eager to demonstrate progress before a two-week congressional break.

The opponents of moving ahead now aren’t just the members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus such as Reps. Andy Harris (R., Md.) and Chip Roy (R., Texas). They also include lawmakers such as Reps. Lloyd Smucker (R., Pa.) and David Schweikert (R., Ariz.), who are concerned about budget deficits—and aren’t the usual obstacles for House GOP leaders.

On a conference call Sunday of House Republicans, Smucker argued that he couldn’t back the Senate measure because it would add to deficits, according to people on the call. Instead, he pushed for the party to secure agreements to find specific savings ahead of time, which he said they would need to send to the Senate to pass before he would sign on.

Rep. Andy Ogles (R., Tenn.), a member of the Freedom Caucus, said on X: “Make no mistake, the Senate budget resolution is everything but America-first.”

Rep. Ralph Norman (R., S.C.) told reporters Monday that he is a no on the budget resolution and he expects more than a dozen other Republicans to be in that camp as well. His remarks came before Johnson was expected to meet with the Freedom Caucus, of which Norman is a member, late Monday in an effort to get naysayers onboard.

The House and Senate must both pass the same version of a budget resolution—the fiscal framework—before they can advance a bill that dodges Democrats and the Senate filibuster. That track is likely the only way Republicans can extend all of the Trump tax cuts expiring Dec. 31, add other ideas such as Trump’s proposed “no tax on tips” and reduce spending.

The House version, passed in late February, called for at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over a decade, largely from the committee that handles Medicaid, the health insurance program that covers more than 70 million people, including children and people with low incomes or disabilities. It would permit $4 trillion in tax cuts and even more if the spending cuts exceeded $1.5 trillion.

Conservatives were willing to accept that $2 trillion-plus gap between spending cuts and tax cuts, citing expectations of faster economic growth. Moderate GOP House members grumbled about potential Medicaid cuts but pushed the plan forward.

The Senate version kept the House’s numbers as targets for House committees but included different and much more lenient targets for Senate committees, creating a mismatch instead of confronting the House-Senate disagreement. The Senate plan would lock in $4 billion in spending cuts and would allow more than $5 trillion in tax cuts.

Senators say they are actually aiming for $2 trillion in spending cuts but set those far lower floors because they were aiming for maximum flexibility. They are mindful that failing to hit a minimum target would imperil the procedural fast track. Some House members worry that the Senate will produce a take-it-or-leave-it bill down the road with deadlines looming and that they will lose the chance to secure spending cuts if they don’t force changes now.

The Senate backed its maximum-flexibility approach on a 51-48 vote after an overnight voting session, with Republicans Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine voting no along with Democrats. Other Republican senators—Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska—used amendment votes to express concerns about Medicaid cuts.

Heading into the week, Johnson also appeared like he was going to be squeezed by his own party on an entirely different matter. House Freedom Caucus members were threatening to shut down the floor if Johnson didn’t block a push by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R., Fla.) to establish proxy voting for new parents.

Johnson announced a proposed deal Sunday, which would include “vote pairing” that essentially allows a member to offset an absence by forming a pair with a member on the opposite side of an issue who votes present.

Commission urges U.S. to invest at least $15 billion in biotech research and other measures, and to bar work with Chinese firms that pose national-security risk

China is moving fast to dominate biotechnology, and the U.S. risks falling behind permanently unless it takes action over the next three years, a congressional commission said.

Congress should invest at least $15 billion to support biotech research over the next five years and take other steps to bolster manufacturing in the U.S., while barring companies from working with Chinese biotech suppliers, the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology said in a report Tuesday.

To achieve its goals, the federal government and U.S.-based researchers will also need to work with allies and partners around the world.

“China is quickly ascending to biotechnology dominance, having made biotechnology a strategic priority for 20 years,” the commission said. Without prompt action, the U.S. risks “falling behind, a setback from which we may never recover.”

The findings convey the depth of worry in Washington that China’s rapid biotechnology advances jeopardize U.S. national security. Yet translating the concern into tangible actions could prove challenging.

Last year, the House passed with overwhelming bipartisan support a measure, called the Biosecure Act, that would bar companies that receive U.S. government funds or contracts from doing business with a list of Chinese organizations and companies of concern. But the bill never passed the Senate.

Meantime, the commission is calling for collaboration with organizations and researchers overseas, as well as billions of dollars in new investment, while the federal government cuts grants for public health work overseas and health spending.

Sen. Todd Young (R., Ind.), the chairman of the commission, expressed confidence Congress will act on the recommendations, though it will involve persuading lawmakers to move resources to American biotech as a matter of protecting national security.

“This area, as we have emphasized, needs a lot more attention. So we would advocate the shifting of our priorities from some current areas of research into biotech and very quickly,” Young said.

China plays a large role supplying drug ingredients and even some generic medicines to the U.S. For years it produced copycat versions of drugs developed in the West. Recent years have seen it become a formidable hub of biotechnology innovation, after the Chinese government gave priority to the field as a critical sector in China’s efforts to become a scientific superpower.

Now, Western venture-capital firms are investing in promising Chinese biotech startups, and Western pharmaceutical giants such as AstraZeneca, GSK and Johnson & Johnson are buying and licensing drugs discovered and tested in China.

Last December, for example, Merck & Co. struck a licensing deal, worth $112 million up front and up to $1.9 billion if milestones are met, with China’s Hansoh Pharma to develop and sell an experimental pill that could compete in the white-hot obesity market.

“Initially it was how to do shoes and sneakers faster and cheaper and better. Then it was how to build iPhones faster and better. Now it’s how to build biotech and AI faster and better,” said Paul Zhang, a partner at Bluestar BioAdvisors, which advises drugmakers on commercial strategies, including seeking business in China.

Congress established the biotechnology commission in 2021 to review how biotech and other technologies affect national security, and to make recommendations to preserve America’s dominant position. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress serve on the panel, along with leaders from industry and academia and former government officials.

The 215-page report said China’s growing ascendance in biotech threatens more than American medical advances, because the technology could give China advantages in other fields such as agriculture or even have military applications.

“Our objective here is not to out-China China. It’s instead to harness the very best of our innovation ecosystem from the private sector to our research, universities and labs to our broad and deep capital markets so that we can be prepared for this biotech-related defense challenge,” Young said.

The commission expressed concerns about China “weaponizing biology” if it gained an advantage by restricting access to cutting-edge technologies, as it has done with certain rare-earth minerals.

Among the report’s recommendations are barring firms that work with U.S. national-security agencies and the Department of Health and Human Services from using Chinese companies that pose a national-security threat.

The commission recommended creating a National Biotechnology Coordination Office within the office of the president to develop a national biotechnology strategy.

It asked Congress to create a roughly $1 billion fund that would invest in technology startups that strengthen national security. It also asked Congress to work with private companies to build plants to make products important for defense needs and to fund the government’s development of a network of manufacturing plants.

The total of at least $15 billion in funding would cover costs associated with the recommendations, including $5 billion to pay for biotech research that industry was unlikely to pursue on its own.

The commission also recommended creating a center to support research and a centralized online location to access high-quality data, in an effort to make the U.S. the world’s preferred partner for biotech research and ensuring it is used responsibly.

“While we have led in the past, we have not done so alone. We need to work together with our partners and allies to deliver on the benefits of biotechnology while also preventing misuse,” the commission said.

US government debt sells off as hedge funds cut down on risk

10-year Treasury yields jump most in almost three years

US government debt sold off sharply on Monday as hedge funds cut back on risk in their strategies and investors continued shifting into cash during a third day of acute tumult on Wall Street.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield jumped 0.19 percentage points on Monday to 4.18 per cent, the biggest daily rise since September 2022, according to Bloomberg data. The 30-year yield jumped 0.21 percentage points, the biggest move since March 2020. Yields rise when prices fall.

Monday’s drop in Treasuries — ultra-low-risk assets that typically shine during periods of market turbulence — highlights how US President Donald Trump’s announcement last Wednesday of steep tariffs against trading partners continues to reverberate across Wall Street. Equities fell sharply on Thursday and Friday, shedding $5tn of market value, but investors had initially sought refuge in Treasuries.

Market participants said the declines in the $29tn Treasury market on Monday reflected several factors, including hedge funds cutting down on leverage — or borrowing used to magnify trades — and a broader dash for cash as investors sheltered from swings in the wider market.

Gennadiy Goldberg at TD Securities said the move reflected “an ‘everything, everywhere all at once’-type trade”. He added: “Multisector funds are trying to deleverage, which leads to a ‘sell everything’ trade.”

Investors and analysts pointed in particular to hedge funds that took advantage of small differences in the price of Treasuries and associated futures contracts, known as the “basis trade”. These funds, which are large players in the fixed-income market, unwound those positions as they cut back on risk, prompting selling in Treasuries.

“Hedge funds have been liquidating US Treasury basis trades furiously,” said one hedge fund manager.

The moves were not limited to hedge funds. Investors across the board sold Treasuries to raise cash, with one fixed-income trader pointing specifically to traditional asset managers.

“I think investors are moving to cash and cash-adjacent assets to weather this market volatility,” said Ed Al-Hussainy, senior rates analyst at Columbia Threadneedle Investments.

“The simplest explanation (for the move in yields) is investors selling what they can and hunkering down. Selling equities now will lock in losses so the lowest-hanging fruit is to raise cash by selling Treasuries,” said Al-Hussainy.

The hedge fund manager who attributed the moves in yields to the basis trade said the scale of the broader hedge fund selling was “destroying” liquidity — or the ability to easily buy and sell assets — across Treasuries, high-grade corporate bonds and mortgage-backed securities.

“There’s massive deleveraging going on, any source of liquidity is being tapped,” the person said.

Panama to file criminal complaint over canal concession

Move comes hours before visit by Pete Hegseth as US raises pressure over Chinese influence on waterway

Panama’s government on Monday said it would file a criminal complaint against local executives of a Hong Kong company that runs ports at either end of its famous canal, as the country comes under intense US pressure over alleged Chinese influence in the waterway.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to retake control of the Panama Canal, the 110-year-old crossing that handles about 5 per cent of global maritime trade, alleging that a concession for two ports held by Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison posed a national security risk.

Panama’s comptroller announced the criminal complaints, which were the result of a three-month forensic audit, at a news conference on Monday just hours before US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth was due to arrive in the country.

Auditor Anel Bolo Flores alleged the contract held by CK Hutchison’s subsidiary was “abusive” and resulted from a renegotiation that was highly unfavourable to the Panamanian state, causing it to lose $1.3bn in revenue.

Flores said his team would present criminal complaints in the coming days against company and government officials involved in the renegotiation. They would have to “explain to the Panamanian people and the prosecutors why such magnanimity, why such benevolence in a contract that has been abusive to say the least”, he said.

A BlackRock-led investor group last month offered to buy CK Hutchison’s ports division, which holds the concession, in a deal worth $22.8bn. Chinese authorities are reviewing the transaction, casting doubt on whether the bid will succeed.

However, BlackRock chair Larry Fink on Monday said he was optimistic the deal would get done despite Chinese objections.

“I’m pretty confident. The Panamanian ports only represent 4-5 per cent of the total valuation of the whole enterprise,” he told the Economic Club of New York.

The auditor’s announcement is a boost for Hegseth, who plans to attend the Central American Security Conference in Panama and is expected to meet President José Raúl Mulino on Tuesday.

Hegseth’s trip will “drive ongoing efforts to strengthen our partnerships with Panama and other Central American nations towards our shared vision for a peaceful and secure western hemisphere”, said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell.

US military personnel were visible in Panama City last week as the two countries concluded the initial phase of annual military exercises focused on the security and interoperability of the Panama Canal. The US military said more joint exercises would be held this week.

NBC News last month reported the White House had directed the Pentagon to draw up plans to potentially increase US troop presence in Panama, including an option for American soldiers to seize the waterway by force. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Panama has been reeling from suddenly becoming a US foreign policy priority. Washington’s move comes as Mulino is dealing with several domestic challenges including a sharp economic slowdown, water risks in the canal and the future of a large copper mine that it closed 18 months ago.

Mulino and Hegseth in February agreed “to expand co-operation between the US military and Panama’s security forces” and safeguard the canal, according to a Pentagon readout of the call.

Panama has also been trying to placate Trump by cracking down on migrants heading for the US via the Darién Gap, a 60-mile stretch of dense jungle between Colombia and Panama.

The first trip abroad for Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, was to Panama earlier this year. He told Mulino that Trump views “the current position of influence and control of the Chinese Communist party over the Panama Canal” as a violation of the canal’s neutrality treaty, a state department spokesperson said at the time.

Mulino and other Panamanian officials have said the canal is fully controlled by the independent Panama Canal Authority (PCA) and that the country’s sovereign control was not up for debate.

CK Hutchison has denied Trump’s criticism played a role in its decision to sell the ports and said the deal was “purely commercial in nature”.

On Friday, deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau spoke to Panama’s foreign minister Javier Martínez-Acha. The state department said the pair discussed the “importance” of the audit.

“The visit reflects how important relations with Panama have become for the US,” said Orlando Pérez, professor of political science at the University of North Texas. He added that if the audit were to find irregularities, as many believe it would, then “the pressure for Panama’s regulator to take some action against the port concessions will be significant”.

Eric Schmidt buys £42mn London mansion

Former Google chief becomes the latest in a surge of US buyers at the top end of the London property market

Eric Schmidt has bought a Holland Park mansion for almost £42mn, the latest high-profile property deal by an American buyer in London. 

The former Google chief bought 18 Holland Park, a double-fronted, stuccoed residence, last May, according to UK property records and people familiar with the matter.

One of the people said he plans to rent out the London property. 

A spokesperson for Schmidt confirmed the deal and said: “Eric invests in high-end real estate properties around the world.”

Even before last year’s US presidential election agents reported that American buyers were an increasing force at the top end in London — taking advantage of a relatively soft market and strong dollar.

Americans surpassed Chinese nationals as the largest cohort of overseas buyers in prime central London in the last quarter of 2024, according to agency Knight Frank. 

Fashion designer Tom Ford and Chelsea Football Club co-owner Behdad Eghbali both made trophy purchases in London last year.

The Italianate mansions of Holland Park lie between Notting Hill and Kensington with the streets around the eponymous park among the most expensive in the city.

The house was bought in 2022 by William “Bill” Adderley, founder of home furnishings group Dunelm, for £36mn, according to Land Registry records. Adderley could not be immediately reached for comment.

The family office for Adderley’s son Will confirmed the property had belonged to Bill but declined to comment further.

The Grade II-listed, mid-Victorian villa comes with mews houses at the back, property records show.

Since standing down as executive chair of Alphabet, the Google parent company, in 2018, Schmidt has become a tech investor and philanthropist.  

London’s market for super-prime rentals, often costing tens of thousands of pounds per week, has grown as clients seek places to live with greater flexibility and fewer headaches from maintenance and renovations. 

The top end of the London sales market has faced headwinds from increased transaction taxes for overseas buyers and changes to the non-dom tax regime, which can be used to shield overseas income and gains from British tax. 

Agents say US clients tend to be less sensitive to the changes in UK tax rules since they are generally already subject to worldwide US taxation. A tax treaty between London and Washington generally allows Americans to claim back British taxes that duplicate US levies.