Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
Howard Lutnick wants to have his cake and eat it, too. Then, he intends to eat your cake.
Lutnick is another billionaire corporate huckster who was a campaign bagman for Trump, and now he’s Trump’s pick to become Commerce Secretary. But first, he’s been tasked with picking hordes of corporate loyalists to be placed in Trump’s government as friendly “regulators” of corporate hucksterism.
Convenient, huh? This is what Trump & Company mean by saying they’ll make the government “efficient.” Instead of corporate powers having to lobby regulators to get special favors, corporate officials will become the regulators. That is so much smoother for Lutnick and his ilk, who look forward to four free-wheeling years of devouring our economy.
In choosing who to police corporate price gouging, workplace rules, bank rip-offs, and such, Lutnick has been calling Wall Streeters, Silicon Valley tech bosses, corporate giants, and billionaires, telling them to send their best operatives to Trump’s regime. “Let’s get them into government,” he exults!
Notice that he’s not calling any union leaders, consumer protectors, or other real public interest watchdogs.
By the way, Lutnick himself is in line to profit from the corporate feeding frenzy he’s now staffing. He is invested in everything from health care profiteers to cryptocurrency flimflams — and while he’s been doing Trump’s work, he’s simultaneously been pushing Congress to do favors for his personal holdings.
But he insists that there is no conflict of interest in his efforts. After all, he says with a straight-face, he holds his government policy meetings in separate rooms from his own business pleadings.
And that paper-thin wall of separation is Trump’s new ethical standard for protecting us from raw corporate greed.
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