(Zero Hedge)—Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (former chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald) appeared on the All-In podcast to discuss everything from President Trump’s transition team to creating DOGE with Elon Musk, fixing GDP, the tariff strategy driving the ‘America First’ agenda, immigration ‘Gold Cards,’ government software strategies, and much more.
All-In’s Chamath Palihapitiya and David Friedberg joined Lutnick in the White House in a long-form podcast (something Democrats consistently struggle with) to discuss his three-decade relationship with Trump and how he ultimately found himself in politics, backing the president.
Lutnick highlighted his role in leading Trump’s transition team and offered behind-the-scenes insight into creating DOGE with Musk:
So I’m in the car with him [Trump]… And I said, “We’re going to balance the budget.” And I said, “I have one favor to ask of you If we can balance the budget for you – will you agree to wave all income tax I see for every person who makes less than $150,000 a year for the United States of America, which by the way is about 85% of America.
And the reason you want to work for Donald Trump is he looks at me, he goes, “Sure.” You realize the president of the United States said, “If you balance the budget, sure.” And he’s not lying. He’s not kidding. He’s like, “Yeah that seems that seems like a great idea.” Right and so and then I tell him “Okay I’m going to go recruit Elon because Elon’s all in…”
Here are the highlights from the conversation:
- (0:00) chamath and friedberg welcome commerce secretary howard lutnick!
- (1:10) howard describes his 30+ year relationship with president trump and his road from business to politics
- (14:44) running trump’s transition team, doge origin story, what it’s like working for trump (38:01) balancing the budget and fixing gdp
- (52:21) tariff history and strategy, global trade
- (1:10:34) trump cards, building better government software, ai thoughts
- (1:22:49) sovereign wealth fund strategy
- (1:37:16) how his family reacted to his new role
Full interview here:
all-in takes dc part 2!@chamath and @friedberg sit down with @CommerceGov secretary @howardlutnick for another long-form interview
— insights from running trump’s transition team
— creating @DOGE with @elonmusk
— fixing gdp
— tariff strategy
— how to sell 1m+… pic.twitter.com/mfmCdxhQvG
— The All-In Podcast (@theallinpod) March 20, 2025
This was one of the most entertaining and scoop-filled interviews from All-In.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
