Lutnick, 63, was confirmed in a 51-45 vote by the full Senate. He will oversee and provide guidance on a large swath of President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda and will play a key role in shaping the course of U.S. trade policy in the coming years.

Lutnick, who is married with four children, was the chairman and CEO of financial services giant Cantor Fitzgerald. He joined the firm right after college and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming president and CEO of the firm in 1991. He was named chairman of the board just five years later.

The billionaire businessman, who is a graduate of Haverford College, faced questions ranging from tariffs to artificial intelligence during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. During the hearing, he emphasized the administration’s desire to build out domestic manufacturing and compete with China, while fixing trade imbalances with other countries.

The hearing itself was generally cordial and even lighthearted at times — a stark contrast from the confirmation hearings of Trump’s other more controversial cabinet picks, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, who faced aggressive questioning from some lawmakers. During the hearing, Lutnick gave short and concise answers.

When asked about specifics on tariff policy, he often highlighted Trump’s executive order ordering research to be done into how to best implement the tariff agenda and said he was awaiting the results of that research.

Trump has vowed a much more aggressive tariff regime for his second administration. On the campaign trail, Trump teased 10% to 20% across-the-board tariffs and 25% tariffs on Mexico in Canada designed as a stick to coerce the two allies into stopping the flow of illegal immigrants and fentanyl into the U.S.

In recent weeks, Trump moved to impose the tariffs on Mexico and Canada, but delayed them after negotiations. He has also imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, and said that he will impose tariffs on any countries that apply tariffs or non-trade barriers to U.S. goods.

“Our trading partners in Canada and Mexico, they should end it and stop disrespecting us and allowing this to come through our borders,” Lutnick said.

Trump has also pushed for Congress to pass the Reciprocal Trade Act, which allows the president unilaterally to impose tariffs of equal size of any tariffs placed by other countries on the U.S. Of note, freshman Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) has already introduced legislation to that end.

“We need to be treated with respect, and we can use tariffs to create reciprocity, fairness, and respect,” Lutnick said during the hearing.

One of the more poignant moments during Lutnick’s confirmation hearing was when he recounted Sept. 11 attacks.

Cantor Fitzgerald’s corporate headquarters was located on several floors near the top of Tower 1, and every single employee who came to work that day was killed in the attack, 658 in all, which made up more than 68% of the firm’s total workforce. Lutnick’s brother, Gary, was among those who died.

Lutnick recalled that the only reason he survived was that he was taking his son to his first day of kindergarten rather than going into the office.

“As you can imagine, the pain we suffered with Gary and 657 of my other friends and colleagues at Cantor Fitzgerald were killed on 9/11,” Lutnick told lawmakers, choking back tears. “I still can’t say it without getting emotional, sorry.”

His company raised $180 million for the families of those who died over the next five years.

Lutnick also faced questions about AI and how to compete with China. The hearing came just days after a Chinese company called DeepSeek unveiled a new AI model that it claims performs on par with U.S. models produced by OpenAI — but at a fraction of the cost.

The release sent domestic chip producers like Nvidia into a tailspin, with its stock having plunged 15% in the five days leading up to the hearing. It has since recovered.

“We need to drive our innovation and we need to stop helping them. You know, open platforms — Meta’s open platform let DeepSeek rely on it. Nvidia’s chips, which they bought tons of, and they found their ways around, drive their DeepSeek model. It’s got to end,” he continued.

Lutnick said it is “nonsense” to think that DeepSeek did everything above-board in developing the technology and said the U.S. must stay in the lead when it comes to global AI competitiveness.

Lutnick also told lawmakers he takes a “very jaundiced view” of China.

“I think they only care about themselves and seek to harm us,” he said. “And so we need to protect ourselves. We need to drive our innovation.”

Lutnick succeeds former President Joe Biden’s Commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, and will take over from Jeremy Pelter, who has been serving in an acting capacity since Trump was sworn in.

Trump’s Commerce secretary during his first term was Wilbur Ross. During a recent interview with the Washington Examiner, Ross predicted that Lutnick will run into less Republican opposition to the administration’s tariff policy within Congress than during Trump 1.0.

“This time, I don’t think there are that many so-called free-traders left in the Congress,” Ross said. “Last time, frankly, we had more trouble with some of the Republicans than we had with the Democrats.”