Commerce Secretary Lutnick's Family Ties to Tether and Rumble Raise Ethics Questions

Howard Lutnick was confirmed as Commerce Secretary in February 2025 after transferring his stake in Cantor Fitzgerald to trusts benefiting his children, a move ethics trackers say still left him with more identified conflicts of interest than any other cabinet member. Cantor Fitzgerald manages reserve assets for Tether, the stablecoin issuer headquartered in El Salvador, and had separately arranged a $775 million Tether investment in the right-wing video platform Rumble.

Reporting later found that a trust benefiting Lutnick's children received an undisclosed loan from Tether around the time of the ownership transfer, which ethics lawyers said could undermine the purpose of his divestment rather than resolve it. As Commerce Secretary, Lutnick helps shape trade and technology policy affecting the same crypto and foreign-government-linked firms his family remains financially tied to.

The administration has defended the arrangement as compliant with ethics requirements. Critics, including former ethics officials cited in later New York Times reporting, describe the overlap between Lutnick's official role and his family's financial interests as unusually deep for a modern cabinet secretary.