Howard Lutnick

Rule Changes

Kessler reports directly to him

A U.S. investigation into whether Nvidia AI chips were being smuggled to China through Singapore stopped moving at the Commerce Department in late 2025. The pause followed contact from Nvidia's general counsel to the agency that oversees chip export controls.

Updated 2 days ago

Force in Play

Tasked with determining which countries face Cuba-related tariffs

The United States has imposed economic pressure on Cuba for 64 years. Now, for the first time, Washington is threatening to punish any country that sells oil to the island. President Trump's January 29 executive order creates a tariff mechanism targeting third countries that supply Cuban fuel—a significant escalation that goes beyond traditional bilateral sanctions to coerce allies and trading partners into joining an energy blockade. The strategy has proven devastatingly effective: Cuba's national power grid collapsed entirely on March 17, 2026, leaving approximately 10 million people without electricity and triggering street protests across the island, the most visible civil unrest in years. Partial restoration occurred on March 18 after 29 hours, but the blackout deepened shortages of food, medicine, and water, including the vandalization of a Cuban Communist Party provincial office in Morón. On March 21, Cuba blocked a US Embassy request to import diesel for generators, escalating diplomatic tensions amid ongoing rolling blackouts.

Updated 4 days ago

New Capabilities

Participated in approving the GPT-5.6 public release

ChatGPT's chat window has run GPT-6 since October 7, two days before GPT-5.6 reached the public. On October 16, OpenAI added parallel agents to GPT-6 Pro: the model can split one task across several agents working at once, and Pro users can follow each one's progress in the conversation.

Updated Oct 25

Money Moves

Named by the New York Times as the architect of the Japan co-investment arrangement

Japan will put up as much as $21 billion for two chip factories in Malta, New York, with GlobalFoundries as the operator. The first plant is due to start production in 2029 and would add about 900,000 wafers of annual capacity.

Updated Oct 25

Built World

Credited tariffs with enabling the project

President Trump announced a $15 billion steel mill for Lee County, Iowa, on September 29 with executives from India's Essar Group. He called it the largest steel plant in American history and credited his steel tariffs for making it possible.

Updated Oct 17

New Capabilities

As of July 2026: Confirmed Commerce Department lifted export controls on June 30 after the government worked two weeks with Anthropic on safety improvements and 'alignment with the U.S. Government'

Anthropic restored Claude Fable 5 globally on July 1, 19 days after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick ordered its suspension. The company built a new safety classifier, developed with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, that blocks the cited jailbreak in more than 99 percent of cases. Lutnick confirmed the government spent two weeks working with Anthropic to ensure 'alignment with the U.S. Government.'

Updated Jul 6

Money Moves

As of July 2026: Sponsor affiliate behind the deal

Securitize turns funds and bonds into tokens that live on a blockchain. On July 1, 2026, it closed a merger with a shell company backed by Cantor Fitzgerald and cleared the way to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SECZ.

Updated Jul 1

Rule Changes

As of June 2026: Commerce Department under his oversight issued the export control directive that forced Anthropic to suspend Fable 5 and Mythos 5

Trump signed a voluntary framework on June 2 asking frontier labs to share their newest models with federal agencies for up to 30 days before release. Within ten days, the government had gone further. A June 12 export control directive forced Anthropic to kill worldwide access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5, its two newest models, after the government said it had found a jailbreak in the more capable one.

Updated Jun 26

Money Moves

As of May 2026: Leading US trade and semiconductor policy

The United States produced 37% of the world's semiconductors in 1990, but by 2024 that share had fallen below 10%, with Taiwan manufacturing over 90% of the most advanced chips. A $500 billion US-Taiwan trade framework was initiated with a January 16, 2026 memorandum and formally signed February 12.

Updated May 21

New Capabilities

As of May 2026: Overseeing CHIPS Act renegotiation and MEP program dismantlement; facing bipartisan Senate criticism

In early 2026, America's AI manufacturing strategy is fracturing. The Trump White House released a National AI Legislative Framework on March 20, 2026, asking Congress to preempt all state AI laws. California, Colorado, and New York have pledged to keep enforcing their own rules and are preparing court challenges.

Updated May 18

Rule Changes

As of May 2026: Facing pressure to justify and operationalize the H200 licensing framework

The Trump administration just did the thing Washington has spent years swearing it wouldn't do: let China buy a near-top-tier Nvidia AI chip again. Now a China hawk in Congress is demanding the Commerce Department explain, in detail, why this isn't a strategic own-goal.

Updated May 15

Rule Changes

As of May 2026: Overseeing Gold Card rollout and selling it as a revenue and talent magnet.

Donald Trump is now literally selling a fast track to America. His Trump Gold Card program lets wealthy foreigners buy expedited U.S. residency for a $1 million "gift" to the government, plus a $15,000 processing fee. A corporate option costs $2 million per sponsored worker.

Updated May 11