Howard Lutnick, the CEO of financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, explained in an exclusive interview Thursday on FOX Business’ “Mornings with Maria” why he’s backing former President Trump’s economic agenda over that of Vice President Kamala Harris.
“He will drive down the cost of energy, and he will drive down corporate taxes, which means they will build factories here, bring back farming. Tariffs will protect our farmers. Manufacturing will employ our people and energy will drive down our costs,” Lutnick told host Maria Bartiromo.
“We have oil, we have farmland, and we have incredible people who can do our work for us,” he continued. “And we’re just killing them by supporting China and not putting tariffs on. It’s got to end, and Donald Trump is the only person talking about this thing.”
The CEO expressed his support for Trump’s proposed 60% tariffs on Chinese goods and a universal 10% tariff on all imports, but more so spoke out against Harris’ multiple tax hikes.
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Among the policies listed on Harris’ website include quadrupling the tax on stock buybacks, imposing a 25% “minimum” tax on wealthy households and increasing taxes on capital gains and dividends for households making more than $1 million from 20% to 28%.
“Kamala Harris discusses a transaction tax, putting literally a tax on the ability of American companies to raise money. Imagine doing that. That’s crazy,” Lutnick said. “But what it sounds like is a good way to make money: hey, let’s just trade less stocks and we’ll put a tax on it. But what happens is, it gets in the way of companies raising money to build themselves. It’s how you crush economic growth.”
The prominent business leader gave an example that a healthcare start-up company with a $200 million valuation would owe the government $50 million under Harris’ 25% unrealized capital gains tax.
“You will literally kill the venture capital business. You will literally kill the innovation business in America. No venture capital, no Amazon, no Google, no Microsoft, millions of employees gone. Why? Because all they do is stare at Elon Musk’s money and want to seize it. ‘Look, he’s got unrealized capital gains,’” Lutnick explained.
“You can’t say you’re trying to innovate when you’re trying to destroy innovation in America. And that’s what she’s trying to do.”
He further praised the tax record under Trump’s first administration: “The key save of America for COVID was that Donald Trump lowered the corporate tax rate, so all the American companies who made money overseas, who left it overseas because they didn’t want to pay tax, can now bring it back. And he brought back trillions. And that was amazing for America.”
Lutnick is a strong proponent that market investments can build a pathway towards financial freedom, as Cantor Fitzgerald-owned BGC Group also launched the FMX Futures Exchange to challenge competitors like CME.
“We opened on Tuesday, so we’re just beginning. We’ve got six accounts, and I mean the biggest accounts in the world, trading so far. And then every day, we’re going to add a couple more,” he said.
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FOX Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.
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