world. >> it is interesting that howard lutnick answered that question at the pressure. with -- presser, talking about reciprocity this is bullish, i don't know if stocks went down because of that or not. i think that is a bullish answer. steve moore, coming back to other matter, there is still a lot of rangelling -- wrangling going to president not made up his mind, looks like republican senate wants to delay tax cuts to second reconciliation bill. looks like the house not so much. there ison is only 2 vote, i don't know how many bites out of apple you get, plbless you for sneezing, they should make up their mind that point one, and point two, i don't know why they can't do one huge reconciliation bill a tax cuts, border, you know, you name it. defense that will go in there. permitting for liquid gold, i do don't f understand why they can't do it at once. >> donald trump is so popular. he has a political capital, that i have not seen since ronaldrat reagan came in, do you not want a delay, you want to side the moment, i think -- you want to seize the moment, i think the

larry: i think it's interesting as griff jenkins reported that howard lutnick answered that question at the presser and i didn't know this, with talking about reciprocity. which i think is very bullish. i mean, i don't know if stocks went down because of that or not but i think that's a bullish answer. but steve moore, coming back to the other matter, there's still a lot of wrangling going on. president has not made up his mind. it looks like the senate, the republican senate wants to delay the tax cuts into a second reconciliation bill. looks like the house not so much. there's only two votes -- 217-215 in the house. i don't know how many bites outt of the apple you're going to get. bless you for sneezing. really, they ought to make up their mind, they ought to make up their mind, that's point number one. and point number two, i don't know why they can't do one huge reconciliation bill, tax cuts, border, you know, you name it, defense, permitting for liquid gold. i just don't understand why they can't do it all at once. >> well, especially larry because right now donald trump is so

vote for howard lutnick?as my full support. i had a great meeting with him yesterday. this is somebody that has not only -- wants to rebuild the country. he built his own country back after being destroyed in 9/11. he lost 658 employees just down the street from where you are, maria. in new york on 9/11. he loves our country. he wants to unleash our economy. and he's done it in new york. he's done it around the country. he's going to do it for our whole country now. for north carolina and coastal states that have a marine oriented business, he wants to make sure we protect noaa. noaa has a horrible whale rule that would shut down the marine and boating industry. he wants to get rid of rules like that and work on things that would help protect and grow our industries including for coastal states things like the marine and boating industry. maria: we'll leave it there. senator, we'll be watching your work. we appreciate your time. thank you, sir. >> thanks, maria. maria: all right, senator ted budd. stay with u

elon musk, vivek ramaswamy, howard lutnick, warren stevens, jared isaacman, steve wycoff, kelly leffler, leaving out musk, their net worth is over $11 billion. musk himself has moved above 400 billion. these people earned is this money, they are successful in their line of business, repeat line of business, that's important because it points out the capitalist nature of this administration, you don't see any socialist or activists in this lineup, they've made their mark, they are largely self-made and are loyal to trump and his policies. many have given generously to trump's presidential campaign. musk gave over $250 million, warren stevens, ambassador to great britain gave 25 million. linda mcmahon nominated to be education secretary, 24 million, howard lutnick, kamala's secretary, $13 million. the left is apoplectic about this. they say we are just are plutocracy, this is the rule of the billionaires, they bought their way into the government and are manipulating it to their own ends. that's the way the socialists see things, business is bad, profit is immoral and success only comes o

going to howard lutnick and president elect trump on trade and tariffs yesterday in mar-a-lago. take a listen, it'll go on for a bit, but it's very interesting. >> the president has very clear agenda for tariffs, and i think reciprocity is something that is going to be a key topic for us. how you treat us is outrebounded you should expect to be treated. >> it's reciprocal, if they tax us, we tax them the same amount. >> think tariffs might hurt the stock market rise and the economy more broadly? >> i didn't have any inflation and i had massive tariffs on a lot of things. 1890s, 1880s and take a look at tariffs, we were at our proportionately the richest. larry: listen, i was a young researchers for mckinnley and not as well as i hoped. okay, so the point is if they tax us, we'll tax them or reciprocity, if they bring their tariffs down, we'll bring our down and essence of trump indian tariff policy, reciprocity and i'll read very quickly, china tariffs are more than twice as high as american. brazil tariffs are more than 3.5 times higher than american tariffs and india tariffs a

howard lutnick spent almost $14 million on donations.le donated at least $359 million to republican candidates and super pacs in the last two years. that's a pretty staggering total in the big money post-citizens united era of politics that we're in. for comparison, we did not find any political appointees from the biden administration. in the trump first term, we found linda mahon. there is still a distention here. trump's pick to ambassador to the uk donated more than $25 million this cycle and biden's ambassador to the uk was also a top donor for him. she spent $645,000 for democrats that cycle. dramatic increase here compared to the trump first term. frank. >> megan, interesting reporting. top donors get plum ambassadorships. is this potentially going to become an issue for confirmations? is this an issue for the trump cabinet picks? >> reporter: what this highlights is something we have been talking about this week is the high net worth of the individuals. i wouldn't expect that donations alone come up in confirmation hearings becau

howard lutnick won't be selling shares in the open market, so it is possible he could transfer sharesight will have to sell about $40 million in stock in liberty energy and scott bessent will likely step down from his hedge fund. since musk and ramaswamy are not members of the cabinet, they are not bound to the same laws. dom, this is going to be interesting to watch given the conflict of interest rules and how they divest and handle assets. of course, going forward, how they handle potential conflicts of interest. >> robert, can you take us through the mechanics again? if they have to divest the financial interests they have at their respective companies and funds, what do they do with the money if you are not going to put it in a family or family trust or some other trust instrument? >> reporter: if you actually sell the assets and divest, you have to put it in an approved investment which is typically treasuries or vanilla index on index fund. there is publicity. they do pay capital gains taxes, they are deferred, not avoided. for now, that could be a benefit for these people if th

. >> during the trump transition, howard lutnick did not say the top qualification to be part of the trump administration is impeccable credentials, number one was loyalty to trump. is this, christopher wray stepping down and kash patel moving in, the framed portrait of trump 2.0 dj t first? >> yes. i do want to point out, trump did say that kash patel is the most qualified nominee to leave the fbi in history. so, i think that is true. i think it is very much the case that we have seen this pattern across the proposed nominations and across all the decisions he is making, that loyalty is the predicate to what he is doing. there is an actual test being applied to people, how did you feel about 2020, was it stolen or not? i think, at the end of the day, if you are christopher wray, all else aside, why do you want to go through, i get that he is someone that serves the country, but why do you want to go through that? now he can spend the next month trying to find a job and he does not have to go through donald trump jump on him for the next month. that aspect can it lost in this convers

but donald trump's transition leader howard lutnick predicted that his boss won't tax imported goods which there are no american-made alternatives. >> tariffs are an amazing tool by the president to use. they're an amazing tool. but he understands don't tariff stuff we don't make, right. if we don't make it and you want to buy it, i don't want to put the price up. >> reporter: but maybe trump has no intention of imposing the tariffs for real. maybe he is playing a strategic game, tariffs as negotiating tactics. >> tariffs give you tremendous power over countries when they're doing bad things, including war. >> tariffs can be used as a threat and a bargain chip. and sometimes if you're really credible, just making a threat of a tariff is enough to bring another country to change a policy in a way you desire without your having to impose the tariff in the end. >> reporter: in the end, when the government wants to achieve some economic or geopolitical goal, it can use all different kinds of tools. accordng to economics professor doug erwin, tariffs are a powerful tool too. they're just

is there, howard lutnick, kelly loeffler and other distinguished guests.ve of the owner of the new york stock exchange, kelly loeffler, with trump. thank you, john, tiana and cheryl. stuart picks it up. he's going to be all over this

john sebastian cabot said minister leblanc had a positive meeting at mar-a-lago with howard lutnick as the prime minister and donald trump last month. i want to transition if we are going to talk about american expansion, i love the instinct by trump, greenland, canada, panama. if it makes sense for the united states. talk to me about var panama canal. what is it about china and the role they are playing that has trump's attention? >> two things, china, chinese companies like hutchison which is hong kong-based, hong kong is just another chinese city that beijing exit wished press freedom. you have these chinese companies that operate the ports of the canal that we built at great expense and great cost of life, lots of people died of malaria. that is the concern, owning a superporch in peru, extending its tentacles into our southern hemisphere and all so basically panama is charging tariffs, exorbitant fees for ships to transit the panama can now. sometimes these fees can go as high as $400,000 during ordinary times and the next ordinary times $4 million, they have to be corrected. will

privatizing the ball of wax "washington post" reporting trump has been in contact with incoming howard lutnickservice lost 10 billion dollars last year lost a hundred million since 200 declining first class mail volume down to a billion pieces last year sounds like a lot, but the lowest since 1968 this came to a head postmaster general went to capitol hill got earful did not like it. >> you said you are not -- you cannot give yours that grade. >> i just did. >> can't. >> i am trying to fix -- often your watch with all the chaos. >> on a my watch the same stuff, in all the a.i. all computer systems picked up mail delivered two mile down the road that is you i hope you -- >> i like to put hands over ears sometimes the big controversy electric vehicles now getting postal service "washington post" reporting supposed to have 3,000 right now. according to their report only 100 delivered, we reached out oshkosh the cr told us we are on track according to ramp up to full rate production, in 2025. we will be at full production in 2025. uh -- a lot of problems at the service but worth noting they delive

we saw, like, the sort of contra temps between scott bessent, treasury secretary nominee, and howard lutnicktary nominee, as they were vying for that treasury secretary position. scott ultimately was named -- liz: but, but elon was siding with lutnick, and he didn't come out on the winning end -- >> right. and remember what i reported after that, fives are out for lutnick at that point. lutnick annoyed a lot of people, including the j.d. vance contingent of the kitchen cabinet. so you can see the sort of demarcations being drawn between camps here. it's t never a good thing when you have that. and, you know, this is, you know, elon is not an elected official. he's not even -- he's an adviser, and he literally almost, you know, sort of put the nation's budget in jeopardy for a couple, for a while, you know what i'm saying? that's, like, pretty remarkable. although you've got to ask yourself if he's president, that would be remarkable. a guy from south africa who's de facto president? if. [laughter] liz: i doubt donald trump will allow that. >> you don't think -- liz: he is very much the one i

let's go to howard lutnick and president-elect trump on trade and tariffs yesterday at mar-a-lago. take a listen it will go on for a bit. it is interesting. >> the president has very clear agenda for tariffs. i think reciprocity is something that is going to be a ky topic for us. how you treat us is how you should expect to be treated. >> weigh in on that. >> reciprocal, if they tack tax us we tax them the same amount. >> are you con s certained that tariffs might hurt. >> make -- i didn't have any inflation, his massive tariffs. you go back and look at 18 90ss, mckinley, you take a look at tariffs, that was when we were at our the richest. larry: i was a research for mckinley. the point is, if they tax us we'll tax them. or reciprocity, if they bring their tariffs down, we will bring our tariffs down, that is essence of trumpian. i will read china tariffs are more than twice as high as american tariffs, praz brazil three and a half times as more. and india 5 times as high as american tariffs. world trade organization does not do a darn thing about it. i ask you jackie, there will

caroline: now we are leaving donald trump, who is discussing howard lutnick.had discussed tax cuts that were promised. also asked the current president to stop selling border wall parts. he's seeking a restraining order , basically criticizing the administration selling border wall parts, he says. fighting what he called the federal worker returned to office waiver. he name checked vivek and musk. and he discussed stopping the war ukraine. also want to go back to the business that was announced by the ceo of softbank. the founder came on to talk about the $100 billion that will be invested into the united states over the next four years. he in fact said he would try to make it even bigger. let's get to mike sheppard. let's focus first on the tech side of all of this. it's dÉjÀ vu. we saw half of the amount promised and they are set to have been delivered by masa back in 2016. mike: it's an echo of what we saw eight years ago when he made that promise at trump tower of an investment of 50,000 jobs. as peter discussed earlier, he largely made good on that. trump

howard lutnick said he will step down from his three companies and divest shares in the publicly tradedwon't be selling the shares on the open market so perhaps he could be transferring them to sol kind of family trust or trust. chris wright will have to sell about $40 million of stock in his company, liberty energy. scott bessent could step down from his hedge fund. there could be a key man risk there. maybe he unwinds that, unclear. since musk and ramaswamy are not formal members of the cabinet, they are just advisers, they are not subject to the same laws. we're going to see a lot of reshuffling of assets, perhaps divestitures, a lot of questions about what happens to capital gains taxes with the sales in the coming months, certainly after january. guys. >> how does it stack up, robert, do you know, against, for instance, the biden cabinet, which i know we're not talking about billions necessarily, but millions, right? >> the biden cabinet had an estimated total net worth of around $100 million, which sounds like a lot. when you compare that to the incoming trump administration, wher

he has been talking with howard lutnick how to do it.stal service anymore. as you point out. 9.5 billion last year to be exact. $1 hundred billion since 2007 in losses because volume has decreased. 44 billion pieces of first class mail last year. the lowest since 1968. had a testy exchange. listen. >> you do not get an a grade. you can't get yourself that grade. >> i just did. >> you can't. >> i'm trying to fix the postal service. before my watch the same stuff happened. >> with all the a.i. and computer systems. you picked up the mail and delivered it two miles down a road with a horse. that's you. i hope you got that on camera. >> oh, yeah, they got it on camera. i would love to do that myself sometime. the other thing under the microscope is these new vehicles. the electric vehicles made by oshkosh defense to replace the aging vehicles behind me here at the postal office in philadelphia. controversy over it. they are behind schedule but the company says no they are not telling fox business we're on tract with our contract obligations

i look forward to my conversation with howard lutnick later today. on wrda, last night the house of representatives overwhelmingly passed the 2024 water resources development act, named this year in honor of our dear retiring friend, senator carper, who's been a champion of this bill for so long. wrda is one of congress's most important bills for water infrastructure projects carried out by the u.s. army corps of engineers. the bill passed with resounding bipartisan support -- 399-18 -- in the house, with all democrats in favor. this year's bill also includes reauthorization of the economic development administration and several regional commissions, making critical investments in infrastructure, workforce, and supply chains that will help the u.s. outcompete the rest of the world. this bipartisan bill passed out of the epw committee earlier this year with unanimous support. the senate is now working on a path to get wrda and the eda package cleared through this chamber. it is my hope we can act on these bipartisan bills as soon as possible. reauthor

. >> senate majority leader chuck schumer is meeting with howard lutnick today.from new york and the pick for commerce secretary. schumer called him intelligent and capable man, sandra. >> sandra: chad pergram with the latest on that, john. >> john: let's dig in deeper with this and other issues with mollie hemingway, fox news contributor. joni ernst may be coming around on pete hegseth but we don't know if she has a gas gapped up for the moment giving him the benefit of the doubt. the only holdout on the republican side could be collins and lisa murkowski who said this yesterday. listen here. >> i had a good exchange with mr. pete hegseth. >> are you ready to support him? >> i had a good exchange and we will see what the process bearers. >> what do we need to learn? >> well, he's got probably half of the senate that he will visit with. he has a process that is going to involve full vetting through the administration and ultimately a community. >> john: she is not a know that doesn't appear to be a "yes" at this point neither. >> we are hearing from senate contex

according to the washington post he's talked with his incoming or potential income howard lutnick aboutand saying he doesn't think the company or the postal service should be subsidized anymore, as you point out they lost a lot of money but they have a big mandate, take a look at the numbers, 167 million addresses that is mandated and must deliver to. half a million career employees, 31000 properties owned and leased around the country but it delivers 44% of all of the world male, pretty impressive, you mentioned 100 billion and i mentioned the 10 billion those are the losses in the postmaster general was on capitol hill last week and he got a near full from from republican congressman from georgia and louis dejoy appointed he's a republican during the trump administration. here is the exchange quite amusing. listen. >> you do not get an a grade, you cannot give yourself that grade. >> i just did. >> i'm trying to fix the postal service. >> before my watch the same stuff. >> all the a.i. with the computer systems your worse if i took a horse and picked up the mail delivered 2 miles down

howard lutnick and mcmahon are here on the hill. >> martha: thank you very much, aishah hasnie, veryeresting times as we watch these nominees try to build relationships ahead of the hearing process which will begin in a couple of weeks. thanks. despite billions in taxpayer dollars to the pentagon and military intelligence it seems no one knows who is flying the drones here in new york and over new jersey. how is that impossible? there are a lot of them up there in the sky. whose are they? what are they doing? congresswoman nicole malliotakis says after the chinese bible in incident there's no -- for this reason people are demanding answers. >> you can see how low they are. it's like right above the trees. i think i counted about three. here comes another one. they seem to also follow each other. they go in the same direction. i'd like to take a moment to address my fellow veterans, because i know so many of you have served our country honorably. one of the benefits that we as a country give you as a veteran is the eligibility for a va loan, for up to 100 percent of your home's value.

we heard from the senate majority leader chuck schumer saying he plans to meet with howard lutnick todaye more controversial pix.

standing next to scott bessant, howard lutnick. pam bondi. kelly leffler, his ag pick. he was all on the floor, celebrating donald trump ringing the bell and what is going to be a new era of donald trump's economy. >> you wrote a whole book on trump's rise. you studied him and we heard from him at the stock exchange again laying out a plan for the economy. >> i think you're going to see some good days ahead. a lot of incentives. last time, we took it probably from close to 44, 45% down 21. everyone said that was impossible. it was always my, i really wanted to get it down to 15 and will be able to do that. i think we're going to really incentivize the country to go back and work and they will be incentivized. they're going to do well. they're going to be happy. >> it is quite a moment. he's ringing the opening bell on the new york stock exchange. he has the time cover person of the year behind him, but knowing him, studying him the way you have, does history tell us this will be a moment he reads or potentially overreads as empowering? >> well, for donald trump, the rec

howard lutnick, almost $14 million.y secretary spent $3 million in the last two years. so together these top ten donated at least $359 million in this cycle. a staggering amount really even in this sort of post citizens united era of big money politics that we're in. and for comparison, we did not find any political appointees in the biden or the obama administration that donated more than a million dollars in one cycle and even in trump's first term, we found two, linda mcmahon and betty devos who led the education department. and you say that healthy donors are awarded with ambassadorships, but trump's biggest donor was warren stevens, he's headed to the u.k., he spent more than $25 million for republicans this cycle and for comparison, biden's biggest donor among ambassadors went to the u.k. and she spent about $645,000. so more money than we're using to seeing in an administration like this. >> what explains it? >> i think it is a reflection of a couple things. one, it is who is running this government that it is a

sent some cabinet ministers to come down to meet incoming interior secretary burgum as well as howard lutnickary on the department of commerce. what do you see the canadians doing, what's the message to cab da -- canada in terms of helping rather than hurting our efforts in the united states? >> it's the same as mexico not exactly to the same extent as what we've had to deal with mexico. obviously, illegal immigration with on the southern border a little bit different. but, canada, you have to clean up your act, not let people transverse through your country into the united states of america to the point that we have illegal immigration and gotaways. you know, we have the propensity in america because of what's taken place on these borders to literally have battalions of chinese soldiers in the territories of the united states of america. why? because our neighbors have allowed people to transverse through there and let them into our country without a real mechanism for tracking those individuals. that comes to an end for us to be safe, secure and prosperous and combat those that are aggresso

the washington post reports when transition can co-hair howard lutnick tried to block boris from if attendingar-a-lago meeting, epstein used his forearm to push lutnick out of the way. the president's son is eric said this on the ingram angle. >> my father's been incredibly clear, you do not, you do not do that under any circumstance and, believe me, there will be repercussions. if it's true, you know, the person will probably no longer be around. howard: the internal review made an initial recommendation that boris be removed from trump's inner circle and not employ filed any trump outlets, but given epstein's firm denials, that remains to be seen. i'm howard kurtz and this is the "mediabuzz." ♪ howard: donald last night picked longtime ally kash patel who has a wealth of government experience to replace his own a appointee, chris wray, in running the fbi. patel, who wants to shut down the bureau's to washington with headquarters, targeted the media just last year. >> we will go out and find the conspirators not just in government, but in the media, yes. we're going to come after the people

think about the economic folks he's put in, scott bessent, howard lutnick, even inside the west wing,assett and jamison grier, these folks are powerhouses, these are the people who will get the economy back on track, doing something about the bidenflation and the cabinet that the president is putting forward i think it's notable just how talented and qualified they are. we've never had an incoming administration like this, red i do hit the ground running. you look at the way forward, leaders are coming to visit president trump the way that everybody's taking note of him essentially resuming the presidency. he's ready to go on day one, we talk about the executive orders that will be put in place with regard to securing the border and drill, baby, drill. we've never seen anything like it. maria: is he s seriously considering replacing pete hegseth with ron desantis. >> it's going to be president trump that's picking the next dod secretary, not cam cam so ks so it will be someone that will respect our country, respect our military, make sure we keep our country and people safe, not being

crypto in addition to commerce secretary who we just saw in the first conference with trump, howard lutnickho is entrenched in crypto and donald trump himself and his family via way of world liberty financial and also through trump media djt are also involved heavily in social networking and crypto and payments and so forth. we are going to have a lot of momentum and i don't see any challenges to the crypto universe in the united states going forward it's a question how quickly can congress work in order to frame the regulatory infrastructure that we've asked for and needed for a number of years to allow this to go forward. everybody inside of the white house in the leadership in congress as well in the senate and the house and in addition to that you have concerns as was laid out during the discussion with trump and regarding tariffs in inflation and so forth. bitcoin in particular is seen as a deflationary asset and hedge against inflation therefore there is another reason to go ahead for the individuals and now are starting to talk about larger institutions and nationstates and states go

outgoing democratic majority leader chuck schumer met with howard lutnick.trump's commerce secretary nominee as an intelligent and capable man, and homeland security nominee -- homeland security secretary nominee kristi noem has already met with two democrat, the outgoing homeland secured he chairman peters and another key democrat senator pass end. republicans are reacting to this maga pressure campaign that has been launched against them to try to confirm every trump nominee. senator tillis today warning that could backfire. >> they may be making a long-term a mistake. if they are not careful. once you've attacked somebody and they vote no, it is very easy for them to vote no for the remainder of a congress. so that should be kept in mind. >> for now, the trump team does not have any hard nos in the senate, which they feel very, very good about, and we will let you know if we see hegseth come through and bring you any news that he makes as he does. john? >> john: aishah, keep your head on a swivel, you're going to need it, obviously. let's bring in jason m

washington post reports trump has been discussing the idea with his nominee for commerce secretary, howard lutnickn struggling financially for years. since 2007, the agency has lost more than $100 billion. postmaster general louis dejoy recently came under fire on capitol hill. >> sir, do not get an a grade. you cannot give yourself that grade. i just did you you can't on your watch service with all the i am i watch the same stuff happened all the i with all the computer systems. you are worse than if i took a horse to yourself and picked up the mail and delivered it two miles down the road. >> that's you. the u.s. postal service is currently in the process of updating its fleet of mail cars and modernizing its processing system, with holiday season in full swing. >> attorney general rob bonta is in san francisco issuing yet another consumer alert. ag bonta was at glide memorial church today offering tips and resources on how to donate safely and avoid scams while giving this holiday season, so some of the tips include checking the registration status of charities and professional fundraisers. don

and that is part of the playbook for 2018 you throw scott bessent no the mix, howard lutnick in the mixthere is market sensitivity. that's important because that's where the major volatility story has been on the bond market side of things, not the equity market side of things that's the assumption and it's a negotiating tool they won't take it to the degree laid out in the campaign season, but i don't know you don't know we don't know. >> fair. >> so, yeah. so i think the market could be that dampening influence on some of those potential extremes, but we're all at the mercy of the unknown as we head to january 20th. >> that's all fair it is. let's broaden the conversation bring in adam parker and our senior economic supporter steve liesman. among the -- adam is a cnbc contributor, by the way. steve, among the unknowns is what the fed is going to do after tomorrow because i think we can all agree that the consensus is that you are going to get another cut but then kind of all bets are off. so hawkish cut is that baseline, you think, for tomorrow >> yeah, for sure. i think that's what i

trump has been discussing this idea with his nominee for commerce secretary, howard lutnick. postal service has been struggling financially for years. since 2007, the agency has lost more than $100 billion. postmaster general louis dejoy recently came under fire on capitol hill. >> do not get an a grade. you cannot give yourself that grade. >> i just did you you can't on your watch service with all the i am i watch the same stuff happened all the i with all the computer systems. >> you're worse than if i took a horse to yourself and picked up the mail and delivered it two miles down the road. >> the u.s. postal service is currently in the process of updating its fleet of mail cars and modernizing its processing system. in federal court in los angeles today, a former fbi informant pleaded guilty to lying about a bribery scheme involving president biden and his son, hunter. alexander smirnov has been an informant for the fbi, had been for more than a decade in 2020, when he falsely told his fbi handler that ukrainian energy company burisma had paid the bidens $5 million each as

howard lutnick has been tapped to be the next commerce secretary, co-chair of the trump transition. saw the mention there of cryptocurrency. that's about one very specific thing that's worth hearing. his firm, the trump transition co-chair, the guy who will be trump's nominee for secretary of commerce, his wall street firm, is up to its neck like more than $80 billion up to its neck in one particular crypto firm that is reportedly now the subject of a major federal criminal investigation and it's also reportedly potentially on the hook for being subject to sanctions by the u.s. treasury department. this is reporting from the "wall street journal." "the criminal investigation run by prosecutors at the manhattan u.s. attorney's office is looking at whether the cryptocurrency has been used by third parties to fund illegal activities, such as the drug trade and terrorism and hacking. the treasury department meanwhile has been considering sanctioning the company, tether, because of its cryptocurrency's widespread use by individuals and groups sanctioned by the u.s., including the terrori

from linda mcmahon, and howard lutnick, to doug burgum, steven feinberg, jared isaacman, and kelly loeffleronaires on the official cabinet will have a combined net worth of over $13 billion. now that is not including, of course, elon musk, or trump's new billionaire ambassadors. the centi-millionaires, and possible billionaires, depending how you count your wealth, includes scott bessent, dr. oz and chris wright. one thing i guarantee none of those people ever had to buy their own [ bleep ] groceries. [ light laughter ] they are probably the only people in the world who do believe trump invented the word. "you mean those stores that sell all of that loose food? [ light laughter ] i thought those were just poorly lit restaurants." hey, i'm not surprised donald trump is picking billionaires. i'm just surprised that if you are a billionaire, you would say yes to spending the next four years getting yelled at by a fake garbage man. i mean what all in exchange for a tax break that you will never even notice. if i was a billionaire, you know what i would do? nothing. [ light laughter ] i mean, i

you know, howard lutnick, who is the donald trump's pick for commerce secretary? subsidiaries of his companies also use foreign workers. so this is something that is somewhat prevalent throughout the folks that trump has picked to run his administration. >> john, i'll be curious to see if that changes. sara murray, thank you so much for sharing this reporting sara. >> all right. ahead, senator mitt romney says the signs are clear. the gop now belongs to maga, who he says will lead the movement in 2028. and what that means for the next four years and beyond. and the legal strategy for luigi mangione are his lawyers planning an insanity defense? those stories and more ahead andy, take a seat. >> anderson. look at this. you're wet. disheveled. there's debris hitting you. we need to be ready for new year's eve. maybe you are ready. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn. >> hank used to suffer from what felt like a cold and flu medicine hangover in the morning. then he switched to mucinex nightshift. mucinex is uniquely for

and cost every american household at least $1,000 a year, but donald trump's transition leader, howard lutnicks boss won't tax imported goods for which there are no american-made alternatives. >> tariffs are an amaing tool by the president to use. they're an amazing tool. but he understands, don't tariff stuff we don't make, right? if we don't make it and you want to buy it, i don't want to put the price up. >> reporter: but maybe donald trump has no intention of imposing the tariffs for real. maybe he's playing a strategic game, tariffs as negotiating tactics. >> tariffs give you tremendous power over countries when they're doing bad things, including war. >> tariffs can be used as a threat and a bargaining chip, sometimes if you are really credible, just making the threat of tariff makes another country change the desired behavior without having to impose it in the end. >> reporter: in the end when a government wants to achieve some economic or geopolitical goal, it can use all kinds of different tools. the according to economics professor doug irwin, tariffs are a powerful tool, too, they'r

is there, howard lutnick, kelly loeffler and other distinguished guests. maria: anding of course, the why have of the owner of the new york stock exchange, kelly loeffler, with trump. thank you, john, tiana and cheryl. stuart picks it up. he's going to be all over this opening. stuart: you should be there, maria. [laughter] maria: my old stomp thing grounds. stuart: exactly. good morning, mafia, and good -- maria, and good morning, everyone. another inflation reading. the producer price index more than expected, .4%, in november. and here's another surprise, up 3% in the last 12 months. that means we are looking at an increase in the inflation rate. you know, there's not that much reaction on the stock market. we've got to figure out why that is the case. but, look, you've got an uptick in inflation, both consumer and producer prices, and look at the dow. this is premarket, obviously. the dow is down not so much, 27 points as we speak. the s&p 500 also on the downside. the nasdaq off 110 points. but, remember, it hit 20,000 wednesday. as for bitcoin, it's

one thing that donald trump has been giving his high level donors actual cabinet positions like howard lutnick or linda mcmahon, who has been nominated to be the head of education. so something interesting that he is clearly doing in this quest to surround himself by people he believes, who one will fulfill, what he wants to do, but two will be loyal to him kristen holmes live for us in west palm beach, florida. >> thank you so much for the update. kristen. a lot to discuss with andrew mccabe, former deputy director of the fbi and cnn senior law enforcement analyst. andy, thank you so much for being with us. let's start with hunter biden. what was your reaction to the news that joe biden would pardon him? and what do you think the fallout is going to be from this long term? yeah, i was a little shocked. i have to say i'm i'm sure that this decision was torturous for president biden. >> it puts really pits him against two things that we know mean very much to him his respect for the system of justice and his role as an institutionalist preserving those sorts of institutions and his love for and

>> so sam altman met recently with howard lutnick in palm beach trying to kind of forge relationships with folks that are not, you know, that are going to go around musk and folks like mark zuckerberg, you know have have been down and met with the president elect as well. so people are trying to make, you know direct pleas to president-elect trump without, you know, musk in the way. >> all right. as i said, you've got great reporting on those people. should go check out your article in the wall street journal. thanks so much for being with us. this morning. thank you. kate all right. >> there's a lot of news that we're tracking. we continue to follow the breaking news of the shooting of the ceo of united health care in midtown manhattan. a manhunt underway, all of that continues on cnn right now cnn news central is now going to pass it off to cnn newsroom. up next can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life had extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luth

they should be expecting tariffs and howard lutnick right next to him. who's going to be the sort of overall tariff czar didn't really contradict the president? >> yeah. and i just want to play you mentioned this, but i think it's worth our viewers hearing again what the president elect said that really did i totally agree with you. kind of set the tone and was a big tell as to how he is feeling this time versus the first time he became president. >> i did have a dinner with tim cook. i had dinner with sort of almost all of them, and the rest are coming. and this is one of the big differences, i think, between we were talking about it before, one of the big differences between the first term and the first term. everybody was fighting me in this term. everybody wants to be my friend and you really do see that across the board. >> all of the people that you talked about from mark zuckerberg going down there to tim cook to world leaders and and especially members of congress. i mean, if you think about yesterday, they didn't go to mar a lago, but joe manchi

another one is howard lutnick, donald trump's pick for commerce secretary subsidiaries run by his companieslso rely on these foreign workers. so this is the kind of thing that, again, it's not just donald trump, it's several business leaders. and it will be interesting to see if trump can make good on his promise to hire american, even as he taps foreign workers for his own properties and his own businesses. back to you guys. >> all right, sarah, thank you. all right. coming up, a luigi mangione, high powered new york attorney is already floating the idea of an insanity defense. is that how he will fight the murder charge in the unitedhealthcare shooting? that's next. can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life has extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luther. never too much new year's day on cnn this christmas. what you think about girls boxing? she got hands. experience. incredible. true story of claressa shields. >> i'm gonna train for this gold medal. i'm

>> but, you know, what i was struck by is we had howard lutnick on here, who's going to be the commerce secretary if he's confirmed he was running a lot of the transition. he had had a meeting with rfk jr.. about vaccines. and he seemed convinced by some of the arguments he made, especially when it pertains to autism. and this this link between them, which has been studied and debunked and doesn't have any basis for that. and there's been conversations obviously about that with with trump. trump did meet the press over the weekend, and he was asked about this, and he seemed to be kind of convinced by the argument. >> hey, look, i'm not against vaccines. the polio vaccine is the greatest thing. if somebody told me, get rid of the polio vaccine, they're going to have to work real hard to convince me. >> that's what he said about the polio vaccine. then he also talked about this, this link of why why more kids are being diagnosed with autism. obviously, you know, there's no no one's been able to study why autism happens. it's thought to be maybe genetic, but what does that look like if he

linda mcmahon, trump's pick for education secretary spent $24 million, howard lutnick at the commercent almost $3 million this cycle alone, and 359 to republican candidates and groups in the last years, a staggering total in the big money post citizens united era of politics that we're in. for comparison, we did not find any political appointees from biden or obama administrations that donated more than a million in a single cycle and in trump's first term, that's two, linda mcmahon, and betsy devos, the education secretary. while it's true that wealthy donors get the plum ambassador roles, there is a distinction even there. trump's pick for uk ambassador, warren stephens, he donated more than $25 million this cycle while biden's uk ambassador was also one of his top donors, but she spent just about $645,000 for democrats in that cycle. so really a dramatic increase here, guys, even compared to trump's own first term. >> what do people think it means? i mean, does it raise conflict of interest? does it matter? is it just that trump has a lot of close contacts with people that he trust

and howard lutnick. scott bessent. >> hhs. >> everybody kams came out. with his daughters and wife as well. >> jd vance. >> it was a big moment. doug burgam. >> the ceo of time is here because "time" named him person of the year. used that opportunity to ring the opening bell. the second president to do so. it is amazing. trump, in all of his business dealings throughout years, bought the building across from the stock exchange, had not done this. this is his first time doing it. a lot of excitement at the exchange with the traders. he just made the floor walk. they had the red ropes out for him. very exciting. high security, of course, as well. >> he has made his exit. it will quiet down a bit. >> it is remarkable. jim did an amazing job of getting the president-elect to speak. we will hear that sound in just a little bit. our kudos to our colleague for making his way. >> he went out once to talk to bessent and rfk who were somewhat retiscent. he talked to ackman as well. >> it was good to get the response at the podium and upstairs, too. >> you mention

it will be howard lutnick at commerce secretary versus someone like scott besson and kevin hasek in terms of how they will implement policy when it comes to tariffs, blanket were negotiating tools. jonathan: they are ready to hit the ground running and deliver tariffs. equity futures little bit softer. with an update on stories elsewhere, let's cross over to dani burger. dani: president emmanuel macron is searching for a new prime minister after a no-confidence vote against his government was passed. emmanuel macron needs to find a premier who can pass a 2025 budget through a deeply divided parliament. it is the shortest tenure for any premier since 1958. emmanuel macron is expected to speak at 8:00 paris time. bitcoin has touched $100,000 for the first time, getting a boost from donald trump's pick to lead the sec. crypto component paul kins wirral place gary gensler. the overall -- crypto proponent pol atkins oral place gary gendler. here's of american eagle plunging this morning 16.5% premarket. it issued a week holiday guidance and cut its holiday sales outlook. american eagle also re

howard lutnick has a different group of authorities, a different position.yond tariffs. he has countervailing duty authorities. i think they will all play a role. you also have -- there will be a focus on wall street and how it reacts. he does want to maintain a very strong and vibrant economy. that is where some of the other voices come in. it'll be like in the past, a cacophony of voices with him being the ultimate decision-maker. dani: wall street has not really reacted, or if it has is been and a positive way. i'm curious about the business community. you say real changes are coming. have they started to make those changes? are companies trying to right size their supply chains, get domestic supply chains and if not, are they already behind? everett: it is all over the map. some companies are quite exposed to china. candidly, it is hard to move away from china. it is a vibrant market. you have good rates. it is an efficient economy. there's a lot of capital investment there. it's very industry specific. we have seen across the board some bifurcation of m

cantor ceo howard lutnick is the co-chair of the transition team and his pick to be the next commerce. >>> coming up, harvard's arthur brooks will weigh in on many issues, including the backlash against healthcare companies and anger in america following the murder of the unitedhealthcare executive last week. "squawk box" will be right back. >>> the murder of unitedhealthcare executive brian thompson has highlighted the public anger directed at the healthcare industry in the u.s. joining us is harvard university's arthur brooks. he is a columnist for the and particular atlantic. thanks for joining us. >> good morning. >> we all had experiences, i think, with insurance companies, not just health insurance. one of the things i have thought insurance companies do when you finally use them for something you have been paying for for years, sometimes they cancel you. you finally put in a claim. we know it's a tough business to some extent. we understand that. when it comes to your health, that, that ratchets up the anger and what happens. normally, something like this isn't the outcome. my