Donald Trump has been accused of raking in more than $1 billion since becoming president, with his kids also making hundreds of millions in foreign deals.
But Trump is apparently not pleased when others profit from the presidency, including the family of his commerce secretary and longtime friend.
Trump, 79, was so upset that Howard Lutnick’s family was making money off his popularity, he confronted his top Cabinet official, according to a report by Politico.
It claimed the confrontation took place at Mar-a-Lago over the winter holiday, according to two people familiar with the exchange, including one who witnessed it.
One of the officials familiar with Trump’s thinking told the publication that the president “reacts viscerally” when someone else makes money from what he considers his own brand, even if he likes that person.
Cantor Fitzgerald, the company Lutnick left under the control of his sons Brandon and Kyle when he became commerce secretary, posted $2.5 billion in profits last year, a 25 percent increase from the prior year.
Neither the White House nor a Commerce spokesperson responded to the inquiry about the confrontation, according to Politico.
The report also indicated some Cabinet secretaries and other top officials are wary of whether Lutnick can deliver on the $18 trillion in pledged investments, the president repeatedly touts, as well as the commerce secretary’s “brash and controlling style.”
But in response to its reporting, White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Politico in a statement that Trump “maintains complete confidence in Secretary Lutnick because he has been the most transformative Commerce Secretary in modern history and is a champion of the President’s America First trade and tariffs policies.”
Publicly, the president has praised his commerce secretary, who has been a near constant presence at the White House and is often seen traveling with the president.
But Trump did scramble to distance himself from Lutnick’s ties to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein earlier this month as the commerce secretary came under fire for lying about the extent of his relationship with the convicted sex offender and is facing bipartisan calls to resign.
Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said on Thursday he was not ruling out the commerce secretary being hauled before his committee in its Epstein investigation, but he has held off on it so far.
Lutnick claimed in an interview last year that he severed ties with the sex offender in 2005, despite being his next-door neighbor in Manhattan, after a creepy encounter at his Upper East Side Mansion right after Lutnick moved in.
However, the released Epstein files showed they were communicating long after that, and Lutnick even brought his family to lunch at the pedophile’s private island in 2012.
Comer said it was “very possible” Lutnick would testify in the probe but would not go further.
When asked about whether he knew Lutnick had visited Epstein’s island by a reporter, Trump insisted he had “no idea.”
Some MAGA supporters were enraged online that Lutnick was front and center with Trump’s Cabinet during his State of the Union address amid questions over his Epstein ties.
