Trump Secretary Silent as Sons Poised to Make Bank From End of Tariffs

The Supreme Court decision striking down Donald Trump’s many tariffs may prove to be a windfall for the family of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a key architect of Trump’s signature economic policy.

In July, Wired reported that Cantor Fitzgerald, which Lutnick chaired until he was appointed to Trump’s Cabinet, was allowing its traders to purchase the rights to hundreds of millions of dollars of refunds in the event the tariffs were struck down in court. The firm now happens to be headed by Lutnick’s sons Kyle and Brandon.

The magazine cited a letter from the firm explaining how Cantor Fitzgerald was willing to exchange refund rights for 20 to 30 percent of what the companies paid.

“So for a company that paid $10 million, they could expect to receive $2-$3 million in a trade,” a Cantor Fitzgerald representative wrote. “We have the capacity to trade up to several hundred million of these presently and can likely upsize that in the future to meet potential demand.”

The letter indicated that the firm already had one company agree to a deal worth about $10 million. It’s been seven months since then, and Cantor Fitzgerald has had plenty of time to make other such lucrative deals.

“The fact that it’s Cantor Fitzgerald, that raises some questions,” Tim Meyer, a professor of international business law at Duke University School of Law, told Wired. “It’s quite interesting that the commerce secretary’s firm is the one that is betting the tariffs will be struck down. That strikes me as very interesting—and quite telling about what those with connections to the administration think about the merits of the tariffs.”

Lutnick has been a steadfast proponent of Trump’s tariffs, frustrating many Republicans and staffers within the White House. He fought the efforts of others within the administration, such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and National Economic Council chair Kevin Hassett, to put limits on Trump’s tariffs.

Lutnick has yet to comment on Friday’s court ruling. Does his firm’s bet mean he never really believed in the tariffs to begin with and was lying to the public about them? Did his kids know something the rest of us didn’t?

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was in Washington, D.C., Thursday for Donald Trump’s inaugural Board of Peace meeting. When protesters showed up outside of his hotel, his bodyguards attacked them. 

The protesters at the Waldorf Astoria on Pennsylvania Avenue were calling for the release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, which has been under Aliyev’s dictatorial rule for more than 20 years. In a statement, the Embassy of Azerbaijan alleged the protesters “violently attempted to enter the protected area and took offensive actions against the Presidential vehicle” when Aliyev’s motorcade was arriving at the hotel. It added, “The Presidential Security Service had no choice but to immediately intervene.”

According to the protesters, that’s not what happened. One of them, Rahim Yagublu, 27, said that the guards kicked him in his stomach and hit his jaw. His father is political activist Tofig Yagublu, in prison in Azerbaijan on forgery and fraud charges.  Another protester, Adil Amrakhly, 35, said that while running away from the guards, he hurt his leg. 

“We intended to hold a peaceful protest to demand freedom for political prisoners in Azerbaijan,” Amrakhly told The Washington Post, adding that at least four other protesters were injured. 

“They started beating us,” Yagblu said. He added that nearby police didn’t do anything and that protesters called an ambulance. After looking at everyone’s injuries, first responders didn’t take anyone to the hospital. 

“This just shows us he’s a dictator, and there is no free speech in my country,” Yagublu said, regarding Aliyev.

Video was posted to X Thursday night showing some of the fighting. 

The incident was reminiscent of a similar event in Trump’s first term in May 2017, when Turkish security personnel attacked protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence while Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was in Washington to meet with Trump. At the time, Congress unanimously called for criminal charges against the 24 people filmed attacking protesters. One month later, two people were arrested and arrest warrants were issued for the other security officers, but charges would be dropped the following March. 

Will Thursday’s incident be handled similarly? Aliyev and Azerbaijan are in Trump’s good graces for joining the Board of Peace, so the president and his Republican allies in Congress may not push for justice this time. That would be a shame, considering peaceful protest is a constitutional right and a major freedom for people in the U.S.

Some congressional Republicans quietly celebrated President Trump’s massive Supreme Court tariff loss on Friday.

The court ruled 6–3 to undo the president’s sweeping, illegal “Liberation Day” tariffs—a massive plank of his economic and foreign policy platform. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that Trump’s invocation of an emergency in order to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was a clear overreach of Congress’s authority and eschewed decades of precedent.

While Trump fumed, Republicans across the conservative spectrum reacted with delight.

“We all know members that we’ve talked to on the GOP side of the aisle who are silently, quietly breathing a sigh of relief,” Fox News’s Shannon Beam said on Friday after the ruling. “There have been Republicans on Capitol Hill who have voted against some of the president’s tariffs—they think it’s actually hurt the economy, and hurts their ability to go out and make the argument that this president is working to make things more affordable. So, some of them [are] quietly happy.”

John Yoo, the deputy attorney general under former President George W. Bush who was investigated for his role in the “torture memos,” echoed Beam’s sentiments.

“This might be a blessing in disguise, because we just had GDP report numbers from last year that showed the economy significantly slowed,” he said. “If all the tariffs the president announced are immediately eliminated and he has to take about a year—if he really chooses to do it again—has to take about a year to impose these tariffs again. That might actually have a positive boost on the economy, which could have a very positive effect on President Trump and Republicans by the midterm elections.”

Plenty of congressional Republicans made their feelings public. Representative Don Bacon called Justice Neil Gorsuch’s concurring opinion “perfect words.”

“Today, the Supreme Court reaffirmed authority that has rested with Congress for centuries. The American people already know that tariffs make building and buying here at home more expensive,” said Senator Mitch McConnell. “And Kentuckians understand this painful reality better than most. But the use of IEEPA to circumvent Congress in the imposition of tariffs, already without precedent, isn’t just bad policy –—it’s also illegal.”

The widespread GOP approval of this judicial loss shows that Trump may have even less control over his own party than we thought ahead of a closely watched midterm election.

President Trump spent Friday afternoon berating the Supreme Court after it ruled 6–3 to strike down his “Liberation Day” tariffs—calling them “fools,” “lapdogs,” and “foreign interests.”

“The Supreme Court’s Ruling on TARIFFS is deeply disappointing! I am ashamed of certain Members of the Court for not having the Courage to do what is right for our Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the ruling, seeming to single out the conservative justices who struck down his tariffs. “When you read the dissenting opinions, there is no way that anyone can argue against them. Foreign Countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic, and dancing in the streets—But they won’t be dancing for long!

“The Democrats on the Court are thrilled, but they will automatically vote ‘NO’ against ANYTHING that makes America Strong and Healthy Again. They, also, are a Disgrace to our Nation,” he continued. “Others think they’re being ‘politically correct,’ which has happened before, far too often, with certain Members of this Court when, in fact, they’re just FOOLS and ‘LAPDOGS’ for the RINOS and Radical Left Democrats and, not that this should have anything to do with it, very unpatriotic, and disloyal to the Constitution. It is my opinion that the Court has been swayed by Foreign Interests, and a Political Movement that is far smaller than people would think—But obnoxious, ignorant, and loud!”

Trump also attacked “certain members of the court” at a press conference where he announced new 10 percent global tariffs.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court,” he told a room full of reporters. “Absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country.” Asked whether he regretted nominating Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Comey Barrett—two conservatives who, alongside Chief Justice John Roberts, voted with liberals to block his tariffs—Trump called them “an embarrassment to their families.”

President Donald Trump claimed Friday the Supreme Court had granted him the power to destroy other countries,  after the high court took away his weapon of choice: sweeping reciprocal tariffs. 

Speaking to reporters, Trump rambled about how “ridiculous” it was for the Supreme Court to block the illegal tariffs he’d imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, while also bragging that the court had only strengthened his grip on other strings he could pull.

“The court has given me the unquestioned right to ban all sorts of things from coming into our country—to destroy foreign countries,” Trump claimed. “But a much more powerful right than many people thought we even had, but not the right to charge a fee.

“I can destroy the trade, I can destroy the country, I’m even allowed to impose a foreign country-destroying embargo. I can do anything I want—but I can’t charge one dollar,” Trump fumed. “Because that’s not what it says, and it’s not the way it even reads.”

Trump imposed his so-called “reciprocal tariffs” in April 2025 using the IEEPA, a rule that allows the president to regulate commerce in case of a national emergency—but doesn’t actually include the word “tariff.” In the court’s ruling Friday, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the actual language in IEEPA “cannot bear the weight” of Trump’s tariffs. 

Still, Trump couldn’t seem to wrap his head around it. 

“I can do anything I want to do to them but I can’t charge any money. So I’m allowed to destroy the country, but I can’t charge ’em a little fee. I could give ’em a little two-cent fee, but I cannot charge under any circumstances. I cannot charge them anything,” Trump rambled. “Think of that, how ridiculous is that?

“I’m allowed to embargo them, I’m allowed to tell ’em you can’t do business in the United States anymore, ‘We want you out of here!’ But if I want to charge them $10 I can’t do that,” he continued. 

Despite the crushing blow to his sweeping reciprocal tariffs that have caused mayhem abroad and at home, Trump insisted the ruling was somehow a good thing because it validated other statutes that were “even stronger than the IEEPA tariffs.”

Trump even patted himself on the back for holding back with his initial tariffs. “I didn’t want to do anything that would affect the decision of the court. Because I understand the court, I understand how they’re very easily swayed,” Trump said. 

“I wanted to be a good boy,” Trump added. Good boy no more, it seems. 

Trump ended the press conference by announcing his plan to impose new 10 percent tariffs under Section 232, a rule that allowed tariffs to be levied on certain products that threaten national security. Good luck with that, Donald.