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▲ Lutnick Pushed to Weaken Chip Rules That Overlap with His Family Business(nytimes.com)
141 points by JumpCrisscross 4 hours ago | 44 comments
▲DivingForGold 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

https://wallhop.io/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/15/us/pol...

Lutnick is a TRAITOR, he manipulated the system to benefit his company, at the expense of the National Security of the US, by investing in this Malaysian data center which in effect, allowed the Chinese military a source to run their code on Blackwells, and if he's not arrested for treason and a stop put to it, all the next generations of advanced Nvidia GPUs.

▲WokeUp420 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Don't forget he's also a pedophile

▲fc8b an hour ago | parent [-]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but other than the shady real estate deal he barely knew Epstein. They were, coincidentally neighbors, but Lutnick wasn’t a frequent flyer like Gates or Clinton.

▲ryoshu 32 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/howard-l...

▲3287221 8 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Both his and the larger adjacent Epstein house first belonged to Les Wexner. The smaller one was laundered through some Bronfman family trust and sold to Lutnick.

I highly doubt it was even advertised on the free market.

▲Zigurd 26 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Lutnick has already been caught lying about the extent to which he is interacted with Epstein, when, and whether he ever stopped interacting with him. "Coincidentally neighbors" doesn't wash.

▲felixgallo 28 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9q28dlyxrzo

▲Oarch 14 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Isn't there a Lutnick-resembling mask on that weird surgery room on the island? Hmm.

▲huntertwo 17 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Barely knew but photographed with his son and Epstein on Epstein’s island?

▲tarnith 29 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

At this point, anyone who supports Trump is fully guilty by association.

You don't support rapists and pedophiles, and somehow wash your hands of involvement.

Oh, I didn't personally rape a child, is no excuse for supporting someone who does.

edit: Struck a nerve with HN mods did I

▲kraken_cult 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Lutnick most certainly wasn't acting alone. The truth of the matter is that The neo-liberal project that hollowed out American business/manufacturing, the supported ruinous offshoring is composed of traitors to the American people on both sides of the aisle. They should all be prosecuted as such.

▲onemoresoop an hour ago | parent | next [-]

One at a time. Or one infractional group at a time at least. Otherwise you have to many rabbits and catch none.

▲helsinkiandrew 42 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> The neo-liberal project that hollowed out American business/manufacturing, the supported ruinous offshoring is composed of traitors to the American people on both sides of the aisle. They should all be prosecuted as such.

Remember it was the American people that have been choosing the (cheaper) offshore manufactured products over the American made ones for decades. There are many products still made in America but in general people buy the cheaper ones made from abroad. And they buy more products - TVs, clothes, Barbie dolls because of it.

Who exactly should be prosecuted?

▲digitaltrees 18 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

The US didn’t need to support China joining the WTO and when it became clear that they were not being a good partner (keeping their domestic markets locked to outsiders, requiring tech and IP transfer, requiring domestic partners over 50%, violating international labor and environmental standards etc) they should have been expelled and their goods blocked from all markets that we could get to align.

That would have cut off a source of cheap production.

▲kraken_cult 24 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

The American people purchase goods within the trade regime, they don't set the trade regime. The oligarchs and political "elite" set the trade regime for personal and politic benefit.

Clinton March 8th, 2000, Johns Hopkins SAIS

On manufacturing, after saying American companies would for the first time sell and distribute American-made products inside China, he adds that they could do it “without being forced to relocate manufacturing to China.”

On democracy, after noting that China is agreeing to more than buying American goods, he says “it is agreeing to import one of democracy’s most cherished values, economic freedom.”

▲blueblisters 26 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

not saying it’s necessarily a good thing but offshoring and financialization enabled American companies like Apple to retain a much larger chunk of profits and return more wealth to shareholders, who in turn recycled that money back into American assets, lowered cost of capital, raised valuations, funded startups that raised tech salaries and pulled global talent at the expense of other countries

In an alternate universe, keeping manufacturing industries and jobs onshore would likely have come at the expense of American dominance and high salaries in tech, and higher cost consumer goods - probably not a huge deal to most people

▲kraken_cult 17 minutes ago | parent [-]

> but offshoring and financialization enabled American companies like Apple to retain a much larger chunk of profits and return more wealth to shareholders, who in turn recycled that money back into American assets, lowered cost of capital, raised valuations, funded startups that raised tech salaries and pulled global talent at the expense of other countries

So trickle down, but it only helps a small number of people in a handful of coastal cities? And imports people into the US to then take work from citizens?

And even that is no longer really happening (except for the importing people to take work from citizens), and hasn't for a few years now (not sure if you've seen the tech job market at the moment). Yes, there was a brief period of time that a few technologists were making 6 figures starting..

▲thatsabadlook an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

You know he won't be arrested right?

▲_dark_matter_ 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Hardly a surprise - the trump administration corruption is well documented. This period is a black eye on every American, and is the opposite of laissez-faire capitalism. Instead of the best succeeding, those who can pander and make connections win (or in this case, be literally family members with a powerful person).

I hope we can move past this with the next admin, and continue to give the upper hand to businesses that want to succeed fairly in the USA.

▲swed420 an hour ago | parent [-]

Right, because late stage capitalism was working so flawlessly prior to Trump.

https://archive.is/wSmtd

▲Jcampuzano2 17 minutes ago | parent [-]

You're right, its exponentially worse.

That make you happy?

▲swed420 12 minutes ago | parent [-]

So you want to return to the conditions that led to an exponentially worse situation?

That's precisely what a party of controlled opposition would do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniparty

▲Jcampuzano2 6 minutes ago | parent [-]

To answer the question, no. I don't think the establishment democrats should be running the country either. They're just the MUCH better of two evils though. I'd prefer new age politicians to be the leaders.

But, do you honestly think Trumps administration didn't materially contribute to making those conditions worse themselves? They basically made the hole so deep it will make it difficult to crawl out of in the first place.

▲swed420 3 minutes ago | parent [-]

> But, do you honestly think Trumps administration didn't materially contribute to making those conditions worse themselves? They basically made the hole so deep it will make it difficult to crawl out of in the first place.

I agree it made conditions worse. I never denied that.

But I'm also looking at the entire chain of events which led to it. "Lesser of two evils" voting literally got us to this point. How could it possibly get us out of it?

▲tiahura an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Huang, and all of his treacherous cronies, should spend the rest of their lives in a Supermax.

▲zach_moore 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Do people still not see through his appointment? it's crystal clear to me

▲thephyber 7 minutes ago | parent [-]

My take is that Trump (in the second term) appointed people he thought had expertise to the relevant departments but not to regulating them. He wanted the Secretaries to juice the economy from the Secretary position.

That doesn't, in itself, require corruption. But Trump clearly signaled that corruption would be overlooked so long as it was convenient for his admin (very similar to the Putin-oligarch model).

▲Zigurd 34 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What happens when supposedly smart people cozy up to corruption and fascism. Could be a theme. Could be a pattern. Could be first of several.

▲dzonga 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

at a point in time - I thought us africans were corrupt - till the trump crime family came along.

every appointment is doing some sort of grift

▲dashundchen an hour ago | parent [-]

It's corruption, crime and grift at every opportunity down to every social media post.

How much market manipulation in every tweet threatening to double or delay tarrifs, launch or delay attacks on Iran?

Does MAGA want to somehow forget this term started with a multibillion dollar Trump shitcoin rugpull?

It's fucking disgusting how naked the corruption has been from the criminal Trump family and admin.

▲22918678 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

He also replaced Cantor & Fitzgerald human bond trading with his electronic trading company company eSpeed. Cantor & Fitzgerald was wiped out on 9/11 while he was fortunate enough to "bring his son to the daycare after an argument with his wife":

https://unlimitedhangout.com/creative-destruction-9-11-enron...

(Use an LLM to extract and fact check the text that contains too many details.)

▲kashunstva 25 minutes ago | parent [-]

His treatment of the spouses and families of Cantor Fitzgerald employees who perished in the attack was just about what you'd expect from such a self-serving individual. Truly loathsome.

▲sokoloff 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

NYT Headline, 40pt, 700 weight:

> Lutnick Pushed to Weaken Chip Rules That Overlap With His Family Business

Buried well below the fold and below two ads, 20pt, 400 weight:

> These dealings are just a tiny portion of Cantor’s business, which stretches from investment banking and trading to real estate. Other investment banks have similar partnerships, and there is no evidence that Cantor’s investments influenced Mr. Lutnick’s deliberations.

Overlap? These interests are barely even tangent. The Commerce Secretary has a background and experience in financial services; that sounds like a good thing compared to some of the other current adminstration qualifications.

I'm sure if you dig just a little, you'll find he's taken positions that benefit the clients of Piper Sandler, Stifel, and Jefferies as well. Because, despite those firms being competitors of Cantor, the Commerce Secretary will often take positions that benefit US commerce. And all of those firms who benefit and a larger than a lemonade stand will be clients of some financial services company/ies.

I feel like NYT's standards used to be higher than that...

▲kashunstva 29 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> These dealings are just a tiny portion of Cantor’s business, which stretches from investment banking and trading to real estate

So an even larger attack surface for corruption in Mr. Lutnick's Cabinet role.

> The Commerce Secretary has a background and experience in financial services; that sounds like a good thing compared to some of the other current adminstration qualifications.

"Financial services" and commerce, writ large, are not the same thing.

The NYT may well be chasing clicks through its creative use of typography. But the defense of a genuinely offensive and quite possibly corrupt individual like Howard Lutnick isn't a hill I'd prefer to die on.

▲brookst 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Corruption is corruption. The fact that he was “only” setting policy to benefit a small portion of his portfolio is not a mitigating factor.

Remember when politicians used to put assets in blind trusts and divest investments that could create even the perception of conflicts of interest?

It’s not the NYT’s standards that have fallen, it’s the American populace’s. “The oligarch billionaire probably only benefitted to the tune of tens of millions” is damning.

▲iforgetti 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Cantor openly advertises its connection to the administration: https://www.cantor.com/howard-lutnicks-sons-score-record-yea...

That is literally from Cantor’s website.

▲msandford 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think the argument would be that you don't "wait around" so long to get to the point. Oftentimes a news story can be written with the main point in the headline, summarized in the first paragraph and then really explained using the rest of the article.

It's fair in my mind to complain that you have to read a bunch of fluff (arguably to drive ad impressions) to find the actual news part. I expect that from HuffPo for sure, less so from NYT.

The inverted pyramid is a well documented technique for getting to the point quickly, and if you search it you'll find tons of articles by big name schools and institutions explaining it. Here's one. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/journali...

▲scott_w 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Which would be a reasonable argument but it's not the one that sokoloff made. They clearly have issues with the accusation that Lutnick is corrupt.

> Overlap? These interests are barely even tangent.

> I feel like NYT's standards used to be higher than that...

You can see there's nothing in their comment that highlights frustration with an ability (or lack of) to find the information they clicked to read about.

▲msandford 24 minutes ago | parent [-]

Did we read the same first half of the comment? It describes font size and weight of the headline and the font size and weight and how far down the first supporting fact is.

There is then further commentary on how relevant or not relevant the fact is. But the first half of the complaint is literally about the organization and formatting.

▲jm4 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Exactly. They will do this over and over again like it's their job and it adds up. Nevermind the fact that this small "tens of millions" deal is more than the vast majority will earn in a lifetime. Who in their right mind is dismissing this as something small and meaningless? This guy is screwing everyone over to enrich himself. We need to raise our standards.

▲lovich 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They made Carter sell his family peanut farm.

Now we have a President making billions while in office and others in his administration like Lutnick here making bank too.

I wonder how long until this post gets flagged off of HN since the usual lackeys will rage flag this and we have no way to vouch for it back like we do with comments

▲mrala 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I’m not sure why you felt it was germane to highlight the font size difference between the headline and body of the article. It is following their usual formatting style. You also chose to cherry-pick a tiny section. Here’s the next paragraph:

> But the overlapping relationships are the latest indication of the potential conflicts that exist given Mr. Lutnick’s role in shaping rules around U.S. technology exports. And they demonstrate how the U.S. ban on selling chips directly to China has led to an explosion of data centers in Southeast Asia aimed at Chinese customers. It is now up to Mr. Lutnick to decide whether to tighten the rules in ways that would cut off this avenue.

The article concludes with:

> Still, Cantor Fitzgerald continued to help arrange billions of dollars of financing for industries ranging from data centers to cryptocurrency that depend on a steady supply of computing from Nvidia.

> That includes Bitdeer, which is building out the Malaysian data center it expects to generate $1.7 billion in revenue over five years, according to a company statement.

> That data center will likely serve Tencent, a Chinese internet giant that would be able to gain access to Nvidia’s most advanced A.I. servers, according to a person with knowledge of the arrangement. Bitdeer is part of Nvidia’s partner network, a program for companies that work closely with the chipmaker.

> Bitdeer hosts a Chinese language website that lets customers rent A.I. chips and gain access to Chinese open source A.I. models through data centers in Malaysia, Canada and elsewhere. The Johor facility is one of five data centers the company plans to open in Malaysia in the coming years, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

> Cantor holds a stake in Bitdeer through its investment in Tether, the crypto company. It is far from the only American financial heavyweight investing in overseas data centers. Bain Capital, Citadel and Blackstone have all poured money into A.I. computing clusters across the region.

> Cantor also previously provided financial services to Gorilla Technology, which is building data centers in Thailand and Indonesia, and has a contract to provide A.I. computing to Freyr AI, a Singaporean data center firm that corporate filings and job ads indicate has ties to China.

> Cantor has worked with other Nvidia partners globally, including IREN, an Australian cloud computing company, and Lancium, a Texas data center developer.

> A Commerce Department spokeswoman said that Mr. Lutnick makes policy decisions based on the best interests of the United States. He does not discuss department matters with his sons, nor do they discuss Cantor Fitzgerald business with him, she added.

> Cantor Fitzgerald declined to comment. Bitdeer did not reply to a request for comment.

> Mr. Lutnick, as of October 2025, transferred his remaining ownership stake in Cantor to his family. Before that, he had been given what the White House had called a “limited waiver” that allowed him to participate in certain decisions that could have “a direct and predictable effect on Cantor Fitzgerald,” exempting him from a federal criminal law that would otherwise have required him to entirely recuse himself from these discussions.

> Even after Mr. Lutnick finished transferring his ownership stake to his sons late last year, he still had to abide by an ethics rule prohibiting federal employees from using their public office for their private gain or the gain of friends and relatives.

> The Times reported last year that Mr. Lutnick was promoting data center projects that worked with his family firms. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, and two dozen other Democratic lawmakers called for an investigation.

It is apparent there is a conflict of interest but the NYT was unable to find an explicit causal connection. The headline is objectively correct and in most administrations of the past, overlapping interests like this would constitute a scandal and would call for further investigation.

▲moogly an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm shocked to hear that NYT is using a larger font size for the headline than the rest of the article.

▲cyanydeez 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I bet if you examine those other businesses, they too would "overlap" with his positions.

But you know, cherry pick what you dont want to hear.