In recent months, Howard Lutnick, the billionaire financial executive, has emerged as one of former President Donald Trump’s top boosters and closest advisers. He has helped corral support among Wall Street donors, appeared frequently on cable news to promote the campaign and earned a leading role on the transition team, where as co-chair he has been tasked with overseeing personnel for a potential second Trump administration.

His heightened public visibility, however, has come with some high-profile missteps. The chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm in New York City, has recently faced scrutiny for comments casting doubt on vaccines in a widely criticized CNN interview. Meanwhile, his outsized media presence has reportedly irked some Trump allies who fear his open discussions of the transition process have been preemptive before the election concludes this week.

Lutnick, 63, maintained a lower political profile before the election, and contributed to both parties. He has cited a range of reasons for more actively supporting Trump, a longtime friend, including his policies on immigration, cryptocurrency and tariffs on imported goods — an unusual preference for a Wall Street veteran who has identified as a fiscal conservative.

But the Jewish Republican has also indicated that his long-standing commitment to Israel’s security is one of the top reasons he is now so enthusiastically aligning with Trump, particularly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, which the former president has repeatedly claimed “would never have happened” if he had won a second term.

Lutnick has said that his decision to become more engaged in Trump’s reelection crystallized for him in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. “He had clear, moral clarity when it came to Israel and what happened, and the way that he thought about what happened,” Lutnick explained in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer last month. “That was huge to me.”

The Hamas-led massacre appears to have made a profound impact on Lutnick and his wife, Allison, the latter of whom has traveled to Israel to meet with victims of last year’s attacks in southern Israel.

While Lutnick donated to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2016 Senate campaign, he attributed the contribution to his wife, noting that she had since “moved over to Donald Trump — which is unusual for her, because she says Israel is her number one policy,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg this summer.

The former president “literally sat down with my wife and said, ‘I will be the best president for Israel, I will protect Israel and take care of them,’” Lutnick recounted, “so even in my house we have unanimity around Donald Trump.”

Lutnick, whose firm lost 658 employees in the World Trade Center attacks, including his brother Gary, has linked Israel’s struggle to a broader fight against global terrorism.

The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund — which was formed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks — has helped raise money for Israel as it battles Hamas in Gaza. “Hamas is terrorism and we are here to aid Israel,” the fund said in a statement after Oct. 7, vowing to match “every dollar” up to $1 million.

More recently, Lutnick announced that the fund was donating $7 million “to support those impacted by the war in Israel,” a portion of which went directly to United Hatzalah, the nonprofit Israeli emergency medical services organization he and his wife have long backed.

“Cantor Fitzgerald proved that you can rebuild from the worst of circumstances,” Lutnick said this past June at United Hatzalah’s New York gala, where he and his wife served as co-chairs, helping raise more than $20 million. “Israel will rebuild, and it will be stronger. In 15 years, Israel will be the shining star of the world.”

The Lutnicks have also contributed more than $1 million to Birthright Israel, according to a list of top donors.

Amid a rise in antisemitic protests roiling college campuses last spring, Israel was reportedly a key subject of discussion at a Trump fundraiser Lutnick hosted in New York City, where he helped raise $10 million for the former president, who has struggled to match Harris’ formidable war chest.

A spokesperson for Lutnick confirmed to Jewish Insider that Israel is among the top issues driving his active support for Trump, but declined multiple requests for an interview and responses to written questions about his involvement with the campaign.

Occasionally, Lutnick’s involvement in Jewish causes has intersected with his volunteering for Trump, which takes up a sizable portion of his time. 

Last month, for example, Lutnick was among a handful of Trump insiders who accompanied the former president on his Oct. 7 visit to the gravesite of the Lubavitcher rebbe in Queens, N.Y. —  where he prayed for the release of the hostages in Gaza.

Following the visit, Lutnick’s team reached out to Chabad, according to a person familiar with the situation. “They seemed to be thinking about his public image,” the person told JI, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private matter.

In contrast with his transition team co-chair, the GOP donor and businesswoman Linda McMahon — who is handling policy — Lutnick has embraced an increasingly public profile since he was tapped in August to help staff a second term if Trump wins the election.

The financier seems to be savoring his time in the spotlight, which has included a high-profile speech at Trump’s controversial Madison Square Garden rally in late October. “It was not on my bucket list. People like me do not get to play Madison Square Garden. This place rocks!” Lutnick enthused in his remarks, which touched on the World Trade Center attacks. “We must elect Donald Trump because we must crush jihad!” he proclaimed.

But Lutnick’s multiple media hits over the past few week have raised eyebrows at times — most notably during a recent CNN interview where he questioned widely debunked claims about vaccine safety, citing a lengthy conversation with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the former presidential candidate who now serves as an honorary co-chair of Trump’s transition team.

Lutnick, who faced widespread backlash for his comments, later clarified on social media that he and his wife “trust our doctors and following their advice have vaccinated our children and ourselves.”

The negative coverage so close to the election was seen as an unforced error by some Trump advisers, according to The Bulwark’s Marc Caputo — who quoted several anonymous campaign sources criticizing the CNN appearance, among other issues.

The Trump campaign, however, expressed satisfaction with Lutnick in a statement shared with JI last week. “As President Trump’s broad coalition of supporters and endorsers expands, we are proud that business leaders like Howard Lutnick are actively working to elect President Donald J. Trump, whose agenda to lower costs, secure the border and stop violent crime is resonating with Americans of all backgrounds,” said Brian Hughes, a senior advisor to the Trump campaign.

“While Kamala Harris doubles down on her ‘values’ to open our border to migrant criminals, enact Venezuela-style price controls and prioritize antisemitic mobs over Israel, we look forward to expanding President Trump’s ‘big tent campaign’ with powerful voices on the team as we work to restore America’s greatness,” Hughes added.

As he compiles shortlists to help fill thousands of political jobs in anticipation of Trump’s return to the White House, Lutnick has stressed that he is searching for loyalists who won’t interfere with the former president’s “America First” policies. He has also distanced the campaign from Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s controversial blueprint for a second term, which Harris has frequently invoked as a threat to democracy.

Lutnick, who helped to rebuild Cantor Fitzgerald after the 9/11 attacks, has reportedly sought private counsel from a range of people in his new position, including Elon Musk, who has called for dramatic government spending cuts; Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management; and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former senior advisor, who has not been actively involved with the campaign.

For his part, Lutnick has dismissed rumors that he is interested in being named ambassador to Israel — even if his support for the Jewish state had, by his own admission, played a major part motivating his increased involvement in Trump’s reelection effort.

Two sources familiar with the matter said Trump’s team has not been focused on appointing an Israel ambassador as the election comes to a close. “This is just media talk,” a Trump confidant told JI. “Trump isn’t thinking like this. It’s all about Pennsylvania and Michigan.”

Still, Lutnick has indicated he is open to a Cabinet post — such as leading the Treasury Department. “If he wants me in the mosaic, he would have to put me in,” Lutnick said of Trump in an interview with the Financial Times last month. “I’m not putting me in.”