Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Cruz said Lutnick will focus on issues including expanding commercial access to wireless spectrum and "will ensure American taxpayer dollars are spent efficiently and that Congress gets ‘the benefit of the bargain’ on legislation like the CHIPS and Science Act."

His role will place him at the frontier of Washington’s tariff and trade agenda. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Lutnick, who was chief executive of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, is a close ally of Trump’s and has been a defender of imposing tariffs on US imports