The News
Howard Lutnick’s Jeffrey Epstein problem may be getting worse.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are getting more unsettled about revelations that the Commerce Secretary’s ties to Epstein were closer than he acknowledged. And Trump administration allies are now actively debating his fate — even as the White House continues to proclaim his job is safe.
Lutnick, a longtime friend of President Donald Trump, is facing political heat after the latest batch of documents released on Epstein’s case show significant interactions between Lutnick and the convicted sex offender, who lived next-door to him in New York. Emails show that the two men were in contact for years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction.
Lutnick has not been connected to any wrongdoing by the files. Yet there’s bipartisan concern in the Senate about Lutnick, with Democrats calling for his ouster and some Republicans queasy over the spiraling storyline.
Lutnick testified Tuesday to the Senate Appropriations Committee about dining with Epstein on his island in 2012 with family and other friends — contradicting his own October comments that he and his wife chose to “never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again” after the disgraced late financier showed the couple his massage room back in 2005.
One Republican senator told Semafor that Lutnick’s job would be in serious jeopardy “if it were anybody but President Trump” in charge.
“It’s despicable. And everyone knows it,” the senator said of Lutnick’s Epstein ties. “He looked at the American people and lied like a dog. And I suspect more is going to come out.”
Republicans are “going to lose the midterms,” the senator added, warning that while “these guys are so flippant that they think they’re always going to be in power,” House Democrats would plan to “come after Lutnick, Bondi, all of them” next year.
And one person close to the White House predicted that it might be the straw that sends Lutnick “for the exits,” arguing that being on the island is “sort of the red line.”
The White House is “usually good at finding consolation prizes for the folks they vote off,” the person said. “[It] depends how much of a headache it becomes — if every member on the Hill and every cabinet member keeps getting asked about [it].”
Many Republicans were hesitant to comment on the record about Lutnick, given his close alliance with Trump. Yet Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Semafor that Lutnick’s name in the Epstein files “caught my attention,” adding: “It’ll be up to the president how hard he presses.”
Another Republican senator admitted to Semafor that the Lutnick-Epstein friendship is “a very bad look.”
A Commerce Department spokesperson said the Lutnicks met Epstein in 2005 and “had very limited interactions with him over the next 14 years.” The spokesperson called criticism of their relationship “nothing more than a failing attempt by the legacy media to distract from the administration’s accomplishments.”
Know More
Some Republican insiders see this as a passing drama that Lutnick will weather. In addition to the White House’s public defense of him on Tuesday, a senior adviser who was with the president all day told Semafor that Trump has spoken consistently with Lutnick on an array of topics, including about relations with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Epstein never got mentioned, the adviser said: “The only opinion that matters is the opinion in the Oval Office, and he does not care,” the advisor told Semafor. “[He] didn’t even bring it up once today.”
“The biggest question we all have to ask ourselves is: Is guilt by association the standard? Or is it guilt by actual criminal activity?” said a second person close to the White House. “I think he’s safe. The administration [doesn’t] really want to have this fallout of cabinet secretaries being fired or resigning.”
And plenty of key party players in the Capitol dismissed the Lutnick-Epstein relationship. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer dodged questions about it, saying “the bigger issues around here right now are making sure that we get all our members here,” and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., argued that there’s “a lot of people in the Epstein files.”
In addition to Trump’s reluctance this term to fire high-level Cabinet officials, and his disinterest in addressing his past Epstein friendship, Lutnick is also a longtime friend of the president who has defended his tariff regime against intra-party criticism.
A few of those who know Trump best suspected that could be Lutnick’s saving grace.
“He is a true friend … that puts it in a different category,” a third person close to Trump told Semafor. “Donald Trump is familiar with the false accusations, and because this is truly his friend, he gets it. I don’t know that [Howard’s] safe, but I think he’s safer than your average bear.”
Room for Disagreement
Still other Republicans said outright that Lutnick wouldn’t face consequences from his Epstein relationship.
Sen. Lindsey Graham told Semafor that “if anybody did anything wrong” they’d “know it by now,” adding that he believes Lutnick would not be pushed out over the latest Epstein revelations: “I don’t know of any reason why his job’s in jeopardy, but it won’t be because of that.”
Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said: “I don’t see anything changing.”
Shelby, Burgess, and Eleanor’s View
The White House absolutely doesn’t want this drama right now as it tries to refocus on Trump’s tax cuts and other cost-of-living proposals, but other disarray is front and center.
And Trump has spoken dismissively of the Epstein files, often wondering both privately and publicly why his base is so fixated on the topic.
Those two facts are going to help Lutnick, even as the files claim political careers in Europe. The big question might end up being how long Lutnick, who doesn’t exactly need the job of commerce secretary, wants to remain a punching bag — especially with Democrats favored to win control of the House later this year.
