‘Corruption on Steroids’: Trump Commerce Secretary Roasted After Promoting Tesla Stock on Fox News
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick raised eyebrows across the political spectrum on Wednesday night by suggesting to viewers of Fox News’s Jesse Watters Primetime that now is the moment to buy Tesla stock in a full-throttled sales pitch on behalf of Elon Musk’s flagship company.
Host Jesse Watters began the conversation by asking Lutnick, “How are you interpreting firebombing Teslas?”
“This is so outrageous,” replied Lutnick, before singing Musk’s praises. “You probably have the best entrepreneur, the best technologist, best leader of any set of companies in America, working for America, and you have this sort of weird side of the Democratic Party attacking him.”
Later in the exchange, the Trump cabinet member added, “I think if you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla!”
“It’s unbelievable that this guy’s stock is this cheap, it’ll never be this cheap again. When people understand the things he’s building, the robots he’s building, the technology he’s building — people will be dreaming of today and Jesse Watters and thinking, ‘gosh, I should have bought Elon Musk’s stock!’ I mean, who wouldn’t invest in Elon Musk? You gotta be kidding.”
The Trump official boosting Musk, who poured billions of dollars into Trump’s campaign is now working within the administration on behalf of DOGE, was quickly met with accusations of corruption.
Fox radio host and Jewish Insider editor Josh Kraushaar shared the segment on X and called it, “Corruption on steroids.”
The Bulwark’s Sam Stein recalled a similar scandal from the first Trump administration, writing, “When Kellyanne Conway encouraged Fox viewers to buy Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, the top Oversight REPUBLICAN called it ‘wrong’ and asked the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to look into it. Tonight, the Commerce Secretary on Fox encouraged people to buy Tesla stock.”
The Atlantic’s David Frum added, “If this cabinet secretary himself owns any of the stock he’s touting on TV, he’s probably committed a serious ethics offense. If he doesn’t own the stock himself, then he probably hasn’t broken any laws, but is engaged in a shameful breach of trust with the audience watching.”
“US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tells Americans to buy Tesla stocks. Lutnick has indirect ownership of Tesla stock via Cantor Fitzgerald, which he’s required to divest from by 19 May. If he hasn’t done so yet, this would be a clear breach of US insider trading and conflict of interest laws,” added political commentator Adam Schwarz.
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