Donald Trump appoints arch-protectionist Robert Lighthizer to lead US trade policy

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Robert Lighthizer, who was U.S. trade representative when Donald Trump began his trade war with China, has been asked to take the job again as the president-elect begins building his Cabinet team.

Several people familiar with discussions within Trump’s transition team said Lighthizer was asked to return to the top trade position despite campaigning for another position, including commerce secretary.

Lighthizer had also expressed interest in serving as Treasury secretary, but that position will most likely be offered to a financier, with candidates including hedge fund managers Scott Bessent and John Paulson.

But the possible reappointment of an arch-protectionist to the key trade role will make U.S. trade allies, including China, nervous, given how closely Lighthizer and Trump are aligned on trade policy. Trump has promised to impose high tariffs on all imports into the US, particularly Chinese goods.

Trump had considered Lighthizer as commerce secretary, but people familiar with the staff discussions said the president-elect would most likely offer that job to Linda McMahon, the billionaire co-chair of Trump’s presidential transition team.

Philadelphia Congressman Brendan Boyle, the top Democrat on the influential House Budget Committee and ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, which oversees trade, welcomed the news.

“When Bob Lighthizer was USTR, I worked with him at the USMCA [US-Mexico-Canada Agreement]. He was nonpartisan in his approach and was well respected on both sides [political] Gang,” Boyle said.

It remains unclear whether Lighthizer will accept the position. Lighthizer did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Trump also did not immediately respond.

Robert O’Brien, who served as national security adviser during the first Trump administration and was considered a strong contender for secretary of state or national security adviser again, told his private sector consulting clients this week that he would not be joining the administration, so a person familiar with the decision.

Lighthizer was well respected by Trump and was one of the few senior officials who did not face his wrath during Trump’s first term as president.

As Trump’s trade czar, he presided over a turbulent era of global trade in which the administration repeatedly slapped its largest trading partners – including its allies – with steep taxes and tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of imports.

A former lawyer for the U.S. steel industry, he frequently clashed with the Geneva-based World Trade Organization, which oversees international trade disputes, calling it a “mess” that “failed America.”

His appointment would also be bad news for Nippon Steel, the Japanese company that has proposed a $15 billion takeover of US Steel. Trump has already signaled he opposes the deal, but Lighthizer would almost certainly be a strong opponent.

Lighthizer spent three decades as an attorney at the Wall Street law firm Skadden Arps, where he fought imports from China on behalf of the U.S. steel industry, including U.S. Steel. In the early 2000s, he helped persuade George W. Bush’s administration to impose tariffs on steel imports to protect U.S. industries.

During his previous term as trade representative, Washington turned away from trade deals based on business interests and instead focused on policies aimed at restoring manufacturing and protecting American workers. Nevertheless, Lighthizer agreed to limited trade deals with China and Japan and updated the U.S. agreement with Mexico and Canada.

Shortly before the US election, Lighthizer wrote in the Financial Times that free trade was responsible for the loss of American manufacturing jobs and called the US trade deficit “alarming.” “Faced with a system that is seriously failing our country, Trump has decided that action must be taken,” he wrote.