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All The President’s Men: The CRE Nominees Set To Define The Trump Administration

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Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump’s vision for his administration will come into clearer focus in the coming days, but his first draft features a swath of proposed appointees either with commercial real estate backgrounds or helming departments key to the industry.

Industry stakeholders are still in wait-and-see mode, anxiously watching for policies to roll out and plans to unfold. But there is security in having some of their own as key players in the new administration, even if the jury is still out on what it will all mean. 

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President Donald Trump

“It's an evolving landscape as we've gotten some high-profile appointments,” Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO Bob Broeksmit said of Trump's appointments to date, noting there are still many on the way.

“A lot of the key appointments are yet to come because while the secretary of an agency is a really important role, the deputy secretaries and how that secretary fills out the agency is also, of course, very important.”

Broeksmit and others will especially monitor how Scott Turner, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, chooses to focus on opportunity zones, a tax break for businesses investing in economically distressed communities. The MBA believes there are substantial opportunities for multifamily housing in some of these areas.

Turner led the charge on the implementation of OZs during Trump’s first term, and those working in the space expressed enthusiastic optimism in the days after Trump's victory, including those at Novogradac's Fall Opportunity Zones Summit in November.

“The level of kind of excitement here at the conference is also one that’s very ebullient and is very excited about kind of the future of opportunity zones,” OZPros founder Ashley Tison said in a podcast recorded live at the summit.

Early moves by Scott Bessent, whom Trump nominated to serve as secretary of the treasury, will also be of great interest to the industry.

Bessent has a “very firm grasp” on economic issues across the spectrum, Broeksmit said, adding he expects CRE to have a “knowledgeable and sympathetic ear” at the Treasury Department on ways that increasing the housing supply and encouraging development will lead to the economic renaissance that Bessent mentioned in his confirmation hearing.

“I believe that President Trump has a generational opportunity to unleash a new economic golden age,” Bessent said in a prepared statement to the Senate Finance Committee, citing the new administration's pro-growth tax, investment, trade and energy policies.

In the main, Trump’s appointees should quell fears from certain CRE tenants that have held off on signing new leases or expanding because of potential federal regulatory risks, said Ronald Rohde Law President Ron Rohde, a Dallas-area attorney specializing in industrial transactions. 

“With Trump appointments, they should get the clear signal, or at least [the] consistent signal, ‘Hey, we're not going to clamp down more. We may not roll back things, but it's not going to get worse in the next four years,’” Rohde said. “That's letting people say, ‘OK, if we're in the trucking industry, if we're in manufacturing, we could expand, because we can project out our costs for the next four or five years.’”

Key appointees with CRE backgrounds or in charge of posts with major policy implications are still in various stages of the confirmation process. Here's what we know now about who they are and why the industry should care.

Scott Turner — HUD Secretary

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Scott Turner speaks at the Opportunity Zone Conference at the White House in April 2019.

Bio: Before stepping into the political arena, Scott Turner was an NFL cornerback between 1995 and 2003, playing for the Washington NFL franchise, the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos. He was twice elected as a Texas state representative and was tapped in the first Trump administration to lead a council working with federal agencies on ways to promote opportunity zones.

Since Trump’s first term, Turner has worked as chief inspiration officer for a software company and chief visionary officer for multifamily developer JPI.

Why CRE should care: Turner is expected to juggle Biden administration-proposed reforms that are broadly supported by the real estate sector with Trump's focus on deregulation and reviving old incentive programs at the agency. 

At Turner’s hearing on Thursday, he said he would evaluate each HUD program to see which are effective and try to streamline the agency. He also said more department staff will need to return to in-person work. 

Status: Senate Banking Committee vote pending.

Howard Lutnick — Commerce Secretary 

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Howard Lutnick speaks at an FDNY event in 2013.

BioHoward Lutnick is the executive chairman of Newmark and the chairman and CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald and financial technology firm BGC Group. He is the holder of the largest share of Newmark’s common stock, though he said he intends to leave his position atop the brokerage and sell his shares.

Lutnick will step down from his other two positions and divest from the three companies, though he doesn't intend to sell shares on the open market, he said in a statement.

Why CRE should care: In Lutnick’s role as commerce secretary, he will focus on negotiating with countries on trade deals and tariffs, a pillar of Trump’s policy plans on the campaign trail. 

“Tariffs are an amazing tool for President Trump to use, and he understands ‘don't tariff stuff we don't make’ and ‘build in America,’” Lutnick has said. “We can't sell a Ford or GM in Europe because there are 100% tariffs. ... How about we say, ‘We are going to tariff you like you are going to tariff us.’ Of course, they're going to come in and negotiate, and their tariffs are going to come down.”

Status: Senate committee nomination hearing pending.

Scott Bessent — Treasury Secretary

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Scott Bessent at his confirmation hearing

Bio: Scott Bessent is an investor and hedge fund manager who previously backed Democrats and supported Al Gore’s presidential run. He is also a former protégé of George Soros, a billionaire investor and Democratic megadonor. If Bessent is confirmed, he will make history as the first openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet official in a Republican administration. 

Why CRE should care: The secretary of the treasury is responsible for implementing a presidential administration’s economic policies, and Bessent is expected to help push Trump administration initiatives like reupping tax cuts, rolling back regulations, embracing cryptocurrency and imposing tariffs as he seeks to renegotiate trade deals.

Bessent has spoken in favor of tariffs, lauding their “storied history as both a revenue-raising tool and a way of protecting strategically important industries” in the U.S.

“President-elect Trump has added a third leg to the stool: tariffs as a negotiating tool with our trading partners,” Bessent said. “Our size gives us market power and the ability to dictate terms. Other countries need us more than we need them. We have to use that power.”

Status: Senate Finance Committee vote pending.

Bill Pulte — FHFA Secretary

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BioBill Pulte is the CEO of the private equity firm Pulte Capital Partners and a philanthropist who has given away money and other goods on social media. He is a grandson of real estate titan William Pulte. Bill Pulte has frequently tweeted praise of Trump and has more than 3 million followers on X. 

Why CRE should care: At the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Pulte would steer policy concerning mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the Trump administration is expected to try and remove from conservatorship. Under the conservatorship, the government regulates Fannie and Freddie and guarantees their mortgage-backed securities won’t default.

Status: Senate committee nomination hearing pending.

Ambassadors And Envoys

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Tilman Fertitta and Steve Witkoff are among the CRE names being tapped for overseas assignments.

Bios: Charles Kushner, named ambassador to France, is the founder and chairman of Kushner Cos., which now owns a reported $16B in assets. He is also the father of Jared Kushner, who served in Trump’s first term as a senior adviser and is the husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

Charles Kushner pleaded guilty to federal charges of tax evasion, campaign finance offenses and witness tampering and was sentenced to two years in prison in 2005. Trump pardoned the elder Kushner in 2020, during the last days of his first term.

Tilman Fertitta, named ambassador to Italy, is the billionaire owner of the Houston Rockets, Landry’s Inc. and a large swath of real estate. The Houston native owns more than 600 properties in at least 36 states and 15 countries. He is also a storied GOP donor and Trump ally, joining Trump and billionaire businessman Elon Musk for a Starship rocket launch in Texas in November.

Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, made his money in luxury condo and hotel development in Miami and New York City. He has been friends with Trump for four decades, stemming from a time in the 1980s when Witkoff, then a real estate attorney, paid for Trump’s ham-and-Swiss sandwich. Witkoff has donated nearly $2M to Trump’s campaigns and various funds, advised him on tax cuts and golfed with him. 

Why CRE should care: There are roughly 200 spots for foreign ambassadors in a president’s administration, and the cushiest are sometimes reserved for megadonors, according to Politico.

As the president's highest-ranking representative in a foreign nation, ambassadorships are sometimes important because the country is a close U.S. ally or neighbor to an adversary. Other posts carry great weight because they are in spots where the Trump administration is looking to exert influence, such as in China and Russia.

As special envoy, Witkoff's role will be different in that he will act as the personal representative of the president or the secretary of state in the Middle East. Although he has yet to be confirmed by the Senate, Witkoff reportedly had a major role in securing a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas last week. 

Status: Senate committee nomination hearings pending.