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In the time it took Milton Friedman's dismissive 'abolish' to go from C-SPAN to TikTok, Commerce completed a remarkable evolution from regulatory afterthought to technological kingmaker.
"Abolish," Milton Friedman declared in 1995, his characteristic certainty leaving no room for nuance when asked about the Department of Commerce's future.
The clip, resurrected and viral in the wake of Trump's latest cabinet picks, feels like a transmission from a far simpler era—before Commerce became the unlikely architect of America's $52.7 billion semiconductor gambit and unofficial Ministry of Technology.
While headlines buzz about Trump's headline-grabbing cabinet picks—Linda McMahon for Education, Matt Gaetz for Justice—a more intriguing story unfolds around a department that controls $52.7 billion in semiconductor investments, leads global AI safety initiatives, and might just determine whether your iPhone's successor gets manufactured in Arizona or Shenzhen. The Department of Commerce, long dismissed as a bureaucratic backwater and still targeted for elimination by conservative think tanks, has quietly transformed into America's most crucial weapon in the technological cold war with China.
Enter Howard Lutnick, the Cantor Fitzgerald CEO who rebuilt his firm from the ashes of 9/11 by betting early on electronic trading. His appointment as Commerce Secretary—reportedly a consolation prize after gunning for Treasury—reveals a striking paradox: in the same month Trump's cabinet nominees echo Friedman's call to abolish agencies like Commerce, the department is finalizing rules that will reshape global AI development and determine where the next generation of semiconductors are made.
