📑 What to know about Robert Lighthizer, ‘trade tsar’ and potential member of Trump’s Cabinet

As President-elect Donald Trump begins choosing a Cabinet, Robert Lighthizer has been suggested as a key contender to run US trade policy, the Financial Times reported, citing insiders.

The report added that Lighthizer might have been hoping for a more high profile post, such as Treasury or commerce secretary.

There has not been any comment from Lighthizer himself, and Reuters, in turn, cited its own sources as questioning the claim that he has been offered the post of US trade chief.

🔸 Lighthizer spent close to three decades as an attorney at Wall Street Law firm Skadden Arps protecting the US steel industry against foreign competition.

🔸 He convinced the George W. Bush administration to impose tariffs on steel imports to protect the US industry in the early 2000s.

🔸 Lighthizer was Trump’s US trade representative during his first tenure in the White House. Trump and Lighthizer are closely aligned on protectionist trade issues.

🔸 As Trump’s 'trade czar', Lighthizer slapped tariffs of up to 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum imports from much of the world, with similar tariffs levied on China’s exports to the US.

🔸 He was Trump’s point man in a deal with Canada and Mexico to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

🔸 Lighthizer wrote in The Economist in March that the United States’ “bold experiment” with eliminating tariffs “has failed.” He argued that the new tariffs of at least 10% that Trump has vowed to implement are needed “to reduce America’s trade deficit and to speed up its reindustrialization.”

🔸 In his 2023 book, No Trade Is Free, he suggests that tariffs should be imposed on all imports “at a progressively higher rate year after year until we achieve balance.”

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❗️The Russian Armed Forces struck the infrastructure of military airfields and Ukrainian energy facilities, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:

◻️ Ukrainian losses reached a total of 770 militants in Battlegroup Yug's area of responsibility.

▫️ Russia's Battlegroup Tsentr has improved its tactical position. The losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces totaled up to 420 soldiers and two Swedish-made Viking armored personnel carriers.

◻️ Russia's Battlegroup Zapad repelled one counterattack, enemy lost up to 440 militants.

◻️ Ukrainian losses reached a total of 125 troops in Battlegroup Vostok's area of responsibility.

◻️ Russian Air defenses hit two HIMARS missiles and shot down 67 Ukrainian drones.

◻️ Enemy losses in Russia’s Battlegroup Dnepr combat zone came to 75 militants.

◻️ Enemy losses in Russia’s Battlegroup Sever combat zone came to 35 servicemen.

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📑What promises has Trump made on Ukraine?

Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to settle the Ukraine conflict even before taking office if reelected.

“This is a war that never should have started […] the money that we’re spending on this war, and we shouldn’t be spending, it should have never happened… I will have that war settled between Putin and Zelensky as president-elect before I take office on January 20. I’ll have that war settled,” Trump said during his presidential debate with Joe Biden in June 2024.

1️⃣Peace deal in 24 hours

🔸 "I will say this […] I would have a peace deal negotiated within 24 hours, you could make a peace deal for both right now, 24 hours, that deal is waiting to be done," Trump said at a rally in January 2023.

🔸 "Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after we win the presidency… I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled," Trump said during a rally in Philadelphia in June 2024.

🔸 Trump claimed during an interview with Fox News in early March that if he had still been president, the Ukraine crisis would not have spiraled, as he “could have negotiated." "At worst, I could've made a deal to take over something, there are certain areas [in Ukraine] that are Russian-speaking areas, frankly, but you could've worked a deal."

🔸 At a North Carolina rally in September 2024, Trump described Ukraine as “demolished,” and argued that “Any deal – the worst deal – would’ve been better than what we have now… If they made a bad deal, it would’ve been much better.”

2️⃣First two calls to Putin, Zelensky

🔸 “You have Ukraine and Russia, and that's… out of control. I met with President Zelensky, and I got along very well with President Putin," Trump said in Milwaukee in October. "I think I would like to be able to solve, well… if I get elected, I'm going to work on that immediately. It's going to be my first two phone calls."

🔸 Trump claimed he would “get people in a room, knock heads and get it done… That would mean saying things to Putin and saying things to Zelensky that they’re not going to want to hear, and getting them into a room, and getting it done.”

3️⃣No US boots in Ukraine

🔸 Trump vowed to not put US troops on the ground in Ukraine if he returns to the White House during an interview on the podcast All-In in June 2024. “I would guarantee it. I wouldn't do it. No.” He added that “for 20 years, I heard that NATO, if Ukraine goes into NATO, it's a real problem for Russia. I've heard that for a long time. And I think that's really why this war started.”

🔸 "We're giving away so much equipment, we don't have ammunition for ourselves right now," Trump said during CNN's town hall event in May 2023.

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❗️Ukrainian forces lost more than 300 soldiers in Russia's Kursk region in one day, and more than 30 800 militants during the entire period of military operations in this region, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

◻️ Russia's Battlegroup Sever repelled seven counterattacks in the Kursk region, enemy lost up to 60 militants.

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