In traditional baseball parlance and reworking the global trade order, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tells Newsmax he is the table-setting leadoff man, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will be the cleanup hitter with "big dog" and "gorilla" China, and President Donald Trump will ultimately be the closer.
"Every country in the world will make a better deal with America, we will grow our GDP, and then we will be focused on the one gorilla in the room, which is China," Lutnick told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" in an exclusive sit-down Wednesday. "And that's got to be worked out, but that's got to be worked out at the top.
"We all know where that's going to be worked out; that's going to be worked out with Donald J. Trump and President Xi [Jinping]. We know that's the way it's going to work."
But, while Lutnick is tasked by Trump to set the framework and the road map for which all other trade deals will start "with the rest of the world," the $1 trillion annual trade deficit with "big dog" China was handed to Bessent to negotiate.
U.S. and China's economies "are so integrated, but right now we are fighting" to restore balance to what should be free and fair trade without barriers China puts up, according to Lutnick.
"Right now we are fighting, make no mistake about it: We are fighting now," he said. "It needs to be deescalated, as Secretary Bessent has said. "And it's his responsibility and the president has given that responsibility, and I — and we all hope he can bring it home. That's what we need to do."
As Bessent said recently, Trump has established "strategic uncertainty" to leverage new trade deals, and the "aperture of uncertainty" is going to progressively narrow as trade deals get done by Lutnick worldwide and the "big dog" talks with China ramp up.
"Everybody looks at the day of April 2, when we had really high tariffs, because these countries have really treated us poorly," Lutnick said, noting the tariffs on the "rest of the world" dropped to 10% to encourage them to come to the table – to effectively set the table — in the real trade war with China.
"We're negotiating with all these countries and the basic premise is, 'Look, you know the rate we're going to charge you if you say nothing, so how about you open your market, be fair, let's get it right, and in exchange for that we'll set fair tariffs together," Lutnick said. "We'll come to that balance. Let's get it on, and let's do it together.
"And that is happening fast and ferociously across the markets so we as a country are in great shape."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.