President Donald Trump is taking on the political risk of rebalancing the global trade order, sometimes putting even his own supporters, staffers, and economists at odds with him. But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tells Newsmax that people need to let the president work.
"The best line I can say is let the greatest dealmaker make his deals," Lutnick told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" in an exclusive sit down Wednesday.
"When you don't bet on Donald Trump, you're making a mistake."
All the criticism aimed at Trump for temporary market volatility is going to deliver huge payoffs in the long term, Lutnick told host Rob Schmitt in a nearly 25-minute, wide-ranging interview.
"He understands," Lutnick said. "He's got great people around him. Let him work through the process of getting a better deal from everybody else in the world.
"We're going to do it smart. We're going to do it thoughtfully."
For those critics who are unhappy with the timetable and want immediate results in the first 100 days, just wait, Lutnick says, a bonanza is coming.
"We don't want to raise the price of little things, like these little toys on the shelf. Why would we want to do that? We love Americans, but let him build," Lutnick pleaded.
"Come on, let the guy build America back."
Not only will trade deals worked by Lutnick "with the rest of the world" set the table for the "big dog," "gorilla" trade correction rebalancing with China, but Trump's "one big, beautiful" budget deal will repatriate American industry, too, with tax cuts for working-class Americans and incentives for businesses.
"We need to rebuild the industrial base of America, but not the old one, the new one," Lutnick noted, saying Trump wants to bring modern manufacturing back to America, not "cheap, basic stuff we can still rely on overseas trade to give us on the cheap."
Tariffs are just the first prong of leveraging the reworking of the global trade order, Lutnick said, adding that tax and regulatory reforms are coming.
"You come in and you come in now!" Lutnick implores American business leaders. "And the government of the United States is going to make it easier for you to build it. We're going to get the regulations down. We're going to get the tax rate down. We're going to get your corporate tax down.
"We're going to get everything we can to say, 'Come, build in America, right? And employ our great Americans, and let's change the industrial foundation of America.'"
In Trump we shall trust, according to Lutnick.
"Let the guy build America back and trust him," he said.
"And Donald Trump's going to do it and he's on it. And he's the first one that actually called it out."
American excellence and treasure has been exported for far too long, Lutnick continued.
"We are inventing everything in the world, but we're letting everyone else build it," he lamented.
Ultimately, America needs to restore its strength and economic superiority so the rest of the world can benefit — and China just is not permitted to steal it all — according to Lutnick.
"We're not trying to hurt anybody," he said. "We need to be a strong America to help the world. The world needs a strong America, and then we can help them.
"But we can't help ourselves if we have a $1.2 trillion trade deficit and we're running $2 trillion budget deficits. We're not going to be in the power of the world to make the world a better place.
"We need to fix our house and Donald Trump is fixing our house.
"Trust him. He's really, really on it. People just get so — especially the left — they just smear him altogether as if it's all one thing. It's not all one thing.
"He's really smart. Let him make the great deals."
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