Howard Lutnick: THIS will blow you away

Now, great pleasure to bring Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick back to the show with a smile on his face. Mr. Secretary, it's wonderful to see you. You take a stab at this. You know, I read about this pessimism and all these websites and internets and this and that and polls that I don't believe for a minute, Howard.

You're on the forefront of this. Why? Where's this? Why is there so much pessimism? What's going on here, Howard?

It's just fake news. You've got so many factories being built. You know, I know people talk about when the factories come online, but the construction jobs alone, you can't invest $3 trillion a year without driving our GDP off the charts. You're going to see fours. You're going to see fives. And you're going to see 6% GDP growth under this president because the factory is coming

home. The tariffs are bringing them home. You have never seen construction the way you're going to see it. And then when these factories come online, wow, are you going to see numbers nobody's ever thought possible.

You know, Secretary, it's not the last word, but just take today. The jobs report today came in basically twice as good as Wall Street predicted. Twice as good as Wall Street predicted. What do you make of that?

Well, I think, you know, it's just setting up for where we're going. You know, the big beautiful bill starts January 1st, you start getting depreciation, the factories are going to come online, you are going to see job numbers in the second half of next year that are going to blow you away. And these are just the right kind of jobs. We've got to train these people. We've got to get those people in America into the workforce for these great paying jobs.

And I think really America, the golden age, which Donald Trump talks about, he is literally saying we are going to build manufacturing in America and these jobs are going to blow the numbers away.

Howard, should the Fed be cutting interest rates right now?

Of course they should. I mean, you've got really a beautiful economy. The economy can grow with lower rates. You know, these rates are high because of the inflation of the Biden administration. You've seen them all come off. Now you've got the president cutting prices across the board.

We're going to drive affordability across the board. You know, he's focused, razor focused on affordability and driving it down. You're going to see inflation coming off. You're keeping energy prices low. You've got tax numbers coming in next year. I think rates should be at least 100 basis points lower.

That will free up affordability in housing and that will help America really reach its full potential.

What's your take on this tariff dividend distribution next year? It's not spawned a lot of enthusiasm on the Hill. The president continues to mention it. What does Howard Lutnick think?

Well, look, the president wants to make sure the American people understand that the tariffs are there for their benefit, right? That it's, yes, it's going to drive down our deficit. Yes, it's going to make the country stronger, but he wants the people of America, the American people to appreciate these tariffs. And he knows if he puts money in their pocket and says, look, this was paid for by the tariffs, they'll better understand how important this is for America.

And so that's why he's talking about it. And, you know, he understands the American people the best. And he's easy to work for. I mean, today and every day, it's really amazing to work for. Today, he had all the freed hostages up to the White House. I mean, imagine that, all the freed hostages up to the White House. There is no president who could do the things that he accomplished.

You know, that's a point. Let's just pause there for a second. That's a very out-of-the-box point. How can a country as great as America, this is the greatest country in the world, all this, if you believe these lefty media, everyone's so pessimistic. Why? For Middle East peace that we never thought we'd see in our lifetime?

I would say that's optimism. 135 million people, some odd, Howard, take my word for it, own stocks one way or another through exchange-traded funds and index funds. 135 million people. It's a little short of the entire workforce. Okay?

Jobs are rising. We just had a report today, roughly 100,000 private sector jobs. Where's the pessimism? Middle East peace, record stock market for, by the way, unions, pensions who are Democrats, they own stocks too, they're sharing in this. Jobs are rising, streets are safer, the border is closed.

I mean, where's this pessimism? I know, I know the websites, you do too. I know the internet sites, I know the Twitter hack sites, but does that mean we have to believe it? That's what I'm really asking you. Why is this stuff happening?

And you've got to fight back. You've got to go out and sell it better, Howard Ludnick. I guess, fight for it. Follow the president's lead. You and Scott and Kevin and so forth. Maybe you just have to go out and sell the story better, Secretary Howard Ludnick.

Well, I'll give you an example. I had two weeks ago, I had Sean Fain. So he runs the United Auto Workers.

Right.

OK. I know. He called me and he said, I can't believe I'm calling a Republican Secretary of Commerce to tell him you have the best administration and you are fighting for the American auto workers. God bless you.

I mean, who gets that phone call? But Donald Trump's administration, right? We're out fighting for union workers. We're out fighting for the American people. It's their jobs that we care about. And Donald Trump has got American workers' backs.

And we are going to deliver those numbers. We are going to deliver jobs, and we are going to deliver a great economy to the American

workers. All right. You got to sell it. You got to sell it. That's what I think. You just got to get out there.

You're a good salesman. You know it, you come from Wall Street, you're a business man. You gotta go out and sell. Sometimes you know, some products sell themselves, other products need to be sold. That's the way I look at it. Now Howard Ludlick, let me ask you, are you changing, or changing at the margins of trade policy? Because a lot of people were very, very happy.

You pulled the tariffs on coffee and meats and fruits and bananas and whatnot. Those struck some people, and I was skeptical myself, a little bit punitive tariffs, not really reciprocal tariffs. So now you pull them, prices are going to come down. Is this a significant change in trade policy?

No, if you understand where Donald Trump comes from. So when we started this process on April 2nd, he wanted, as you know, trade deals. Let's just go make trade deals. If a country makes a trade deal, we'll give them coffee, we'll give them cocoa, we'll give them bananas, we'll give them papayas, we'll give them generic drugs, we'll give them all these different things if they do a trade deal with us to make sure our exporters, if you produce in America, you can export your goods. Finally, the

president has got your back and let you manufacture in America and sell it. And what happened is the president said, look, it's been six months. It's time. Let's just wipe the slate clean. If people haven't made deals with these smaller countries, it's okay. Let's cut the price on all these unavailable natural resources. And let's focus on affordability. So, what you're going to watch is, the president is going to focus on the small things that touch the Americans' pocketbook, and he's

going to bring them all down. He's going to use the power of what he has created to bring these prices down, so that, by Christmas, the prices in America are lower and lower by Christmas the prices in America are lower and lower and the people in America to feel that purchasing power coming back they're gonna feel the power they're gonna get a check next year as the president discussed the tax refunds are coming and Americans are gonna feel

stronger and better about the leadership of Donald Trump in this economy it's coming he's focused on it. And he's going to deliver.

So one other, just basically the last point. A lot of conservatives are concerned that too much government intervention in the private economy, buying shares of companies and so forth. But it turns out now, you tell me, OK, Secretary, but as I understand it now, you're not in favor of a sovereign wealth fund. That really is, you know, an idea that is for another day, if ever. I understand the rare earths.

I understand the government helping out the rare earth companies. I approve of that. I think that's an emergency kind of situation. But by and large, putting government money into private corporations, I mean, if the Democrats come back into power, Howard, you know, Katie barred the door. That'll be socialism. They'll try to run the whole bloody thing. I don't

believe that's what your philosophy is. I don't believe that's what President Trump's philosophy is. So, basically, tell us you're not going to intervene, you're not going to try to run all these private companies, except in the case of national defense like Rare Earths. Go ahead, straighten the record out for us, please.

So let's just talk about the Intel deal, right? Biden gave, G-A-V-E gave Intel, a hundred billion dollar company, $10 billion. Gave it to them. It's Christmas for shareholders. So all we did is said, look, if we're gonna give you $10 billion,

at least make it the benefit of the bargain. What's fair for the American people? Non-voting shares equal to that money. Come on, it's not Christmas. So I think what Donald Trump's view is, and it's of course absolutely my view, that if we're giving money, we need to get something for it. If we're not giving

anybody money, then there's no issue. We're not going out looking for shares of companies or this kind of stuff. That's just not true. But if we are here giving you money, the American taxpayer at least has got to get a fair shake for it.

So it's fair to say a sovereign wealth fund is not on the table. It's fair to say there was a false rumor coming out of the Commerce Department that it was going to invest in private companies of quantum computing. It's fair to say you're not going down that road.

No, the CHIPS Act money, right, allows us to try to make sure we help young companies build in America really cool technology, right? That is in the CHIPS Act money, and that's what we are going to do. We help some young companies in America build really cool technology so that is good for America. But these are small potatoes. This is not, you know, big-sized stuff. This is small potatoes. But the fact is President Trump wants America to grow

and build and that's what he's focused on. He's not focused on trying to buy

some shares in some companies. That's just silly nonsense. All right, I just want to check. You know those Democratic Socialists are always looking over your shoulder, Howard Ludnick. You know that. No problem. Go out there and sell the heck out of this story. Commerce Secretary Howard Ludnick, great pleasure to see you. Happy Thanksgiving Commerce Secretary Howard Ludnick, great pleasure to see you. Happy Thanksgiving and New Year's.