Trump’s $2,000 tariff dividend could change EVERYTHING

Welcome back. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Ambassador Jameson Greer are in Brussels this morning for trade negotiations with the European Union. The group expected to discuss steel and aluminum tariffs, duties on food and medical equipment, and potentially more sanctions on Russia for its war on Ukraine. President Trump struck a deal with the E.U. back in July, which included 15 percent tariffs

on most European goods. He also secured more than $1 trillion of investment into America, into various commodities. Joining me now live from Brussels for a Fox Business exclusive is the Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick. Secretary, it's great to see you this morning.

Thanks so much for being here.

Great to be here in rainy Brussels.

What can you tell us about the talks with the European Union, Secretary? What are you expecting?

So what we've been talking about, we started about digital. You know, the idea is that the European Union continues to make rules that only harm our big tech companies. And they're just not getting the investment that we're getting. You know, we have company after company after company announcing $500 billion of investments in America, and here they're getting $10 billion.

So the idea is, come on, guys, embrace the ideas and the model of the Trump administration and you'll get a trillion in investment here. So we're trying to teach them and encourage them to follow the Trump lead and learn how to embrace the digital markets and the AI world. So we're trying, and I'm here marketing and teaching and trying to help our tech companies.

So it's interesting. I love the way that you and President Trump fight for American companies and these digital services taxes have been a real issue for American companies. Do you feel that you're actually making a difference, that you are going to see all of those extra fees and taxes go away?

Well the idea is if they don't make them go away, they're not going to get the investments from these tech companies. I mean, these tech companies have the ability to change the economy of Europe. They could invest a trillion dollars here. But you know, if the market, you know, the regulatory environment, the tax environment is not conducive to these companies, They're gonna invest small potatoes here,

and that's what they're seeing. So I'm here saying, come on, rethink your regulatory environment, embrace our great companies, and they will help your economy grow. So that's the newest part of this conversation

is change your tax model and let these companies invest here. I think it'll be fantastic for Europe. It'll be fantastic for our American tech companies. But it's worth a try and that's why I'm here.

Well that would be a big deal if you could actually get that movement. I don't know if you remember the Mario Draghi research that the former head of the ECB came out with. And he basically compared, you know, why it is that the U.S. has several companies that are $1 trillion or more. We've got at least one company that's close to $5 trillion in NVIDIA. And yet, the amount of companies in Europe that have been able to gain market value,

the highest market value is Novo Nordisk, which is about 350 billion. So why, why can't they generate a trillion dollar company the way America can? Is it regulation?

It's just regulation. It's just, they think that you can regulate success, which you cannot. The idea is to create the environment where companies thrive and build and grow and what they just said to me this morning is look we're trying to build our small companies that's why you were regulating

your big companies and the key the key is no one's going to build a big company here because it just gets regulated the heck out of it. I mean we are trying to convince them to do the right thing another Another example, right, they rule out diesel gas and you got to have batteries here by 2035. But Europe doesn't make batteries. Only certain countries make batteries and Europe is not one of them. They've got to think

better about themselves. They got to take care of themselves And we're here trying to help them understand it. It'll be good for American car manufacturers, good for European car manufacturers. But come on, they don't make batteries here. The leader in batteries is in China. Why would Europe make a rule that they've got to use

batteries that they don't make? Just doesn't make sense. So come on, think correctly. That's why we're here.

Oh, really good point, Secretary. Do you expect anything changes from the deal that President Trump struck back in the summertime with the Europeans? Are the tariffs going to change in any way as a result of your trip?

I think we're here to enhance it. We're offering them. We can extend and grow the deal and make it better and help Europe on all the areas that they're interested in.

You know, they're interested in expanding in steel and we want the help in digital. We want the help in in, you know, in diesel. We want we want help back and forth.

So I think this trade deal, which was a fantastic trade deal, can grow and change and breathe. And that's why we're here. We're giving them offers of how it can take care of them, but they've got to take care of us. These kind of trade deals breathe. And what you do is you send over your trade team to make it bigger, to make it better,

and to make it stronger for us both. And that's why we're here talking about it. Me and Ambassador Greer are here, and we're talking through all the issues to make this deal ever bigger and ever stronger on the back of the amazing deal that Donald Trump set in July in Scotland.

Secretary, any changes that we should expect with regard to China? Because you and your colleagues have been working hard to ensure that the free flow of rare earth minerals happens from China to the whole world, by the way, not just the United States. But we've got indications that they are pushing back again and withholding rare earth minerals from companies in the U.S. that are tied to the U.S. military. Do you have an update there?

Well, I think the relationship between President Trump and President Xi is at the heart of this. I think these kind of things will work their way through. I think our trade team is going to work their way through. But really, it all lynched is upon the fact that President Trump and President Xi have a good working relationship.

They've decided to work these things out, and I think we're relying on that relationship is going to pound through and make sure things are balanced and reasonable between our two countries. But let's see how that goes. But I think the president's got it well in hand.

All right. Meanwhile, the president has been luring all this money into America, meeting with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House last week, and the commitment to invest $1 trillion into America, whether it be technology, energy, defense infrastructure. The White House now approving the sale of NVIDIA's advanced AI chips to Saudi Arabia's Humane company and the United Arab Emirates G42 tech firm's secretary.

We were both—you and I were both at the investment summit on Wednesday. Tell me about that partnership. And do you worry that sending these very advanced chips to the Saudis will ultimately make its way to China, or do you expect we will be sending those chips to China as well?

So the idea, these are our best chips. And what we've decided to do is for chips of 35,000 chips or less, we will let a national champion tech company that's G42 in the UAE and Humane in Saudi Arabia, that they can manage those ships, but those ships must stay in Saudi Arabia, stay in the UAE, must be overseen and must be audited so they're there to take care of their domestic use.

And then anything above 35,000 ships has to be run by US hyperscalers and US cloud providers. And that's the model for both Saudi and for the UAE. And I think we're very comfortable with that. And we are considering that kind of model for the rest of the world. So I think we're going through that process. I think you're going to see a model published.

Our AI action plan will come out. It's going through all of the different departments right now in the U.S. government sort of commenting on it. But you should expect that policy to come out before the end of the year. But we are comfortable with Humane. We are comfortable with G42. And above that, above 35,000 chips, U.S. hyperscalers, people we know and we can be confident will

not let these chips fall into the wrong hands. Well, I guess what I'm really getting at is China, because I know there's a massive race to win this AI race, and then, of course, we've got this soft war underway with regard to trade with the Chinese Communist Party. Do you think that there's going to be any movement in terms of President Trump allowing those chips to get to China?

Well, the best part about America is we have Donald Trump in the Oval Office. He's listening to everybody. He's going to think about it. He listens to Jensen from NVIDIA, but he listens to all sorts of other executives, and they

all bring these opinions together, and Donald Trump's going to decide what ships, if any, we sell to China. That's on the president's desk. He's going to decide how he wants to take care of it. And that's the benefit of having Donald Trump be the president of the United States, is he's making that decision with advice from everybody.

And that's the best part about being in America. You've got the best president, the best dealmaker. He understands how he wants to play it, and will leave it in his hands. So, we'll wait for any new developments there.

The president is also working on this potential proposal to send out checks of $2,000, dividend checks. And, you know, there's an analyst I spoke with over the weekend who believes that it's unlikely unless we see a second reconciliation package passed in 2026. What's your expectation, Secretary, in terms of a second reconciliation bill or a stand-alone $2,000 check program to go out?

Look, the tariffs are an American policy. The president wants the American people to understand how great tariffs are for them. And so one of the ways to prove to the American people how great tariffs are is to have them share in a part of one year's income from these tariffs. And that's $2,000 a head, as he said, for people who need the money. You know, he's going to constrain it to people who need the money.

And that's exciting. So the president's got that on his desk. I know that's something he wants to achieve, and his legislative team will figure out the best way to do it. But what he's trying to do is make sure people in America understand that tariffs are their policy.

It's to make America stronger, and it could also benefit their pocketbook. And that is coming next year from the president.

Yeah, for sure. But the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says that those payments will cost roughly $600 billion each round and increase the deficit by $6 trillion over a decade. The White House preparing, of course, backup plans in case the Supreme Court rules against the president and the emergency powers on tariffs. I want to ask you about those backup plans. So let's take a short break and come right back on the cost of the president's tariff

dividends and whether or not, in fact, we are going to see this take place next year. Secretary, I just got to get your take on whether or not there is a backup plan in place if the Supreme Court goes against you. Stay with us, Secretary. Stay with us, Secretary. We've got more right after the break.