Lutnick Raises Eyebrows While Bragging About UK Trade Deal: ‘We Started at 10% and We Ended At 10%’ from Mediaite Alex Griffing

President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, unleashed a torrent of criticism on Thursday while discussing the just-announced trade deal between the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

Trump announced the deal in the Oval Office, which cut tariffs on British cars, steel, and aluminum, but kept in place the baseline 10% tariff on other goods. The UK agreed to buy more American beef and ethanol products as part of the deal. Notably, the U.S. had nearly a $12 billion trade surplus with the UK in 2024.

Lutnick spoke about the deal after Trump’s announcement, saying, “For the UK auto people, this is tens of thousands of jobs that the president agreed that he would protect for them. So he made that deal, right?” He added:

Then steel and aluminum, right, their steel business has been destroyed like everybody else has been destroyed by people dumping steel into their markets. And British Steel had announced it was closing down. So the British government as part of this deal nationalized British Steel.

And they’re going to match the kinds of models we do. They’ll put tariffs on, they’ll put quotas on. They want to do it with America so they can be part of the resurgence of steel and aluminum in America and that saves them, again, thousands and thousands of jobs. So if you go step by step, aero and commercial planes, they sell Rolls Royce engines to Boeing. We’ve agreed to let Rolls-Royce engines and those kind of plane parts to come over tariff free. And what you’re gonna hear today is there’s gonna be an announcement at the UK that they are buying $10 billion worth of Boeing planes later today, but I’m gonna let the name of the airline announce it because that’s theirs to do it.

After speaking some more about the details, Lutnick conclude, “So we feel really good about the deal. You’ve heard the Prime Minister, he feels really good the deal, right? And we started at 10% and we ended at 10%. And the market for America is better. And this is a perfect example of why Donald Trump produced the Liberation Day. People don’t understand he gets things done. In a matter of time, this would have taken Jameson and I three years, maybe. And instead, we got it done in 45 days, certainly, because we worked for Donald Trump.”

Lutnick, whose regular cable news appearances have found plenty of critics in the media, was widely panned for his remarks – particularly the quote, “And we started at 10% and we ended at 10%.”

Former Republican Congressman Justin Amash shared Lutnick’s remarks and added, “So…Americans had to pay a 10% tax before the “deal,” and Americans have to pay a 10% tax after the “deal.” We have some of the most economically illiterate people in the world in charge of trade policy.”

Reason’s Billy Binon added, “This reads like parody. “Our leverage attempt did nothing—except lock in a permanent tax on Americans. Congratulate us!” So liberating. How do they even say this with a straight face?”

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