Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says new tariffs here to stay

Great to be here.

Well, you've got to realize this is a national security issue. I mean, we don't make medicine in this country anymore. We don't make ships. We don't have enough steel and aluminum to fight a battle, right? All our semiconductors are made overseas. So every button we press when we try to start our car or even use our microwave, these are all semiconductors. They're all made elsewhere. We've got to start to protect ourselves and we've got to stop having all the countries of the world ripping us off. We have a $1.2 trillion trade deficit and the rest of the world has a surplus with us. They're earning our money. They're taking our money and Donald Trump has seen this and he's going to stop it. So it is going to be a big change. Of course, it's going to be a big change, but the rest of the world has been ripping us off for all these many years. Donald Trump has seen it. He's spoken about it. He's just not going to take it anymore. And that's his model.

No, I think the point is you need to reset the power of the United States of America and reset it against all our allies and our enemies alike. The idea that all the countries of the world can run trade surpluses with America and buy our things from us. Remember, $1.2 trillion. In 1980, we were a net investor, meaning we owned more of the rest of the world than they owned of us. It's a different world. Now they own $18 trillion of us net. So that means every year when we run a $1.2 trillion deficit, the rest of the world buys $1.2 trillion of America and it goes up and up and up and eventually we're not going to own America and we are going to be owned by the rest of the world. Imagine if we had a war and we can't build a ship. We can't fly a plane. We can't build our own planes. We don't have our own semiconductors. This is what the president is here to fix for America. It's in his hands and he wants to fix America. This is his chance to fix America and we need him to fix it for our children and our grandchildren.

Absolutely. The United States of America is going to protect the people who invest in America. Trillions and trillions of dollars, you heard the president speak about it, are coming to invest in America. This is the economy of the world. We are the consumer of the world and companies need to build it here and we will protect them for building it here. We will help the American workers. Yes, American workers are more expensive but they're better. We're going to protect all the factories that come to America and that's what's coming here.

Well, remember this is a national security issue. I got it. Address our budget deficit. You know, the laws of America are the laws of America. He would like it to be that we need to protect the companies that invest here and we are going to protect the companies that invest here. That is the policy of the United States of America. That's why trillions of dollars are coming here. The ripoff of the United States of America is over. All these companies are going to come and invest here. That's what they're doing. That's why they've committed trillions of dollars. They know this is the economy. This is the place to go.