During a Breitbart News policy discussion on Wednesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick described how President Donald Trump’s trade approach is focused on ending decades of foreign economic advantage over the United States, pointing to long-term trade imbalances and the consequences of foreign ownership of U.S. assets.
Speaking with Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow and Economics and Finance Editor John Carney, Lutnick traced the shift in America’s global financial standing over four decades.
“…1985 the United States of America, all our companies take the whole thing. We own more of the rest of the world than they own of us, about 150 billion count stocks, debt, everything, companies, owning shares, you name it, we count it, we own more of them,” Lutnick said, contrasting that position with current figures. “We enter 2025, the rest of the world owns 26 trillion more of us than we own of them. That is a rough 40 years.”
Lutnick drew on personal experience: “What I learned in college, like sophomore year, was I buy your cars with my printed dollars. I buy your wine with my printed dollars, and I keep buying all your good stuff with my make believe dollars, and eventually you say, ‘Get lost,’ right? And you devalue my dollar. It doesn’t work anymore then they buy our stuff. And that’s how the world works.”
Lutnick explained that while he was taught in college that persistent trade deficits would eventually lead to devaluation of the dollar, that didn’t happen. “The problem is we’re too damn smart. We invent the light bulb, we invent the transistor. We invent the GPU. We keep inventing stuff. So instead of devaluing the dollar, you know, what they do, they buy us out from under us.”
Lutnick recounted a conversation with the President about how to approach trade negotiations, particularly with Middle Eastern countries. The President encouraged a tougher stance, suggesting Lutnick tell foreign leaders, “You’re not allowed to invest in America.” When they respond by offering major investments—such as $500 billion—Lutnick said the President’s advice was to simply reply, “Nah, we don’t want it.”
According to Lutnick, the United States holds a unique position in the global economy that gives it leverage to act decisively. “They go, no, no, no, we’re like—what’s your alternative? Where else are you going to put your money that’s as great as our place? Answer is nowhere. So it’s the greatest economy. We need to balance that, and that’s what’s happening.”
He illustrated the economic relationship between American innovation and foreign production using a metaphor about two islands: “The way I say it is there’s two islands. One is where all the brilliant people live and they invent everything. The other one is where everybody produces everything the geniuses invent, then the geniuses buy it from the guy who makes it, and the guys who make it use the money to buy the other island. And sooner or later, the geniuses are the great engineer who work for them, right? Because it just gets bought out from under you.”
Lutnick credited Trump with being the only political leader who both recognized the problem early and took action. “He talked about this in the 80s, and nobody ever did, and he’s the only one who talked about it, right? And by the way, if you thought I knew the first thing about tariffs before I worked for him, that would be false.”