TV-obsessed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has rushed to suck up to his boss in a Fox Business interview as he starts to take heat for the economy’s downswing.
Lutnick, the official face of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, had been jostling with Ontario Premier Doug Ford over a 25 percent surcharge on electricity going to the U.S. from Canada.
But during a Varney & Co. segment on Fox Business, Lutnick said he is ready to reopen negotiations with Canada ahead of a Thursday sit-down with Ford.
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Asked by host Stuart Varney what Lutnick “wants” from the meeting, he responded “a nice conversation” ahead of negotiating with “all of Canada.” These talks will take place when the country’s next prime minister, Mark Carney, who has vowed to win the trade war against Trump, takes office once Justin Trudeau officially resigns.
“We’re going to wait for their new prime minister and then we’re going to talk,” Lutnick said.
“Are you lowering the temperature deliberately?” the host then asked, prompting Lutnick to launch into a mushy message to his boss.
“Well said. We’re going to lower the temperature,” he laughed. “You know, he [Doug Ford] thought he’d be sort of the big man and tackle Donald Trump, but you know you can’t tackle Donald Trump. He is the most important, the smartest, the most capable leader in the world, and he’s not going to let someone push him around.”
Ford had said electricity tariffs that will affect more than 1.5 million Americans will proceed and that he “will not hesitate to cut off the electricity completely” if Trump does not “end the chaos” of the trade war.
Carney, the incoming Canadian PM, pledged retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods until “Americans show us respect.”
Later on in the Varney & Co. interview, Lutnick again waxed lyrical about the president after the host brought up a Politico report from Tuesday that accused the commerce secretary of acting like a “mini Trump.”
“Oh, my god, I would love to act like a mini Trump, that works for me!” he laughed before launching into another homage to the MAGA chief.
“You’ve got the smartest, most intuitive guy driving tariff policy,” Lutnick said. “I am indeed helping him execute his policy. The economic team is one. We’re doing it together.”
Lutnick appeared to miss the point of the Politico article’s “mini Trump” comment, which was that the source who made the remark was actually slamming him. “I don’t think he got the memo that only Trump gets to be Trump,” the person close to the administration told the outlet. “It just reinforces that he doesn’t really know how to do the job.”
Varney also brought in Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, who he said had asked if the economies of Canada and the U.S. could be merged. “The president has said it, the best way to actually merge the economies of Canada and the United States is for Canada to become our 51st state,” Lutnick said, as Canada-born O’Leary laughed.
The Politico report stated that Lutnick’s “yes man” personality and his habit of repeatedly getting ahead of—and contradicting—Trump’s messaging could see him eventually take the flak for the struggling economy.
