When even the mainstream media positively covers President Trump's historic trade deal, you know America got the better end of the deal. Charlie talks with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to recap and react to the MASSIVE new EU and Japanese trade deals and the possibility of tariff rebates for the working class. Watch every episode ad-free on members.charliekirk.com! Get new merch at charliekirkstore.com!Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hey, everybody, Charlie Kirk here, live from the Bitcoin.com studio.
My exclusive conversation with Secretary Howard Luttnick.
Amazing news here about China, EU, Cambodia, Thailand, India, Pakistan, cars, beef, lobster.
Listen to this episode.
Text it to your friends.
President Trump is winning on the trade front in historic ways.
Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com and become a member today.
Members.charliekirk.com.
That is members.charliekirk.com.
Buckle up, everybody.
Here we go.
Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
I want to thank Charlie.
He's an incredible guy.
His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
That's why we are here.
Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of the Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.
Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegoldinvestments.com.
That is noblegoldinvestments.com.
It's where I buy all of my gold.
Go to noblegoldinvestments.com.
Joining us now is the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Luttnick.
Secretary Luttnick, thank you so much for taking the time.
What a last couple of weeks it has been.
Congratulations.
Talk about this EU trade deal.
I know you've been working really hard on it.
The president has been leading the charge.
This is historic.
Please, Secretary Luttnick.
Okay, so in the beginning, you had all these experts who said that Europe would never go for a deal with Donald Trump and America, and this was impossible.
And of course, we have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Donald Trump is completely correct about tariffs.
So what they agreed to do is 15% across the board.
They send us $600 billion a year in goods.
This is just goods.
So that's going to earn us $90 billion a year.
And their $20 trillion economy, remember, they're 450 million people.
$20 trillion economy is now open for the first time ever to Americans.
So we can sell all our industrial products.
We can sell shellfish.
We can sell whatever we want to Europe.
And I just think this is a complete change of the 80-year mistake of trading policy fixed by Donald Trump in six months.
Yeah, and you bring up such a great point.
So can you talk about how tariffs and Liberation Day brought us to this?
Walk us through the sequencing because it was unorthodox.
It was Trump-like.
It was brilliant.
But now we have a record trade deal in a way that we've never seen before, where we're now going to have money pouring back into America.
How did you guys get to that point?
So if you remember, the trade policy of the United States was designed right after World War II, which basically was let's export the power of the American economy to the rest of the world, build the rest of the world with our economy, and you can put on tariffs to protect yourself.
And we'll stand here and export our economics to you.
And we'll rebuild Japan after World War II.
We'll rebuild Europe.
And then we rebuild it after Korea.
We rebuilt it after Vietnam.
And, you know, Donald Trump in the mid-80s started saying, what the heck are we doing?
So he had the experience of his first term.
He thought about it in between.
And when we walked in the door on January 20th, we walked in running.
Okay.
And that was the key.
So he set up the policy right away with me and said, we want to put pressure on the world starting right away.
It's our economy.
We're the great consumer.
Let's put pressure on the world right away.
They have to sell to us.
The customer is always right.
So he put out sharp numbers on April 2nd that caused a shockwave through the world because he was saying, whether you're an ally or an adversary, you're still not treating us right.
And he started the process of the customer is always right.
And America is the greatest consuming customer in the world.
Just under $30 trillion that we spend and the rest of the world sells to us.
So you should pay fairly or at least treat us fairly and let us sell to you.
And that was the model we started on April 2nd.
Then everybody decided they needed to negotiate with us.
He took down the tariffs to just 10%, of course, 55% on China total.
So we start making about $30 billion a month while we're negotiating.
And then in classic Donald Trump fashion, as time went by, the price started going up, right?
And he'd say, you can open your market a little.
You can open your market some more.
And now where we are, if you don't smash open your market entirely to America, Donald Trump's not interested.
You can just pass the tariff.
Yeah.
And so talk more about specifically what industries in particular are going to see the greatest, let's say, exporting growth or surge?
What businesses have been prohibited from being entered into European markets and others that are now going to be liberated?
Give some examples, please, of businesses.
I'll give you some fun examples.
I mean, there's so many examples like lobster, right?
You couldn't sell lobster anywhere.
So like when we did the UK deal, they said, okay, we'll invite you over for a lobster dinner.
And funny is that?
You would say, really?
They won't take our lobsters?
They won't take our lobsters.
They won't take our beef.
They won't take our chicken.
They won't take our row crops, right?
Just corn and soy.
They were all blocking.
And they'd buy it from other places.
They'd buy it from Brazil.
They'd buy it from Argentina because we weren't paying attention, right?
And all cereals, I mean, and industrial products, you know, medical machinery.
I mean, you name it.
It's just we were not allowed to sell to them cars, right?
They All were blocked.
They'd have these standards that basically made it so that we couldn't sell there and they could sell here.
And now they've agreed in both Europe and Japan and the UK to accept our standards so that we can just take a car, make it in Detroit, and sell it in Europe.
And that's just, you can't even imagine what a change that is.
That is not a change that was possible without Donald Trump in the White House.
That's exactly right.
How has it been for you personally kind of through this entire last couple of months?
I know you're used to a high-paced environment, but you've been dealing with dozens of different potential trade deals simultaneously.
How have you been keeping up with President Trump?
Well, basically, my job is to set the table, right?
I negotiate with everybody.
I get it all organized, right?
If you will, I set the table, and then it's time for Donald Trump to do the deal.
So I get the deal as far as I can get it.
And when I run out of room, I put the greatest negotiator in the world at the table with the counterparty, like we did with Europe, like we did with Japan, like we've done with each of these deals.
And then he gets a better deal than I ever could.
And I got to tell you, there's very few things that are as much fun as setting the table for the greatest negotiator who's also the president of the United States, who just takes it home every time.
And the key to Donald Trump is his intuition.
He knows how far he can push someone and he gets it to that point.
And it is just, it's a masterclass to watch.
And I have the best job because I get to sit next to him and watch him as the greatest negotiator.
I sit the table, but boy, he makes it.
He makes that meal so amazing.
It's just a pleasure for me.
This EU trade deal is profound.
It's historic.
And the entire team deserves such credit.
We're going to dive more detail in there.
And also, the big question is, is there a China deal coming?
That is a big, big question.
Private student loan debt in America totals about $300 billion.
WhyReFi refinances private student loan debt, and they do not care what your credit score is.
Many clients aren't even able to make the minimum monthly payment on their private student loans when they first contact YReFi.
Go to whyReFi.com.
That is why FY.com.
You don't have to ignore that mountain of student loan statements on your kitchen table anymore.
So go to whyrefi.com.
Do you have a co-borrower?
Well, whyRefi can get them released from the loan and you can give mom or dad a break.
Go to whyrefi.com.
Can you imagine being debt-free and not living under this burden anymore?
So go to yrefi.com.
That is why.com.
And let's face it, if you have distress or defaulted private student loans, there's no better place to go than whyReFi.
They provide you with a custom loan payment based on your ability to pay.
They're not a debt settlement company.
So check it out right now at yrefi.com.
May not be available in all 50 states.
Go to yrefi.com.
That is yrefy.com.
Secretary Lutnick continues to us.
I want to play cut 328.
Even the mainstream media who hates us is bragging on this trade deal.
Play Cut 328.
The early reviews are in on the new trade deal announced with the European Union.
The Financial Times says the deal marks a victory for Trump.
Is this a fantastic deal then struck by Donald Trump?
Absolutely a victor on behalf of the Trump administration.
First of all, the bottom line is this is the biggest trade deal in President Trump's effort to effectively reshape the global trading order.
On this deal, the European Union, this is a big win for the U.S. The bigger picture is that Trump is still very much pursuing his longer-term goal of achieving what he perceives to be fairness for America.
It's a triumph of a lot of things.
Certainly the president ought to take a victory laugh.
I think it ends up being good for the European Union.
I mean, Secretary Luttnick, they're doing my job for me.
Your reaction?
Oh, I mean, that's why I have the most fun job in the cabinet.
You know, I get to set the table.
I mean, I met with European Union representatives 40 times.
And in the beginning, they were basically giving me the middle finger.
We were nowhere.
They wouldn't even respond to us.
And they didn't respond until Donald Trump sent them a letter saying, you know, if you're not going to respond, pay 50%.
And then all of a sudden that changed, right?
And they started responding, responding.
And then he sent them another letter saying, look, you guys are doing a little bit.
So 30%.
And then boom, off we went until they offered to open their markets completely, pay us 15%.
But the key to why they did that is the sectoral tariffs, the tariffs on autos, the tariffs that are coming on pharmaceuticals, the tariffs that are coming on semiconductors, because Donald Trump has the biggest, the U.S. is the biggest customer in the world.
We were going to take all those industries back to America.
And basically what he told Europe, if you want to keep half, you better do a deal with me.
And so, Secretary Luttnick, let's also talk about some of the other deals.
There was a Philippines deal that came through.
And brag on some of the non-EU news because that kind of went uncovered.
The Japanese deal?
I mean, these are the Japanese people.
We got to talk about Japanese partners.
We have to talk about Japan.
We have to talk about Japan.
No, no, no.
Japan, they're the toughest negotiators on the planet.
Tell us, get us into the room.
What was it like being in the room with the stoic Japanese and President Trump?
Tell us.
All right.
So the Japanese are just not the kind of society that was really going to open their market in the same way.
So we had to come up with a new way of thinking about it.
And basically what they did is they bought down their tariff, right?
They needed their car manufacturing culture is just fundamental to Japan.
And so they couldn't live with a 25% auto tariff.
And so they had to buy it down.
And so the model was they offered, and this was the structure I came up with, they offered $400 billion, right, to a 50-50 partnership with America.
And we could spend that money as the president saw fit on production in America.
So if we want to build semiconductors, if we want to build gas turbines, you know, to do power, whatever we want to build in America, the president could decide and the Japanese would Fund it, fund all of it with their money, and we'd be 50-50 partners.
And that's the table I set when the Japanese came into the room, into the Oval Office to negotiate with Donald Trump.
And where did we end up?
$550 billion.
So $150 billion more.
And 90, 90, 90% of the profits go to the American people.
So basically, and in exchange for that, the Japanese wanted a 10% reciprocal tariff and 15% on autos.
And of course, Donald Trump was able to get 15% across the board.
So a better deal than I could ever get.
Donald Trump got it.
I set the table in what I thought was the coolest deal ever.
And Donald Trump turned it into the best and coolest deal ever.
So we have $550 billion to choose the industries Donald Trump wants to invest in in America to build them.
And we will be building them during his term in America.
That's, it's so cool.
It'll produce more than 100,000 jobs, probably 150,000 jobs, 200,000 jobs directly created by Donald Trump in the White House.
It's really the most, it's the coolest deal ever.
The European Union is the biggest, and the Japanese deal is the coolest.
And President Trump is using trade as a way to broker peace.
In a not even a covered story by the mainstream media, Thailand and Cambodia reach a ceasefire deal to end conflict that displaced over 260,000 people.
Talk about how President Trump used tariffs and trade to end a war and the senseless killing of people between Thailand and Cambodia.
All right.
So I'm planning on flying over, right?
I'm going to Scotland to see the European Union on Sunday, right?
And Friday and Saturday, Donald Trump basically gets calls, calls me, calls the trade team, says, let's be on the phone.
I'm going to make calls.
So he calls the head of Cambodia and he says, listen, you know, you're a great country.
He's so respectful and he's so kind.
But he basically gives them two choices, two paths, right?
The path of let's figure out a way to do a ceasefire and I'll do a great trade deal with you and we'll really trade great.
And if you can't figure out a way to do a ceasefire, you start, you need to start figuring out how to do your business without the United States of America as your client.
You can't do business with America.
So choose love or vinegar.
You know, he always says, honey, vinegar, honey or vinegar.
And then he hangs up the phone and the guy says, okay, I'll do a ceasefire.
I'll do a ceasefire.
Then he calls Thailand and he says the same thing.
And by the way, they each say the other one started.
It's all the other one's fault.
And the president is respectful.
He's kind.
He's warm.
He's engaging.
But he ends up doing it in a way that basically says, look, I'll do the great trade deal with you and we'll do huge amounts of business together.
Or really, you better find your own way in this world without America.
And neither country can afford it.
And so what ends up happening is he uses the power of the economics of the United States of America and the incredible thoughtfulness of the way he thinks about things to use the power of our economy to create peace.
And I, you know, look, as I said, no one's having a better time in the cabinet than me because I get a front row seat to watch Donald Trump create peace through the power of the American economy and the power of the American presidency.
And you saw it this weekend and they just announced it.
I mean, how amazing is that?
And you could go over so many deals.
Pakistan and India, nuclear powers.
Yep.
Go to peace, right?
Rwanda and Congo, right?
I mean, you just, one after the other after the other, he's using the power of the presidency to create peace.
It's amazing.
And this is, this defies all the chattering class of the experts.
You know, one of the biggest lies being sold to American people right now is that you're in control of your money, especially when it comes to crypto.
But the truth, most of these so-called crypto platforms are just banks in disguise, fully capable of freezing your assets the moment some bureaucrat makes a phone call.
That is not what Bitcoin was built for.
That's why I use Bitcoin.com.
I just did a major transaction.
They offer a self-custodial wallet, which means you hold the keys.
You control your assets.
No one can touch your crypto, not the IRS or not a rogue bank, not some three-letter agency that thinks it knows better than you do.
This is how it was intended by the original creators of Bitcoin.
Peer-to-peer money, free from centralized control, free from surveillance, and free from arbitrary seizure.
So if you're serious about financial sovereignty, go to Bitcoin.com, set up your wallet, take back control, because if you don't hold the keys, you don't own your money.
Bitcoin.com, freedom starts here.
There's three quick things, Secretary Luttnick.
I know we have five minutes remaining.
I want to hit with you.
I want to talk about rebates, how wrong they were about tariffs, and then finally, I want to ask about China.
Number one, is there potentially a rebate, a working class rebate that is being considered?
President Trump said yes.
We're looking at it.
This would definitely come across your desk.
What's being talked about here?
Could working people possibly get a little bit of rebate because of all the tariff revenue the United States is bringing in?
Exactly.
So, you know, when they did the big beautiful bill, they don't count the tariff revenues.
So these tariff revenues are going to be 600, then 700, then 800, then 900.
And over the course of his presidency, they could easily hit a trillion dollars a year.
So the president is thinking about, look, I've created this value, right, from the power of the American economy, from all our people and all their consumption.
Why not figure out a way to share some of that money with the people of America?
And I'm telling you, he's thinking about it.
He hasn't made a decision, but he's thinking about it.
He floated it.
And you know the beauty of it.
Without Congress?
Oh, I don't know.
I haven't studied it yet.
I've just sat with him and I've listened to him talk about it both publicly and privately.
I mean, he's interested.
You know, he cares so much about the American people.
And this whole reshoring model, right, is going to change our jobs in America from the elite, you know, coastal elite to the fundamental jobs of America.
We're going to create 5 million high-paying, high-tech, the coolest jobs in the world that have never been available to Americans, right?
Because they didn't exist in the world, right?
There was cheap labor everywhere else in the world.
And now, because of automation, we can bring high-tech, cool jobs, vocational jobs, training jobs, technical jobs, jobs that are fun, jobs that are high-paying, you know, starting at 75,000 bucks and getting up to multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars, not doing gender studies at some East Coast school.
That's over.
These are the coolest kind of jobs where you're doing manufacturing, you're working, you're proud of what you do, you're working in a clean room, and you're doing the coolest tech jobs.
And those 5 million jobs are coming to America.
And Donald Trump's going to do it.
And he may.
I know he's kicking around the idea of a down payment to America to show them where America's going.
So, Secretary, I know you've been working on this.
It's been publicly reported, but it's the big one.
It is the major prize.
China, little whispers here or there.
What can we expect?
What are you able to tell us publicly about the discussions between U.S.-China trade relations?
So the talks are going on right now, and I'll leave to the team who's doing the talking to do a readout.
But there is an enormous opportunity out there to level set the kinds of things with China that we should be doing more of, right?
We should sell them more soybeans, and we're happy to buy inexpensive baby clothes from them.
That model is something that we should exaggerate, right?
And we're really talking about the things where are closer to the line.
But I'm going to let the team read you out, but you know who's making the deal, right?
Donald Trump is in the driver's seat, and he's the one that's going to decide how to work out the terms with China.
It is the big one, but fortunately, we have Donald Trump in the White House to think it through and try to come up with the right path for America.
Last question, Secretary Luttnick.
All the experts said tariffs would increase prices, tariffs would all this.
They will never learn.
If you had to summarize what you, though, have learned that you did not know about President Trump since taking this position, because you know him quite well.
You're one of his closest friends.
What have you even learned since now being a cabinet official alongside President Trump?
The best thing about Donald Trump is the scale of his intuition, right?
He instinctively knows.
If you watched him with the EU, he instinctively knows where to push people to the edge to get the most for America, but also leave them feeling good about themselves.
He knows how to do it.
He did it with the Japanese.
He understands in a way that I don't think any expert ever understood.
And that's the proof from tariffs.
He's proven it.
He understood it in his soul, and he's delivering it for the American people.
Donald Trump understands.
I sit next to him every day, and I'm the proudest to sit next to him because I learn from him all the time.
And that is the coolest job.
Secretary Luttnick, thank you so much.
We got eyes on all the tables that you are setting.
Great work.
See you soon.
Thank you.
See you soon.
Thanks so much for listening.
Everybody, email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
