Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the architect behind Donald Trump’s chaotic tariff policy, admitted in a Senate hearing Wednesday that there’s no real logic in how the trade talks are being conducted.
In a damning line of questioning, Republican Senator John Kennedy exposed that the Trump administration doesn’t even have a clear goal in mind in terms of what it wants to see from other countries in the trade talks.
“If Vietnam, for example, came to you tomorrow and said, ‘OK, Mr. Secretary, you win. We’re gonna remove all tariffs and all trade barriers. Would the U.S. please do the same?’ Would you accept that deal?” Kennedy asked Lutnick.“Absolutely not,” Lutnick quickly replied. “That would be the silliest thing we could do.”
“Vietnam has a $125 billion exports to us,” he continued, his voice rising. “It imports from us $12.5 million. And you’re thinking, Vietnam exports $125 billion? But where do they get it from? They buy $90 billion from China, then they mark it up and send it to us. It’s just a pathway from China to us.”
“So you wouldn’t accept that deal?” Kennedy pressed.
“No, it’s a terrible deal, we’re the one with the money,” Lutnick said.
“What’s the purpose of reciprocity then?” Kennedy asked, surprised by Lutnick’s confession. “Is reciprocity not one of your goals? Are you telling the president that we shouldn’t seek reciprocity? If that’s what you’re telling me, why are you trying to do these trade deals?”
KENNEDY: If Vietnam came to you and said, ‘You win. We’re gonna remove all tariffs and all trade barriers. Would the US please do the same?” Would you accept that deal?LUTNICK: Absolutely not. That would be the silliest thing we could doKENNEDY: What’s the purpose of… pic.twitter.com/oR7B84MhZq
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 4, 2025
“What do we want?” Lunick asked in response, trying to answer Kennedy’s question as if he had never thought about it before. “We want to encourage Vietnam to get back to producing products they’re great at producing.”
“But I want to get back to reciprocity,” Kennedy pushed. “You just said you don’t believe in, you don’t accept reciprocity as a goal. What are you negotiating in these trade deals?”
“Why would we open our bank account and their bank account when ours is 10 times bigger?”
“Why are you negotiating trade deals? You’re trying to get other countries to lower their tariffs and trade barriers in return for us lowering ours. That’s called reciprocity,” Kennedy repeated, trying to explain to Trump’s commerce secretary the administration’s own talking point.
“Of course,” Lutnick replied.
“So are you or are you not seeking reciprocity in these trade deals?”
Kennedy’s line of questioning continued for a bit longer, until Lutnick said the Trump administration would “consider” a deal from Vietnam if they said they’d stop purchasing products from China.
The pivot is certainly different from what Trump said in April when he announced his tariffs on countries around the world (as well as uninhabited islands near Africa). At the time, Trump called his tariffs “reciprocal,” and said they would remain in place until other countries remove their trade barriers for the U.S. Now, it seems Trump’s logic has changed entirely—if there is any logic at all.
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