Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as the Megaphone of Mar-a-Lago

 

The Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is nothing but President Trump’s megaphone, every word from his lips a hymn of praise for Trump. That is ridiculous—are we in America, or rehearsing loyalty oaths in Moscow?

On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order slashing tariffs on auto and other imports from Japan, cutting the rates from a punishing 25–27.5% down to 15%. In return, Japan supposedly agreed to provide $550 billion for Trump to invest wherever he pleases in America. The way Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tells the story, you would think the Emperor of Japan personally handed Trump a blank check with a bow. He insists this deal alone represents half a percent of GDP growth for every year of Trump’s term. But here’s the problem: Lutnick never manages to present a single fact without coating it in a thick layer of flattery for the president. It is as if his job description reads, “Speak loudly into the presidential megaphone and praise without pause.”

According to Lutnick, Japan is not just lowering tariffs; they are showering America with capital calls like confetti at a wedding. He paints an image of Trump commanding an Alaskan pipeline into existence, calling Tokyo like a landlord demanding rent. To hear Lutnick tell it, the Japanese will simply open their wallets whenever Trump snaps his fingers. Never mind that Japanese officials have described the package as a combination of loans, investments, and loan guarantees—words that suggest complexity, not blind generosity. Lutnick waves those details away, declaring it doesn’t matter how Tokyo gets the money, only that Trump has full discretion to spend it as he pleases. That’s not analysis; that’s worship dressed up as economic commentary. When the town crier shouts only the king’s name, the village stops hearing the truth.

Employment numbers, too, are turned into a stage for Trump’s glorification. Lutnick claims this deal will cause jobs to “explode” next year, with unemployment vanishing like snow in July. He assures us that over 6.9 million sidelined Americans will suddenly leap into the labor market once Trump trains them for new “tech jobs.” Factories, HVAC systems, pipelines—it all becomes a chorus singing the president’s praises. Lutnick even insists that 5 million Americans will be trained for these roles. The precision of the numbers almost disguises the absurdity. Where is the infrastructure to train them? Where are the budgets? Instead of details, all we hear is: Trump wills it, therefore it will be.

Even the Federal Reserve is not spared from Lutnick’s narrative. He berates Jerome Powell for keeping interest rates “absurdly” high, blaming him for slowing Trump’s economic miracle. Again, the analysis is absent. No discussion of inflationary risks, global credit conditions, or fiscal policy pressures. Just a simple chant: Trump is right, the Fed is wrong. This is not economic leadership; it is a pep rally disguised as policy. A drummer who only beats one note eventually deafens the crowd.

When the conversation turns to legal challenges against the tariffs, Lutnick’s tone grows even more slavish. He insists the courts are stacked in Trump’s favor, noting how judge after judge supposedly sided with him. According to Lutnick, the Supreme Court will naturally rule Trump’s way, because the “smartest” judge in the lower court already did. The analysis is childlike in its simplicity, as if judicial decisions hinge on loyalty oaths rather than constitutional law. Here again, Lutnick cannot resist turning a question about checks and balances into another hymn for Trump’s leadership. When justice bends too much toward one man, the scales of liberty tip into tyranny.

The secretary’s obsession with Trump’s authority over foreign policy borders on parody. He declares that only Trump, elected by the entire nation, has the right to direct America’s trade strategy. He mocks Canada for daring to retaliate, praises Europe for “paying us 15% while our exporters pay zero,” and crows that no one dares resist Trump’s genius. Japan’s contribution, he insists, will fund everything from semiconductor plants to generic drug factories, freeing America from Chinese antibiotic dependence. He calls it the smartest deal ever made, possible only because Trump sits in the Oval Office. The implication is clear: without Trump, America is helpless; with Trump, America is invincible. This is not policy, it is idolatry. When every road is said to lead to one man, the map of democracy is already burning.

Even the Bureau of Labor Statistics is dragged into Lutnick’s performance. Asked about the credibility of upcoming jobs numbers, he dismisses any past data as the result of anti-Trump bias. The old BLS leadership, he says, was rooting against America, while the new leadership will be “on side” and finally produce the “correct” numbers. Let that sink in: the credibility of statistics depends not on methodology or accuracy, but on whether the officials salute the president. This is not America’s tradition of independent data; it is the logic of Moscow, where numbers are valuable only if they serve the leader’s narrative.

What emerges from Lutnick’s every word is not analysis but amplification. He is not a commerce secretary weighing costs and benefits; he is a cheerleader waving pompoms in the Cabinet room. His voice is not his own; it is an echo of Trump’s. And that is dangerous. Democracies require critical voices, not megaphones. They need checks on power, not sycophants showering the president with unbroken streams of praise. A river that never changes course eventually floods the valley.

As I listened to Lutnick’s description of this so-called “Japanese miracle,” I felt less like I was hearing the policy of a great republic and more like I was watching a play in which every actor repeats the same line: “Trump is amazing.” I ask myself: are we still in America, the land where officials once prided themselves on independence? Or have we stumbled into a theater where dissent is silenced, and the only approved script is praise for the man in power? Lutnick cannot finish one sentence without crowning Trump the savior of the economy. That is not economics; that is propaganda.

And so the question must be asked. Are we witnessing the crafting of smart policy, or simply the rehearsal of loyalty oaths? Lutnick calls it the smartest deal ever made. I call it the loudest echo chamber ever built. If this is what economic stewardship has become—one man’s megaphone blaring across the republic—then the danger is not in tariffs or pipelines but in the erosion of reason itself. When the rooster crows for only one dawn, the farm forgets there are other mornings.