Howard Lutnick: Countries Are Making Offers They Never ‘Would Have Come With’ Before Trump Tariffs

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said during Thursday’s Cabinet meeting that countries are approaching the United States with offers they never previously would have because of President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.

Lutnick was the second cabinet member to speak after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just a day after Trump put a pause on his reciprocal tariffs on countries that did not retaliate against them. According to the White House, some 75 countries are looking to negotiate, while escalations with Beijing have led to the administration ramping up reciprocal tariffs to 125 percent on China.

“They have come with offers that they never, ever, ever would have come with but for the moves that the president has made, demanding that people treat the United States with respect,” Lutnick said.

“We’re getting the respect we deserve now, and I think you’re going to see historic deals one after another,” he added.

Lutnick’s statement echoes Trump’s comments Monday while speaking with reporters alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office.

“I will say this, virtually every country wants to negotiate. If I didn’t do what I did over the last couple of weeks, you wouldn’t have anybody who wants to negotiate,” Trump said.

“We would have gone to these countries, ‘You want to talk?’ and they’d go, ‘Well, we don’t want to talk.’ Now, they’re coming to us,” he said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday said that Trump had maximized his leverage in worldwide trade negotiations in response to a question about why the President put a pause on tariffs for non-retaliatory countries.

“President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself,” Bessent told reporters outside the West Wing.

“We have just been overwhelmed by the response from mostly our allies who want to come and negotiate in good faith. So we are expecting them to come with their best deal,” he added.