Journalism of Courage
United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Sunday sharpened the US’ attack on its crucial trading partners, including India, urging them to “open their markets, stop taking actions that harm America.”
“We have a bunch of countries to fix like Switzerland, Brazil, like India. These are countries that need to really react correctly to America,” Lutnick said in an interview to NewsNation.
“… these countries have to understand that if you want to sell to the US consumer, you’ve got to play ball with the President of the United States,” he added.
Lutnick’s comments come amid escalating tensions between India and the US, after the Trump administration imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India, including a 25 per cent duty on New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.
These remarks follow a series of criticisms of India’s trading policies by the US administration. Earlier on September 15, Lutnick targeted India for not opening its market to American farm products, warning New Delhi to cut tariffs or face difficulties in doing business with the United States, a report in The Indian Express quoted.
The commerce secretary had emphasised that Washington would continue to push back until trade became more balanced. “That’s the President’s model, and you either accept it or you’re going to have a tough time doing business with the world’s greatest consumer,” he said, PTI quoted.
On creation of jobs in manufacturing
Dismissing reports on loss of about 80,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump took office, Lutnick asserted, “Well, it can’t be true.”
“The tariff world is going to bring in the greatest building of advanced manufacturing that the country’s ever seen… will create so many manufacturing jobs,” he said.
“The stress in America is going to be — we have to train the 6.9 million able-bodied Americans who were sitting on the sidelines, who didn’t want to go to a liberal arts college, who didn’t want to work in the marketing department of some company. They want to work with their hands, they want to get out there. And those jobs are coming. These are advanced technical skills where you can be trained.”
Hailing the Trump administration, Lutnick said it is going to bring back advanced manufacturing. “We’re going to have the greatest training program in the history of America… We had 3.8% growth last quarter. And next year over 4, and you’re going to have the largest economy in the world. Our economy just crossed 30 trillion dollars. And it’s going to become one of the fastest growing economies in the world as well,” he asserted.
On implementation of H-1B visa fee hike
The procedure goes into effect in the February of 2026, Lutnick clarified. Underlining that there will be changes between now and 2026, he said, “Right now, there’s going to be a one-time fee of $100,000 to get in… These H-1B is a lottery.”
“I think the H-1B lottery needs to be fixed. I think we should only give jobs, highly-skilled jobs to the most highly-skilled people,” he said, adding that doctors and educators who are highly-skilled, and have high degrees, should come in.
“If you want to hire engineers, you should hire highly-paid ones. The idea of having tech consultants and trainees who are inexpensive should be eliminated,” Lutnick shared, adding that President Trump agrees with him on this.
Trump last week signed a proclamation that will raise the fee for H-1B visas to USD 100,000 (Rs 88,66,836) annually — making it prohibitively expensive for tech companies to hire Indian professionals in the country.
On Trump-Musk relation
Describing US President Trump’s attitude towards his relations with tech giant Elon Musk, the Commerce Secretary said, “Donald Trump is a really kind person. I’ve been friends with President Trump for over 30 years. So he’s going to forgive Elon. Will he forget? No, he doesn’t forget…”
“I think Elon Musk had really earned the President’s friendship and admiration. And then, in his departure, he expressed a part of himself that was very negative… He [Trump] is going to be friendly, he’s going to be nice. But do I think he’s going to forget? I don’t,” Lutnick stated during the interview.
Trump’s relationship with Musk hit an all-time low following the Tesla CEO’s criticism of the US President’s new “Big, Beautiful Bill” early June this year. Musk had then announced his exit from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), sparking a rift that escalated when he called the Americans to tell their representatives in Washington to “kill the bill” after describing it as a “disgusting abomination”. However, they were recently seen speaking in a “very friendly manner” at Charlie Kirk’s memorial, according to NewsNation.
On accusations of Trump benefiting from his presidency
“Donald Trump cares about America. He just cares about America. And anyone who suggests that he cares about his own economics, has not spent any time with him, is just making it up,” Lutnick shared.
Justifying that President Trump is seeking to get the house in order, Lutnick added, “Tariff revenues, 600 billion going to a trillion dollars, right?”
“Then we have the gold card and the platinum card, those two programs could bring in a trillion dollars to the United States Treasury… You bring in the best of the best into the country, what you’ll get is an incredibly great America. That means, we’ll have the fastest, the largest economy in the world,” he assured.
“When you have your house in order, you can go help the world with power. And I think that’s our main objective. That’s why I joined Donald Trump because those objectives exactly speak to my heart,” Lutnick added.
