President Donald Trump’s nominee for Commerce Secretary said on Monday that the “external revenue service” was born on the first day of the new administration.
“Last week he announced that we are going to return America to greatness by creating—today is its birthday—the External Revenue Service,” Lutnick said at a rally in Washington after President Trump was sworn into office.
Lutnick said that the U.S. had prospered when tax collection was focused on imports rather than incomes of domestic workers, echoing Trump’s praise of William McKinley. McKinley was a proponent of tariffs, viewing them as a means to protect American industries from foreign competition while ensuring that the government could fund itself without directly taxing the incomes of its citizens.
On Monday, Trump said he would return the name Mount McKinley to the tallest mountain in North America. The Alaskan mountain was originally called Mount McKinley in 1986 by a local prospector but it was not officially designated with that name until 1917. In 2015, the Obama administration changed the name to Mount Denali, which means “The High One” or “The Tall One” in the Koyukon Athabaskan language.
Lutnick said that the revenue from tariffs would help fund entitlement programs while also protecting American workers.
“So if you are always wondering is some bureaucrat going to cut your benefits? Not under Donald Trump. Not under Donald Trump. It means foreign companies are going to pay if they want to come and sell products to the wealthiest country on earth. And if they want to compete with American workers, then let’s just not tax our American workers,” Lutnick said.
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