Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick didn’t mince words at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday, telling the world’s globalist elite exactly what they didn’t want to hear: “Globalization has failed.”
Lutnick made the remarks during a panel titled “Prosperity: Sovereign Yet Connected?” alongside Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, British Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Columbia University economist Adam Tooze, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, and Ernst & Young CEO Janet Truncale. While the rest of the panel spoke in polite bureaucratic language, Lutnick came armed with reality.
“We are in Davos at the World Economic Forum, and the Trump administration and myself, we are here to make a very clear point: Globalization has failed the West and the United States of America,” Lutnick said. “It’s a failed policy. It is what the West has stood for, which is export offshore, far shore, find the cheapest labor in the world, and the world is a better place for it.”
Then came the part globalists really hate hearing:
“The fact is it has left America behind. It has left the American workers behind, and what we are here to say is that America First is a different model, one that we encourage other countries to consider — which is that our workers come first.”
President Donald Trump nominated Lutnick in November 2024 to serve as Secretary of Commerce. Lutnick is best known for rebuilding Cantor Fitzgerald after the firm lost hundreds of employees in the September 11 attacks. Unlike most Davos regulars, he knows what real economic devastation looks like — and he knows who caused it.
During the panel, Lutnick warned that offshoring critical industries was a strategic disaster.
“You shouldn’t offshore your medicine. You shouldn’t offshore your semiconductors. You shouldn’t offshore your entire industrial base and have it be hollowed out beneath you,” Lutnick said. “You should not be dependent for that which is fundamental to your sovereignty on any other nation — and if you’re going to be dependent on someone, it darn well better be your best allies.”
In other words: sovereignty isn’t just about borders. It’s about production.
Lutnick also torched Europe’s obsession with climate mandates that benefit China more than Europeans themselves.
“Why would Europe agree to be net zero in 2030 when they don’t make a battery?” he asked. “They don’t make a battery. So, if they go 2030, they are deciding to be subservient to China, who makes the batteries.”
That’s not green policy — that’s economic surrender.
President Trump also addressed the forum, discussing his efforts to secure Greenland from Denmark and announcing that a framework had been reached to avoid tariffs on several European nations. Even the tone at Davos reportedly shifted. According to The New York Times, there was noticeably less talk about sustainability and social justice this year.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz admitted that the European Union had “wasted incredible potential for growth” by becoming “the world champion of over-regulation.” Translation: Trump was right, and they’re finally starting to notice.
While global elites lecture about “equity” and “climate,” Lutnick delivered a message built on common sense: a nation that can’t make its own medicine, chips, or energy is not free.
And in a room full of people who built their careers shipping American jobs overseas, that truth hit like a brick.
