Lutnick: Software Company Could Build ACE 2.0 for Free to Gain Access to Trump
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on a podcast last week that he'll get the "great software companies in the world" to build "greatest customs processing [system] ever" for free.
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He said that system would rely on AI to identify products based on photographs and determine the appropriate tariff rate. He said the system would use a package's weight so you "don't even have to open it."
He outlined his concept of "gratis vendors," which would involve companies providing -- not selling -- products to the government as a service for free, in order to bypass bureaucracy and facilitate access to Trump, according to Lutnick.
"I use my superpower, which is my friendship with Donald Trump, and I go in the Oval Office and [Trump and I] call the technology company CEO together and make them promise the president," Lutnick said during the podcast. "I get these guys to promise Donald Trump that they'll build it. Now, let's see them renege. Yeah, it ain't gonna happen."
He continued, "I go to the heads of Google and Microsoft and Amazon. They're all for America, building for us -- for free -- to make America better because they are great American companies. And in exchange for that, we're going to help them through all sorts of things that are towards fairness. You can't get me to do something outside the world of fairness, but I tell you what, if it's fair, I'll be on your side as hard and as positive as I possibly can be."