Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick went on CNBC this fall to promote a deal so great that he deemed it 'off the rails.' The government of Japan, he explained, had brought down its tariff rate by giving President Donald Trump $550 billion to spend on whatever he wants. 'They are going to give America money when we ask for it to build the projects,' he said with a grin. Japanese leaders'who typically favor quiet diplomacy'made clear that they had not given Trump the blank check that Lutnick described. They would have a say in how the money was invested, and maintained the right to reject proposals. Making matters worse, the Trump administration had initially increased tariffs on Japan in August, during the rollout of the broader deal, an error that its chief negotiator described as 'extremely regrettable.' Taro Kono, a member of Japan's House of Representatives, told reporters that month, as the confusion was playing out in public: 'Washington is just randomly shooting, and they are...
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