President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, appeared on Fox News on Monday to sell President Donald Trump’s tariff regime, including the new “monster deal” the administration struck with the European Union — but he made an admission that accidentally contradicted his own defense of the plan.

“The European Union is going to pay 15 percent, and they sell us $600 billion worth of goods,” Lutnick told Fox’s Bret Baier. “That’s $90 billion for America, and they agreed for the first time ever to cut all their tariffs, cut their barriers, and let American businesses and farmers and ranchers and fishermen finally sell into the European Union, massive market. This is huge for America.”

“So this 15 percent is on the difference, the $200 billion trade deficit, is that right? Not the $2 trillion we trade with each other, right?” asked Baier.

“No, it’s all exports to America,” said Lutnick. “So basically everything they send us is going to pay 15 percent, except for a few little things, but most things will be 15 percent. One of the examples that we don’t charge is on aircraft parts, so that Boeing, which is our greatest, greatest export, doesn’t have to pay tariffs, but that’s the idea.”

With that one statement on aircraft parts, business journalist and frequent Trump administration fact-checker James Surowiecki wrote on X, Lutnick completely undermined the Trump administration’s entire argument that other countries, and not American consumers and businesses, are paying the tariffs set by the U.S. government.

“Lutnick lied here, saying that the EU is going to pay the tariffs. But then his mask slipped,” wrote Surowiecki. “In explaining why airplane parts are exempted from the tariffs, he says it’s so Boeing doesn’t have to pay tariffs on the parts it imports. But I thought the EU was paying the tariffs?”

Watch the video below or at the link here.