Latest / Best of Business / Dan Schnur: University of California political analyst on doing business in Trump's America

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Dan Schnur: University of California political analyst on doing business in Trump's America · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks at be
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  Speaker 2: Now. Obviously been a hell of a year for anyone
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  Speaker 2: trying to do business with the US. Donald Trump's Bizuoka
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  Speaker 2: trade tariffs are announced in April, and then we've been
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  Speaker 2: dealing with a fallout and the uncertainty ever since. Now
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  Speaker 2: from tomorrow, New Zealand and US business leaders and diplomats
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  Speaker 2: will get together for the US Business Summit. Professor Dan
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  Speaker 2: Schneer from the University of California will give the keynote
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  Speaker 2: speech on how to navigate Trump's America. Let's have a chat,
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  Speaker 2: dam Hi, Dan.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
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  Speaker 2: The pleasure is all mine. Now, what is your number
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  Speaker 2: one tip for how to navigate Trump's America?
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  Speaker 3: I think the most important thing for any country's leaders,
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  Speaker 3: both political and business leaders, to understand is that Donald Trump,
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  Speaker 3: of course worked in the private sector for many, many
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  Speaker 3: years before he ever ran for office. So business leaders,
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  Speaker 3: while they have an impact with any US politician, are
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  Speaker 3: going to have an even greater impact with Trump. Trump
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  Speaker 3: and his administration, He'll pay attention to the politicians, He'll
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  Speaker 3: pay a lot more attention to the nation's business leaders.
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  Speaker 2: So a delegation. I can think the South Africans did that,
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  Speaker 2: didn't they where they rolled up with the president, but
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  Speaker 2: then they had all of these They had a golfer
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  Speaker 2: and they had business leaders. That's the approach to take.
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  Speaker 3: Well, and it's not only for foreign countries. We're seeing
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  Speaker 3: this within the US. The city of San Francisco, which
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  Speaker 3: may be the most progressive, left leaning city in the
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  Speaker 3: United States of America, when they were worried that Trump,
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  Speaker 3: the Trump administration was going to send the Department of
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  Speaker 3: Homeland Security into their streets, they didn't deploy their congressional delegation.
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  Speaker 3: They sent business leaders. So the CEOs of some of
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  Speaker 3: the largest tech companies in northern California contacted the White
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  Speaker 3: House and they were able to achieve a much more
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  Speaker 3: amenable solution than a lot of other cities around the
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  Speaker 3: country did.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Now, obviously, I mean that's a fantastic idea, but
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  Speaker 2: obviously there is political points to be scored also for
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  Speaker 2: political leaders to be seen having a meeting with Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 2: So if you had to send your prime ministerroyal president,
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  Speaker 2: do you reckon you take the the Keystama approach of fawning,
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  Speaker 2: or do you take the Macron approach of just going
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  Speaker 2: and being a big guy too.
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  Speaker 3: Well, mccron basically hit some pretty fraud territory when he
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  Speaker 3: tried the more frontal approach, and ultimately it worked out
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  Speaker 3: for him because when push came to shove, Trump respected
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  Speaker 3: him for pushing back more forcefully. But I'll say this,
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  Speaker 3: I think you have an advantage here. If you look
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  Speaker 3: at the Five Eyes country, you are the only one
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  Speaker 3: with a center right leader. You're the only one with
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  Speaker 3: a leader who both comes from the private sector and
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  Speaker 3: who has center right political credentials. And so I feel
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  Speaker 3: like he is uniquely positioned among these five countries to
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  Speaker 3: have a conversation with Trump. Now I realized the first
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  Speaker 3: time they talked it was about hair ITH's isn't the
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  Speaker 3: best way to get started. But I think it's the
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  Speaker 3: kind of relationship that can be built on in a
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  Speaker 3: way that many other international leaders have not been able
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  Speaker 3: to do.
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  Speaker 2: All Right, so he needs to get some feist time
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  Speaker 2: with Trump, doesn't he.
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  Speaker 3: No question about it. Yeah, here's the thing to remember
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  Speaker 3: about Trump. He is the first US president ever to
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  Speaker 3: not have served in prior political office and have never
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  Speaker 3: been in the military, which means he's the only US
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  Speaker 3: president ever who did not prepare for being president by
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  Speaker 3: being part of a team. He is an individual actor.
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  Speaker 3: He talks to people one on one and very quickly
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  Speaker 3: comes to a conclusion about whether he respects them or not.
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  Speaker 3: And I really do feel like there's a potential for
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  Speaker 3: a very productive relationship here between two business leaders turned politicos.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so what's the beast we can expect though, because
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  Speaker 2: at the moment we seem to be sort of just
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  Speaker 2: coppying the base level of tariffs that we're not in
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  Speaker 2: a favored position, nor are we in an unfavored position,
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  Speaker 2: which is right in the middle of the pack. What
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  Speaker 2: could we expect as a best case scenario?
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  Speaker 3: Well, Trump, more than anything, whether you see it as
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  Speaker 3: a compliment or a criticism, is an extremely transactional president.
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  Speaker 3: I think for this country's leaders to able to explain
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  Speaker 3: how he Trump and how his country benefits from the
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  Speaker 3: relationship is the best way to catch is the best
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  Speaker 3: way to catch his attention. At this point, Trump is
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  Speaker 3: beginning to realize the downside of the tariffs. As I
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  Speaker 3: know you and many of your listeners know he's pulled
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  Speaker 3: back on some of the tariffs on food products in
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  Speaker 3: order to try to address inflation in the United States,
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  Speaker 3: and I think impressing upon him how a better relationship
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  Speaker 3: on this front can be of help to him, that's
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  Speaker 3: probably the best way to do.
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  Speaker 2: We go really personal. Do we say, hey, listen, if
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  Speaker 2: you let our beef in at a like no tariff,
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  Speaker 2: you're gonna have a fantastic burger from McDonald's.
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  Speaker 3: I would go almost that personal. Maybe you throw that,
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  Speaker 3: maybe you throw in McDonald's at the end. Yeah, but
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  Speaker 3: you say you keep on this current trajectory, and the
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  Speaker 3: people who are angriest with you about giving up on
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  Speaker 3: the tariffs are going to be grateful for you for
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  Speaker 3: confronting inflation head on.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Dan, thank you so much. Is really interesting stuff
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  Speaker 2: are really really interesting tips Professor Den Shnewer, political analyst
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  Speaker 2: at the University of California.
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