Latest / Balance of Power / Trump Team Meets Iranians in New York

Transcript

Trump Team Meets Iranians in New York · Balance of Power

0:02
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios.
0:04
Speaker 2: Podcasts.
0:05
Speaker 1: Radio.
0:06
Speaker 2: News.
0:09
Speaker 3: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
0:12
Speaker 3: us live weekdays at noon and 5 p.m. Eastern on
0:15
Speaker 3: Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.
0:19
Speaker 3: Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch
0:22
Speaker 3: us live on YouTube.
0:25
Speaker 4: Our eyes are on New York today as President Trump
0:27
Speaker 4: is still there, having just concluded a meeting with the
0:30
Speaker 4: UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham after earlier this morning addressing
0:33
Speaker 4: the United Nations General Assembly in a speech that at
0:36
Speaker 4: least technically went a bit smoother than last year. The
0:40
Speaker 4: teleprompter was working. The escalator that got him up there
0:43
Speaker 4: was also working. And the president, of course, had a
0:46
Speaker 4: number of messages around American strength around the world, including
0:50
Speaker 4: defending his war against Iran and suggesting that on that front,
0:54
Speaker 4: he has a decision to make soon.
0:56
Speaker 5: But I have a big decision to make. Will a
1:00
Speaker 5: deal be made with Iran that that lets them rebuild
1:05
Speaker 5: and create a far greater country than it ever was before,
1:10
Speaker 5: maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or
1:13
Speaker 5: even the world? Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic
1:19
Speaker 5: and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to
1:21
Speaker 5: kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive
1:27
Speaker 5: them into hell with no chance of survival and no
1:30
Speaker 5: hope of future greatness or generations? But I believe we'll
1:35
Speaker 5: make a deal right after the election, because it doesn't
1:40
Speaker 5: make sense for them not to.
1:43
Speaker 1: The president a short time ago at the U.N. And
1:46
Speaker 1: we bring you there now with Bloomberg Washington correspondent Tyler Kendall,
1:50
Speaker 1: who's been covering the president's trip to New York for us.
1:53
Speaker 1: Autumn in New York. It is the first day of
1:55
Speaker 1: fall and a chilly rose garden outside the U.N., Tyler.
1:58
Speaker 1: The president holding a series of meetings at the U.N.
2:01
Speaker 1: today beyond the speech and in a meeting with the U.K.
2:04
Speaker 1: prime minister a short time ago said that talks with
2:07
Speaker 1: Iran are in fact underway today.
2:12
Speaker 2: Right. According to the president speaking with reporters really just
2:15
Speaker 2: moments ago, he said that he believes that a deal
2:18
Speaker 2: with Iran will be reached and that they have been
2:20
Speaker 2: talking every day, including today that after we saw that
2:24
Speaker 2: rhetoric that you just played there from the president reiterating
2:27
Speaker 2: that the U.S. has a choice to either pursue diplomacy
2:30
Speaker 2: or escalate when it comes to kinetic military action.
2:34
Speaker 4: In Iran.
2:34
Speaker 2: Now, this White House has long said, just for context here,
2:37
Speaker 2: that they would pursue the diplomatic route, that that would
2:40
Speaker 2: be the option that they would prefer. That is why
2:43
Speaker 2: we saw the White House escalate its economic pressure campaign. Interesting, though,
2:47
Speaker 2: that this messaging is coming from the president, because I
2:49
Speaker 2: would point out that within the last 30 minutes or so,
2:52
Speaker 2: we got a report from Iranian state media saying that
2:55
Speaker 2: Iran intends to detain any ships that are making what
2:59
Speaker 2: they are calling unauthorized transits through the Strait of Hormuz
3:03
Speaker 2: unless they pay a 20% fee related to the value
3:07
Speaker 2: of their cargo. That is something that's not going to
3:09
Speaker 2: go over well with the Trump administration. Considering Joe and Kayleigh,
3:13
Speaker 2: we got a preview from the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.,
3:15
Speaker 2: Mike Waltz, earlier today previewing to reporters what to expect
3:19
Speaker 2: in terms of diplomacy here on the ground. And he
3:22
Speaker 2: said that freedom of navigation, getting more barrels to market
3:26
Speaker 2: would be a major focus, whether that be in the
3:28
Speaker 2: Strait of Hormuz or in the Red Sea. All right.
3:33
Speaker 4: Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall. live in the Rose Garden outside the
3:36
Speaker 4: United Nations. Tyler, great coverage throughout the day. Thank you
3:39
Speaker 4: so much. And of course, while Iran, the war with
3:42
Speaker 4: Ukraine and Russia and artificial or super intelligence were all
3:46
Speaker 4: components of President Trump's speech today, he also took some
3:49
Speaker 4: time to call out the Cuban regime, which he said
3:52
Speaker 4: is likely to fall even as members of the Cuban
3:55
Speaker 4: delegation to the United Nations walked out at his words.
3:58
Speaker 6: Listen.
3:59
Speaker 5: It's an absolutely failed state. It's failing like never before,
4:06
Speaker 5: and it will fall. Marco Rubio is handling a negotiation.
4:10
Speaker 5: He's deep into negotiations with Cuba. Let's see what happens.
4:14
Speaker 5: We'll not allow a haven for foreign adversaries to threaten
4:18
Speaker 5: America on our own doorstep.
4:24
Speaker 4: For more on this and other issues, we turn now
4:26
Speaker 4: to Republican Congressman Carlos Jimenez, representing Florida's 28th District. He
4:29
Speaker 4: serves on the House Armed Services, Homeland Security, and China
4:33
Speaker 4: Select Committees, and he's also Cuban-born. Congressman, welcome back to
4:37
Speaker 4: Bloomberg TV and radio. We want to begin on this issue,
4:40
Speaker 4: as we know it's one that you feel passionately about.
4:43
Speaker 4: Even as the president criticizes the communist regime in Cuba,
4:46
Speaker 4: he will later this week be greeting the communist Chinese president,
4:50
Speaker 4: Xi Jinping, at the White House and fetting him with
4:53
Speaker 4: a state dinner. How do you reconcile those two things?
4:57
Speaker 7: Well, one of them is Xi Jinping. It's the leader
5:00
Speaker 7: of the second most powerful nation in the world, but
5:02
Speaker 7: Cuba is nowhere close to that. Cuba's 90 miles away
5:06
Speaker 7: from our shores, and they pose a significant national security
5:10
Speaker 7: threat in our own hemisphere. And so while he has
5:13
Speaker 7: to deal with Xi Jinping, I don't think we have
5:16
Speaker 7: to deal with a communist regime that's 90 miles away
5:19
Speaker 7: from our shore. And so I would hope that the
5:22
Speaker 7: pressure continues. Cuba is a failed regime. They can't even
5:26
Speaker 7: keep the lights on. They can't feed their people. Their
5:29
Speaker 7: hospitals are in shambles. The whole system, it doesn't work
5:32
Speaker 7: because it's communism, and that's never worked. And so I
5:36
Speaker 7: would hope that the pressure keeps going and that the
5:39
Speaker 7: regime collapses because the Cuban people deserve freedom and democracy.
5:44
Speaker 1: You've been very consistent on this, Congressman, and I'm wondering
5:47
Speaker 1: if you think it muddies the message when the president
5:49
Speaker 1: is not only sitting down this week with Delcy Rodriguez,
5:52
Speaker 1: but fetting the leader of communist China here in Washington, D.C.,
5:58
Speaker 1: not only meeting him at the airport, but the full-state dinner.
6:01
Speaker 1: I realize diplomacy is extremely important here, but does it
6:04
Speaker 1: confuse the lines with what you just said about communism?
6:08
Speaker 7: Well, look, you have to deal with it. I mean,
6:10
Speaker 7: for years we'd had a communist Soviet Union, and yeah,
6:16
Speaker 7: I despise the Soviet Union and what it stood for,
6:18
Speaker 7: but You know, at that time, they were the second
6:21
Speaker 7: most powerful nation. And so, yeah, you had to have
6:23
Speaker 7: some kind of diplomacy. I understand the need for diplomacy
6:26
Speaker 7: with communist China. Don't like it, but it's a necessity.
6:31
Speaker 7: Same can't be said for Cuba, as far as Delcy
6:34
Speaker 7: Rodriguez is concerned. I call her the interim dictator of Venezuela.
6:40
Speaker 7: He's sitting down with her, but I call on the
6:42
Speaker 7: president to set a date for elections. And Senator Bernie
6:47
Speaker 7: Moreno said, over the weekend had a great day, which
6:50
Speaker 7: is July 24th of 2027, which is Simon Bolivar's birthday.
6:55
Speaker 7: That would be a great day. It would be celebrated
6:58
Speaker 7: in Venezuela. And then we could finally have a Venezuela
7:02
Speaker 7: that could be an ally of the United States with
7:04
Speaker 7: a true democratically elected government, which is what the people
7:08
Speaker 7: of Venezuela deserve. And also it's in the best interest
7:12
Speaker 7: of the United States.
7:14
Speaker 4: Well, the president, when discussing Venezuela today, Congressman, suggested, given
7:18
Speaker 4: the deal the U.S. has struck for oil assets in Venezuela,
7:22
Speaker 4: to the victor belong the spoils. He says you've all
7:25
Speaker 4: heard that. Do you worry that the spoils the U.S.
7:27
Speaker 4: is interested in here are getting in the way of
7:31
Speaker 4: that democratic transition?
7:33
Speaker 7: We need to have the democratic transition. You know, this
7:36
Speaker 7: is the victor goes to spoils. The spoils should go
7:38
Speaker 7: to the people of Venezuela. They're the victors here. And
7:42
Speaker 7: Donald Trump brought about that victory by removing Nicolas Maduro.
7:48
Speaker 7: But we need to finish the job. And finishing the
7:51
Speaker 7: job means bringing democracy and freedom to the people of Venezuela.
7:56
Speaker 7: the United States will have a true partner in the region.
8:00
Speaker 7: And then we'll be looked at by the rest of
8:04
Speaker 7: the region as, you know, we're serious when we talk
8:06
Speaker 7: about that we don't want security threats to the United States,
8:10
Speaker 7: but we also want to see this hemisphere should be
8:13
Speaker 7: about democracy and freedom, and the United States should be
8:16
Speaker 7: defending that whenever it can.
8:19
Speaker 1: The president seems to think the spoils are coming here. Congressman,
8:22
Speaker 1: are you concerned about the way this deal has been
8:26
Speaker 1: made up?
8:27
Speaker 7: Well, look, the problem with the Venezuelan oil industry is
8:31
Speaker 7: that because of the last 25 years and the failure
8:35
Speaker 7: of socialism and communism down there, they are nowhere close
8:40
Speaker 7: to reaching their potential as far as energy production. They
8:43
Speaker 7: needed massive investments from the United States. But that massive
8:47
Speaker 7: investment from the United States needs to be with a stable,
8:51
Speaker 7: democratically elected government. Yeah, we have this deal now with
8:54
Speaker 7: this particular regime. That's why we need to move forward
8:58
Speaker 7: as quickly as possible to call for elections, have those elections,
9:02
Speaker 7: and then deal with the democratically elected government of Venezuela.
9:06
Speaker 7: Then companies from around the world, including the United States,
9:10
Speaker 7: can then have confidence in investing billions of dollars in
9:15
Speaker 7: Venezuelan infrastructure that's needed in order for Venezuela to actually
9:20
Speaker 7: see the fruits and actually tap into the resources that
9:26
Speaker 7: it has and reach its full potential. With this particular regime,
9:29
Speaker 7: it will never do that because there will be a
9:32
Speaker 7: lot of companies that will be hesitant to deal with
9:35
Speaker 7: this regime. Because remember, this is the same regime that
9:38
Speaker 7: Nicolas Maduro had. This is just an interim dictator, Delcy Rodriguez.
9:42
Speaker 7: As you can tell, I'm not a fan of Delcy Rodriguez.
9:45
Speaker 7: I want democracy. I want freedom as soon as possible.
9:48
Speaker 7: And I want the president to lead that charge as
9:51
Speaker 7: quickly as he can.
9:54
Speaker 4: Well, as we're considering the energy picture, the president, of course,
9:56
Speaker 4: has argued this Venezuela deal will help bring down prices
9:59
Speaker 4: here in the United States.
10:00
Speaker 5: U.S.
10:00
Speaker 4: As we're seeing gas and not just gas, diesel prices
10:04
Speaker 4: at a record above $ 6. 50 a gallon. Congressman, we're hearing
10:08
Speaker 4: from a number of your Republican colleagues, including your colleague
10:11
Speaker 4: in the House, Tim Burchard, who has put forward legislation
10:13
Speaker 4: to this effect that a diesel export ban at this
10:16
Speaker 4: time may be called for. Would you support that?
10:20
Speaker 7: I've got to get more information about it, what it
10:22
Speaker 7: actually does for production, et cetera, and pricing. I also
10:26
Speaker 7: understand that part of the diesel problem is the war
10:29
Speaker 7: between Russia and Ukraine, where Russia produces a lot of
10:34
Speaker 7: diesel fuel and the Ukrainians are hitting their refineries. And
10:38
Speaker 7: so I've got to get more information on that before
10:41
Speaker 7: I take a stand on it. I don't know if
10:44
Speaker 7: it will actually help. Because remember, a lot of bills
10:48
Speaker 7: that supposedly help the situation actually hurt it. And so
10:52
Speaker 7: I got to get a little bit more, I got
10:53
Speaker 7: to get more informed on that situation before I take
10:56
Speaker 7: a stand on it.
10:58
Speaker 1: Your caution is noted, Congressman. We've had a number of
11:01
Speaker 1: experts tell us this could act to raise diesel prices
11:05
Speaker 1: long term in the end. I'm curious your thoughts, though,
11:10
Speaker 1: on the war with Iran. Specifically, the president said today
11:14
Speaker 1: that he expects that it will end after the midterm elections.
11:17
Speaker 1: He's repeated that a few times. Do you believe what
11:20
Speaker 1: the president's saying, that the regime is simply holding out
11:22
Speaker 1: for November 3rd?
11:23
Speaker 7: No, I think they are. But also, look, where I
11:27
Speaker 7: may disagree with the president is that I don't trust
11:29
Speaker 7: the regime. I don't care what they come. They come
11:31
Speaker 7: to the table for 50 years. We've seen the same
11:34
Speaker 7: movie over and over again. You know, it's the boy
11:37
Speaker 7: crying wolf. Yeah, we're here. We're going to do whatever
11:39
Speaker 7: you want. Yes, we won't pursue nuclear ambition. And yet,
11:43
Speaker 7: as soon as the deal is signed, they go right
11:45
Speaker 7: back to what they were doing. All they want is
11:48
Speaker 7: playing for time. And they want to play for time.
11:50
Speaker 1: Is the president crying wolf as well, saying that this
11:52
Speaker 1: is over every couple weeks?
11:53
Speaker 6: No.
11:56
Speaker 7: Well, look, maybe he knows something that I don't. Maybe
11:59
Speaker 7: he thought it was going to be over. But, look,
12:03
Speaker 7: I just don't trust the regime, and I think the
12:05
Speaker 7: only thing they understand is force. And so I think
12:09
Speaker 7: we need to— the Houthis are making headway and trying to
12:13
Speaker 7: now threaten the Red Sea. We need to make sure
12:17
Speaker 7: that doesn't happen. We need to continue to blockade Iran.
12:20
Speaker 7: We need to also continue to escort tankers, et cetera,
12:24
Speaker 7: through the Straits of Hormuz. and make the Iranian threat
12:28
Speaker 7: the least amount possible so that we can get that
12:30
Speaker 7: oil flowing. But at the end of the day, my
12:33
Speaker 7: personal opinion, the only way that you're ever going to
12:35
Speaker 7: solve the Iranian problem is regime change. This theocratic regime
12:40
Speaker 7: has to go because their intent on getting a nuclear weapon,
12:44
Speaker 7: their intent on destroying Israel, and eventually destroying the United
12:47
Speaker 7: States of America, I don't want my children or grandchildren
12:50
Speaker 7: to have to face that And for that, I applaud
12:53
Speaker 7: the president. The president has actually taken action against them.
12:57
Speaker 7: And some people don't think it's popular. I'm willing to
12:59
Speaker 7: pay a little bit higher price for oil and gas
13:02
Speaker 7: in the short term, as long as I'm assured that
13:05
Speaker 7: Iran never, ever gets a nuclear weapon. And that's one
13:09
Speaker 7: thing I'm going to hold the president to. He's assuring
13:12
Speaker 7: us that they never will. That's got to be the
13:14
Speaker 7: end product. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
13:19
Speaker 4: Finally, Congressman, as you suggest, that maybe the president has
13:21
Speaker 4: some information on Iran that you don't have. I'm sure
13:23
Speaker 4: there is plenty you know about Florida's 28th congressional district
13:27
Speaker 4: that the president may not know in as great of detail.
13:30
Speaker 4: And neighboring the 28th district, of course, is the 27th,
13:33
Speaker 4: which is represented by your colleague, Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar,
13:36
Speaker 4: who was out with an ad that caught a lot
13:38
Speaker 4: of attention last week on the president's immigration enforcement policy specifically.
13:42
Speaker 4: Let's just remind ourselves what she said in that ad.
13:45
Speaker 2: Mr.
13:46
Speaker 8: President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far.
13:50
Speaker 8: In July, 50% of the 50,000 people that were detained
13:53
Speaker 8: had no criminal record. Be careful what your advisors are
13:56
Speaker 8: telling you about immigration policies. The same Hispanics who helped
13:59
Speaker 8: you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.
14:05
Speaker 4: Do some of those Hispanics that are in your constituency, Congressman,
14:08
Speaker 4: feel the same way?
14:10
Speaker 7: Oh, look, we're all one big community down here, and so...
14:14
Speaker 7: What Maria said, the president's already heard for about a
14:17
Speaker 7: year and a half, especially from some of the members
14:20
Speaker 7: down here and across the nation. And so the 80-20
14:24
Speaker 7: issue would be securing the border, deporting all criminals, gang members,
14:30
Speaker 7: and those with active deportation orders. I think that's an
14:33
Speaker 7: 80-20 issue. Going beyond that is what's causing the problem.
14:38
Speaker 7: And so Maria brought that out. I probably wouldn't have
14:41
Speaker 7: done it in the same way. We have communicated our
14:43
Speaker 7: concerns already. to the administration, very much in line with
14:46
Speaker 7: what Maria said. And not just the Hispanics down here
14:50
Speaker 7: in South Florida, but also congresspeople from around the country
14:55
Speaker 7: have said the same thing. And so while I agree
14:58
Speaker 7: with the president 98% of the time, sometimes I don't
15:01
Speaker 7: agree with the president. And in terms of, yes, I
15:05
Speaker 7: agree to a certain portion of the immigration, what he's doing,
15:07
Speaker 7: I think it's great. He stopped the influx. I mean,
15:10
Speaker 7: if we had had Joe Biden again, we'd have another
15:12
Speaker 7: 10 million people coming crossing through the border and making
15:15
Speaker 7: the problem even worse. But there are ways to handle immigration.
15:20
Speaker 7: He's done a great job on securing the border. Fantastic.
15:23
Speaker 7: He's getting rid of all the criminals and the gang
15:26
Speaker 7: members and active deportation orders, yeah. But when he goes
15:29
Speaker 7: beyond that, that's where the problems start, and I would
15:32
Speaker 7: like to see it a little bit more nuanced.
15:35
Speaker 1: Congressman, it's great to have you back. We appreciate the time.
15:37
Speaker 1: Republican Carlos Jimenez of Florida. Stay with us on Balance
15:41
Speaker 1: of Power. We'll have much more coming up after this.
15:47
Speaker 3: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
15:50
Speaker 3: us live weekdays at noon and 5 p.m. Eastern on
15:53
Speaker 3: Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.
15:57
Speaker 3: You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our
16:00
Speaker 3: flagship New York station. Just say Alexa, play Bloomberg 1130.
16:05
Speaker 4: And as we talked about a lot of the geopolitical
16:07
Speaker 4: themes that worked its way into the speech, we have
16:09
Speaker 4: to talk about AI. I mean, SI, super intelligence. Joe,
16:12
Speaker 4: the president is changing the lingo.
16:13
Speaker 5: For the U.S.
16:14
Speaker 1: He did take another swing at that today. He says
16:15
Speaker 1: it might catch on. We'll find out soon enough. The
16:17
Speaker 1: thing is, he talked about the prospect of regulation, Kayleigh,
16:21
Speaker 1: which is, of course, a raging debate, not only here
16:23
Speaker 1: in Washington, but globally right now. and refer to it
16:27
Speaker 1: as a globalist scheme, having called this a hoax repeatedly,
16:31
Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like he's moving on this.
16:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's remind ourselves of what the president said in
16:35
Speaker 4: his address to the UN General Assembly.
16:38
Speaker 5: The United States also totally rejects any attempt to construct
16:42
Speaker 5: a globalist scheme to control for the artificial intelligence being
16:47
Speaker 5: spoken of so much now, here and after officially called superintelligence.
16:56
Speaker 1: I'm quite sure that Laurie Trahan does not see it
16:59
Speaker 1: as a globalist scheme. The Democratic congresswoman from Massachusetts is
17:04
Speaker 1: one half of and a co-sponsor of a bill and
17:07
Speaker 1: co-author of a bill called the AI Frontier Act. We've
17:10
Speaker 1: told you about it and we've spoken with the representative
17:12
Speaker 1: here before. This is the closest thing that we have
17:15
Speaker 1: seen to a framework for regulations around this very quickly
17:19
Speaker 1: evolving technology on Capitol Hill. controversial, yes, but so is
17:24
Speaker 1: everything that matters in Washington. And she's with us right
17:27
Speaker 1: now from Massachusetts Third District, the toast of Lowell. There's
17:31
Speaker 1: a lot to like about Lowell, as they say, Congresswoman.
17:34
Speaker 1: When it comes to this AI debate, I'm wondering your
17:37
Speaker 1: thoughts on what the president said today. If he believes
17:40
Speaker 1: this is a globalist scheme, how can you ever get
17:42
Speaker 1: this through Congress?
17:44
Speaker 9: Look, I think, uh, The president is not in lockstep
17:48
Speaker 9: with what people are saying back home and what even
17:52
Speaker 9: Republicans in Congress are hearing. And they're wanting to put
18:00
Speaker 9: basic guardrails in place. I mean, there's no question that
18:02
Speaker 9: the ground has shifted. on AI safety. People are concerned
18:08
Speaker 9: at the whistleblower. Jacob Coxon, they're worried about the anthropic
18:13
Speaker 9: threat report. And certainly the three CEOs last weekend getting
18:18
Speaker 9: together and admitting that they could lose control of this
18:22
Speaker 9: technology if proper guardrails aren't put in place. And so,
18:26
Speaker 9: you know, the president calling this a hoax or a
18:30
Speaker 9: globalist scheme is just completely out of touch with what
18:33
Speaker 9: people are feeling right now. And while it's challenging, I
18:38
Speaker 9: don't think that it stops Congress from acting like the
18:41
Speaker 9: independent body that it is and moving forward with basic guardrails.
18:47
Speaker 4: Well, of course, part of the argument that the president
18:49
Speaker 4: and those around him have made is that these companies
18:52
Speaker 4: should be self-policing, that OpenAI has an issue with its
18:55
Speaker 4: technology hacking hugging face. That's on the company. It shouldn't
18:59
Speaker 4: be up to regulators to control that issue. I wonder
19:03
Speaker 4: what your response is and whether or not there does
19:06
Speaker 4: need to be more onus put on the companies themselves
19:10
Speaker 4: if you trust that they might be able to do
19:12
Speaker 4: this on their own in the absence of or at
19:14
Speaker 4: least until Congress can get its arms around this legislatively.
19:18
Speaker 9: Well, one, I think Congress does, that we do have
19:21
Speaker 9: our arms around what needs to be done. And look,
19:24
Speaker 9: we've run this experiment before, which is why it's so
19:27
Speaker 9: resonant back home. Because social media doesn't have proper guardrails
19:32
Speaker 9: in place, we're seeing the effects that that has on
19:35
Speaker 9: our children and on so many aspects of our society.
19:39
Speaker 9: So I don't think that that argument holds with Democrats
19:42
Speaker 9: or Republicans. And look, I think that there's been a
19:45
Speaker 9: tipping point just in the last few weeks. You know,
19:48
Speaker 9: the Frontier Act, which I authored with Jay Obernolte, a
19:51
Speaker 9: Republican from California, isn't the only example of Democrats and
19:56
Speaker 9: Republicans coming together on basic guardrails around the frontier. I
20:03
Speaker 9: just think that the frontier is best situated, the Frontier
20:07
Speaker 9: Act is best situated to actually move in Congress, because
20:12
Speaker 9: we wrote it earlier this spring. It's gone through a
20:16
Speaker 9: lot of scrutiny, a lot of iterations based on feedback
20:20
Speaker 9: from safety organizations, industry, consumer advocacy groups, state laws. And
20:26
Speaker 9: it really does represent the strongest safety AI legislation to date.
20:31
Speaker 9: Mandatory transparency reports, incident reporting, an independent verification organization to
20:37
Speaker 9: check the company's work, and a kill switch. If a
20:41
Speaker 9: model is capable of a catastrophic risk, there is a
20:44
Speaker 9: well-understood process for the government to intervene.
20:49
Speaker 1: Really something, Congresswoman, how this story has changed, how the
20:52
Speaker 1: debate has evolved. Since you first wrote this in the spring,
20:56
Speaker 1: I believe you introduced it in July. Even then, AI
21:00
Speaker 1: was pretty hot. When you look at the way the
21:03
Speaker 1: stocks were playing on Wall Street, the stories that were
21:06
Speaker 1: being told around earnings reports, I realized the NIMBY story
21:10
Speaker 1: was beginning around data center. We were starting to hear
21:13
Speaker 1: about it. But now, my goodness, fast forward a couple
21:16
Speaker 1: of months and you've got this memo from Dario Amadei.
21:20
Speaker 1: Of course, Sam Altman agreeing to pace the frontier, as
21:23
Speaker 1: they say. Did these two executives just make it easier
21:26
Speaker 1: to pass your bill?
21:29
Speaker 9: You know, I think so. When you have safety researchers
21:32
Speaker 9: who are resigning, when you have the CEOs or the
21:35
Speaker 9: developers of this technology sounding the alarm, Congress must listen
21:42
Speaker 9: and we must answer that call. And I think that's
21:45
Speaker 9: what you're seeing today. There's a whole lot more urgency
21:48
Speaker 9: around these conversations and what to do, how to sequence,
21:52
Speaker 9: you know, the bills that will need to be passed.
21:55
Speaker 9: And I don't think that waits until next Congress. You know,
21:59
Speaker 9: it's not great that, you know, the speaker of the
22:01
Speaker 9: House canceled the last two weeks of this session. We
22:04
Speaker 9: are not in Washington until after the election. And that,
22:09
Speaker 9: I think, is gambling with the next incident and the
22:12
Speaker 9: damage that it could cause. So I do think that
22:16
Speaker 9: we have to prioritize this this year. I don't think
22:19
Speaker 9: time is on our side. But I also think that
22:22
Speaker 9: there is a lot of momentum on both sides of
22:25
Speaker 9: the aisle to do common sense legislation around these frontier labs,
22:30
Speaker 9: these large labs whose models have they've lost control of
22:35
Speaker 9: in some instances and are, you know, capable of catastrophic risk.
22:41
Speaker 4: Congresswoman, if we could switch gears in our final moment
22:43
Speaker 4: with you, I was struck by the headline from the
22:46
Speaker 4: Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources that heating oil in the
22:51
Speaker 4: week of September 14th, is up 70% year on year
22:54
Speaker 4: at the highest since October 2021. This is, of course,
22:57
Speaker 4: as we see diesel at a record across the country.
23:01
Speaker 4: Would you support a ban, an export ban on diesel
23:04
Speaker 4: and distillates to address this? Is that one way to
23:06
Speaker 4: bring costs down for the people in your district in
23:09
Speaker 4: the Northeast?
23:11
Speaker 9: You know, I was just with my farmers last week
23:16
Speaker 9: talking about the high cost of diesel and all the
23:20
Speaker 9: other inputs like fertilizer, you know, high cost of labor.
23:26
Speaker 9: I mean, people are sinking underneath these costs. And so
23:30
Speaker 9: there's no wonder that there are these creative proposals that
23:33
Speaker 9: are being put forward to give relief to folks back home.
23:37
Speaker 9: Here in Massachusetts, our governor is proposing a gas holiday,
23:42
Speaker 9: a gas tax holiday, just so that she can stem
23:46
Speaker 9: some of the rising costs that this administration has placed
23:51
Speaker 9: on people, whether that's through tariffs or this war of
23:55
Speaker 9: choice with Iran. So I love hearing those proposals because
23:59
Speaker 9: I know I want to see folks back home get
24:01
Speaker 9: the relief that they need.
24:02
Speaker 4: All right, we'll leave it there. Democratic Congresswoman Lori Trahan,
24:07
Speaker 4: representing Massachusetts' 3rd District, here with us on Balance of Power.
24:11
Speaker 1: Stay with us on Balance of Power. We'll have much
24:13
Speaker 1: more coming up after this.
24:18
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us here on the Tuesday edition of
24:20
Speaker 3: Balance of Power. UNGA is happening the backdrop of all
24:24
Speaker 3: of our conversations here with a midtown East Manhattan that.
24:48
Speaker 1: Requires a helicopter to get around. Imagine yesterday with the
24:52
Speaker 1: airports being shut down. I have to ask Brett how
24:54
Speaker 1: the heck he got up there. I mean, this is
24:56
Speaker 1: like cosmic irony around UNGA. Enter Dario Amode. Maybe he's
25:03
Speaker 1: got a new way to traverse the island. He's actually,
25:08
Speaker 1: this is fascinating. Great scoop by Bloomberg. The CEO of
25:12
Speaker 1: Anthropic is also there along with Sam Altman, the CEO
25:15
Speaker 1: of OpenAI to brief the United Nations Security Council, not
25:19
Speaker 1: the General Assembly, the Security Council, during this meeting. Amadei, remotely,
25:24
Speaker 1: according to a program of the meeting seen by Bloomberg News,
25:27
Speaker 1: there will be other briefers there as well, including the
25:31
Speaker 1: co-chair of the UN's panel on AI, the CEO of
25:34
Speaker 1: Hugging Face is going to be there with a story
25:36
Speaker 1: to tell. And isn't that fascinating? Just moments after the
25:40
Speaker 1: President of the United States rejected the idea of any
25:45
Speaker 1: briefings AI regulations, and in fact referred to this idea
25:50
Speaker 1: as a globalist scheme. He's not changing his position on this.
25:58
Speaker 1: Remembering that Jensen, Sam Altman, Dario too, right? They're all
26:05
Speaker 1: going to be at the state dinner this week with
26:07
Speaker 1: President Xi. But it was the president's posture on Iran
26:11
Speaker 1: that we want to focus on here today because some
26:13
Speaker 1: remarkable rhetoric coming from the rostrum in Turtle Bay. Remember
26:20
Speaker 1: last year the president said, all your countries are going
26:22
Speaker 1: to hell. He talked today about annihilation with regard to
26:28
Speaker 1: Iran and mutilation with regard to transgender therapy. Again, we're
26:34
Speaker 1: going to focus on Iran, though. This rhetoric that the
26:37
Speaker 1: room heard from the president leaves us wondering exactly what
26:41
Speaker 1: might be next. Remember when the president told Axios the
26:44
Speaker 1: other day, Maybe it was Fox. I don't know anymore.
26:48
Speaker 1: We'll find out that he had a decision to make.
26:51
Speaker 1: This was a big one. He was walking up on
26:54
Speaker 1: another all or nothing when it comes to Iran, and
26:57
Speaker 1: he reiterated that today before the General Assembly. Listen. But
27:01
Speaker 1: I have a big.
27:02
Speaker 5: Decision to make. Will a deal be made with Iran
27:08
Speaker 5: that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country
27:12
Speaker 5: than it ever was before? maybe one of the greatest
27:16
Speaker 5: in the Middle East or even the world? Or do
27:20
Speaker 5: I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never
27:25
Speaker 5: giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and
27:29
Speaker 5: countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no
27:33
Speaker 5: chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?
27:39
Speaker 5: But I believe we'll make a deal right after the election.
27:43
Speaker 5: Because it doesn't make sense for them not to.
27:48
Speaker 1: Aha. All right. So there's a lot there to dissect.
27:51
Speaker 1: The war is going to end after the election. Presidents
27:54
Speaker 1: floated this idea before. And maybe that's not going to
27:58
Speaker 1: move energy markets today. But he does seem convinced that
28:02
Speaker 1: Iran has been simply applying political pressure, waiting for the
28:06
Speaker 1: domestic clock to run out on the midterms. So presumably
28:10
Speaker 1: on the 4th of November, war is over. Happy Christmas.
28:16
Speaker 1: Let's see how Brett Bruin feels about all of this.
28:18
Speaker 1: Glad that he could make his way over from the
28:20
Speaker 1: United Nations to the Gilded Tower on Lexington Avenue. He is,
28:24
Speaker 1: of course, the president of Global Situation Room, former U.S.
28:27
Speaker 1: diplomat in the Obama administration. Brett, it's great to see you,
28:30
Speaker 1: and thanks for giving us some time today here on Bloomberg.
28:33
Speaker 1: I'll ask you what I asked Tyler a little bit earlier.
28:36
Speaker 1: Talk of annihilation or driving a country into extinction, sending
28:40
Speaker 1: it to hell, goes over how in a room like that?
28:43
Speaker 6: Well, you know, it's funny, Joe, because I actually heard
28:46
Speaker 6: echoes of Hugo Chavez. remember when he talked about the
28:50
Speaker 6: smell of sulfur.
28:52
Speaker 1: The smell of sulfur!
28:53
Speaker 6: I mean, it was this kind of over-the-top, not just rhetoric,
28:58
Speaker 6: but threats. We're talking the likes of Castro or Chavez
29:04
Speaker 6: or Or the Soviet leaders who sat up with this
29:08
Speaker 6: bellicose rhetoric at that green podium and tried to engender
29:13
Speaker 6: fear in the likes of the United States and Western democracies.
29:18
Speaker 6: It was a bad look for the U.S. in general,
29:21
Speaker 6: I think for Trump. He came off looking desperate. This
29:25
Speaker 6: is not the kind of diplomacy from a position of
29:29
Speaker 6: strength that we were promised. And yet at the same time, Joe,
29:32
Speaker 6: I do, as you know, try to be fair here.
29:35
Speaker 6: And I think some of the ideas coming from Treasury
29:38
Speaker 6: Secretary Scott Bassett, for instance, instance, of working on secondary
29:42
Speaker 6: sanctions against countries where Iranian flights are operating.
29:47
Speaker 1: That's interesting.
29:48
Speaker 6: That, quite frankly, is the kind of all fronts pressure
29:53
Speaker 6: that I think is needed. But, Joe, I come back
29:56
Speaker 6: to is any of this actually going to move the
30:00
Speaker 6: calculus of those Iranian leaders?
30:03
Speaker 1: And I doubt it. Yeah, well, that's right. Do you believe,
30:07
Speaker 1: as the president does, this will all end after the midterms?
30:11
Speaker 6: Look, I think his calculation changes after the midterms because
30:16
Speaker 6: any deal right now would probably be roundly mocked. There
30:21
Speaker 6: might be a short caffeine high in the oil markets.
30:25
Speaker 6: There might be some easing of the pressure on energy markets.
30:29
Speaker 6: But Trump has not proven, especially with the likes of Iran,
30:34
Speaker 6: that he can stick to the deal. And so that is,
30:38
Speaker 6: quite frankly, the real challenge. He was the one, let's
30:40
Speaker 6: not forget, that tore up the last agreement, the JCPOA,
30:45
Speaker 6: the Iran nuclear deal with Tehran. And so if I'm
30:49
Speaker 6: sitting in Tehran right now, why am I going to
30:52
Speaker 6: be making significant compromises if, as I've seen with the
30:55
Speaker 6: likes of Canada, Trump will just toss it to the
30:58
Speaker 6: side and make new demands in a couple months.
31:01
Speaker 1: A little later today, Brett, the president's going to meet
31:03
Speaker 1: with officials from the Gulf Cooperation Council, Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,
31:09
Speaker 1: the whole neighborhood in one room. I'm Less curious, to
31:14
Speaker 1: be honest with you, what the president's message is to them,
31:16
Speaker 1: because he's made it pretty clear that they cannot operate
31:19
Speaker 1: on their own and make a deal with Iran without him.
31:21
Speaker 1: What will be their message to President Trump?
31:23
Speaker 6: In short, pay up. You have inflected enormous economic costs
31:29
Speaker 6: on our countries. You didn't consult us. You didn't provide
31:34
Speaker 6: us with fair warning. And so ultimately, I think the Saudis,
31:39
Speaker 6: the Emiratis, as well as the Qataris, and obviously on
31:42
Speaker 6: down the list, will be saying the United States and you,
31:47
Speaker 6: in particular, President Trump, bear an enormous share of the responsibility.
31:52
Speaker 6: We want F-35s. We want more defense capabilities. You haven't
31:56
Speaker 6: been willing to sell us in the past, and we
31:58
Speaker 6: now want more investment heading our way. Otherwise, we're going
32:01
Speaker 6: over to Beijing, and your friend who's coming over for
32:04
Speaker 6: dinner this week and asking what he's going to give
32:07
Speaker 6: us to woo us away from Washington's orbit.
32:11
Speaker 1: Interesting. Saudi Arabia, specifically, must have a lot of questions
32:15
Speaker 1: for him right now. You saw that New York Times
32:18
Speaker 1: report yesterday that the president had promised MBS to attack
32:21
Speaker 1: Houthi rebels who have been attacking not only the pipeline,
32:25
Speaker 1: but the The ships in the Red Sea creating a
32:28
Speaker 1: whole new choke point. He decided later to not follow
32:31
Speaker 1: through with that agreement, even though we're reading that bombs
32:34
Speaker 1: were being loaded on airplanes. I don't know who he
32:37
Speaker 1: talked to later that day, Brett. But what can he
32:39
Speaker 1: tell Saudi Arabia about this?
32:41
Speaker 6: Well, I think he talked to probably some of his
32:44
Speaker 6: national security team that warned him that this was going
32:47
Speaker 6: to spin further out of control. But Joe, if I could,
32:50
Speaker 6: I mean, Trump has proven to be a less than
32:54
Speaker 6: reliable ally. You cannot take his word to the bank.
32:58
Speaker 6: And I think now both leaders as well as those
33:02
Speaker 6: who stand on the side of democracy around the world
33:05
Speaker 6: have grown wary of Trump's promises. We need only remember
33:08
Speaker 6: his encouragement to Iranians to take to the streets and
33:12
Speaker 6: to stand up to the regime. And now, you know,
33:15
Speaker 6: in Venezuela, similarly so. And yet he cast the Venezuelan
33:19
Speaker 6: opposition to the side and got some cheap oil.
33:24
Speaker 1: To the victor go the spoils, another line that raised
33:26
Speaker 1: some eyebrows. You mentioned secondary sanctions. President talking about the
33:31
Speaker 1: Russia sanctions bill, in fact, named it, including its namesake,
33:35
Speaker 1: Lindsey Graham, talking about the war with Ukraine. Brett, here's
33:38
Speaker 1: what he said.
33:39
Speaker 5: We continue to seek and end the disastrous war between
33:44
Speaker 5: Russia and Ukraine, which is killing, as I said, thousands
33:48
Speaker 5: and thousands of people every month. Last week, in honor
33:52
Speaker 5: of Senator Lindsey Graham, I signed a powerful new law
33:56
Speaker 5: passed by Congress providing me with enormous new tariff authorities,
34:00
Speaker 5: and if necessary, I will have to use them. It's
34:03
Speaker 5: time to stop the killing.
34:07
Speaker 1: This was the war he was going to stop on
34:09
Speaker 1: day one. If you're listening on the radio and not
34:12
Speaker 1: with us on YouTube, we saw President Zelensky watching the
34:15
Speaker 1: president deliver those remarks, Brett. What's going to change here
34:21
Speaker 1: after he meets with Zelensky? Well, look, I think Zelensky's
34:24
Speaker 1: got some momentum.
34:26
Speaker 6: You saw it. Trump's Truth Social post about how Putin
34:30
Speaker 6: was responsible for some of the destruction of energy facilities
34:33
Speaker 6: in Russia. Now, the question here is, can Zelensky use
34:37
Speaker 6: that momentum and actually get Trump to make some more
34:41
Speaker 6: demands of Putin? Because he's kind of been light on
34:44
Speaker 6: the pressure on Moscow, while heavy on Kiev. The other thing, Joe,
34:49
Speaker 6: you brought up that remarkable quote, to the victor go
34:52
Speaker 6: the spoils. I was an intern at the United Nations
34:55
Speaker 6: in the summer of 2001, and we can grab a
34:58
Speaker 6: beer and talk about those times. But what's interesting, if
35:01
Speaker 6: you know anything about the United Nations, it was that
35:04
Speaker 6: this international institution was set up precisely to prevent that
35:08
Speaker 6: mentality that Europeans inflicted crushing economic costs on Germany in
35:16
Speaker 6: the wake of World War I. And so now this
35:19
Speaker 6: notion that Trump is reintroducing both this sort of neocolonialism,
35:23
Speaker 6: Victor goes to the spoils, it's dangerous stuff.
35:27
Speaker 1: Remarkable moment, Brett. I'm so glad you could come talk
35:30
Speaker 1: to us about it. He's live in New York with
35:32
Speaker 1: the United Nations General Assembly underway. Brett Bruin, Global Situation Room.
35:36
Speaker 1: We'll see you back here in town. I'm taking you
35:38
Speaker 1: up on that beer. Thanks for listening to the Balance
35:44
Speaker 1: of Power podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't
35:47
Speaker 1: already at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
35:51
Speaker 1: And you can find us live every weekday from Washington, D.C.
35:53
Speaker 1: at noontime Eastern at Bloomberg.com.