Latest / Profits & Politics / Jensen Huang resigns -- what is the threat from China? And a guard upbraids Hegseth.
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: Hey folks, welcome to Profits in Politics.
- 0:02SPEAKER_00: I'm Bob Sellers here with Jerry Burke, a couple news vets who have worked at places like CNBC to cover business, Fox to cover politics.
- 0:12SPEAKER_00: So we talk about both.
- 0:14SPEAKER_00: Jerry, good morning.
- 0:16SPEAKER_01: Good morning, Bob.
- 0:17SPEAKER_01: So, you know, it was uh Veterans Day uh yesterday, and there was a kerfuffle at a normally quiet place, the tomb of the unknown soldier, you know, where you have that iconic image of the guard, you know, quietly clicking his heels and walking back and forth.
- 0:36SPEAKER_01: Well, a group of uh visitors arrived, including Secretary of War Pete Heggseth, and apparently they were causing quite a disruption.
- 0:48SPEAKER_01: They were tackling and laughing.
- 0:50SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let me play that.
- 0:52SPEAKER_00: Let me play that, okay?
- 0:53SPEAKER_00: Is that okay?
- 0:53SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 0:54SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
- 1:06SPEAKER_00: All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times.
- 1:33SPEAKER_01: That is something you don't see every day.
- 1:35SPEAKER_01: The secretary of war getting screamed at by a guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
- 1:43SPEAKER_01: That was quite something.
- 1:44SPEAKER_01: And I I think you have another, I think you have another piece of video.
- 1:52SPEAKER_00: Uh we go to the Arlington Cemetery now and then.
- 1:56SPEAKER_00: Last uh Christmas time, they they will put flowers on graves.
- 2:00SPEAKER_00: Uh we do that.
- 2:02SPEAKER_00: Um sometimes we go on Memorial Day.
- 2:06SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful place.
- 2:08SPEAKER_00: We went on D-Day five years ago.
- 2:11SPEAKER_00: And uh what they do, Jerry, is at the changing of the guard, they will come out and they will literally say to basically shut up.
- 2:21SPEAKER_00: They they will tell you to be quiet.
- 2:23SPEAKER_00: It's known that you're supposed to be quiet, besides the fact that you're sitting there paying homage to uh someone that gave his life, and it's actually recognized to represent everyone who is not identified, and so it's it's reverent and somber, and there can be dozens of people there, and everybody is quiet.
- 2:47SPEAKER_00: And I'll show you an example of when I was there.
- 3:46SPEAKER_00: Wow.
- 3:48SPEAKER_00: I mean that was D-Day.
- 3:50SPEAKER_00: You had uh I don't know two or three dozen people there.
- 3:55SPEAKER_00: Nobody made a sound.
- 3:57SPEAKER_01: No, big difference, big difference.
- 3:59SPEAKER_00: A big difference.
- 4:00SPEAKER_00: And the fact that the defense secretary has to be told that is embarrassing.
- 4:06SPEAKER_00: Now, it wasn't his cackle, right?
- 4:08SPEAKER_00: I mean, I wouldn't I wouldn't claim that he was the one laughing, but the whole attitude that would allow that, I think a lot of people would find offensive.
- 4:19SPEAKER_00: Now, to Hex's credit, his office came out and supported the soldier who uh said what he did.
- 4:27SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a good thing because that's an argument you're not gonna win.
- 4:33SPEAKER_01: No, no.
- 4:34SPEAKER_01: And then another news, ICE is reporting now a record number of illegal migrants have been deported as the architect of the plan, Stephen Miller, takes over the West Wing.
- 4:48SPEAKER_01: ICE announced it removed 483,000 illegals uh in the fiscal year that just ended it this September.
- 4:58SPEAKER_01: They also logged 490,000 immigration arrests.
- 5:03SPEAKER_01: So combined, that's nearly a million folks, you know.
- 5:08SPEAKER_01: Um, but this comes just days after President Trump told 60 Minutes he might cut a migrant amnesty deal with Democrats who have long been upset with the way ICE goes about, you know, arresting people.
- 5:24SPEAKER_01: You know, two Americans have been killed, you know.
- 5:27SPEAKER_01: Um so uh he did tell 60 Minutes that he thought the ICE crackdown raids were was too tough.
- 5:37SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Stephen Miller must not get it because nobody cares about the numbers.
- 5:41SPEAKER_00: When I say nobody, nobody in the Midwest cares about that.
- 5:44SPEAKER_00: Nobody, no Hispanic living along the border cares about the absolute numbers.
- 5:49SPEAKER_00: What they do care about is what it looks like ICE is doing.
- 5:55SPEAKER_00: And I think that's their problem.
- 5:57SPEAKER_00: The absolute numbers may be impressive.
- 6:00SPEAKER_00: If you told me all of those people were dangerous criminals, I would say, get them out.
- 6:05SPEAKER_00: And I think every American would.
- 6:07SPEAKER_00: The problem is ICE has killed people who didn't appear to be threats, ICE has uh retained people or deported people who didn't appear to be a threat to our safety here in the United States.
- 6:23SPEAKER_00: Stephen Miller, I think should be misreading the results.
- 6:28SPEAKER_00: Nobody would have any problem with a huge absolute number if they were convinced these are all criminals and a threat to our society and to our safety.
- 6:39SPEAKER_00: People don't believe that.
- 6:40SPEAKER_00: Now they can argue that, but last Tuesday, I think people uh showed that they don't believe that.
- 6:48SPEAKER_00: Obviously, there are other issues that people were voting on authoritability and tariffs and the war in Iran.
- 6:55SPEAKER_00: But it definitely along the border in Texas, Hispanics really turned on the Trump in huge numbers.
- 7:04SPEAKER_00: Uh, you could argue they swayed the election.
- 7:07SPEAKER_00: And I think that if they think that coming out and saying we've deported more illegals, they're not going to win that argument.
- 7:15SPEAKER_00: They already lost that argument.
- 7:16SPEAKER_00: The fact that they don't get that is a problem.
- 7:19SPEAKER_01: And also, you see, during that uh interview, Trump changed his tone quite a great deal.
- 7:26SPEAKER_01: He he said that also, in addition to what he what he said about, you know, too tough being too tough, ice being too tough.
- 7:33SPEAKER_01: He said, he said, many of these illegals have been here for decades and they've got decent jobs and they pay taxes.
- 7:40SPEAKER_00: So some of them were brought here as kids and had no control whatsoever over getting here.
- 7:47SPEAKER_00: And when he says that, you think, ah, the light has gone off.
- 7:54SPEAKER_00: Here's the opportunity Trump is missing, in my opinion.
- 7:58SPEAKER_00: For decades, uh, we have seen presidents try to carve out some kind of immigration reform.
- 8:06SPEAKER_00: And the issue goes back, especially back to 1980.
- 8:10SPEAKER_00: We saw Reagan try to tackle it and didn't get enough public support from Republicans to do that.
- 8:16SPEAKER_00: And so George W.
- 8:17SPEAKER_00: Bush tried to, and he couldn't do that.
- 8:20SPEAKER_00: Trump actually is in a situation in which he could actually identify the problems with immigration, including who is legal, who is illegal, is it a misdemeanor, is it a felony, who is dangerous, what is the process you go through.
- 8:37SPEAKER_00: We all would agree, hey, you shouldn't come across the border without checking in at the port of entry, okay?
- 8:42SPEAKER_00: You can define how many people can come in, how do they apply for citizenship?
- 8:48SPEAKER_00: How do they show that they're here so they pay taxes while they're here?
- 8:52SPEAKER_00: All those things can be addressed.
- 8:54SPEAKER_00: He has an opportunity, Jerry, to actually go down historically and solve a problem that we haven't seen solved for decades.
- 9:03SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, you forget even uh Clinton, Obama, even Hillary has been, you know, complaining about the migrant situation for decades.
- 9:12SPEAKER_01: It's only recently that Democrats have been this you and cry over, you know, what are we doing?
- 9:20SPEAKER_01: You know?
- 9:21SPEAKER_00: Um well, I think it's because of what it has looked like.
- 9:26SPEAKER_00: I mean, ICE has uh overstepped the boundaries to in most people's eyes.
- 9:33SPEAKER_00: And I say most people who voted, I think would agree that they have gone too far.
- 9:38SPEAKER_00: And Trump is the one that said he's gone too far.
- 9:41SPEAKER_00: Now, what's interesting, Jerry, is a day later, Trump stepped back from that.
- 9:46SPEAKER_00: Trump said, No, I'm not gonna give amnesty, because what was implied is something that goes back.
- 9:51SPEAKER_00: Reagan did some, uh Carter did some, and which it's like if you've been here a certain number of years and you haven't committed a crime, but you're allowed to stay here.
- 10:01SPEAKER_00: A lot of Republicans oppose that.
- 10:04SPEAKER_00: And having said that, Jerry, it it becomes a numbers game.
- 10:09SPEAKER_00: If you have 250, 255 votes in the House for Democrats, if you have 55 or 56 uh votes in the Senate to get it through, you actually might get a few Republicans to go on board to solve that problem.
- 10:26SPEAKER_00: And Trump could go down as saying, nobody could solve this, I solved it.
- 10:31SPEAKER_00: He actually would have good.
- 10:32SPEAKER_00: So if he goes back to what Stephen Miller seems to want to focus on, he'll miss that opportunity completely.
- 10:39SPEAKER_01: But do you think Democrats, even if they want to, you know, uh build an amnesty together, would they do it with Trump?
- 10:46SPEAKER_01: They don't want to give him that credit, that satisfaction.
- 10:51SPEAKER_00: You may be right, because I think what their tactic is gonna be over the next two years is trying to pass laws that will not get written, you know, acts that don't get passed.
- 11:04SPEAKER_00: Let me rephrase that.
- 11:06SPEAKER_00: I think they're going to pass legislation that Trump will veto, and they'll be happy with that.
- 11:12SPEAKER_00: They'll say, see, we served that up on a silver platter, and he vetoed it.
- 11:17SPEAKER_00: This is what American people want.
- 11:20SPEAKER_00: So you may be right that they may not want to give that uh win, if you will.
- 11:27SPEAKER_00: Or maybe Trump has done the math and talked to his people and found out, yeah, that wouldn't work.
- 11:34SPEAKER_00: So you may be right about that.
- 11:38SPEAKER_01: Um, Wall Street uh is very rattled this morning by the resignation of NVIDIA's CEO, Jensen Wong, caught in an affair with a suspected Chinese spy.
- 11:52SPEAKER_01: Now, NVIDIA makes all these terrific, some of the best chips in the world, the the computer chips for AI.
- 12:01SPEAKER_01: And there's a fear that this spy may have gotten access.
- 12:05SPEAKER_01: But then I also I saw a sidebar that there's like many, many tech CEOs with Asian or Chinese wives or girlfriends or mistresses.
- 12:17SPEAKER_01: I don't know what the fascination is.
- 12:19SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I don't know if China's behind all of these relationships, but it was interesting to me.
- 12:26SPEAKER_00: Do you think the problem might be that she was identified as a spy?
- 12:32SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that's a big part of it.
- 12:35SPEAKER_00: That's a problem.
- 12:36SPEAKER_00: And we predicted this, China.
- 12:38SPEAKER_00: And and when they are a competitor, this isn't just to make the fastest computer, right?
- 12:44SPEAKER_00: We're talking about uh technology for defense, for uh security for our country.
- 12:51SPEAKER_00: So life-changing.
- 12:53SPEAKER_00: This can be life-changing, and that's why it's so important.
- 12:56SPEAKER_00: That's why I really don't see him surviving this.
- 13:06SPEAKER_01: They were saying on Fox that it may not have been a resignation.
- 13:11SPEAKER_01: He may have gotten a boot because he apparently was caught in another relationship.
- 13:16SPEAKER_01: And this is a married guy, and he's running a he's a CEO of a major company.
- 13:20SPEAKER_01: He still has time.
- 13:22SPEAKER_01: He apparently had started a relationship with a with an employee, which violated certain HR standards, and that's what got him hoisted on his own petard.
- 13:33SPEAKER_00: That may be the face of it.
- 13:37SPEAKER_00: I don't believe that for a second.
- 13:39SPEAKER_00: You know how many CEOs, you were kind of alluding to this.
- 13:43SPEAKER_00: Uh, there, you know, how many CEOs are going out with Asian women.
- 13:47SPEAKER_00: Leave that aside.
- 13:48SPEAKER_00: How many CEOs are having an affair?
- 13:51SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but I know it's more than one.
- 13:54SPEAKER_00: And how many are in a relationship with somebody in the workplace?
- 13:58SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but it's more than one.
- 14:01SPEAKER_00: But in this case, you're talking about, arguably, Jerry, the most important company when it comes to AI and when it comes to our national defense as we build AI and build the infrastructure to move forward, including our economy, our defense, and all of the elements that have to do with artificial intelligence, we're we're talking about the chips that they happen to make.
- 14:30SPEAKER_00: If that intellectual property is stolen, then we no longer have the advantage.
- 14:38SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I was listening this morning.
- 14:40SPEAKER_01: They were saying that, you know, uh China is still not as good at making AI chips as we are, which astounded me.
- 14:49SPEAKER_00: Well, it's because they have not stolen that intellectual property.
- 14:52SPEAKER_00: Now, it does concern me that you know Trump makes everything personal.
- 14:57SPEAKER_00: And if he's getting money from Jensen Wong or somehow he's on the good side with them, he doesn't care if he's having he was reportedly told Trump that Wong was involved with a Chinese spy, and Trump didn't seem to be concerned about that.
- 15:17SPEAKER_00: What?
- 15:18SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, I don't get it.
- 15:20SPEAKER_01: I don't get it.
- 15:21SPEAKER_00: And also in his world, oh, he's a nice guy.
- 15:25SPEAKER_00: I get along with him.
- 15:26SPEAKER_00: He likes me.
- 15:27SPEAKER_00: And so I think it's just he's in a situation.
- 15:31SPEAKER_00: No, this is national defense.
- 15:33SPEAKER_00: And in his role as president, he needs to think about people other than himself.
- 15:38SPEAKER_01: I don't know if we're just being flooded with too much information, but it seems like between the Chinese, the Somalis, and the Islamists, we're being infiltrated left, right, and center, you know?
- 15:51SPEAKER_01: And it's not a hot war.
- 15:53SPEAKER_01: It's it's like a cold war of all these people that are in coming in and influencing and taking control over our systems.
- 16:02SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because we're good at hot wars.
- 16:04SPEAKER_00: It remains to be seen whether we're good at whatever this is cyber wars, AI wars.
- 16:11SPEAKER_00: We need to maintain that gap.
- 16:14SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 16:15SPEAKER_00: That's why that's why it matters.
- 16:16SPEAKER_00: That's why it's serious.
- 16:18SPEAKER_00: And I think hot wars are just a component of the overall front, if you will.
- 16:26SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think the we talked about this before.
- 16:29SPEAKER_01: The front is is not what it was.
- 16:32SPEAKER_01: Like did you hear Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has moved to a military base amid threats that he's received from Iran, just like Marco Rubio and Pete Heggseth, who also have moved to military bases.
- 16:50SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I think that's a problem.
- 16:52SPEAKER_00: And and those are physical threats, and they, as officers of our country, should be protected.
- 16:58SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
- 16:59SPEAKER_00: It's unfortunate that it comes to that.
- 17:01SPEAKER_00: And then there are, of course, threats.
- 17:02SPEAKER_00: You would expect Trump to be threatened, and you would uh you we heard that members of his family have been threatened, and you want them to be protected.
- 17:10SPEAKER_00: Uh there definitely there are threats physically, but I think what we're talking about in the Jensen Wong, and in that case, we're talking about a technological threat, a cyber threat, an AI threat.
- 17:30SPEAKER_00: All those have to be taken seriously.
- 17:33SPEAKER_00: But I am surprised he stepped down so readily, and I am curious how they're going to replace him because Jerry, there aren't many people who are more associated with the company's success.
- 17:45SPEAKER_00: You can take Steve Jobs, even though a lot of the success um superseded him.
- 17:51SPEAKER_00: You can talk about uh certain companies that are known, like Zuckerberg.
- 17:56SPEAKER_00: Uh you got Jeff Bezos and Amazon.
- 18:00SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to computer chips, NVIDIA, that has been driven.
- 18:07SPEAKER_00: So he's not easy to replace.
- 18:09SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 18:09SPEAKER_01: No, I agree.
- 18:11SPEAKER_01: Um, before I get to the kicker, do you have anything?
- 18:15SPEAKER_00: Let me see if I've got anything else.
- 18:17SPEAKER_00: I don't think I do.
- 18:18SPEAKER_00: Uh, I felt like we needed to address those things today.
- 18:22SPEAKER_00: Oh, for sure.
- 18:23SPEAKER_00: For sure.
- 18:24SPEAKER_00: Uh I I do think uh just to to mention the stock market, you know, we we I just think it's interesting what's going on.
- 18:33SPEAKER_00: The it NVIDIA stock was trading as recently, I think as last month, up near 215, 220, I forget exactly.
- 18:44SPEAKER_00: And it continues to go down.
- 18:46SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's uh jumped with the hope that things might get better with it, but um NVIDIA, let's see if I can find it.
- 18:55SPEAKER_00: I know I've got it on here somewhere.
- 18:56SPEAKER_01: Well, when I checked earlier, all the futures were down, NASDAQ, especially.
- 19:01SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean that's one thing that's um interesting.
- 19:04SPEAKER_00: Okay, NVIDIA is down to 164, down five percent today.
- 19:09SPEAKER_00: And uh 164.
- 19:12SPEAKER_00: This is um I forget what the all-time high is, but I want to say something like 230, um, way higher.
- 19:20SPEAKER_00: And this affects AI, it affects the NASDAQ.
- 19:25SPEAKER_00: But the but here's what you hope.
- 19:27SPEAKER_00: Okay, right now we've got the the Dow is up 44 points, the Nasdaq down 472.
- 19:34SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we have a mixed market.
- 19:36SPEAKER_00: What you wonder is can somebody else come along and take NVIDIA's place?
- 19:42SPEAKER_00: You would you know your initial thought would be no, because they have the intellectual property.
- 19:48SPEAKER_00: That's why they're so important.
- 19:51SPEAKER_01: Well, what about someone like Elon?
- 19:54SPEAKER_00: Well, here's the theory.
- 19:56SPEAKER_00: Elon, here's something being thrown out there.
- 19:59SPEAKER_00: What if Elon Musk hires Jensen Wong to be part of SpaceX and then has him bring over his intelligence?
- 20:09SPEAKER_00: Now you've got Elon Musk with Jensen Wong, and what's in his head is still there.
- 20:16SPEAKER_00: There may be certain legal requirements he not revealed what the the intellectual property is, but we know how much.
- 20:23SPEAKER_00: I mean, are you gonna gonna I don't know.
- 20:26SPEAKER_00: I I don't know that that could be enforced, maybe with the Democratic Congress.
- 20:30SPEAKER_00: Uh but but what would happen if Musk hired him?
- 20:36SPEAKER_01: That's true, that's true.
- 20:39SPEAKER_01: So I have a story for a kicker.
- 20:42SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 20:43SPEAKER_01: An urgent warning to parents about something that that's being called height maxing.
- 20:50SPEAKER_01: Have you heard of this?
- 20:52SPEAKER_00: The uh isn't that where people like put in bones in their shins or something to try to become taller?
- 20:59SPEAKER_01: No, this is a this is that you know, and also they have new shoes that add like four or five inches to your height, you know?
- 21:07SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've known parents that have their kids wear those.
- 21:10SPEAKER_01: But there's a drug now that kids are taking to increase their height.
- 21:17SPEAKER_01: It causes uh a growth spurt, and it's a drug that's used to treat a form, a rare form of bladder cancer.
- 21:26SPEAKER_01: How about that?
- 21:28SPEAKER_00: And are there side effects?
- 21:30SPEAKER_00: There always are in these things, right?
- 21:32SPEAKER_01: There there always are, yeah.
- 21:33SPEAKER_01: But they're you know, I the article didn't really expound on on what, you know.
- 21:39SPEAKER_01: Uh, but it it can't be good to be taking a cancer drug just to gain a couple inches.
- 21:45SPEAKER_00: I don't take any drugs, which at my age the doctor is always you don't take?
- 21:50SPEAKER_00: No, I don't take any.
- 21:51SPEAKER_00: Um because I always feel like the side effects may be worse than any symptoms I might be having.
- 21:57SPEAKER_00: And I mean, did you see where the GLP drugs, the ones that make you lose weight?
- 22:03SPEAKER_00: Oh, by the way, they could make you go blind.
- 22:06SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 22:08SPEAKER_01: Well, I've always referred to my own height privilege.
- 22:13SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're how tall?
- 22:15SPEAKER_01: Six three.
- 22:16SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 22:17SPEAKER_01: Uh I actually was on a date with a woman who said who didn't believe me and said, You look more like six two.
- 22:23SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, why would I lie about my why would I lie about my height?
- 22:27SPEAKER_01: You know?
- 22:28SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm 6'1, you're taller than I am.
- 22:31SPEAKER_00: Uh I I was when I was younger, I was a playbook 6'2.
- 22:35SPEAKER_00: So you go out, you play football or baseball, you know, 6'2 back in the day, 185.
- 22:41SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, yeah.
- 22:43SPEAKER_01: So but you know, my son, my son is six five.
- 22:47SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I believe that.
- 22:48SPEAKER_01: I'm looking up at him.
- 22:50SPEAKER_01: Can't believe it.
- 22:51SPEAKER_01: Very proud of him.
- 22:52SPEAKER_00: Well, it it is interesting.
- 22:54SPEAKER_00: I mean, people a lot of people like height, and a lot of parents, I have known parents who are concerned about their kids being small.
- 23:02SPEAKER_00: And it's nothing that's ever bothered me.
- 23:05SPEAKER_00: I was always on the larger side, but then I've had roommates, Jerry, that are 6'10, 6'11 have played in the NBA.
- 23:11SPEAKER_00: So I've been everything is relative because with them, like when I go on the basketball court with them to play some pickup uh basketball, I was a small guy.
- 23:23SPEAKER_00: Yeah, how about that?
- 23:25SPEAKER_00: But if I go to a gymnastics tournament with my daughters back in the day, I was tall, and then I go to volleyball when they got into that.
- 23:34SPEAKER_00: I was short.
- 23:36SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 23:37SPEAKER_01: Well, do you remember?
- 23:38SPEAKER_01: Do you remember Spud Webb?
- 23:40SPEAKER_01: I think of the of the he was like five football.
- 23:44SPEAKER_01: He can dunk.
- 23:45SPEAKER_01: It was but you know, my my oldest daughter is barely five foot tall.
- 23:51SPEAKER_01: She's like 4'11.
- 23:53SPEAKER_01: And when she's standing next to my son, you would never think they're from the same family.
- 23:57SPEAKER_00: I know.
- 23:58SPEAKER_00: I know.
- 23:59SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
- 24:00SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, you never, I always think um, I would see parents of the girls my girls would play volleyball with, and some of them would not even be as tall as my wife and me, but they're their girls are like six feet tall, and it's like, yeah, I don't want to reveal mine, are not six feet tall.
- 24:20SPEAKER_00: So you you look at that, what happened there?
- 24:22SPEAKER_00: Now, some you look at and you go, yeah, like Wemby, I think his mom is like six three and his dad six six or something.
- 24:31SPEAKER_01: Wow, Mother Nature and and God.
- 24:34SPEAKER_00: That's right.
- 24:35SPEAKER_00: Um and of course it all comes down to two words.