All language subtitles for nvn.0910.049

You are one of one. My son's
right there.

I think I've already said
this before.

Okay, so then we will.

Gang, it's great to be with
you here today.

Moving forward, our plan
is once a week for

us to do podcasts purely on
business stories.

And we're doing that today.

Brandon here, quick shout out,
was here at 8 a.m.

Normally the seat, someone's not
sitting there till 8.59.

Rob told me at 8 a.m. he
was sitting here.

We have Eric back here
with us, Eric

Boling, with his business
background that he has.

And then obviously Tom Ellsworth
to go through stories.

Quick shout out to Aaron Judge.

What a flipping home run
you hit yesterday.

Off the pole, three inches
from being foul.

When you hit that home run,
Tom was furious.

I heard things are being thrown
around at his house.

I was getting some footage from
a guy I hired, paparazzi,

outside to see how Tom was reacting
to the Yankees winning.

It's not a foul poll, it's
a fair poll.

A great game it was yesterday.

We were screaming so loud in our
house, we got complaints in

the entire Fort Lauderdale
community,

and we'll gladly do
it again, and

they're back at it again
tonight.

And let me get that out of my
system, because it was a

nerve-wrack in the first
two games.

Anyways, a lot of business
stories to go through.

I brought a bar of gold with
me here today.

You know why?

Because I bought a bunch
of these.

These, when I bought them,
I'm like, let me

just set it aside in case
Armageddon happens,

and I've got to go buy pizza
or something like that.

I've got to melt it.

Here's for a large
pizza, right?

I've got a bunch of these.

I bought it for like $50,000.

They're apparently $128,000 right
now, these guys right now.

And Ken Griffin from Citadel is

worried why the prices of
gold is going up,

which we'll talk about
that, right?

The whole gold story.

And you have a whole different

perspective of what's happened
the last three years

on how the US dollar has
done to gold.

I won't give it away.

He's going to give you
that stat.

You'll be blown away by it.

Aside from that, Saudi
is trying to

compete, and they're not
trying to compete.

They're trying to buy up
anything they can.

And recently, a Saudi-led
deal went to an

enormous deal to acquire
EA Sports, okay?

Whether you play the games or
not, they bought them out.

Brandon's got a list of
other companies

Saudis bought over the
last few years,

and then what else they
want to buy.

Why is this so important?

Tom was part of a company
that they

started that they sold to
EA Sports in 2004

for $680 million.

It's called Jam That.

So Tom's going to give some
insight on that as well.

Gig drivers.

You ready for this one?

Gig drivers win the right to
unionize in California.

What?

A few hundred thousand.

We're talking Uber.

We're talking Lyft.

We're talking these guys that are
going to be now unionized.

Is that a good thing?

Who's going to pay a
price for it?

We will see.

New York Stock Exchange
owner to

invest $2 billion in betting
platform,

Poly Market.

Tom loves that story.

Anxiety and uncertainty push
gold to $4,000 an ounce.

First time ever.

And Brandon was even
saying some of

the guys that are pro-goal
people,

they're confused themselves.

We will cover that.

Paramount buys the free press,

ushering a new era at CBS
with Barry Weiss.

There's been a bunch of clips resurfacing
with Barry Weiss,

but she is now directly
reporting, I believe,

to Larry Ellison's son, who is

pretty much running that
whole deal that

the Ellison family purchased.

She's not reporting to
anybody else.

She's reporting directly
to him.

Rumor has it.

We'll talk about that.

Sharpies.

If you use Sharpies,
Sharpie found

a way to make pens more
cheaply by

manufacturing them where?

Not in El Salvador, not in
China, not anywhere else.

In America.

How are they doing it?

We're going to talk about it.

Well done.

Yeah, well done.

Woke Gym.

Come on, folks.

We're going to put the
link below

for those of you guys
that want to go

become members at this place.

Woke Gym proudly charges white

customers double the rate
they offer by,

what is it, BIPOC exercises?

What is that, Rob?

BIPOC exercises?

I don't want to butcher
this one.

I think it's black interracial
people of color.

Okay, so that's what it is.

Now, let me ask you, like, do I

get even a lower discount
than BIPOC?

Because I'm from Iran?

I'd love to go there and say
I'd like to get a discount.

I think I've got to get
lesser than

BIPOC, and I don't know
how they're

going to react to me.

Maybe we'll make a phone call

live on the podcast
at this place.

Can we find a number to
this place, Rob?

Fine.

Actually, I wouldn't
mind calling

these guys on speaker
on the podcast

and see if they'll give
me a membership.

Could you say you identify?

I'm sorry.

I identify as...

I was born a raised in Iran.

...Magnute Bull's nephew.

I feel like I've had a
more difficult

life than the people that
are part of

the BIPOC community.

Can I get even a lesser
discount?

Let's see what they'll
say to me.

Young people are richer
than boomers were.

This is a recent story.

Brandon doesn't like
this story.

Matter of fact, Brandon
wants to go, you

know, like, pfft, he's
upset at boomers.

He's not happy about boomers.

We're going to have to
hold Brandon back

today a little bit when he
comes up to the story.

That's a crash housing market.

Prices come down.

Yeah.

Grandparents are penniless, but
you get your first house.

Yeah.

The SMP 500 NASDAQ reached
all-time

closing highs on AI deal
making boost.

Bitcoin hits a new all-time
high.

So while we're talking
about this, you

know, what's the tough
thing about this?

You want to know how it sounds?

If I...

That's how it sounds
when you drop.

This thing is so heavy, it's
not even funny.

So let's just say if I
want to move a

million dollar of these
things and I'm

going through the airport, you

know what it's going
to feel like?

You know what happens
if you want to

move a million dollars of
Bitcoin, you're

going through the airport?

Nobody knows.

It's with you and your phone over
here that you're tracking.

So that's the argument for...

26 letters in your head.

Yeah.

That's the crypto community
for you.

$6 billion floods crypto
in one week.

Institutions going all in.

Wait till you see who just bought
$120 million of Bitcoin.

I guess they like it now.

Yeah.

Now they do.

It's mainstream.

Yeah.

It's going to compete with
gold at some point.

I think it's going to get
ahead of gold.

I think it already
probably has.

I think gold is going to have a

hard time competing
with Bitcoin.

Long term.

We'll talk about it.

Charlie Munger, God rest his
soul, called it rat poison.

Yeah.

Sam Altman warns that
AI industry

is due for a spectacular
implosion.

Not explosion, implosion.

Correction.

Correction.

Correction.

Big banks woo Trump for roles
on blockbuster IPOs.

Remember Freddie Mac and all
these other companies?

It's kind of coming
up right now.

And then we got a couple other
stories that just came up.

Folks, this is why I got
to love Trump.

You ready?

So you can check this out.

So you know when you think
about the program WIC.

What does WIC stand for?

Rob, what does WIC stand for?

Women, Infant and Children.

Children, I believe.

I think you actually got it.

I think you actually got it
on what it stands for.

I think it is.

Women, Infants and Children.

Yeah.

I think you got it.

So WIC typically is for
folks who are

having a hard time financially
and sometimes for

certain communities, most biggest
percentage of getting these,

some would say is African-American,

statistically it's been
written about.

So what does Trump do?

Trump says with the government
shutdown,

we're going to use the tariff
revenue that came

in to fund WIC programs during
the shutdown.

Tell me you know a better marketer
than this guy on doing

something like this, but
he threatens

no back pay for some of the
federal workers

who are going through the
shutdown and he's

blaming the Democrats.

We will cover that.

And then Tesla reveals cheaper
version of its cars.

Rob told me this morning,
the Tesla that

he bought many years ago
for $50,000, the

new Tesla is not only cheaper
by $11,000,

but it also gives you 70 more
miles per charge

than the one that Rob got.

And Rob's going to give his
affiliate code at the end.

If you guys want to buy a
Tesla, please use

his affiliate code to make
sure he gets credit

for it.

We want to make sure he becomes
the number one Tesla

salesperson that's on
the PVD podcast

here.

Compensation or culture,
I actually

love this story with Wall
Street Journal.

The best managed companies, which
one is more important?

How much you pay people or the
culture that you create?

And then Nvidia decides
to give just some

more like $20 billion to
Elon's XAI company.

And then Trump met with Canada,
Mark Carney,

and they're having a bunch
of conversations

together.

Anyways, gang, before we get
into it, two things.

Number one, see this shirt
I'm wearing

with the Vytima logo here
on the Future Looks

Bright?

I have probably 30 shirts
in my closet.

My wife says, "Babe, these
shirts are my favorite."

When you wear them once,
okay, you're

going to see how it feels,
how smooth it is.

You're going to feel like
someone's hugging

you all day telling you how
awesome you are.

Okay?

If you haven't yet ordered,
I think some of

the sizes are gone, but we
do still have some

left.

This is the business show that
we're talking about here.

You got them in white with
the gold logo,

Future Looks Bright on the
bottom of the shirt.

You got them in black, which
looks great.

And you got them in blue.

Black goes with gold, and we
have the blue as well.

You may as well order all
three of them if

you are somebody that's in
business and you're

regularly wearing business
shirts.

And then we got some of
that blue jacket

that's left and the whole
business series that's

going to be there.

Now, you can go to vtmerch.com
to place your order.

Number two, if you're with us
right now and you're an

entrepreneur, small business
owner,

we have a circle on Manak dedicated
to just business owners.

Okay?

It's going to be called
the PBD.

It's called the PBD Entrepreneur
Circle.

There is a ton of networking
going on there.

If you haven't yet joined
the circle,

download the app, go to PBD
Entrepreneur Circle, get

in there.

We're talking ideas, notes, PDFs,
different things that I do.

I post all the stuff in
here, and you can

join for free to see what
we're talking about.

And if you want to be able
to network and

message each other, it's
$5 a month for you

guys to be able to talk to each

other in that circle
that we have.

Do we have a QR code for
that or not yet?

We do.

There's a lower third, and the
link is in the description.

Okay.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Okay.

So let's get right into
the story.

Which story do we want
to get into?

Let's get into the gig
drivers who win

the right to unionize in
California, Eric.

Now, here's what the story
is telling us.

Rob, I think you got a
video on this.

Before you get the video,
let me just read

a couple of things here,
and then we'll go

to the video.

Drivers for gig companies like
UberLift gained the right to

unionizing California
on Friday.

Thanks to a bill signed by
Governor Newsom,

the bill allows unions
representing drivers

to bargain for better wages
and benefits,

and could serve as a model
for other states

given the size of California's
ride-hailing industry.

You ready?

You want to know how many
drivers they

have in California for
Uber and Lyft?

You think it's 50,000?

It's a lot.

100,000?

That's a lot of people.

800,000 drivers.

They use Uber and Lyft.

According to the bill's backers,
only Massachusetts had a

similar law which was
passed through

a ballot measure last year.

The bill could help resolve
a year-long fight

in which drivers group have
pushed for employee

status which confers protection
like a wage floor and a right

to unionize while gig companies

resisted.

Rob, go ahead and play
this clip.

Well, more than 800,000
drivers for

ride-hailing companies in California
will soon be able

to join a union and bargain

collectively for better wages
and benefits.

Governor Newsom signed the new
measure into law yesterday.

The governor and state
lawmakers struck

a deal with Uber and Lyft
in September.

The agreement also includes a measure
that would reduce Uber

and Lyft's insurance
requirements

for accidents caused by
underinsured drivers.

There we go.

Okay, Tom, your thoughts
on this story?

Well, this is what, all the
gig economy had

been fighting over a beachhead
that's very

important and it's the contractor
W-2 beachhead because if

they're declared to
be W-2, then

you have to pay the matching
part of FICA.

It's about 6%.

That's also known as the self-employment
tax where if you

self-employ and you're
a contractor

or 1099, you have to pay
both sides of it.

And so they've been fighting
it on that

basis also because there's
insurance reasons and

control reasons.

So they want the contractors.

They want everybody to be
1099 contractors.

It reduces cost for the
company and gives

the company more flexibility
with the drivers.

The drivers want to be, usually
they push for W-2.

Well, what this bill did
is gives them the

ability to collect the bargaining
as contractors.

It doesn't give up W-2.

What's really interesting, Uber
and Lyft dropped their

opposition after the
preservation of

the contractor W-2 Gulf
was preserved.

In other words, this maintains
1099 status.

So Uber and Lyft just
say, "Look,

as long as they're 1099s,
I'm good.

I'll deal with them
collectively

bargaining on the hourly rate
or the percent."

It's not really an hourly rate.

It's the percent of the fare.

But it's also, you know,
commiefornia

strikes again and it's a populist
drive that Gavin

Newsom is putting in.

And if you want to be an
Uber driver and you

want to make a little more,
drive it busier

times and stage yourself
as an XL or a

comfort driver and get a little
bit more percent out

of it.

And so it's a gig.

It's a side hustle.

Are you surprised that this
happened, Eric?

Are you surprised that this is a
1099 independent contractor?

This is I may do Uber for an hour
a week, two hours a week.

This is maybe I do Uber full
time, 40, 50 hours a week.

You want to now move
them to W-2.

Were you surprised by
this decision?

I'm not surprised because
it's California or

there's some say commiefornia,
but it strikes

me a fool's plate on the driver's
part because the more you

push, you want to unionize,
you're

obviously going to cost
the company more

money because there will
be some that aren't

1099.

There'll be a push or
maybe someday

there'll be a push to go away
from a percentage of

fares into a guaranteed number,
a minimum wage.

It's California.

Anything can happen there.

It strikes me the same way,
remember about

five, seven years ago, you
go into a Publix

or you go into a CVS
and they're

teaching you how to self
check yourself out.

Self check out.

I'm thinking, do you realize

you're putting yourself
out of business?

You're teaching me how to
do this so they

don't have to hire you anymore
and they didn't

really realize it and
now we see it.

There's 12 self check
outs and one

actual human being checking
people out.

The same thing's going to happen
with the gig economies.

If people are forcing these companies
to accept them as a

union, you're going
to drive the

cost up and that technology
of driverless

autopilot cars is right
around the corner.

They will be out of business
as human beings.

There's no question.

They'll have to pay them
anything if it's a

computer, if it's technology
that's driving

the car.

If you say, by the way Patrick,
if you say

800,000 of these folks, what
are they going

to do when they go to
autopilot cars?

What are those 800,000?

By the way, that's a good
point because those

cars are being made in California
and Silicon

Valley.

It's not like they're ... It's
a different state.

It's being built over there.

Waymo got through some early
missteps and

are on a phased approach
to mainstream in

Arizona I believe.

I believe in Phoenix.

There's a human that sits
there reading an

ebook or something or texting
that has to

be in there.

That's just part of
the program.

What do you do when
the human ...

Remember, that human, Arizona
said you have to have

an emergency human there, but
they're not driving.

The car is driving.

What happens when that's
completely automated

and then they go back and
said, "You won this

battle here, but then you
lost the war."

Absolutely.

Brandon, your thoughts?

I got a question for you
guys on this topic

because just last week we
had the Teamster

president, fourth generation
president of

Teamster, fourth president
Teamster member.

Now he's the youngest
president.

Sean O'Brien, who spoke at the
RNC, he was here last week.

While I'm pushing back on
Union, I want to

share with you what he did
in the middle of

it and how he looked at
Rob and asked four

questions from Rob just to
see the business

model have unions work.

I'm going to come back to this.

I got a question for you guys.

Go ahead, Brandon.

Your thoughts on this?

Yeah.

I just like this so much and I
dislike this mindset so much.

I was really annoyed when I was
listening to that guy speak.

I did Uber for a little bit
when I was in college.

I considered it a privilege
to have the access

to software that allowed me
to make some money

whenever I wanted to.

If I wanted to take a couple
hours here and

there to drive people around,
I don't think

that these people should feel entitled
to having a set wage.

I think that they should
be thankful to

have the access to the software
that gives them

the ability to make money
when they want to.

You could say that lobbying
that Uber does

makes it more difficult for
a competitor to

come along and offer
a better offer.

Lifted that for a little bit.

Obviously the market takes care
of this type of thing.

If it was really that bad
of a rate or that

bad of a deal or you couldn't
function with

it, then they wouldn't
do it anymore.

But there's still 800,000
people doing it.

So obviously they're able
to get what

they want out of it for
the most part.

But yeah, Uber shouldn't be a

thing you're doing full
time anyway.

It should be something
you're doing

to bridge yourself to
something else.

But the Pareto principle
applies to this.

I think where 80% of people are
not exceptional people and not

willing to do whatever it takes

to get what they want.

But 80% of people are in
that category.

So I think you know what you know
what Sean O'Brien said?

He said 95% of people he believes
are exceptional people.

But this is the question.

No, no.

And by the way, that's
their view

because they represent
the workers.

He has to have that mindset.

Here's a question I got
for you guys.

Two things.

One, when he was here, the team's
president was here.

I'm watching the mindset of
a union community.

So I'm pushing back on him.

I'm asking him questions
on certain things.

Obviously he played a very

important role for the
2024 election.

Kamala Harris was the only candidate
that went there.

And every year, every
time there's an

election, they ask 16 questions
of the candidates.

Kamala was the only person
that refused to

answer all the 16 questions
and only answered

three.

Kamala, even Biden showed up.

Trump answered all the
questions.

So they can't stand Kamala disrespecting
these guys in the

highest way, but I
want to learn

more about union.

So when I'm pushing back on

union, all of a sudden
he looks at Rob.

He says, Rob, did Pat text you
after work yesterday?

Yes.

Pat said he texted you
earlier today.

What time did he text you?

Rob says, 901.

How'd you get it?

Nick is saying, you know, 901.

And then he says, well,
few things.

If you're watching this
and you want to be

part of a union, number
one, how would you

like a guaranteed raise
every year?

Number two, how would you like
to make sure your health

insurance premium never
goes up?

Number three, how would you
like to have a,

what was it, a retirement
plan or something

like that, Rob, that he
said pension plan?

And then number four, there
was one other

thing that took place on
what it was, right?

But he put it in a funny
way that we were

doing it, but there was
a part of it that

was serious, the employee against
the employer, right?

That was the method that
was going on.

So the question becomes two things
that I want to address.

Number one, Tom and Eric, who
takes a hit here the most?

One you said drivers, they 800,000
because of Waymo comes out.

We got that one.

But how about the guy
that's Uber-ing?

So if you're spending $10
to go somewhere,

if they raise the wages
on them, Uber has

to pass it to you because
Uber still got to

make sure they're getting
their 20, 30, 40

percent of their EBIT of whatever
margins they got.

So that means people in
California, if you

were going from A to Z and
it was costing

$12, now it could be $18.

That's one.

So the consumer is going
to take a hit.

So that's one question.

But the second part of the
question I want

to ask you guys is, what
is the process of

being union?

What is the process?

So when they go about getting
these 800,000

people, who prompts the
conversation of union

before a company gets
unionized,

before an industry gets
unionized?

What is the procedure?

Do you know?

Well, I think you'll hear
about these things.

And, Eric, I love your
perspective too.

You'll hear that there were
union organizers.

These are ambassadors from
some main union.

You've got United Auto Workers.

You've got the giant
one that's in

Las Vegas, SEIU Service
Employees.

SEIU Service Employees.

Yeah, Service Employees
that are all

the maids and people working
at hotels.

So let's say I've got a hotel and
I don't have union workers.

They send ambassadors to
talk to my people.

It's legal to walk across
my parking lot

when those people walk out
at five o'clock

and say, "Hi, I'm in the
union over here.

I think you need
representation.

Come visit us one evening
and we're going

to have a meeting to tell
you about it."

That's how they start the
organization.

And they create all, get
people coming over

and says, "You guys could
vote to unionize

and then join us and then we will
be the mouthpiece for you."

So that's usually what happens.

You get people to evangelize,
then they

come to meetings, then they
agree, "Hey, all of

us at Pat and Tom's Independent
Hotel, we

should be in this because
we can make $11

an hour, not $8 an hour
or whatever

it is, and we get all
these things.

Let's go have a meeting
over here."

And they meet at Denny's,
they meet

places, and suddenly they're
meeting in crowds.

And suddenly we get a knock on
the door and says, "I got

signatures from 200 of your 300

people that want to join
this union.

I'd like to know what you're
going to do

about it because we think your
hotel, just like

everybody else, should
be a union shop."

And you kind of get pinched.

That's kind of how it works.

What have I missed?

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

Or someone will say, "Hey,
we're not unionized.

That hotel over there
is unionized."

They pick up a phone, call SEIU,
and say, "Send someone over."

They start the negotiation.

And at that point, the
managers, the

management of the company starts
to panic because they

realize if there is a
unionization, if it

becomes a union shop, their
costs are going

up, period.

Full stop.

He can ask, "Rob, hey, Rob,
how would you like...

I would take a free Tesla every
year, too, on top of it.

How'd you like it to be
sunny every day?"

That's great, but someone's
got to pay for that.

By the way, Sean O'Brien
is under the same

gun that these workers are
in California.

Teamsters trucks are going to be
driverless, too, eventually.

Eventually you're going
to eliminate the

human aspect of moving a
vehicle from one place

to the other.

Airline pilots as well.

They can unionize all you
want, try and suck

the last few drops of blood
out of the turnip,

so to speak, because they're
on their way out.

And that's the reality.

So I guess if I'm in the teamsters
or trucking or

transportation industry or
the gig economies,

you wait.

You just wait and you go,
"Okay, we'll play

this game with you until
we see how things

play out."

It will be a drastically
reduced

union membership across
the board.

And on an ideal that's
done nothing but

slide, it's the way cable
news used to be

a monster, and it evaporates
8.5% per

year of its viewership to
digital, right?

Same thing will happen over
time to all these

unions, teamsters especially,
because they're

all physically driven drivers
and whatnot.

They're on their way out.

All this stuff accelerates the
problem for the worker.

Do you remember when Bloomberg
announced

that the minimum wage, he was
the first one with

the big minimum wage speech.

We covered this on a podcast.

You and I talked about it.

So he got all upset about fast
food in New York.

"Well, this is what we're
going to do

the wage for fast food
in New York."

And you know what?

Within six months, McDonald's
was trialing kiosks.

Why?

Because if you push capitalism

against the wall, it's
going to respond.

Find a way.

It's going to find a way.

So Gavin Newsom in these things,
it doesn't help the workers

very long because it
accelerates

the response by a business because
Uber is on the stock market.

Their pressure is, "Hey,
buddy, your PE

ratio is down and now your
stock price is down."

So they have to respond to it.

Let's get to the next story.

Let's get to the next story.

I think we got plenty
of this story.

Let's get to the next one.

So President Trump decides due to
the government shutdown, he

will use tariff revenue to fund

WIC programs during
the shutdown.

Think about how creative of
a thinking this is.

Rob, is this a clip of
him saying that?

It's actually just a quick
news update about it.

Go for it.

Promise breaking moments
ago, more than $200

billion coming into the coffers
in tariffs.

And now we're learning where
some of that money will go.

The White House has just
announced that the

Women and Children Food Program
will not be

cut off while the government
is shut down.

Some of them might.

Yeah, when you're looking
at this Trump

number, the tariff will use to
keep afloat a federal

food system program for
nearly 7 million

pregnant women, new moms and
young children during

the government shutdown.

The program, known as WIC,
was expected to

run out of money soon because
Congress has

yet to prove federal spending
package, the

fiscal 2026, which started
on October 1st,

the National WIC Association
has predicted

that the program funding
would last only a

week or two into the shutdown.

White House Press Secretary
Caroline

Levitt announced the tariff
idea in a post on X.

Democrats are so cruel in
their continual

votes to shut down a government
that they

force WIC program for
their most

vulnerable women and children
to run out this week.

She wrote, "Thankfully,
President Trump and

the White House have identified
a creative

solution to transfer resources
from Section

232 tariff revenue to this
critical program."

Eric, your thoughts on this?

I may take a different
tack on this

and maybe a lot of people
at the table.

I think it's great politics
on Trump's part.

It's great politics and
horrible policy.

Here's why.

I'm never, ever going to
be a fan of this

tariff situation that he's
decided to put

into play.

I'm a free marketer.

I'm straight up libertarian.

I think we leave our equity
markets, all

our markets, our financial
markets alone.

The crown jewel of financial
markets around the world.

They've created insane wealth
for the American people.

Stop playing with the
free market.

It would take care of itself.

The tariff changes the dynamic.

But I know why he's doing
it because Trump

likes the power of having
that tariff over

foreign leaders.

He's using it for just about
everything to

negotiate peace with wars,
to negotiate deals,

to negotiate almost anything
he wants.

Now he's going to use this
tariff revenue,

which $200 billion is not
a lot of money given

what he's actually doing.

It's too much interruption
into the markets.

We'll talk about why gold prices
are exceeding $4,000.

I believe it has a lot to
do with tariffs.

I think he's using it to
say, "Hey, look

at this beautiful opportunity
to take care

of women and underprivileged
people and

children with the money
that the Democrats

are holding back because
of the shutdown."

He's using it as a political, I

guess, a gun to the Democrats'
head.

You want to mess with women and
children and minorities?

Well, keep the government
shut down.

We'll throw him some money
from tariffs.

He also said, at one point he was
going to use the money to

send back to American
households

$2,000 to some households.

He's using it as a political
ploy, a tool

which I just thought it
leaves a bad taste

in the mouth.

Tom, do you agree with Eric?

Yes and no.

I understand the headline,
"It's

great politics, a horrible
policy."

I'm also free market,
but the tariff

situation, I agree with it from
the standpoint of let's

lever and correct unfair
counter

tariffs that are around
the world.

I agree with that as a
political threat,

but then get them off, turn
them off, and get

everybody to the table and get

everybody to cooperate and
then back off.

That's what I feel about it.

Now, I happen to think,
I agree with Eric,

in that the President's
doing a very good

job of what the Democrats
usually do.

"Oh, thanks to you and
the shutdown, and

the shutdown's all because
of your guys.

Guess what?

Because of this program,
people won't get

their EBT cards in Boston
and they'll be going

hungry as we approach
Thanksgiving."

That's always the Democrat
line.

You shut down the government
and then pick

victim group here in this part
of the sentence,

and then this part of the sentence
put, "Don't get something."

There's two blanks, victim and
what don't you get?

Then say, "It's Trump fault, Trump
bad, Trump bad, Trump bad."

He's preempting that and
saying, "You know what?

Thank goodness I'm such
a genius with

tariffs because I've got all
this money now to keep

the wick money going to
these people, and

that's one of your programs,
but I'm making

sure these kids don't
lose out."

Tom, he didn't have to
use the tariff

money to have the same policy
though, right?

There's plenty of money
sloshing around.

There's $7 trillion.

And he's got the EOPEN.

He could have signed an
executive order or

just pushed the money out
to the wick people

without saying, "Oh, this
tariff program

I have is so good, we're
going to help."

Plenty of money is a
stretch though.

He's kind of patting himself on

the back and then using
the check.

Of course.

Even you, anybody that's
in that position,

if one of your main things,
what did he keep

saying?

He says, "Man, I think
the sexiest

word in the dictionary
is tariffs."

If that's what he kept running on,
it's probably love and maybe

God, I don't know, maybe
religion.

Tariff has to be there.

Remember when he was kind of
toying with everybody?

So of course he has to do
this and use it

this way because this is a
way of doing, taking

the weight off and saying
the Democrats,

because, "Okay, Rob, can
you do me a favor

and do you have that clip
of Trump calling

out the Democrats in the
House for this is

a Democrat shutdown, this
is a Democrat

shutdown, this is a Democrat
shutdown."

He is playing politics because

the other guys are playing
politics.

So what he's going to do, just
sit there and take it?

Go ahead, Rob.

Well, I call them Democrat
layoffs.

They're Democrat layoffs.

They're causing it.

We're ready to go back. We have a record-setting
economy, we have a

record-setting country, prices
are way down,

we're doing better than
the country has

ever done, and the Democrats
hate seeing that.

It's up to them.

Anybody laid off, that's because
of the Democrats.

Okay, so Brandon, your
thoughts on this?

Yeah, I disagree with both
of you guys on

tariffs, but for the WIC
payments, that's

$600 million a month.

So I guess if we raise $60 billion,
that's not that bad.

But there's probably
a lot, too many

people on WIC, that program's
been abused a lot.

But I would ask you guys,
is it important

to have a strong industrial
base and is it

important to have a strong
middle class?

Because the goal of
tariffs is to

strengthen both of
those things.

And I think without a strong
middle class

and without a strong industrial
base, we're

vulnerable in an economic sense

and in a national security
sense.

How do tariffs strengthen
the middle class?

Because it creates better
middle class jobs.

Do you think it's a good thing
that we have hollowed out

factories in the middle
of America?

No, I don't think it's
a good thing.

I'm still trying to...

All right, so high-tech...

The leap is that you believe
creating this

tariff, using this tariff
threat will force

companies back to the
United States.

I actually don't think it
goes far enough to.

Now, this is a real...

Do you believe all these people
who are pledging $500 billion

or a trillion dollars
in various

companies, do you believe
they're actually

going to break ground on
these plants that

they're putting on?

Yeah, I think Nvidia
is going to.

I think Meta or not, Microsoft
pulled out

of what they said they
were going to do.

But I think that at the
very least, it's

going to encourage some
of them to do it.

So you're big corporate
guys, CEOs, right?

Patrick, you guys talk to
them all the time.

Their outlook isn't the next
year, year and a half.

Their outlook is generally
out of what we're

doing this year, but we want
to do 10 years

down the road, right?

Would a great CEO pick NEC?

Tim Cook, fine, Apple.

Is it his best interest to tell
Trump, "Yes, we're going to

earmark a trillion dollars over

the next five, 10 years
to build

plants here and build
iPhones here."

And he just waits and sees.

Trump is moving the target with
these tariffs all the time.

He just dropped an auto tariff.

Why?

It would cost these companies
a lot of money to do it.

It's cheaper to do business
overseas.

That labor is cheaper.

The construction costs, capital

expenditure costs are much
lower overseas than here.

Why don't you just wait?