All in DC - March 20 2025
- Howard Lutnick joins the show
- House renovation
- Relationship with Trump
- Known for 30+ years
- Trump was on the cover of Time magazine 59 times
- Has been famous for 30+ years
- If you attack him - he gets recharged
- He is never just talking
- Panama Canal
- Research showed he’s right about Chinese influence (~70% signage characters etc through the area)
- Transition chair
- (Lutnick, Trump and Chamath have all donated to Chuck Schumer in the past)
- Socially liberal fiscal conservative
- Has great relationship with Hilary Clinton (she helped him after 9/11)
- So he can never forget how she helped him - so DJT gives him a hard time as a joke
- Trump asked him to help in 2023 - so he agreed
- Helped pick Sacks
- Helped understand how Chief of Staff role should work and not a “gatekeeper” - related book
- Idea for DOGE is about balancing the budget
- Fix entitlement fraud, etc
- Pitched using tariffs to help offset income tax for folks (85% of US) making < $150K/year if you can balance the budget
- Roped in Elon
- Explained Gratis vendor
- You give goods to US but don’t sell it
- Came up with the name DOGE (was floating around on the internet) and registered it
- Trump makes decisions by orchestra
- Had 8 candidates for each role - down to 4 - down to 2 - then 1
- Played role of recruiter in chief
- Balancing the budget
- How will this happen given congressional interest
- Easiest way to find the fraudster is stop payments and listen
- Consolidate census into USPS 625000 people
- Try to separate non productive parts of GDP
- Will explain by publishing data of how government spending jumps the quarter before an election
- $200B of $1.2T during covid PPE - apparently went to chinese gangs
- Wants to ensure people get social security money - US is the richest country
- Tariffs and global trade
- No income tax until 1913
- From 1880 to 1913 US had blue ribbon commissions
- Added taxes before WW1
- Then after WW2 we let rest of the world tariff us but we kept low tariffs for them
- Long term strategy was to help the rest of the world rebuild - Japan, Korea, Kuwait, etc
- Trump understood this 40 years ago
- It seems these are linked to the wars abroad that America feels it should help rebuild after
- Typical economist refrain is that tariffs lead to inflation
- US had auto industry in Detroit and Ohio - decimated by NAFTA signed by Bill Clinton
- So tariffs is about reshoring
- Its a globalist view to export jobs to get better profits for US corporation
- But for humans in America its better to keep jobs here
- Rest of the countries are more protectionist
- Have to be strategic with tariffs - choose to tariffs goods that will ensure reshoring
- We now have $2T of committed domestic production because of tariffs
- Better paying jobs and more productive than government jobs
- Trump card
- John Paulson idea
- Sold 1000 cards
- Global income stays out
- Govt software
- Software hasn’t been bought by government because they pay the whole contract up front - 10 years of paying - no one wants to agree because they will be out in 4 years
- Has made deals with big companies to make software for the government for free
- Aware of requirement for post quantum cryptography
- Sovereign wealth fund strategy
- Cruise ship tax workaround example
- Ireland taxes and IP workaround example
- How much is the court system of America worth - how is Nvidia worth $3T without the court system that protects it?
- Family
- Wife and 4 kids
- 2 older boys running his company
- Don’t take your teachers for granted
- Bought Bret Baier’s house
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