David McCormick - Fmr CEO Bridgewater Associates - A Battle Plan for America | SRS #53

there's a lot of people out there. including myself that think this country. is being destroyed by a small group of. people. all of our values. everything we stand for. everything you've been raised to believe. in. it's currently being destroyed. by a very small group of people. a lot of people just sit back bury their. head in the sand.

try to pretend nothing's happened and. there's another group of people that. just sit back and complain about. everything that's happening but they. don't want to do anything about it my. next guest. actually has some real solutions on how. to get this place back on the right. track. suggest you pay attention. ladies and Gentlemen please welcome. David McCormick. to the Sean Ryan Show. last episode we were number nine out of.

over 8 million podcasts on Spotify. please head over there. give us a five star review share this. episode with everyone you know let's get. this show to the number one slot I love. you all. thank you for tuning in thank you for. being here a lot of Truth coming with. this one and a lot of Truth coming with. the upcoming ones. love you all cheers one last thing. keep the faith keep the hope.

God Bless America. [Music]. [Music].

thank you. [Music]. [Music].

foreign. [Music]. McCormick welcome to the show thanks. Sean thanks for having me it's an honor. to have you here I can't I cannot wait. to dive in on your new book and um I. really want to get what you're thinking. about China but brief introduction real. quick West Point grad Ranger School. honor grad 82nd Airborne EXO of combat.

engineering unit in the Iraq invasion. 1991 you're on the first wave clearing. minefields in Iraq during Desert Storm. at 37 years old you're the president CEO. of free markets the company sold in 2004. for 500 million dollars you're on the. Bush Administration the personal Bush. rep and negotiator to the G8 then to the. treasury Department you served as Henry. Paulson's Point man on the international.

response to the 2008 crisis during the. Trump years you're offered roles you. declined due to your position with. Bridgewater Associates. Mattis assigned you to the defense. policy board and then Trump removed you. along with 11 others for ties to foreign. policy establishments he ran for Senate. uh against Dr Oz who endorsed Dr Oz over. you I'm I'm curious.

why did he or yeah well the you know the. I think the the thing with Oz was he was. this TB personality so he had a hundred. percent Name ID and um and as you know. president Trump valued that a lot. because the ability to sort of. communicate on television and um and. Sean Hannity uh was very close personal. friend of Oz's so that helped him get a. lot of uh early attention interesting. you seem. a lot more qualified for that position.

than than Dr Oz but. um then your new book superpower in. Peril battle plan to renew America. let's dive then all right well thanks. for having me really really good to be. with you today it's my pleasure you know. the book actually I started a couple. years before I decided to run for the. Senate and uh and I had written a couple. articles and the book was based on this. idea that the country was headed in the. wrong direction. economically we were in Decline debt uh.

inflation it's only gotten much worse. since I started writing the book. National Security wise were under. growing risk our military is losing its. way but we have China on the horizon and. uh and and spiritually our institutions. are getting corrupted corroded uh this. woke Progressive ideology sort of. hijacking. um some basic principles of of America. around Merit and capitalism and all. these things so that was the the reason. I started to write the book and uh I got.

about 60 70 of the way through it and. then I decided to run for the Senate. because that seat opened up so uh the. the basis of it is that America is in. Decline but decline's not inevitable. like we it's not inevitable that we're. going to lose our place in the world. that we're going to be a superpower in. Peril but neither is renewal it depends. on what we do it depends on leadership. and so this is the what to do book this. is a book that lays out a plan of how we. can renew ourselves and so it's a very.

ominous cover you know our country is at. risk of slipping away but it's also an. optimistic book as you know because I. believe we'll get there I believe. there's a path but we need leaders to. step up and that's what I'm that's what. I'm talking about in this book that's. you know what I really like about your. book is it's not the typical let me just. complain about everything that's going. on there's actually a plan to to. overcome all of this and that is very. refreshing in today's in today's world. so before we dive in nobody escapes here.

without getting a gift all right thank. you there you go. check check it now check it now it's my. Shameless plug to uh. I love it to my vigilance Elite gummy. bears so thank you very much my six kids. and I will all appreciate it all right. so David I just want to go kind of down. the outline of your book starting with.

America's decline you say that we've. lost the ability to adapt I 100 agree. with you let's let's start there how how. are we declining what are the most. pressing issues yeah there's um you know. I just touched some briefly let me go a. little bit deeper so if you look in. economic terms what's always been great. about the American economy is it's been. Dynamic and and that means that it's. with capitalism like businesses go out. of business people lose jobs but there's. new job creation and productivity has.

driven our um our economy and Technology. technological leadership has driven our. economy over over you know hundreds of. years and we're losing that we're losing. that dynamism in our economy let me give. you a couple examples well first the. debt is enormous 31 trillion dollars and. when you have to pay interest on debt. that squeezes out investment and other. good things. inflation is at a 40-year high that's. that's hard on all of us it's really. hard on Working Families uh across. Pennsylvania it's really hard on people.

with a fixed income you know during the. campaign try I pull up to a uh pull up. to a gas station one day I get up. there's a guy standing next to me. throwing up his pickup and he can't fill. it up because it cost 100 bucks to fill. up his pickup he needs to go back and. forth I mean if you're on a month you. know living month a month the inflation. kills you but the thing that's the worst. about our economy the thing that should. scare you to death is that the whole. premise of America. has been essentially no matter where you. start you work hard have a little luck. you know take risk build opportunity you.

can get anywhere so if you if you're. born in the fourth quartile of of people. economically at the lowest end you can. get to the top and there's thousands. millions of stories of Americans that. have done that well that's increasingly. less likely today the likelihood that. you're going to start in the bottom and. get to the top is the lowest as low as. it's been and that's why uh two things. eighty percent of Americans think the. country's going in the wrong direction. and two-thirds of Americans parents.

think their kids are going to be less. well off than they are so that's. economically what's happening and uh and. it really chips away at the whole idea. of the American dream. from a security perspective uh we're. losing we're losing our our way so China. is on the rise China has a technological. capability that is far superior to what. it was even 10 years ago there was a. story in the Wall Street Journal. um a couple weeks ago that had this. think tank in Australia that studied the.

44 technologies that matter most to. National Security and to the economy. satellites artificial intelligence. Quantum science things like that this. article independent Think Tank said. China is in the lead in 37 of those 44. and 37 disaster right disaster and. there's all sorts of reasons for that. that we can get into when we talk about. China but but our military is is at risk. and part of what makes it at risk is the. wokeness and the progressivism that's.

sort of driving the agenda let me give. you a small example I know you're a Navy. guy but as an army guy the fact that the. Army can came out with its climate. strategy under Joe Biden before it came. out with his War fighting strategy. is all you need to know and that's part. of the lack of focus on warfighting and. the lack of ability to look over the. horizon on new platforms are going to be. necessary to win. those are both big problems National. Security economically how do you think. these agendas are are filtering into the.

military do you think this is China. pushing this one way or another well I. think it's it's a little bit of the. third thing I'm about to say which is. the spiritual Decay and I think that. this is a this is a war of ideas and. there's a progressive ideology that's. chipping away at some fundamental. premises about America. um it starts in our schools where our. kids are being taught at history of. America that is unrecognizable to me a. history of America conceived in evil the.

notion the critical race theory that uh. that that's the defining Narrative of. America when by any measure America has. been the most exceptional country in in. history in terms of bringing people out. of poverty in in terms of a of a country. that was conceived with the idea of. Liberty for all the notion that the. government is created to support the. liberty of the individual a country that. has fought Wars to you know help others. in the case of uh of Hitler uh and uh.

and the domination of Europe and the. terrible evil that took place there so. America has been a Force for good in the. world that doesn't mean that we haven't. had our dark chapters of racism and all. those things of course that's true but. in overall history it's been a it's been. a a search for a perfect union getting. better and better and it's been a great. a great history of of accomplishment. that's not the history our kids are. being taught and the reason that's so. important is if you don't think America. is an exceptional country then you don't.

grow up thinking that you have to do. everything you can to preserve it and. there's lots of reasons for it you know. I blame uh President Obama in some ways. you know he was the first one that said. you know America is exceptional but I. bet the Greeks think they're exceptional. and the British think they're. exceptional no it's not the same America. has been a unique contribution to the. world so that's it starts with that but. that Progressive ideology has creeped. into business with the hijacking of of. profit motive and allocation of capital. for ESG measures really cutting away at.

the notion of Merit and profit motive we. see it in the whole d d and I agenda. that's driven how decisions are getting. made we see that in um uh in not only. our business community and our schools. but in our military so it's a pervasive. I don't think the Chinese are behind it. necessarily but places like Tick Tock. magnify it and uh and this is one of the. reasons I think China has growing.

confidence and we should be worried is. because you're chipping away at the core. of what's what's made America great and. so uh the book we'll talk about this but. the book talks about leadership that. reforms those institutions and drives in. a direction it gets back to American. fundamentals you don't think China's. behind this this push and propaganda. towards critical race the the the the. the the gender dilemma whatever you want. to call it all these woke programs and.

the reason I'm asking is because. you see all these politicians that have. businesses in China that could be ripped. out from under them at any time yeah. Mitch McConnell dividends you know on. both sides of the aisle and. nobody that has ties to China seems to. be. fighting any of this stuff well I think. um the best way I'd say it is I think. it's in China's interest. that this Progressive ideology continues. to gain traction.

um and I I'm sure China is doing all it. can do to magnify it but I think at its. core. um. you know it's hard to understand where. the progressive ideology comes from but. it's core. I think is a lack of appreciation for. the uniqueness of America and a set of. beliefs that's undermining some very. fundamental things about what what's. made America so great and so I look at. the current polarization in our country. and everything else and I think the most. thing the important thing about it is.

what ideas are going to Prevail that'll. take our country forward and we can talk. about some of those ideas are but but. that's where I'm so worried about the. left because I think it's taking us down. a path where if we continue in 10 years. from now we're not going to recognize. the country that uh that we all grew up. in yeah 100 agree with do you think all. the left is into these woke agendas or. do you think it's a small portion of the. list because it's sold by the right is. it's the entire left I tend to disagree.

with that person I think um I think it's. uh there's definitely an extreme element. of it uh that's taken it in a in a very. scary direction if you look in. Pennsylvania for example which I know. best it's the first time in 76 years. that we've had two Democratic senators. and if you look at uh even the one. Senator the Sarah Bob Casey the the. incumbent Senator even he has sort of. jumped on board he's been viewed as a. more of a mainstream you know more of a. conservative Democrat or a moderate. Democrat he's adopted and Gone full.

circle with uh. the policies of Joe Biden and and where. the left's taken is and I think that um. you know when you go in business circles. and talk to people who are Democrats. um where I'm I come from I'm a business. Guy They'll say man this this has gone. way too far. but I think the the far left is so. vicious that if they speak up uh they're. gonna get they're going to get crucified. so I'm inclined to agree with you that. it's the extreme that's pulling it in. that direction but that extreme has had.

a disproportionate amount of influence. on the agenda of the bite Administration. on Business Leaders and um and I think. that's part of what we have to push back. against. how much influence do you think. BlackRock has over all this this woke. agenda with the ESG stuff and I just. heard uh a guy Andy Posner talking about. how BlackRock Vanguard and uh I can't. remember the name of the other company. but they own 80 percent of all of the. public traded companies on on the S P.

500. well I think they uh BlackRock. particularly early on played a role in. terms of promoting the idea that they. would influence the companies they. invested in by saying they wouldn't. invest in in them unless they had a. certain um you know a certain agenda. that was consistent with with ESG and I. think that gets to the the real core. of the problem with ESG ESG investing. particularly. um so if you if you think about it's. your money. how do you want your money invested so.

if you as an individual Sean wants to. invest in Ben Jerry's because Ben and. Jerry's has a progressive agenda or. Black Rifle coffee because Black Rifle. coffee has a conservative agenda great. it's your money do what you want but. it's when institutions start to dictate. how the pensions or the money in the. pocket of you or I or others gets. invested and so that's where the problem. was so the problem I have with this. whole ESG investing movement is who.

decides if you're at pensioner in Texas. and uh part of your uh and and uh part. of you the government dictates are in. New York or California and the pension. board dictates that part of your pension. is going to be allocated to ESG kinds of. investing and you don't believe in that. that's that's a real problem so I'm. objecting to the whole notion that. um that political ideology of any kind. should be integrated into how somebody's. pension is planned uh invested because I.

think the most important thing is that a. return for the pensioner. um for their for their years of service. is maximized so the fiduciary. responsibility to do that and BlackRock. I think made a huge Mis mistake. miscalculation to be pushing companies. to adopt to certain standards was. moralizing but it also was taking. responsibility and control out of the. people who actually should be exercising. the responsibility which is the. individual investors and so they're.

trying to backstop on that because uh. places like Missouri and Texas and. others have Push back and said no way we. don't want that and we don't want. BlackRock if blackrock's going to be. pushing that agenda but but I think it. was a major mistake and I think it's. indicative of losing sight of who gets. to decide do you think there's any do. you think there's any competitors to. these companies that. yeah growingly growingly you're you're. seeing. um two uh things which I think are very. very uh encouraging uh well three things.

you're seeing a big pushback on who gets. to decide so these pension plans are. saying no no we're not going to try to. implement some sort of ESG agenda on our. pensioners you're seeing a whole new. emergence of of of money managers uh. that are managing money in a in a very. uh anti-esg way so it gives options to. investors and then the other thing. you're seeing is a whole range of. investors that are saying we're going to. invest explicitly away from China so if. you want to put your money in investing. in ways that is explicitly not going to.

be China and in ways that is potentially. against China and you're seeing an. emergence of that which is the way it. should be I think the market should. dictate where people get to put their. money because it's their money yeah what. are your thoughts on the on the latest. deal with China Saudi Arabia and Iran. think it's indicative. of uh of the the risk of China so what I. say in the book superpower in Peril is. China has a plan but we don't have a.

plan we don't have a whole of nation. plan for dealing with China and there's. two real pieces to the plan which um. which we can talk about in detail but. one piece is you got to go to the gym we. could get strong at home uh we got to. build our muscle by educating our people. we got to build our muscle by ensuring. we have technological leadership we're. losing we're losing that as I said. before we get to build our muscle by. getting our our institutions back on. track so we we gotta fix it at home we.

can't blame the Chinese for the fact. that we've got a lot of Decay here at. home we can blame ourselves. at the the same thing we are facing an. existential threat from China China. is a techno authoritarian State that's. on the rise it's on the March and it's. taking leadership around the world it's. trying to impose its way of governance. it's trying to advance its National. Security interests and the South China. Sea and elsewhere the partnership with. Putin is a great example of that is.

trying to exercise its Authority as one. of the biggest economies in the world. and Partnerships that go against U.S. interests as the one you just described. with Saudi Arabia and and Iran and um. and that's a direct uh byproduct of two. things one we don't have a plan and two. we have very weak leadership uh in our. White House and so one of the things. that compelled me to run I was writing. this book. and and the Afghanistan debacle.

and the weakness we saw from Joe Biden. um to me uh was sickening it left me. sick to my stomach to see those service. members die because of that incompetence. to see the Afghan uh folks dropping out. out of the airplanes I mean it was just. uh and American humiliation on the on. the global stage. but what's happened since then are one. thing after another which I think has. suggested weakness. slowness to react uh you saw that with.

Ukraine and the the support of Nordstrom. 2 the pipeline which was an invitation. to Putin uh that we've got a week a week. leader here we saw it in the response to. the Chinese spy balloon so when when. um when the world perceives that we've. got. um weak leadership in the White House. that's opportunity. uh for uh for others and and China's. filling that Gap and when our allies.

uh start to think that maybe they can't. count on us like Saudi Arabia Saudi. Arabia is a stalwart Ally I was in the. uh in the in the original Gulf War which. was to protect uh Saudi Arabia those. those oil fields I mean that that. Alliance has been with us for you know a. hundred years and for the last few. decades has been critical but Saudi. Arabia I think rightly feels like uh. like they can't count on the United. States and when you when you start to. lose trust in the strength and. reliability of the United States you.

look for other Partnerships China's. standing right there saying hey we can. be your new friend. how about our the world's currency are. you concerned that the because of these. deals that the US dollar is going to. come to this you know go to this. is it going to get pushed to the. sideline well you know the thing about. the U.S dollar. uh it's a huge Advantage huge advantage. to be the reserve currency We Are The. Reserve currency so everybody wants when. times of Crisis go the dollar that gives.

us the ability to fund things that gives. us the ability to to draw Capital that's. unique and the reason people believe in. the dollar is the strength of the US. economy they believe that uh all things. being equal that the United States is. the safest place uh in the world so when. you have the kind of Economic Policy. we've had uh particularly over the last. two years that starts to shake the. confidence of the world in this in in. the dollar in the US economy so there's.

two pieces to that one is we've had more. than a decade of of prolonged low. interest rates. it's persisted under the byte. Administration when there was lots of. reason to raise interest rates but. they've kept interest rates really low. and that makes money really cheap and. when people have cheap money they invest. in some ways that are risky the second. thing that's happened that cheap money. has been uh that what's gone along with. that is enormous spending under Joe. Biden discretionary spending is up 40. percent we have a 31 trillion dollar.

debt that's not sustainable and so um. that has been the root cause of. inflation inflation then has to be met. with high with a raise in interest rates. which is which is making the economy uh. putting the economy at risk. um those bad policies that excessive. spending those uh the re-engineering of. our economy in pursuit of a green agenda. through the infrastructure act through. the inflation reduction act which did. everything but reduce inflation and.

added to inflation those things are the. things that undermine the power of the. dollar and the strength of dollar and so. when I say we got to go to the gym we. got to get our house in order if we have. our house in order it doesn't it doesn't. on economic terms it doesn't matter what. the Chinese do we are going to be the. economic Powerhouse in the world uh but. the fact that we're not right now and. that we're weak is is creating an. opportunity for the Chinese and others. how close are you are we to to getting. pushed to the sideline I mean if if you.

if you watch the news it seems like it. could happen at any minute but you know. the news is very fear-based on both. sides what is your. insight into how close we are to losing. well um as I say in superpower apparel I. think um I think we're in a very. precarious spot we are in Peril but we. have time and uh you you know this from. your time in the military or your time. in bar fights or whatever it is. sometimes the biggest you know guy has.

some weaknesses China has some. weaknesses they have some huge strains. but they have some real weaknesses the. weaknesses are that um you know that. they they have a an authoritarian model. and an authoritarian model uh requires. the ability to continue to keep a cap on. on people and they have an economy that. state allocation of capital. that state allocation of capital is. advantageous in in some ways for the.

technology leadership that I mentioned. earlier so it's given them a benefit in. the near term but it also creates huge. risk in the long term because the. government can never allocate Capital as. well as the private sector and they've. got a huge demographic problem so uh you. know they're not growing they have a. huge aging population and their birth. rates are such that ultimately they're. going to have far more older Chinese. than than up and coming Chinese which is. a which is a a key driver of of growth. and productivity so so part of this is.

um is creating the economic Juggernaut. in America that can compete into the. decades ahead and they have they have a. system that will struggle I think. president XI. sees that he's he's a smart guy he sees. that he also seizes this as a moment of. American weakness and that's why he is. moving as aggressively as he is to. establish China's leadership in the. world and these Partnerships so um to.

answer your question I think there's. time if we act now and act decisively. and that's why this 20 2024 cycle. for the president and for control of the. majority in this than the House and. Senate is so critical because on the. current path we're going to lose uh the. moment we're going to lose America's. leadership in the world that's why we. are in Peril but if we course correct in. the coming couple of years there's. there's a clear path to taking. leadership again.

so we have a couple years all right yeah. I hope so yeah would. what are your thoughts on how we're. handling Russia Ukraine China's come in. they're trying to negotiate a peace deal. we're fueling the war basically forcing. NATO's hand into into aiding Ukraine. what what are your thoughts on that well. my thoughts are that um that that we. can't lose sight of what's happened here. Putin is the aggressor. um this is aggression at the heart of.

Europe. and this is a U.S interest this is a U.S. interest so I believe we should. um strongly and decisively support the. ukrainians I believe that uh President. Biden hasn't done that it's been very. ham handed. um that doesn't mean give the ukrainians. everything but it means support their. efforts strongly and fully to push back. on aggression and and um and win this. war. um we don't do that because of Human. Rights and the pursuit of Liberty those.

are things that we're in support of we. do that because it's in U.S interest to. do so. and those that say that we should not do. this we should this is we should not. focus here we should turn our attention. to China. those two are very connected right if we. if we show weakness and withdrawal from. our support for Ukraine that will. embolden the Chinese that won't give us. an opportunity to focus and change. that'll make our situation with the. Chinese more challenging not less so. now with that said. um listen you and you more far more.

recently than me. we've had 20 years. of war in Afghanistan and uh and Iraq. where we lost sight. of the end game and I don't think had a. decisive the kind of decisive Victory. what we spent you know thousands of. lives and treasure and so for those. people that say we need to we need to be. careful and to make sure U.S troops. aren't drawn into this I agree. for those who say we have to make sure. the money doesn't get corrupted and. stolen like it was at Bagram Air Force.

Base I agree so we have to be wise but. we also have to be forceful in our in. our support and our strength for Ukraine. what happens if the Chinese the reason. I'm bringing all this up is I think this. is all these are all reasons why America. is falling what happens if the Chinese. successfully negotiate this peace deal. yeah I think that would be uh disastrous. and I I I think that's unlikely but um. but it shows you the level of ambition.

uh that the Chinese have for becoming. the world superpower and it shows you. the vacuum that weak leadership creates. so. um you know if anyone's wondering about. the ambition of China the caginess of. China just watch what's happening and. think about how craftily they're. positioning themselves whether it's in. Ukraine or whether it's with partnership. with Iran and uh Saudi Arabia in a way. that runs counter to U.S interest so uh.

we'll we'll see what happens but I think. ultimately our leadership on the world. stage our strength at home will make it. very difficult for China to continue to. fill these voids but we leave voids and. we show weakness and there as this is. going to continue. what what do you think are interest in. the Ukraine Russia conflict is what. exactly what is our interest why are we. there. well we're there I think because. um stability in Europe.

uh the biggest Market uh in the world. other than Chinese in the United States. um Western democracies which have been. our allies for many many decades. um unique economic Partnerships and uh. mutual interest instability in Europe. chaos in Europe ultimately risked U.S. interest that's the primary reason. instability where um and anyone who. thinks that if you said tomorrow let let. put Putin have Ukraine anyone who thinks.

that then that stops the aggression. hasn't read history because. um uh giving into aggression encourages. aggression so um that's why it's in our. interest because you uh stability in. Europe both economic and National. Security spill in Europe is critical to. U.S interests and that's why we should. support. um Ukraine in in pushing back on that uh. on that assault but we need to we need. to support them in the way they describe. wisely decisively strongly but not in a.

ways that becomes a slippery slope if if. they negotiate the Pew steal does that. automatically throw us in the number two. slot. well I think there's a number of. different things on the world stage that. um no I don't think one thing takes us. from number one to number two. um but there are a number of things that. are currently happening economically. National security-wise and elsewhere. that in combination or why we're in. Peril. um so I don't think there's one day that. we'll wake up and say oh that happened.

therefore but listen the the trend line. in relative terms what's happening when. I talk about decline in absolute terms. we're slowing down. in our capabilities economically. National Security and spiritually. but in relative terms China is rising. and so. it's across that front that we have to. worry and that's what the book tries to. address it tries to address a. comprehensive whole of nation strategy. for combating China because it's not uh.

it's not there's no there's no it's not. like a hole in one where all of a sudden. we're back it's it's lots of things that. together have to have to represent a. strategy for ensuring we remain strong. and the superpower in the world oh good. one more question about this if they. negotiate that peace treaty and the war. stops does that throw us into a. recession reason I'm asking is because. the way I understand it and I'm glad. you're here because I do not understand. economics but the way I understand it is.

the only reason we're not in a recession. is because we spun up the. military-industrial complex in Lockheed. Boeing Raytheon a couple of these. companies are the only ones that are are. that they're the reason we have a. positive GDP. yeah I don't think that's true I think. um the amount of spending on Ukraine. while significance is relatively small. compared to you know the overall defense. budget even the whole defense budgets. 800 plus billion and uh we're talking. tens of billions of dollars in the case.

of Ukraine so but it's enormous amount. of money to Ukraine but it's not this is. the the economy is not going to go one. way or the other because of what's. happening in Ukraine the economy. is at risk because of the enormous. spending of Joe Biden so trillions. more than 10 trillion dollars of. incremental spending over the next 10. years so it's it dwarfs anything that's. happened in in our economy uh for you.

know forever and it also is creating. that that misbalance between assets and. liabilities because the inflation is. creating a need to raise interest rates. in a way that's going to have lots of. Ripple effects so I think the economy is. at a lot of risk but I don't think the. the primary uh issue is going to be. um is going to be Ukraine it's going to. be much more about how we deal with this. mismatch that's been created by these. terrible policies of Joe Biden well. that's actually refreshing to hear.

um so I don't know maybe not. and that was not meant to be optimistic. well I mean uh yeah. I've been really worried about the the. peace treaty between the China's. negotiating and and I've been thinking. that that would throw us into the number. two slot especially after this stuff. with uh Saudi and Iran and then and then. the way I understood it like I just said. I thought that if they would negotiate. that we're going right into a full-blown. recession. so let's move into what is the American.

way of renewal. well this is uh you know I want to step. back here because when you think about. you know people have asked me about the. book they say oh it's such you know. superpower apparel like wow like that is. that's scary. and then you read the book and the. book's kind of optimistic how do you. reconcile that. how do you reconcile that and I tell the. story which kind of puts in perspective. um you're you're younger than me so you. don't remember this but I lived through.

a period just like this felt a lot the. same in the late 70s so I was 14 15 in. 1979. we had 15 inflation. we were in a recession. we had gas lines that went around the. block during the court administration to. get gas because there were shortages. there were odd days and even days and. you could only get gas on whether you. were an odd day or an Eva day and I. remember sitting with my dad in the gas. lines we had like one of these station.

lines of the Country Squire had wood on. the sides waiting for gas and there was. Desert one uh in 1979 where Jimmy Carter. sent Special Operations uh into Iran. to try to rescue the hostages there was. a crash on the Sands we lost eight. service members it was humiliation uh. just like uh just like Afghanistan. eighty percent of Americans thought the. country was heading the wrong direction. 1979. 1983 I'm at West.

I'm walking down these you know. beautiful Pathways mountains all around. it's uh you know you feel like you're at. the top of the world. America's back. inflation's in check the economy is. growing deregulation tax cuts have made. a huge difference for the economy the. military was back on track there was a. build up uh which ended the Cold War six. years later in 1989 1989. it was morning in America. four years later morning in America and. why was that because of the pro-growth.

pro-american policies of Ronald Reagan. it made a huge difference and so the the. point there is a leadership matters. we've been here before it's the American. tradition we get to the edge of the. cliff and we pull ourselves back and. that's what's happening out we're at the. edge of the cliff and we need leadership. to pull ourselves back the Second Story. I want to tell you and then and then. this will show you the path on renewal. and Innovation is I I was born in. Pittsburgh. grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania. near Scranton but after the Army I I.

came back to Pittsburgh and I lived in. Pittsburgh and I I joined a small. company and eventually ran this. technological technology company we took. public. but on weekends I used to run and I'd. run through Shenley Park and you get up. to the top of Pittsburgh and you see. down the Monongahela River and you see. all those steel mills that were now the. just carcasses of the of the bygone days. and then you come up through Oakland and. you get to University of Pittsburgh. which is now the Life Sciences Center.

one of the Life Sciences Center of the. country because of University of. Pittsburgh medical center and you keep. going you see Carnegie Mellon and. Carnegie Mellon had all this basic. Federal funding for r d which is. critical to Innovation but then it had. these entrepreneurs that graduated and. then started these companies that Drew. on great talent from across Pennsylvania. and across the country and that became. the basis for the renewal that took. place in Pittsburgh and my company we. took public was on the skyline we had a.

building free markets was the name of. the company and we were like the hot. startup that was part of the technology. renewal in Pennsylvania. the two things that those uh stories had. in common the renewal of Ronald Reagan. and the renewal of Pittsburgh is that it. was focused leadership that was dealing. with the challenges of the moment and uh. the the challenges require different. solutions it's not like you can say hey. let's take Ronald Reagan's Playbook. let's do that in 2024 no no no no it's. it's you have to have Clarity of vision.

of the America you want you have to have. clear policies that are dedicated to. dealing with the root cause problems and. you have to have execution and so in. superpower and Peril what I try to lay. out here is an innovation agenda. a renewal agenda that brings back. productivity that brings back dynamism. to our economy restores the American. dream but also makes us strong so we can. uh we can combat China at home and. abroad and there's really three pieces. to it it's very simple it's educate our.

people we can talk about what that means. in terms of schools and skilled. Workforce it's uh it's ensure. technological leadership and so there's. a whole series of things we need to do. to reverse what I described to you with. the Chinese being in the lead and and. here's the one that probably is talked. about too little data. data there was an article in The. Economist uh a couple years ago that. said data is the new oil like it is the. Strategic asset that's going to. determine which countries rise and fall.

it's not quite like oil because when you. use oil it's gone when you use data you. can use it over and over again and. controlling data using data for. Innovation using data for strategic. Advantage is one of the core things to. maintaining leadership in the world. China has a data strategy China is is. looking at the Fitbit data of the. soldiers in Afghanistan to see what's. going on China is using the data from. Tick Tock China's using the dictate the. data from its own people to drive.

artificial intelligence and remote. Vehicles data is a strategic asset and. we are not treating it as such so the. policies I'm laying out are education. Talent policies uh technology policies. and data policies as a renewal agenda to. take take America forward and this. addresses a lot of things and we can. talk about them but the one thing IT. addresses is those folks I met on the. campaign Trail Pennsylvania that the. whole system's left them behind and uh.

and they're angry and pissed off and uh. my big takeaway and I talk about this in. the book is they have every right to be. the last 20 years has been great for. lots of people mostly at the top that. already had assets that the system was. working the elites it's been pretty bad. for a lot of other people who had real. income stay flat who didn't have. opportunity who sent their kids away to. war who got screwed by fentanyl in their. communities who are dealing with the. crime in the inner cities so this. renewal plans a plan for all Americans.

well I want to dive into each and every. one of those pillars. um real quick though I'd like to take a. break. the US dollar how many of you out there. still have any confidence whatsoever in. the US dollar. probably not very many I don't either. you see there is a growing concern on. the devaluation of the US dollar right. now and rightly so here's why inflation.

we are at an all-time high right now on. inflation it will now cost you 12. dollars to buy one carton of eggs that. is absolutely absurd let's talk about. interest rates interest rates through. the roof if you're in the market to buy. a house right now you're going to get. roughly 50 percent less house. because they've raised the interest. rates so high let's talk about the stock. market. way down especially the tech stocks.

crypto. way down Congress spending more money. than you or I or anyone else we know can. even fathom counting and the FEDS what. are they doing they're just printing. money like it's nobody's business. devaluing our dollar meanwhile. China is running around the globe right. now striking deals latest one Saudi. Arabia and Iran.

new oil deals trying to turn the yen. into the new Reserve currency which in. turn. will devalue our dollar. it might be time to start looking at. where to protect your money. and you might want to look at precious. metals I believe gold and silver is one. of the safest assets to protect your. savings in your retirement against. inflation and recession if you're. interested in investing in gold I. suggest you call my friends at Lear.

Capital the team at Lear will provide. helpful information about purchasing. gold or converting part of your IRA or. 401K into a gold Ira call Lear at. 1-800-741-0551 or go to learshon.com I. started investing in gold back in 2020. when I saw what was going on back then I. knew we were in for a financial crisis. and I started investing in Precious. Metals immediately once again call there.

at. 800-741-0551 or go to learshon.com and. get your free gold and silver investor. guides and receive up to fifteen. thousand dollars in free bonus medals. with a qualified purchase information. contained within Lear capital's website. is for General educational purposes and. is not investment tax or legal advice. past performance may not be indicative. of future results consult with your tax. attorney or financial professional.

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experienced this too I mean the quality. of the people on the team make all the. difference between winning and losing. succeeding and failing and you know. we've been blessed in America where. we've had the greatest workers and the. and the most entrepreneurial people in. in the world but we need to continue to. do what's required to be able to compete. and win on on the global stage and. there's a lot of things that are. happening that are that are chipping. away that it mostly starts with our. schools so our schools as I mentioned. earlier what we saw during covid. should have been a wake-up call for all.

of us so if you look at the data we're. losing. um the quality of our students in terms. of math science and engineering against. the developed countries in the world. like 18th in developed countries in. terms of the quality of our students if. you take a test worldwide that was you. know 30 years ago that was not the case. uh we were we were you know one of the. greatest education systems in the world. but we're losing Steam. but more than that what we saw during. covid is the role that teachers are. playing. and how far removed parents are from the.

quality of the education uh that our. kids so Jacoby was a blessing in that. sense people could look over the. shoulder and see the history of America. that's being taught they could learn. about the fact that you know teachers. are introducing our kids to sexual. Concepts and sexualization and playing. that role is an intermediary as opposed. to parents being the ones that talk to. their kids about that and and help them. understand gender and all those things. that shouldn't be teachers and uh and. the and the school system the public. school system is failing if you look.

over the last 20 years uh the spending. has increased fairly dramatically in in. education but 70 of that has gone to. Administration rather than actual. teachers and the quality teachers so. this is a a rallying cry this moment for. dramatic reform of our education system. and um and we're seeing that in key. States uh we're seeing that um that. covid really empowered parents we're. seeing in school board races we're. parents are running to replace uh woke.

school boards we're seeing that in. States like Florida. and Arkansas where Sarah Huckabee a. couple weeks ago just got past her. education Bill to really begin to to. change this and at the core. um none of this is going to change it's. not going to be incremental until we. break the back of the teachers unions. and uh the problem we have is that. that's a that's a monopoly it's a. monopoly and it it's standing in the way. of choice and so we need to introduce. the concept of choice where kids have.

the money that the Public's going to. spend on them and we should support. education like on their backs like a. backpack and the kid and the money goes. to the the place that their parents. think is going to be best for that that. kid and so this I hope uh will give new. momentum to the idea of choice. you brought you had an interesting fact. in your book that I found. alarming you said that 7.7 there was. only been a 7.7 percent increase in.

teachers in the past 20 years but. there's been a 75 increase in school. administrators that's right how how does. that happen how do you how do you dump. 75. it doesn't make any sense to me at all. it's bloat it's bureaucracy it's it's. wokeness it basically you lose sight of. the mission the mission is all about the. kids it's like every dollar I mean. honestly Sean go to our military today.

look at the tooth to tail ratio how much. money is on the is with the troops and. the front line and the weapons and how. much is on everything else and you'll. see even that ratio is changing it's. it's a byproduct of bad leadership it's. a byproduct of losing side of the. mission and I think it's it's fairly a. byproduct of this Progressive ideology. that's putting all sorts of Christmas. tree ornaments on uh on the mission of. schools or the military at the expense. of the the actual Mission which is to. educate our kids so we've got a real.

problem there and um and that's a. building block for a renewal did this. but we we've had we've had this happen. through the Bush Administration it. happened through the Obama. Administration happened through the. Trump Administration and now the Biden. administration were there spikes or is. was this a steady incline it's a steady. increase but I think the pro the. progressive woke. um rallying cry has only grown I think. that has definitely grown and I think. that's pervasive in in our team by the.

way my mom and dad are both teachers so. I'm pro-teacher I say that in the book I. am I I reckon and the people that. changed my life was a teacher and a. football coach. who showed me the path to leadership in. the world so I want to just say our. teachers are critical but they're in a. they're locked in a system which they. can't they can't possibly perform their. job and they've been hijacked uh by this. teacher Union ideology that's um that's. taking us in a terrible Direction and so.

um we've got to change that and the only. way to change is like you know it's it's. it's it's the the things on the margin. are like moving the deck chairs on the. Titanic we gotta change it structurally. and I think the concept of choice is the. pathway to real structural change and. then they're going to be some great. public schools that um that give great. opportunity to kids but they're going to. have to compete for the dollars and you. know the important thing for us to say. on this is that broken school system the.

people it hurts the most. or minorities and blue collar kids. it is the biggest biggest uh barrier to. True opportunity because the people that. have money can send their kids to any. school they want it's the people that. are dependent on the public school. system and locked in a system that's. just not giving them what they need that. are relegated to. um you know not not an adequate. education and not adequate opportunity. so this is this is uh great for the.

American dream to fix our schools and. give opportunity to everybody so that's. one big piece on Talent the second big. piece there's three pieces that I talk. about in the book the second big piece. is skilled workers. you know when you and I were growing up. the path to uh skilled Workforce the. path to. success the American Dreams go to. college and I grew up on a college. campus can we move back to the schools I. jumped too quickly there it's. um. right now we're in Williamson County.

Tennessee these are some of the best. ranked schools in the entire country. I just had an 18 month old. every friend acquaintance that we have. that has kids doesn't matter what age. and this County. is yanking their kids from the public. school system all of them everyone's. homeschooling now you're starting to see. despite the fact that they're great. schools are saying despite the fact that. these are the best schools in the. country they're yanking their kids out. of the public school system and what. you're seeing are these clusters of.

these little communities popping up. where it's a group of parents and they. and and and they homeschool their kids. and and one parent does it on Monday. then another one does it on Tuesday. I don't know one person that's sending. their kid to the public school system. yeah and I would like to be able to send. my son to the public school system but I. feel like because everybody's yanking. their kids out of the public schools in. this County. there's not going to be any funding so.

how how are we gonna. how are we going to restore faith in the. public school system. well you know what's going to happen is. that that that what you're describing. has so many bad. consequences of it because you know you. are still paying for the schools because. the school is paid for by taxes so the. people that are doing that. are essentially able to afford to do it. and the people that can't do that are. the people that are living month to. month who can't afford it so it furthers.

the gap. between those who have opportunity and. those who don't and and the you know the. the lack of understanding between the. two and ultimately I I don't think you. can fundamentally change education. without it being pretty disruptive it's. gonna be pretty chaotic because the idea. of choice. is going to create just what you said. for everybody because it's not just. people can afford it but everybody's got. backpack full of money on the kid and. they can go anywhere and then the public. schools have to compete on their.

capacity to have somebody like you say. no no it's well I could afford to do. anything with a kid I want to put him. there and um and the the path from this. moment to that. is going to be painful it's going to be. chaotic but the fact that it's going to. be painful and chaotic shouldn't deter. us from doing it because the. consequences of staying on the current. path are just uh disastrous what are. some of the things you foresee happening. that are going to be chaotic well it's. already starting to happen where um.

where I think you're going to see more. and more choice and so the more that. people are taking or have the capacity. to have public funds go with the kid the. more pressure that's going to put on. underperforming schools and the more. pressures in the primary schools they're. going to have to shut down. um or they're gonna have to alter. they're gonna have to alter themselves. dramatically to compete but the process. of going from here to there is going to. be chaotic in the sense that schools are. going to fight there's going to be fight. over taxes you know this is going to be. a very chaotic fight but a fight that's.

necessary it's not we're not going to. wake up one day and say oh we've passed. this legislation and we're in good path. no it's going to be sort of bottom up. school boards State legislatures uh and. a fight for who gets to decide and you. know 10 times out of 10 I'd put my faith. in the capacity of parents to pick the. schools that are best for their kids to. influence through school boards and not. the state to decide that they're going.

to create a school system that's good. for everybody that competition and that. parental involvement I think is going to. take us in the right path but and as I. said uh it's absolute School Reform is. great for all of us it's really great. for working class families and. minorities right now they're the they're. the ones who suffer the most from such a. weak school system so when you talk. about a choice when the parents have a. choice whether when they where they send. their child to school are you are you. saying that in order to go to a charter.

or private school that would be that. would be. state or federal or local funding yeah. I'm saying that the the funding that you. put into the the right now for every kid. in the in your county there's a certain. amount of money that gets allocated to. that kid. and um and that that money right now. gets put through this through the public. school system if you flip the switch. tomorrow and said. that money's to the kid. and then you could go to a religious.

school. you could go to a charter school you. could go to the public school. it's up to you the best way to do that. all of a sudden the power the parents. have the power they pay the taxes but. the taxes come back to them uh in the. form of a tuition voucher where they can. go anywhere they want and that. competition. and that empowerment of parents uh is. going to make a big difference in terms. of what teach schools teach how they. compete and what the quality is so I. have one question.

how are you going to trust the parents. to take the money and and and put it. towards. the child's school how are you going to. keep people from just collecting the. money and then putting them back into a. public school well there's no money that. actually goes to the parent the the. money money is in the form of a support. a voucher an ability to use the. resources that would have been dedicated. to the public school system in pursuit. of Education in some certified form so.

it can't be it can't just be you know uh. any any option for Education it has to. be a way to ensure that the quality of. education is adequate for all but in a. way that's very. um not top-down driven from from the. government that's a balancing act we. need to make sure that if public funds. are paying for education that they that. it meets a certain standard of quality. and certification so forth so we know if. a kid graduate from high school they've. got a good education at the same time we. need to have the competition within. schools to deliver on the best education.

possible that's the dynamic you're. trying to create okay so it would be. similar to like a scholarship right it's. not just a welfare check here you go we. trust you to do absolutely not okay. absolutely not uh moving on moving on to. the next biller yeah the next there's. two other parts of talent that I just. talked about one is. skilled work Workforce and if you look. at what's happening today in. Pennsylvania around the country is. there's a mismatch between well there's. a couple things one is there was always.

the Mantra when I was growing up and I. suspect when you grew up with that the. path to the American dream is college. you got to get a four-year degree and in. my hometown like most people didn't go. for a four-year degree but that was the. Mantra and so you've got a lot of kids. going to college when they necessarily. shouldn't have to go to college and. maybe that's not the right path for them. and at the same time there's a huge gap. in in a highly qualified Workforce. technically trained to meet the. opportunities that are in our economy. today and semiconductors is a good.

example so one of the challenges that we. have with semiconductors. and I was just part of a big study that. looked at these is that they can't find. the workforce in the United States to. fill all those great jobs they're not. college education jobs necessarily but. their technical jobs which would have. great middle class living and. opportunity and so forth and so there's. a certain subset of our population that. should have the opportunity to opt out. of college and develop great skills so. they can have the kind of middle class.

great existence great jobs that the. steel workers had in the 50s in. Pittsburgh where hey you could have a. you know great house you know have take. great vacations you would you would have. a great middle class existence rather. than living month to month or a paycheck. to paycheck we don't have um we're not. geared to creating that sort of. capability today we have community. colleges we have some technical schools. but it's tiny relative to the demand and. the Gap that you see in employers when I.

was traveling across Pennsylvania. manufacturing firms um chemical. companies fracking frackings huge in. Pennsylvania I talked to the you know. the people that run the fracking. companies I went and visited a bunch of. rigs they can't hire. enough people in Pennsylvania to meet. the needs so they import them from. Oklahoma or Texas so there's a huge. opportunity to reorient our kids a. subset of our kids to these great. careers and great jobs we need community. colleges that do that technical schools.

that do that we need to think about the. funding of that veterans benefits that. would typically be with the VA. GI bill for college should be dedicated. to uh also to be able to do that Pell. Grants there's a whole way that we can. both create these opportunities a good. example in Tunkhannock in Pennsylvania. industry and Lycoming Community College. have come together to create a whole. technical program a two-year degree for. four or five key areas uh in fracking in.

the oil and gas industry and those are. key gaps but that's I don't know 60 or. 100 kids I don't remember exactly what. it is but it's tiny relative to the. demand both in Pennsylvania and. nationally so needs to be a whole focus. on skilled Workforce that creates. opportunity for people to really build. their skills and this also will help. people that are in some cases there's. been a lot of folks that have been put. out of work by globalization. and typical manufacturing jobs and so. forth have have gone abroad some of.

those need to come home we'll talk about. that in a minute but some of those. aren't ever coming back and we need to. help people retool and be able to. compete in the new economy so that's the. second piece. um I have a third piece but you any. follow-up on that. I do I have a question so. you think that a lot of the. the the the the jobs aren't being filled. because there's no skilled workers. a big media narrative is they're not. being filled just because government. spending is out of control and people.

become lazy well some of that's true I. mean clearly we paid people under the. bite Administration not to work. um in in the early days of the covet. response so absolutely we've got a you. know we've got we've got a cultural. drift where you know kids don't. necessarily have the same determination. to work and make so that's a real thing. I'm not trying to in any way minimize. that we had the misincentives where if. you make it easy we can have a you know. live a decent life without working that.

looks pretty good to a lot of people so. that's a second problem and then we. definitely have a mismatch with the. skills that are required and the skills. training that's available for those. enterprising people that really want to. work and and build a great middle class. existence how do we motivate the the. laziness wow that you can disincentivize. at a minimum you know you and I both. learn the hard way you know I think I. started in the Army at I think my first. salary was 19 000 a year and uh you know. you had to you had to work.

um and the people that were joining the. military at the time one it was a path. it was a path to opportunity it was a. path to to you know moving forward. um so you've got to create that Hey. listen there's no free lunch and if you. want to be a participant in our society. you you know you gotta go do it and I. think we've become a little too LAX on. that certainly covid perpetuated that. I'm afraid. how do you think that's going to play. out with the vote I mean there's a lot I. I don't know how many but it seems to be.

there is a lot of people that are just. totally fine with just living off the. system so well I don't know I've got um. I've got I've got I'm an optimist you. know I'm I'm an optimist I can't I can't. help myself and I see. um all the problems but in the end I. believe that Americans deep down inside. know two things and we got to reinforce. these messages over and over again but. you know being a citizen of America.

being a CIS in the United States is a is. a huge privilege. it's um it's part of the greatest. country in the world even on our worst. day America is better than you know our. the poorest Among Us are richer than 90. of the world it is a marvelous country. it's a privilege. Liberty freedom. and some responsibility like it doesn't. keep going unless we keep it going you. know and uh this is what I try to. reinforce with my kids and this is what.

I think we need to reinforce with that. next Generation which is this will only. be the America that we know and love if. we actually all act to do it that way. what's that mean it means you know. Builders and workers in the economy that. make it great it means people that run. for office that are high quality people. that want to serve it means you know a. great military that's not struggling. with huge recruiting challenges because. people don't believe anymore so you know. we're at that moment it feels a lot like. 1979 where people are questioning. America's greatness at home I understand.

that but the way we get through that is. we lead and um so I don't know if that's. too high in the sky but that's the way I. think about it I hope you're right I. hope you're right all right let's move. on yeah third thing on Talent is just. immigration and this is um. this is so polarizing right now and I. and I man I saw this firsthand. so everywhere I went on the campaign. Trail everybody say illegal immigration. you know the open border is killing us. and so I went to the Border I went to.

Yuma. um had Brandon Judd who's the uh you. know president of the border patrol. Union uh take me around along with some. local leaders and the the crisis we have. on the border is beyond. um beyond anything I could have imagined. the degree to which it's porous the. degree to which is controlled by the. cartels the degree to which we have. um huge human suffering exploitation uh. of women I mean it's just it's awful and.

so the and the bite Administration has. in the last two years taken a situation. that was moving in the right direction. very stable under President Trump and. made it orders of magnitude worse. and the reason that affects Pennsylvania. which is not obvious to some people is. uh though that open border results in. Fentanyl coming across the border and. making its way across the country but. into Pennsylvania a couple years a. couple of days and my hometown where I. grew up is right on Route 80.

that fentanyl comes right down from New. York and the route on Route 80 and. others. we had 5 000 fentanyl deaths in. Pennsylvania last year a hundred. thousand nationally I mean this is a. crisis that's not talking about other. people that are addicted Rehabilitation. this is a national crisis that's. perpetuated in part by the border. there's also the you know illegals. coming into different parts of. Pennsylvania and there's the crime in. the city of Philadelphia but the. fentanyl crisis is a particular.

consequence of this so you can't start. an immigration conversation without. starting with that it's a huge thing I. think the bite Administration has been. irresponsible on it and it needs to be. fixed but there's another side of the. immigration story that you actually. can't even talk about these days because. it's so controversial but it's the fact. that we've We're a nation of immigrants. and we need a legal immigration process. that works. that works it's we can't stop having a. legal immigration process which my wife. is a legal immigrant my wife uh was a.

Egyptian Christian. and her father served in the Egyptian. Military and brought his dog his. daughters my wife included to America so. they could practice their religious. freedom and she's had a remarkable. American Dream her father mowed lawns. and was a mechanic and then became an. entrepreneur and is wildly successful. and has been extraordinarily great. contributoring citizen to America that's. what's made America great so we can't in. our desire to cut off that border which.

must happen lose sight of the need to. continue to have a immigration system. that that makes sense and what I. describe in the book is what president. Trump actually recommended but wasn't. able didn't wasn't able to implement in. his administration which is reforming. the immigration system so it's more. merit-based so if you look across. America today we've got big gaps some of. those can be filled by the training that. I'm describing but there's gaps we have. that are really standing in the way of. economic growth that bringing in legal.

immigrants don't displace American. workers at all and they're a critical. part to our economy continuing to grow. and be prosperous so. um so the third part of the chapter is. listen let's talk about this as. conservatives let's talk about this as. people someone who actually witnessed. the border and wants to stop but let's. also talk about what we need to do and. legal immigration to make the system. work president Trump had these ideas. didn't Implement them the current legal. immigration system is has a lot of. problems with it a reformed immigration. system I think could address some of.

those problems. why has the Biden Administration just. completely abandoned the Border. especially with the fentanyl do you. think. any of this comes from. Chinese influence the reason I'm asking. is because. China is supplying the cartels and. teaching the cartels how to make the. world's most deadliest fentanyl they've. already they're already implementing the. next thing that's going to take over. fentanyl one from heroin to fentanyl now. this other thing is is getting ready to. come out it's already being pushed.

across the border yeah we know Biden has. tries to uh ties to China do you think. well I think for sure. that China sees this as a very Insidious. way to undermine America so the. fentanology said that's manufactured in. China comes through the Mexican cartels. teaching the Chinese the Mexicans to. manufacture the fennel all of that I. totally agree with and this is one of. the many ways when I say China has a. whole of nation strategy uh for for.

winning this is one of the ways that. they they do so indirectly and so I'm. certainly I'm sure they're happy to see. the way this is developing whether um. what I I don't think so in terms of the. Biden piece and I think what this is. essentially a direct the Border policies. of Joe Biden are a direct consequence of. what he ran on he ran against Trump he. said that Trump had done a terrible job. with the Border when I I don't think. that was true and then he's been pulled. to the left by the progressives that. have essentially continued to say you. got to have open border policies I think.

that will likely change because it's so. obvious what a disaster it is. how do we combat this. well we need I mean we had a path I mean. this wasn't this isn't hard I I actually. think. that we should consider. um in a very disciplined way the use of. the military to work with the Mexicans. to stop the cartels you know we did so. in Colombia some years ago I think it's. that Insidious of a risk and um and so. that's one piece but we need to close. down the borders I mean that's the the.

most obvious thing and it's not like. uh it's not obvious some of the things. you could do when you're there at the. border you can literally look across the. Rio Grande. you can see the cartel guys up in the. bushes sending people across they look. at the cameras at night hundreds of. people are coming across unchecked I. mean it is wide open it's not like it's. there's been efforts to curtail it and. they just haven't been successful enough. it is wide open so there's some basic. things we can do to secure the Border. um whether that'll be adequate or not I.

doubt it we probably need to do more. extensive things but at the heart of. it's the cartels it's big business and. they're not going to stop do you think. Mexican is going to be open to working. with the US military to resolve this. problem I would hope so I mean it's it's. the same in Columbia it's it's. challenging because it's economic and. that the economic benefits are pervasive. throughout uh throughout the society so. but the consequences of not getting it. right. um in terms of having a good. relationship with your biggest neighbor. and there's all sorts of other leverage.

we have that we found through the NAFTA. negotiation so I think there's a path to. getting the Mexican Government and and. we working together but takes leadership. we haven't had it how much do you think. the cartels infiltrated The Mexican. government. I don't know I I substantially is my. guess but I I'm not an expert on it but. that'd be my guess oh God. moving on to technology technology yeah. let me just say two things on technology. big picture. um man you got to be careful here you.

gotta be careful here because what you. don't want to do. is develop a path to technology. leadership that you sort of try to be. like China. we got to have a strategy that's not. China. we've got this. um. markets uh free market system that's led. us to have the greatest economy in the. world the greatest technology in the. world so we can't become China. we also can't become the left with. industrial policy where you say hey. we're going to spend a bunch of money. we're going to pick companies and by the.

way those companies they have to have. certain climate change strategies and. ESG and child care and we're going to. dictate that and that's the price you. pay for the government and the. government's picking winners or losers. we can't do that either but we do have a. problem. and we have to confront the problem and. for those people that say Hey listen. just let the markets work well we've. been letting the markets work and the. markets aren't working because I just. described you 37 out of 44. under the uh.

Trump Administration Bob lighthizer did. that same analysis that just described. you in 2017 on 20 Technologies and said. the Chinese were in the lead in 10. that. was five years ago so we got to do. something six years ago so we got it. we've got to do something and here's the. two things I think we should do. one is we gotta we gotta increase our. basic r d so basic r d is something that. the private sector doesn't invest in. because it's long you know they're. investing for decades they don't invest.

in at the level that we need to and the. benefits of that have always been. critical for the space program for. satellites for the internet all these. things are a byproduct of basic r d. or basic research and development today. is about half of what it was in 1950. as. a percent of GDP so we got to invest. more money in basic science. second thing we have to do in my opinion. is and it's Unique to this moment we. have to we have to nudge the private.

sector to invest in those areas that are. critical to National Security critical. to our economic success. AI 5G those sorts of things right now. the capital that's going there has not. been adequate it's huge expenditures. huge we're fighting against subsidies. that are coming from other parts of the. world and the Chinese in particular and. um and and we're losing. and so what I propose in the book.

is a way to ensure that private sector. capital is moving towards the sectors. that matter most not the companies I. don't want the government picking. companies and I essentially argue for. three things I and I learned a lot of. this through what I saw happening with. fracking and the regulation that I saw. in Pennsylvania elsewhere but we have to. look at those sectors very carefully in. terms of Regulation and make those more. accessible to private capital and reduce. the regulations in places where we think. it's making it hard to invest fracking. is a good example not National. security-wise but a good example but for.

those Technologies 5G and so forth. second we have to create tax incentives. to invest in those areas that are going. to be most beneficial for the country. and then I I recommend something called. an innovation fund the concept of an. innovation fund it's essentially this if. you want a lot of private Capital to. come to a particular sector have the. private Capital invest side by side with. the government. so if you want money in. satellites you have the government.

invest side by side in a fund and that. fund the government would take first. loss. and the government would cap its return. at like 15 and so if you're a private. investor you're saying well I look at. Satellite and it's so overwhelmingly or. I look at artificial so it's just so. overwhelming but that government. side-by-side partnership makes the. likely return a little higher and. minimizes the risk so I'm going to put. my private Capital into that fund and my. private Capital investing in companies.

in that area and that concept which. isn't what China does and it's not what. the left is describing but it's also not. laissez-faire it's also not hands-off. that's the kind of thinking I think. we'll need to make sure we win this. technology battle and in the book I talk. about hey what would Milton Friedman say. because Milton Friedman's like the free. markets icon that all conservatives. point to and I said listen I I'm not. sure what Milton Friedman will say he. probably would have questions but my my. question to Milton Friedman.

hey we're losing. we're losing man so what's your solution. this is a way that I think we can rely. on that which makes America economy the. best which is the the risk the reward. the the free Capital the the allocation. the market forces but also nudge it in a. way that's going to keep America safe. I believe you said there was 41 sectors. of Technology. what in that in well in that report I. was describing this is just a one report. but it was the Australian Australian.

Think Tank they identified 44 and said. China was in the lead in 37. what what. would be the top five do you think we. need to invest in. well certainly semiconductors is a huge. area because semiconductors are what. drives. a lot of the economy and we're. completely dependent on suppliers. outside the United States for. semiconductors that's a disastrous. situation the the Trump Administration. tried to start turning the uh the.

turning the wheel on that. uh the I'm sorry the Trump. Administration the by Administration. passed the chips act uh the chips act. didn't have enough money but more than. that the chip that chips act now has. started to bring all this social policy. on top of it which is exactly what you. know the big fear is but semiconductors. is one for sure. artificial intelligence is one for sure. you're seeing the power of artificial. intelligence in chatbot the power and. the risk the threat I mean it's scary.

um certainly uh Quantum science which. allows for all sorts of developments in. other areas I think probably Life. Sciences there's huge genetic steps. being taken that have huge implications. for National Security for the economy. maybe satellites I don't know but. there's you know five or six big ones. that have huge opportunity do you have. any insight on how far behind we are in. the AI race. I really don't I really don't I mean.

first of all it's uh you know the it's. it's very hard to decipher and then you. see a breakthrough. like chatbot. um and that gives you two for me it. gives me two reactions at the same time. wow like mesmerizing like what the power. of that thing could be and whoa scary. what that might do at home but also in. the hands of somebody else and I was. speaking um I don't know a couple weeks. ago with the CEO of Microsoft I saw him. at something and we're friends. and I said tell me about this like what.

do you think and he said it's the most. significant development in technology. since the personal computer oh wow this. is he said this is huge and it's going. to have enormous consequences some of. which we don't even. begin to know yet so that's good. consequences or bad guys. yeah it could be both do you do you have. any can you give us some insight on any. of those consequences well one of the. things that um it certainly is doing is. it's just like the personal computer was.

in the internet was it could be highly. disruptive to businesses. um because if you think about I know. businesses that require people to write. things or people that require people to. um you know process data or things like. that. you know this has an ability to replace. all that in a nanosecond so I imagine as. it becomes more mainstream it could. result in. very significant disruption in some. Industries elimination of jobs no it may.

create other opportunities and jobs on. the other side it's a little too early. to tell but at a minimum this is. creating a huge pressure on business on. business models that are huge or. opportunity depending how you look at it. on business models that are highly. dependent on human processing. they could recreate this entire. interview and have you saying something. completely different. uh yes that's the scary. so your capacity to. take all the the information and present.

something that would be credible. as the words or ideas of others. when in fact there weren't is is very. plausible I mean there's two scary. things about it one scary thing is they. could do that and present an interview. that's not far from this that's one. scary thing another scary thing is they. might present an interview that that. seems. um very credible that's completely. different than this and that is there.

lies the problem because one of the. things that I found on the campaign. Trail I'm sure you find it with your. with your listeners and your. interviewers interviewees. people of lost Trust. they've lost trust in their leaders. they've lost trust in the church they've. lost trust in the military they've lost. trust in Business Leaders they've lost. trust in government you know the trust. levels are you know 15 20 percent. schools schools they've lost Us in. schools they've lost trust in the media.

they've lost trust in the accuracy of. the information they receive and this. if used poorly could just reinforce that. I mean who speak who am I really talking. to what is really being said is it. actually and so you start thinking about. like an existential question how does a. society run if nobody trusts anything. right that's that's so that's the worry. I have and and finding leaders that can. give people Faith are forthright can.

lead through this deal with these. complexities it's not easy it's not easy. it's this AI stuff scares the hell out. of me I mean for anybody that's not. putting this together they could have. they could replicate the president of. the United States and have him saying. something completely different that. looks 100 real. yeah and um yeah yeah and that's by the. way well we'll get to that in my third. part of the book we talk about but you. know part of that is the. the inaccuracies and the lack of trust.

in social media in particular and that's. uh that's a big thrust but but the the. absence of privacy on our information. combined with the pervasiveness of of a. social media narrative that's often. completely inaccurate and misleading. that's feeding the mistrust yeah yeah. do we have anything else to cover on. technology I think we hit it man all. right let's move on to data yeah so Dad. Alyssa I'm.

I'm trying to get my head around these. Concepts in a way that I really. understand them but can also explain. them and I don't want to present myself. as an expert but as I said earlier in. the interview. uh innovate and Innovation is a. byproduct of data uh National Security. is a byproduct of data data is a. superpower. data is one of the defining things for. who wins and loses the next Decades of. leadership in the world. and China has a plan for data China is.

very purposeful about data and because. China is an authoritarian country it has. much more Control Data and my big point. in this chapter is we don't have a data. plan. we don't have a strategy for dealing. with data what kind of data are we. talking about here all data I mean if. you think about as an example. one of the reasons that the United. States responded is incredibly quickly. as it did to deal with covid you got to. give I think president Trump appropriate. credit for that warp speed was because.

the pharmaceutical company shared data. that data was the core for Innovation. and breakthrough. so data is a critical driver of. innovation and remote vehicles in. artificial intelligence and I mean data. is the underlying asset in an aai you're. processing enormous amounts of data in. pursuit of uh kind of outputs that come. out of chatbot so data is really. critical and.

um and we don't have a data holistic. data strategy for the country and I talk. about three things in the book that this. isn't comprehensive but it's three. things that I think are quite valuable. the first is privacy. we don't have a privacy regime for our. data and if it doesn't scare you it. scares me that when I order a pair of. sneakers on the internet. uh for the next three months. every time I get a social media or email. whatever I get some new advertisement.

for sneakers. I mean God only knows where my data is. going who's processing it how it's being. used we've lost complete control of our. data and I mean there's the thing at the. end you sign and click who knows who. gets what. um you know you we are all vulnerable. to our data floating out there in. incredible ways so we have no model for. protecting privacy appropriately and. it's very. um decentralized and inadequate and it.

puts us all at risk and credit card. theft and all these things are going up. dramatically identity theft all this. stuff because we don't have privacy or. data and at the same time our individual. data is growing exponentially the amount. of data around you is hundreds maybe. thousands of times what it was a year. ago because look how much more you're. engaging in uh in ways that your your. your digital footprint is growing that's. one thing. second thing is we've got this pervasive. social media environment.

um you know I've been going through. um just as interesting to me I'm I I'm. old school I like newspapers you know so. when I get on an airplane I like to pick. up a newspaper and uh read it on the. airplane I'm a dinosaur this way they. don't sell they don't sell newspapers. anymore yeah you can't buy newspapers. everything is online and most people get. their news from non-traditional news. sources they get their information from. social media and the big Tech firms are.

the purveyors of the social media. landscape which is the opposite of a. Marketplace of ideas it's not hey you. picking you you know you decide it's an. entire narrative that's for the most. part very left-leaning and Progressive. which is shaping our understanding or. most Americans understanding of the. world what's going on the issues and and. you just have to pick a couple examples. to see that and the and the Wuhan lab is. the is the most obvious one where it. seems just common sense that if a virus.

was started in Wuhan and then and which. everybody acknowledged and there's a lab. in Wuhan that does all sorts of. experimentation around such viruses that. there's probably a connection between. those two things. 100 sure it doesn't mean the Chinese. even tried to do it this is I'm not even. arguing for the intent it just seems. like that connection is highly likely. and obvious and yet for years. we've been sold a narrative that anyone. who says that's being a conspiracy. theorist and all this stuff and now we.

just find out very recently no no. there's been a lot of serious people in. the intelligence community and elsewhere. they've been thinking that for a long. time that's a perfect example of why. people have lost trust in. um in what information they receive and. and so we need to do something about. that we need to create some sort of. obligation some sort of accountability. for social media to play a role as a. Marketplace of ideas where it's actually. not a one-sided narrative one way to do. that is to create liability uh.

associated with what social media. companies produce right now they can. basically produce anything they're not. liable and so there's a whole set of. things that we need to think about to. rein in big Tech because they're they're. playing a role with social media that I. think is very counter to America's. interest there's also just as an aside. something that really. um pisses me off but it's an example of. I think the problem is that you know. when we won the Cold War the 50s 60s 70s.

80s one of the things that made America. successful was our big industry. particular technology firms cooperated. with the US government in the Pentagon. because we were in pursuit of something. together which was America's security. that doesn't happen anymore project. Maven Google wouldn't have their workers. their developers wouldn't work with the. Pentagon you know none of the big Tech. firms work with the Pentagon with the. exception of Microsoft to some degree. that's a huge problem and so with an. opportunity to be a U.S company and and.

benefit all the ways that comes with. that window of security and well-being. that that's being an American company no. no you gotta you got to do your part so. that's the second piece uh that I argue. I'll say the third piece and then. whatever whatever thoughts you have the. third piece is and we're not in this. alone. we've got great allies. um that we share everything with. intelligence defense spending um you. know the 5i countries which where we. have the the most trusted circle of.

Intel we get there until they get ours. we should have a data strategy that's. that's consistent with them because the. more data you have the more of a benefit. it is so countries like Australia. countries like the UK where we've got. these deep integrated Partnerships we. should think about how to have data. regime that goes head to head with China. and puts us in a really strong position. and this is one of the areas that the. Next Generation hopefully 2024 and. Beyond is going to have to have a get. dedicated strategy we don't have that.

now. interesting I don't have any I don't. have any questions okay technology so um. let's take a break and when we come back. uh we'll hit the next chapter. one of my biggest challenges in 2023 as. an entrepreneur has been finding the. right person for the job and making my. company Stand Out amongst all the other. companies in this extremely competitive. job market now how can you do that you. might want to try zip recruiter zip.

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show thank you. all right David here we go the final set. all right home stretch so. leading renewal let's talk about. confronting China and securing America. yeah you know the um the thing about. changing the direction of the country is. you got to win elections. and you gotta have ideas and those two. are related you gotta have leaders that. can that can win primaries win general. elections and then have ideas for taking.

the country forward then they got to. execute them and so when I was thinking. about writing superpower in Peril I. didn't want it to just be an ideas book. I wanted to be a leadership book too. because you know that's what it's all. about it's all about leaders when I was. telling that Ronald Reagan story it's. about the leaders and uh so I identified. a couple areas where I thought. leadership was really really important. and the first one was China and uh you. know when we talk about China there's. two things we need to do we needed to go. to the gym at home so you and I just. spent an hour talking about the gym you.

know data and technology and and. education. but you also need to confront China and. have a strategy for how we deal with. China and so and we need leaders who. know how to do that. so I talk about my background in China. you know I um. I went to China after I left the. military for the first time in 1992 and. uh I had read this book. which was called riding the iron rooster. uh through China which is this guy Paul. Thoreau so I went into China was there.

for about probably six weeks just by. myself with a backpack and uh this train. was this dilapidated train that drove. through the countryside but China was. rural. and I went to Beijing and there was you. know a handful of skyscrapers. um I went running in the gardens in. Shanghai there was no no Caucasian. people everybody was doing Tai Chi and. that who is this crazy guy there was two. currencies a local one and one for. tourists I mean it was just a. country from the almost left Left Behind. and then I went back 15 years later 16.

years later as a government official and. it was just full of skyscrapers a. 10-year 10-lane highway to the downtown. of Beijing and um and China was going. through this incredible transformation. which sadly went off course and became. increasingly a threat to American. interest and I saw that early on in the. government I was in the Commerce. Department in 2005 and I was in charge. of Technology exports and there was all.

sorts of pressure from the Chinese to. export certain Technologies they came. and talked to President Bush about the. job I was doing because I was they said. I was being too just restrictive I wrote. a bunch of speeches not beds but what's. happened since then is even far worse. than anybody would have imagined because. China has stolen all the technology. built its own indigenous capability it's. um it's not been reciprocal on trade so. the deal has was was initially the. initial Vision was hey hey you know. we'll give access to U.S markets you.

give access China's markets that that. never happened and China took. increasingly the interests of China U.S. diverged and then president XI came in. and went like that because president XI. had a view of the world which was very. counter to the United States China's. rightful place was on top displacing. America as the superpower and all that. bad behavior that I'm describing got. much much worse under President XI in. prison she really created the Techno. authoritarian model that we've described.

and unfortunately what's happened over. the last decade or so is our policy. makers have been sleepwalking. sleep walking through this they missed. it Republicans and Democrats alike. missed it they missed the growing risk. of China and then president Trump showed. up and to his credit and I gave him. Credit in the book and I gave him credit. on the campaign Trail he uh called out. China for what it was. which is a true adversary. and began to put in place a set of. policies to deal with that ensuring more.

reciprocal trade and so forth and what. I'm arguing for is a much more. comprehensive strategy a whole of. Nations strategy to address China and. um China has a plan and we don't have a. plan and so that strategy has four parts. the first part is to decouple from China. strategically and um. you talked about uh you you mentioned. this earlier I mentioned it earlier but.

during covid we discovered that we were. dependent on China for our supply chains. for pharmaceuticals shocking I didn't. know that I honestly didn't know that I. didn't know that 90 of the. semiconductors were manufactured 90. miles from mainland China we have put. ourselves in the position of huge. vulnerability so we need to very. consciously bring those Industries home. that are critical to America's security. critical to our future and that's what I. mean by strategic decoupling let's. identify those key sectors satellites or. AI whatever it is and let's make sure.

we've got the capability here at home we. can't be dependent on China that's the. first thing. second thing is we got a whole China. accountable we called it called balls. and Strikes on the bad behavior the. human rights abuses in China we're not. going to go into China and fix their. system for human rights I'm not saying. that but we need to call it out for what. it is I mean President Biden did a lot. to call out what was going on in Saudi. Arabia there's millions of uyghurs. killed out in China and there's there's. no voice but we also have to hold them. accountable for covid the fact that uh.

the covid virus became such a burden on. the world the United States the millions. of lives lost the trillions of dollars. with zero cooperation or transparency. from China. and again I'm not saying it was. intentional that to start code but I. don't know but we don't know because. they haven't actually dealt with it in a. transparent way so that's the second. thing how would we hold them accountable. well it could be sanctions it could be a. whole if nothing else you start by every. time you talk about China you start with. that like literally just saying Hey to.

the world are you kidding me like why. are you letting this bad behavior. persist that's been nowhere President. Biden has said nothing on that and then. there's all sorts of economic tools that. we could use to say hey we're not going. to do this unless you do that but but. because we haven't even called it out as. bad behavior it's very difficult to to. get that momentum now but that's what we. need to do. the third thing is involving investment. so you made that you made the point that. I ran an investment firm. my view in China.

um hasn't has only gotten more. incrementally. um worried as the situations evolved but. I just want to put it in context so I. ran an investment firm that's one of the. biggest in the world we had two percent. of our business in China Investing in. broader markets. um and if you go to most Americans today. 30 of the items in their homes are. manufactured in China. so our economies are very integrated. so when people say we need to stop all.

economic activity with China today. I'm not sure they totally understand. what they're saying because not only do. we have that you know huge amount of. trade but then the trade goes through. other countries so we sell things to. you know the Netherlands that they then. finish manufacturing and send it to. China so our con our economies are very. integrated what we need to do is on that. strategic decoupling is make sure first. and foremost we're not dependent on. China for anything that matters.

and then the second thing we need to do. in investment is we need to make sure we. need to create a process for ensuring. nobody is investing in China no company. is investing in China in a way that. supports the Chinese military the. Communist party and today we have. investors in the Silicon Valley. that are investing in artificial. intelligence companies in China that are. working with a pla so that is completely. unacceptable so when we talk about. investment in China an investment from.

China the most important thing I would. start with and it's not happening today. so all the you know all this for all the. talk and the rhetoric these things. aren't happening is I would. strategically decouple in the way I. described and I would put an investment. review process in place and the thing. you would at least do then is you would. stop being dependent on China for things. that matter and you would stop helping. China and things that matter and that. would be a huge step forward and then we. can begin to think about how we untangle. our economies further as we move forward. and I felt this on the campaign Trail.

because I'd go into some manufacturers. and they go. you know China killed me you know like. the Outsourcing and all that stuff. killed me to China. and then I go in the next one and. there'd be like a Harley Davidson. supplier and they'd say hey man China's. our biggest Market we're in it we're uh. we're uh you know sending. Harley-Davidsons to China so as somebody. who's been an economic guy who's you. know run a couple companies and been in. the military my basic view is let's. start with we can't do anything with. China that's going to sacrifice our. security and then once we get that done.

let's start about talk about what the. next phase is all the time holding China. to a very high standard what do you. think the repercussions are going to be. from China if this. comes a fruition I mean. they're involved in so many different. aspects of the thing that really bothers. me the most I think is our energy you. know this is huge green energy. initiative who's going to manufacture. all that China who's got all the lithium. mines right China well this is uh this. is the great I mean the great irony of.

the great irony of the Biden. Administration right so energy policy. has done two things I think. um it's made us less secure. less environmental and more dependent on. China let me describe what I mean by. that. so um I um Pennsylvania is a huge. fracking State yeah get great natural. resources there it's if if Pennsylvania. were a country it'd be like the fourth. biggest natural gas reserve in the world.

so it's huge and um and so when. President Biden came into office he. stopped the Keystone Pipeline he doubled. down on a number of regulations and that. was particularly challenging for. fracking and yet fracking. um is very very clean from an. environmental perspective it's very very. safe from an environmental perspective. so almost overnight what happened is we. became less secure. because we went from being an energy. exporter to an energy importer so we.

were dependent on others. um it was damaging economically because. all those jobs in places like. Pennsylvania and Texas and elsewhere. um were were pushed back because the the. purchases. um you know the restrictions on on. Drilling and so forth and that that just. hurt the energy industry it hurts all. the derivative industries that come with. it and um so we're less we're less. economically viable less secure and it's. worse for the environment because what. happens when we're not we're not. bringing out natural gas and exporting.

it we're importing much dirtier sources. of fossil fuel from Nigeria or Saudi. Arabia or elsewhere so in one Fell Swoop. bide made us less secure he made us less. economically viable and he made us less. environmentally sound and I'm someone. who like I'm an environmentalist in the. sense that I've got a ranch that I you. know protect the things like I am very. focused on protecting the environment. but I'm protecting in a way that's great. for Americans that's great for our. industry that's great for our national.

security so that's the first thing the. second thing is all this uh spending in. the infrastructure bill and the. inflation reduction act uh and even in. the chips act to some degree but mostly. those first two is pushing the Green. Technology on and imposing it really on. our economy as part of this transition. and and finally as you say most of. what's required to make that Green. Revolution happen is highly dependent on.

China so we're making our economy more. dependent on China rather than building. the indigenous capability at home so do. we go back to fossil fuels or do you. think we need to start looking at. nuclear energy I definitely think we. should start looking at nuclear energy. you know Westinghouse is in is in. Pennsylvania and and absolutely there's. a Next Generation nuclear capability. that has huge possibilities the fossil. fuel. energy capability always we have with. natural gas is far cleaner than it's. ever been in history and there's carbon.

sequestration lots of other things so. there's lots of ways that we can. continue to take advantage of fossil. fuels in a much more carbon-friendly. cleaner way build out nuclear is a real. possibility and listen I'm not opposed. to alter alternative uh alter alternate. fuels I'm not opposed to the alternative. industry I'm opposed to being more. dependent on China and I'm opposed to a. subsidy process that totally. um you know undermines the market and. that's what's happening in this push for.

um for clean energy. one question on your business dealings. with China even if they only were two. percent what I'd like to know is what. was the turning point where you realized. was it covid was it the pharmaceutical. level the the big difference I had and I. talk about this in the book my my. um. I I wanted to sort of make a real point. and this became a very public thing my. my difference with the founder of my. firm who is is a big you know is a big.

China supporter is just not recognizing. the threat from China. and so my view is that China has become. an existential threat it needs to be. treated like an adversary and that we. need to have our economic policy and our. national security policy reflect that. reality and so I recognize that if you. went to the you know top 100 uh. companies in the world or companies. based in the United States U.S companies. many of them are highly dependent on. selling products into China at the.

moment that is you know important for. American workers and all that stuff so. um so if we untangle from China's. economy it's going to have to be very. careful how we do that to as it affects. American workers but but once you. identify China as an adversary then you. start to do the kinds of things that I'm. saying to mitigate your risk and that's. the point I try to make in the book and. that's that's how I reconcile all of it. which is to say what's become more and. more clear over time is China's an. adversary and that was maybe more. obvious sooner than people saw it but.

it's certainly obvious after president. XI and yet our country is not responding. in a. um comprehensive way. I know your your time's limited and. we're pushing the envelope here my last. question for you is. are you going to run for office I'm. thinking hard about it so um you know I. had I basically decided I was probably. never going to run for office when I. became a CEO of Bridgewater and um you. know I had always been deeply involved. in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania I'm 57 I.

spent 35 of my years in Pennsylvania you. know I've got a farm there I've got my. friends here my mom and dad are there so. I'm deeply committed to Pennsylvania uh. but when the seed opened up. uh and people approached me to run for. and you know it's probably not the right. time for me but then Afghanistan as I. said just grab me and the direction of. the country grabbed me and said man if. you know people you know who have been. blessed by all that America has don't. don't run who's gonna run you don't want.

the people running who have no other. Alternatives right you want people to. run who you know have had great. experience and the benefit of everything. America has to offer and I feel like a. lucky guy. so that's why I ran the first time and I. put everything I had into it you know we. ran a great race whenever you lose by. 900 votes there's 1.4 million votes cast. we lost by 900. man whenever you lose a. election that close it's not like the. next day you say oh the motivation for. running went away. it hasn't I'm I'm certainly want to.

serve I want to find a way to contribute. I feel like people need to step up now I. feel like I want to step up weather. running for the Senate and 24 is the way. to do it or not we haven't decided yet. we're thinking about it praying about. it's a big big thing for families to do. it uh it's not for the faint of heart. people ask me what's it like and I said. have you ever watched the movie. Gladiator. and I said yeah okay so imagine that. you're in the arena you know people were. in there throwing you know beer cans. from the stands people cheering for you. people throwing stuff at you and you got.

your swords you're in there by yourself. it's just you and then all of a sudden. the trap door comes up and there's the. tiger you know so you kill the tiger and. then next thing you know there's the. Chariot and uh and you're just in the. arena and uh you know it's uh it's a. real privilege to do it but uh it's a. big it's a big thing for a family so uh. we're thinking hard about it but we. haven't decided which way are you. leaning I haven't decided honestly I. mean I would tell you if I if I had um. you know I I my thought was.

um that this book was a great way to. crystallize where I think I think the. country needs to go and a great way to. get out there and talk about it and talk. about it in Pennsylvania talk about it. you know nationally and I thought that. that process would give me some data. give me a sense of whether it was. resonating give me a sense of whether. um you know I felt like I had something. more to offer here so. um but I'll call you when I know all. right well I hope you do thank you I. just want to say thank you for coming it. was an honor to to be able to meet you.

and interview and dig into your thoughts. and I hope to see you again my pleasure. thanks for having me great great. opportunity. [Music]. foreign. click here to subscribe to the Sean Ryan. Show YouTube channel for the hottest and. most compelling interviews that you will. not see anywhere else I've also made a.

playlist of all the previous SRS. episodes so they're easy to find you can. find that. right here.