Trump-Xi Strike New Deal, Midterm Warning Signs & Tesla Semi Finally Arrives | PBD Podcast #863

PBD Podcast

The episode explores the recent diplomatic developments between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, specifically focusing on a new $30 billion tari

Key takeaways

• A $30 billion tariff deal was reached between the U.S. and China following the Trump-Xi summit.
• China has agreed to purchase 10 million tons of coal in 2027 and 2028 as part of the trade agreement.

Main topics

• US-China Trade Relations
• Iran Oil Crisis and War Threats

Notable quotes

The future looks bright.

Conclusion

The episode provides a high-stakes look at how trade diplomacy and ene

Transcript preview

Speaker 8 (0:10) Adam, what's Speaker 1 (0:11) your Speaker 8 (0:11) point? Speaker 1 (0:11) The Speaker 8 (0:12) future looks bright. My handshake is better than anything I ever signed, right here. Speaker 1 (0:18) You are a one-on-one? My son's Speaker 2 (0:20) right there. Speaker 5 (0:20) I don't think I've ever said this before. Speaker 5 (0:26) All Speaker 6 (0:26) right, so for some of you that used to listen to freestyle music, I have this morning Vinny. We're listening to TKA. What do you know about TKA, Louder Than Love? They don't know. Speaker 1 (0:36) We're listening Speaker 6 (0:36) to, you know, Spring Love, Come Back to Me, Because I Love You, you know, by Stevie B. And who else did we play this morning? Oh, Shannon. Shannon. Let the music play. Don't get away. Speaker 6 (0:52) That's what's been happening this morning. And Tom's looking at us like, what the hell are they talking about? I'm just doing bong hits. Listen to me. We're doing bong hits. So if you know freestyle, and if you're above 40 and you listen to freestyle, put the best freestyle songs below. I want to see what you put up there. And we've got a lot of stories to cover here today. One of them is, you guys don't even know, Vladimir Guerrero gets a $500 million contract, and they ask him, hey, your season sucked. You went to the World Series last. You almost won the whole thing. You guys kick off game seven with a three-run home run. You're supposed to beat the Dodgers. And he has a horrible season, gets a half a billion dollars, and he says, they didn't pay me for what to do this year. They're paying me for what I did before. What a shitty attitude. What a horrible attitude to act like that. And it was my favorite World Series I ever watched. Anyways, we'll talk about that. And then we got some sports stuff we'll talk about. We got the midterms. There are so many stories about midterms. I don't even know which ones to put. So we got a category that just says midterm warning signs. And by the way, the warning signs are all for Republicans. Watch this. Number one, 17 Republicans in close races break with Trump on Iran war. That's a problem. Let's see what happens there. Midterm candidates are dumping debates. 21 out of 36 gubernatorial races may not have a debate. The new thing to do is let's not debate. Right? In a society of freedom of speech, let's not debate. Let's not sit there and debate issues. I don't want to talk to the other person. Let me get this straight. If you don't want to sit and talk to other people to get deals done, how the hell are you going to be a person that's getting deals done when you become a governor? How do you give me the reassurance to know you're going to be able to do that? I don't know about some of the things they're doing right now with these governors, even if it's Republican or Democrat. I publicly call them out. I think it's a horrible... Too cool attitude of I already got it. It's done. We're going to win. And then when you lose, then what's going to happen? Anyways, I'm not happy about that, but we'll talk about it. Democrats hit with a plus nine in polling average. Biggest lead of the cycle. We'll show you some of the stuff for Cal Shee. You got to see what people are saying with Cal Shee. And it's not looking good. Florida Republicans are bracing for the worst results they've had since 2018. Vibes return. Worse. Since 2018, we'll address that. Bill Maher says the president is the eff around and find out president. It's a good clip. UK police arrest. Five men, okay, who were trying to attack a base that has 125 U.S. soldiers and bombers. B-1, Speaker 7 (3:24) B-2, and a farmer pack called their 999, it's our 911, and was like, I saw 8 to 10. They called 5-3 white vans. They evacuated the whole freaking neighborhood and wait till what the news was reporting. We'll talk about Speaker 6 (3:36) that. We'll talk about that. And then Trump and Xi visit. Apparently there was a lot of things talked about. One of the things that was talked about, which is kind of apparently a big deal. is she offered to give two pandas to us. Okay? And I'm being, one is a male, one is a female. They're both born in 2020. One is called Pink Pink. The other one's called Foo Swank. And I'm not even kidding with you. These are the names. And apparently some people believe that pandas are not even real animals because all they want to do is eat all day and not mate. They don't mate. The reason why they're going extinct is because pandas don't mate. And so some are saying maybe China created this 150 years ago as a way to spy on others. Anyways, they gave us two pandas, which is, I guess, a big celebration. It's China's way of saying, Tom, we want to do a deal with you. That's their way of doing it. OK. When they give you a couple pandas. But apparently there was a bunch of other things that, you know, hey, they're welcoming 100,000 soldiers, you know, a bunch of other things that we'll get into. Trump asked, gee, do you need some military weapons? Do you need help with anything? Speaker 6 (4:35) So we'll see. We'll see what's going to happen there in the story. Elon comes out and shows the semi truck, and the trucking industry is like, wait, are you kidding me? So the trucks, the semis that we've been waiting for nine years, it's finally here. It validates that even the smartest guy in the world, everything you try to do in life is harder. It's ten times harder than you think, and it takes a lot longer than you think it does. But the semi trucks look ridiculous. They look great. And if they're able to do what they can do, There may be disruption in the transportation industry, which we have a lot of friends that are in that business. Then this weekend, football, you got this USC player, tackles Oregon's quarterback, knocks him unconscious. The guy has to get a stretcher come out, and he's celebrating. The teammates are saying, what are you doing? And a player from Texas sacks the quarterback, goes and pees on him. Speaker 4 (5:26) Yeah, crazy. Speaker 6 (5:27) Teammates are like, what the hell are you doing? In the meantime, Joe Burrow loses the ball. They should have won the game. Dallas Cowboys, good for Baltimore Ravens. What a victory they had. And Josh Allen gets another run, another rushing touchdown. And Trevor Lawrence decides to stop on a one-yard line. Nobody has a clue why. A bunch of weird things happened yesterday with football. Don't forget about the Giants, though. Oh, listen, six times two is 12. Speaker 7 (5:50) Exactly. Speaker 6 (5:51) Never forget that six times two is 12. Winston, baby! Every time I love him, but every time I watch James Winston. All I think about is my math has got to get better. He said six times two is 12, and we're doing it for our guy Dart. We love you, Winston. But seriously, we're rooting for you. Hook him up with Terrence Howard Speaker 4 (6:09) for the math. Speaker 6 (6:10) Math off. That would be great. And then we got a few other cool stories to talk about. Besant says Iran has two more weeks until their last shipment of oil brings them revenue. After that, they have nothing going on, and Besant's talking like this. Super confident and then the foreign minister Abbas al-Rachi is asked I think it's by Kristen Welker one of those Kristen Welker is messing up with it's Welker it's Collins right? I'm just gonna say my last name. I'm gonna say last name. Well, I see and now one is ABC NBC NBC so Welker NBC says You know, where is your you know, your supreme leader? Have you seen him? He's doing very good He still sends the messages from the top people think All these stories. Now, why don't you do a video? Oh, because of security reasons. You have to watch this. And then in one of the interviews, Iran's foreign minister says Tehran's ready for doomsday war with the U.S. Doomsday war with U.S. Very optimistic, you know, on stuff that they want to do. And then Messi scores a ridiculous goal. Oh, ridiculous. We got angles. And Messi bought a house. Guess in what city? The great Fort Lauderdale. Everybody's coming to Florida. I keep telling them. Even the greatest soccer player of all time that's a billionaire is choosing Fort Lauderdale out of hundreds of thousands of cities in the world that he can live in, he chose Fort Lauderdale. I don't know why. But anyways, we got that going on. So in the interim, while we're going through this, this weekend. Guys in the back, if you have the picture that Alicia gave to you with me and Brooklyn, if you have it, do me a favor and put it up. If you don't have it, there it is. Look at this with me and Brooklyn right now. Speaker 1 (7:44) Skinny Pat. Look at Skinny Pat. I Speaker 6 (7:46) lost Speaker 1 (7:46) 30 pounds, guys. You look great, bro. But do you see in this photo shoot what I'm wearing? Do you see what I'm wearing? That's some F &B. I'm wearing our latest billionaire Speaker 6 (7:54) loafers, which, by the way. Most incredibly, I wore this on Saturday, and I wore it on Sunday, and I think I wore it on Friday. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. No socks, and it still smells. Amazing, right? It still smells amazing. Let me take a seat. I'm just telling you. Pass that over. Let me tell you. By the way, if you also look at that, I'm wearing the FLB shirts there. My closet, I replaced all the white shirts that I had from all these other guys I was buying, $900, $1,200. Ripping. It's all ours, and I don't know what we sell them for. It's $99, something like that. My entire closet is filled with these white shirts. But these shoes, you Speaker 1 (8:30) know what we have now? The latest FLB high-quality hat that just came through. Look at how they go together right there. You have them in Speaker 6 (8:37) different colors. You can have them in Muvila. Yeah, that's Speaker 1 (8:40) the Speaker 6 (8:40) matching one. Oh, that's the matching one. Look at that. Look at this matching. Yachtsy. Speaker 1 (8:43) The Speaker 6 (8:43) two here together. Look at that. Boom. Look Speaker 1 (8:46) at Speaker 6 (8:46) how that sits together. Boom. Right? Yesterday I had Tom's wife, Kim, was wearing the navy blue one. And we have them in white. We have them in navy blue. And it's cool. We have it that goes with the navy blue billionaire loafers. So if you're somebody. Speaker 6 (9:02) that believes the future looks bright. And we have some amazing, amazing announcement that's coming out here very soon. You're going to see the first FLB store, which we can't wait to launch and have the people show up Speaker 1 (9:12) to the first store. Until that day, for those of you that love the brand and you support what we're doing here, you want to see this thing getting bigger, this doesn't happen without you. If you don't watch us, we're not able to do what we're doing. And Speaker 6 (9:22) we chose to have our sponsors be our businesses so we don't have to be uncomfortable about our opinions. And if you value that... support the cause, represent the gear, and we do everything in our power to bring better quality products to you, and we listen to you. So go to FLB.com, place your order. Again, go to FLB.com, place an order, whether you get the loafers and the hats together. My suggestion is combine the colors, and you have a lot of other options to go with it. So with that being said, let's get right into it. First story to get into is Trump's meeting with Xi. Okay, and there's a lot of them to go through here. So they have a meeting together. The first thing that a lot of people are talking about because of China trying to show that we want to do business with you, China hands off two panda bears to U.S. and one of them is called Ping Ping. The other one's called Fushuang. And like I talked about earlier with these, what do you call it, these pandas. This is their way of saying we want to do business. They lend it to you. The problem with pandas is apparently they don't mate. All they want to do is eat. And they value eating over mating, which I have met some people like that, but not too many. So these guys don't want to make babies, which is a problem. However, deals were done. So the president asks, hey, you know, exactly. They call the panda diplomacy. Some people don't think these pandas are not real. And they kind of created it to. you know, because, you know, this whole extinct stuff that we talk about. We'll see. But they said, hey, we want to invite 100,000 of your soldiers, U.S., to come to us. Trump asks, do you need any arms? Do you need any weapons that we need to help you out with? It's a back and forth. And some of the stories that came out, Tom, I don't know how close you're following this. U.S.-China reached a $30 billion tariff deal after Trump-Xi summit. Both of them are saying, hey, let's take this off right now. Let's you take it off right now. Let's kind of make sure we're not tariffing each other left and right. U.S. says China to buy 10 million tons of coal in 27 and 28. Trump says Xi knows how I feel about Taiwan. Taiwan was also addressed in the conversation. So let's pick one of them and start with the Taiwan topic. Trump says Xi knows how I feel on Taiwan after the summit. And, Tom, I'm going to come to you with this one here, and I think we have a clip on this in the back. Trump said on Saturday that the issue of Taiwan came up in meetings with Xi as he refrained from repeating Washington's decade-old stance. On the self-grieving island, we didn't talk about it too much. Right now it's fine. It's just moving along. He told reporters before departing the White House for a college team game, we didn't spend a lot of time about Taiwan. He understands how I feel about it. The comments came after a Chinese readout said Xi urged the U.S. to oppose Taiwan's independence. Trump didn't restate the U.S. opposition, but gave no indication he's willing to meet with Xi's demand to change it. The U.S. officially does not support Taiwanese. independence and opposes unilateral changes. to the status quo by either side. Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has made bringing Taiwan under China's control a key goal, vowing to achieve it by force if necessary. Tom, thoughts Speaker 1 (12:20) on this story? Speaker 2 (12:20) Well, first of all, I thought it was very, very interesting as we're talking about energy. So Taiwan is always going to be Taiwan. And basically what Xi is saying, you know, ultimately we're going to do this. That's what Xi is saying. And Trump is saying, well, it's moving along. And so this sounds a little bit like Biden in Ukraine where he said, well, remember this? If it's just a border, minor incursion at the border. Yeah. So suddenly Trump is not coming out and saying hard no on Taiwan. He's just saying Xi knows how I feel about Taiwan. And we didn't spend a lot of time talking about it. But Xi keeps saying. We're going to do this. You know we want this and we're going to do this. And then they turn around and they make an energy deal. I think that's very significant because that's the thing China needs, energy. And if the U.S. builds diplomacy with China and takes Alaskan oil and then sends that to China, that's exactly the kind of thing they need. They need that. So I think that... In some ways, this took a couple steps. In some ways, it was just the same old, same old. But then at the end of it, they said, hey, we're going to get back together live in November, and we're going to talk about AI. And so I thought all of this, I thought it was, here's my headline. It's good when they're talking. I think it's good when they're talking. And I think Xi probably didn't get what he wants, which maybe is another inch or two on Taiwan. But Trump. made his point, and then they bought a bunch of energy. Speaker 1 (13:52) In the meantime, while you're talking about this, and Trump is saying our position hasn't changed, and China is saying their position hasn't changed, arming Taiwan is an important U.S. interest, Taipei official says, after Trump's Xi summit, providing weapons to Taiwan Speaker 6 (14:07) to protect its freedom and supply semiconductors to the world is in the U.S. national interest, as senior Taiwanese diplomat said Saturday after the three-day... Trump-Xi summit ended with no big public breakouts. Deputy Foreign Minister Francois Wu asked whether concessions on Taiwan would actually serve U.S. interests, maintaining military sales and allowing Taiwan's semiconductor industry to continue contributing to the world. These are important U.S. interests. Wang Kuang-jen, very common name, a political science professor at National Chang Kong University, said the outcome beats expectations. Looking at the results. Many things we thought would be very bad didn't happen. The Trump administration approved a $11 billion arms sale in December, 10 months ago. Second word, $14 billion is pending. The U.S. ambassador to China, David Perdue, said there has been no change in Taiwan policy, China's policy. People daily call Taiwan the first unbreakable red Speaker 1 (15:00) line. Adam, thoughts? Speaker 4 (15:01) Look, here's the deal with China. I mean, we've criticized China enough. I'm actually going to give some, I guess, rosy picture on China. Speaker 4 (15:11) I don't think they're our enemy, per se. Certainly they're a competitor, no doubt. But, you know, you hear this term decoupling. We've got to decouple with China. We're going to decouple. We are so closely intertwined that there's no decoupling. And I'll give you a specific example. The last time that there was a competitor of the United States on this level was who? The Soviet Union, USSR, which crumbled in 91, I believe. We had nothing going on. trade-wise, alliance-wise, business-wise, anything going on with the USSR. So it was the Cold War at its height. I'm sure you remember sort of the remnants of that, Tom, obviously. But there was no reason to work on a deal. There was nothing really to discuss. You know, they had the famous red hotline phone. God forbid there was going to be something nuclear. After Nixon, Speaker 2 (16:03) this all got established. Speaker 4 (16:04) There you go. But there was no reason to work out a framework of a deal because there was no interaction. There was no intertwining of the economies. At this point, I think it's pretty evident with China. As much as you might think that they're enemies or competitors, our economies are so intertwined. How many times have you looked at an item and been like, made in China? Like almost everything? At this point, like Tom said, it's so much better to discuss and come to terms on where we can agree on things such as... trade, AI, minerals. There's certainly things there's going to be differences on, i.e. Taiwan. But at the end of the day, I don't see any decoupling. If anything, they're just kicking the can down the road on this trade situation. Speaker 7 (16:46) I disagree in the fact that China isn't the enemy because the word that they use is adversary. If you look at everything that they've done, Adam, from the spying, from the buying bases, which I agree, it's stupid because the Biden administration let them. Flying spy balloons. COVID-19. They released it, and they still don't have any accountability for it, okay? So mind you, just because we're not shooting and bombing and whatever, they are our enemy. But the fact that Trump is a freaking statesman, and what did Bill Maher say? The F around and find out president? From all the stuff that they did with the Deep State, Adam, which I believe, this is my opinion, from 2019 to 2020 to COVID, to me it was all Trump was kicking butt. He was holding their foot to the fire against trade, and then all of a sudden, a virus comes out of a lab that we own, Fauci, that's a whole, we already know how that story goes. But I think Trump is such a freaking boss, he invites them, he shows them around, he's being professional, but at the same time, he's going, hey, listen, with Taiwan, don't even try it. Oh, and you guys are going to promise us to buy how much coal, Tom? $10 billion? What's Speaker 2 (17:48) the Speaker 7 (17:48) number? Speaker 2 (17:49) $30 billion worth of. Speaker 7 (17:50) $30 billion worth of coal. So say what you want. This year Speaker 2 (17:54) and again next year. And again in Speaker 7 (17:55) 2028. I just think, Adam, like, they are the enemy, but they're not the shooting guns in your face enemy. But trust me, they would want nothing more than for us to suffer. And Speaker 4 (18:04) by the way. Let Speaker 2 (18:05) me push Speaker 4 (18:05) back on that just a little bit. I agree with everything you said. It's not like I'm thinking that China is our best friend. Yeah, I didn't say best friend. We're Speaker 2 (18:11) being Speaker 4 (18:11) FFF. My whole situation is. We are working together on certain things that there's no decoupling from. So we acknowledge COVID. We acknowledge these issues. Well, they didn't. They haven't. I'm just saying, like, we know what the situation is. My whole thing is, where do we go from here? Are we actually going to get into a hot war with China? Are we really going to do something like that? It's easy to say enemy. I get that. That's an easy thing to do. But Speaker 2 (18:35) where are we going to work together is Speaker 4 (18:36) the question. Speaker 2 (18:37) Yeah, this chart that I don't know if the audience can see it. This chart has not moved more than five points in the last six years. This is why there's a red line on Taiwan. Look at all the chips. Taiwan has got the global massive market share in terms of a location. You can't let China take this. So I think Trump's trying to let the edges form. But this is why. The EU doesn't want Taiwan to go back, but they don't want to be the ones that speak up. Everyone doesn't want it because you look at this. Until these chips can be made elsewhere, you're going to give China lording over this and putting spyware and things in the chips? It will happen. This is why Taiwan must stay independent. Those Speaker 4 (19:19) pandas probably have spy chips in them. They sit around and eat all day and don't Speaker 2 (19:22) have sex. Speaker 4 (19:23) Wasn't China supposed to surpass the United States economy in 2025? Speaker 1 (19:27) It's called made in China 2025. Where is that Speaker 4 (19:30) now? Is it even close to the economies at this point? Well, Speaker 1 (19:33) if you live in China, you would say we hit it. If you live in China. If you live in China. You have to realize the only media we listen to is our own media. You don't wake up in the morning and go watch in China what they're saying on TV. Well, Speaker 4 (19:48) they have state-run media. That's the point. So to Speaker 1 (19:50) them, they're saying that they hit it. And if you go and talk Speaker 6 (19:55) to others who are neutral players, if you talk to neutral players, neutral players will say, you know, they'll look at this and they'll say, we have to still give that attention to China because they're going to be around. They're somebody we have to play with. It's not like they're not going to be there. They're not crossing off the idea of China being the dominant player in the world. The reason why it's right now being held off the way that it is is because the guy that's negotiating the deals is not playing around. Trump. Yeah, Trump. So if this hangs on for another two more years, and if AOC or Newsom becomes president, how quickly do you think they're going to hit Taiwan? What do you think is going to happen? Do you think they're going to sit on it? So they have to sit there and realize this isn't, Xi is telling you, I may not do it under your watch, but we're eventually doing it. So Xi, out of all the people, he's sitting there saying, this freaking guy, Trump, I can't wait for him to get out. How old is Xi, by the way? And they're saying he has some health Speaker 7 (20:53) issues. Speaker 6 (20:53) He Speaker 4 (20:54) doesn't look that healthy. Confirm that. Maybe 72, 73? Speaker 6 (20:58) 72, 73. Okay. So how much longer does he have? He doesn't Speaker 1 (21:02) have that much longer. Let's say he goes seven more years. Okay? Let's say he Speaker 4 (21:06) goes Speaker 1 (21:06) seven more years. Speaker 4 (21:07) I think it's going to be longer than that. But what Speaker 1 (21:09) I'm saying is he is probably sitting there. If there's anything he's pissed off with himself, my speculation, I think Xi is sitting there pissed off with the fact that he did not attack Taiwan under Biden. That was his best flipping opportunity. You know why? And Speaker 6 (21:27) here's how he's probably thinking he should have done it. The moment Putin attacked Ukraine, guess what Xi is thinking? I should have attacked Taiwan a month later. You know why? It's so much distract. Tom is doing some stuff today I've never seen before. He's like, he's talking to sign language people. So he, that's the sign for the bullpen. If he, if they would have hit, so just think about it. Go to the month that Putin hits Ukraine. That would have Speaker 4 (21:52) been in 2022. Perfect. Speaker 6 (21:54) A month later, he should have hit it. A month later, he should hit it. It would have been so confusing for everybody. For the UN, especially. It Speaker 4 (22:01) would Speaker 6 (22:01) have been so confusing for UN. It would have been so confusing on how for Biden to handle it. So what pin do you wear? Do you wear the Ukraine pin? Do you wear the Taiwan pin? Which pin do you wear? What I'm trying to say is those people that were trying to play these moralists or whatever. I think Xi is Speaker 1 (22:19) sitting there behind closed doors saying that they... There is nobody in the world. There is no one in the world that wants. There's no one in the world that wants a Democratic president more than Xi today. Speaker 4 (22:34) I agree. Speaker 1 (22:35) Nobody. And guess who else they don't want? Guess who Xi doesn't want on the Republican side? Speaker 4 (22:40) Marco Rubio. He does not want Rubio. Of course not. Speaker 1 (22:43) He wants a. Democratic president or second a JD Vance. Speaker 6 (22:47) I agree. That's what he wants. And Speaker 7 (22:48) you know what? It's so I agree. You know what? He wants a Speaker 6 (22:51) non interventionist president and he wants a Democratic Speaker 7 (22:54) president. You know, those two, you know, I agree 100 percent. Look at the look at the difference from Trump. Republican to what the Democrats, if like I get it because you have to come to the White House, you have to lay out the red carpet, so to speak. But look at during Biden, when he went to freaking San Francisco, they literally got took all the homeless people and they said, you guys need to go and hide for a week Speaker 2 (23:14) in Sacramento Speaker 7 (23:15) in Speaker 2 (23:16) buses. They bust Speaker 7 (23:17) them out of the city. Yeah. And they hitchhiked back over two weeks. And look, Tom, and look at all the connections that we found out with Hunter and Joe Biden. They could have done whatever they wanted under Biden. I think that's a freaking. Great observation. He missed his mark. He missed his opportunity and should have done it. I'm not saying I wanted him to do it, Speaker 6 (23:34) but... But Speaker 1 (23:35) I think that's the part. I think he's regretting it, and I think it's going to come, and he wants, number one, an AOC, number two, a Newsom, number three, J.D. Vance. He does not want a Marco Rubio. That's not what he wants. And he can't wait for Trump to be gone. He's doing all this stuff for diplomacy reasons. But... Okay, so here becomes the question, Tom. What are the chances China attacks Taiwan while Trump's president? Speaker 2 (23:56) Very low. 1%. They play the long game. I'm going at maybe 5%, and they only do it like if weird things keep happening and around, and there's a confusion moment where they can step in. Speaker 6 (24:07) Yeah, so I think here's the Speaker 1 (24:09) question. So I'm like this. Here's my question for you. You ready? You ready? Okay. So be in the room. Be in the negotiation room. Hey, Trump, what if we do this? In their own way. I'm not going to try to do their accent. In their own way. You know what? Let's give it a shot. I'm Speaker 6 (24:25) actually Speaker 1 (24:25) not going to do it because it's a serious thing. I don't want to make this funny. Go ahead. No, no, hear me out. So what if they say this? What is the likelihood that you think Xi's camp has made this offer? Hey, President Trump, wink, wink in their own way. We will step out of the way and no longer buy anything from Iran and let them suffer if you allow us to go and attack Taiwan and do our part. We will be 100 % ally to you. if you allow us to do what we want to do with Taiwan. We will let Iran be destroyed. We'll even support in the regime change. What do you think is the likelihood that someone on their team has relayed that message to someone on Trump's team? I don't think that message Speaker 2 (25:07) is quite like that, but I think it's probably, I'll go with 75 % chance that something in that vicinity has been said. Why wouldn't they? They're not going to give up on Iran. You get what I'm saying. I don't think they're going to give up on Iran. When you look at Belt and Road and you look at the geography going to Europe, I don't think they're going to give up a customer or a vendor like Iran. But do I think they would kind of move the chessboard a little bit for that? Yes, Speaker 1 (25:30) absolutely. What do you think they value more? controlling Taiwan and being the dominant player in chips? Or do you think them having control of Iran with the Strait of Hormuz and all the oil that's moving through there, all the inventory that's moving through there? Speaker 2 (25:45) I think they value, this is Belt and Road, and take a look at the Silk Road that goes from Samarkand. Take a look. You okay? Jushanabe? Speaker 8 (25:56) Tom, Speaker 2 (25:56) don't even try that, Tom. Samarkand. You know what? Keep going, Tom. Speaker 1 (26:02) No, you take a look. What Speaker 2 (26:03) are Speaker 1 (26:03) you saying, Tom? You're saying what? You're saying there's no chance this is happening. Speaker 2 (26:07) No, I'm saying I think there's been a conversation Speaker 1 (26:10) along those lines. Between zero to 100, how important is them getting Taiwan? Score it. To them, very important. Give me a number. I think it's 99, to be honest with you. And if you want something that's the 99 type of a level. Speaker 7 (26:24) Somebody's talking to somebody. And so Speaker 1 (26:26) guess what Trump is sitting there. If I'm Trump, guess what I'm thinking? One, there is no way we learned during COVID the hard way how much control China has and how we will be in trouble if the next COVID happens and event takes place. So what are the likelihood that Trump's going to give that up, Tom? The chips. Speaker 1 (26:45) Zero. Okay. So if that's zero, then what's the likelihood that China would be willing to stay out of Iran for them to have control of Taiwan? Speaker 2 (26:56) I don't think they give up both because of this. That is their path to Europe. For China specifically? Yeah. They think long about this. The path that goes from Uzbekistan to Istanbul, they think about that. So Speaker 6 (27:09) then the question becomes, do you take that Speaker 2 (27:12) out? Look, Speaker 6 (27:12) they're still half isolated. If you if if they had Speaker 1 (27:15) a choice between IRGC staying running Iran or a regime change taking place with more honest players like a Saudi, not necessarily like angels, but an honest player that just is about business and money. Who do you think they'd rather take? China. I Speaker 2 (27:32) think they'd rather they'd rather work with IRGC, which is against the West. I'm 100 percent. Speaker 6 (27:38) Then then this is then this is then this is why, you know, the idea of them wanting Trump out should be the number one priority. Get this obnoxiously strong negotiating guy that comes in thinking he runs the world out of the way and give me a Newsom. Give me an AOC. Give me a. A DSA person. Give me a Shapiro. Give me a Ossoff. Give me anybody but this guy. Give me a non-interventionist president so I can go out there and complete my mission and get this before another Republican shows back up. And they're praying behind closed doors. You know what China would be doing behind closed doors? If China is playing the dirty game, they would spend a $100 million campaign with bots and stories making sure they scared the crap out of Rubio not to run. The propaganda to make Rubio believe that he cannot win in 2028 is the number one priority. Rubio cannot run for office in 2028. If Rubio doesn't run for office for 2028, it's the most important thing for China if Rubio Speaker 1 (28:37) doesn't win. I agree with that. I agree with Speaker 4 (28:39) that. Because they know how hawkish he is and how tough he is. Speaker 1 (28:43) Rubio is not going to play the game with them. I agree. And Rubio is not going to sit there and be like, no. Speaker 6 (28:47) Let's just mind our own business, and let's just focus on America, and let's not worry about what's going on around the world. And then around the world, they're going buying the chips, and you're just like running your own community, and they're getting more power around you and more power around you and more power around you. Hey! How did this non-interventional strategy work? They're not all your neighbors. What are you going to do now? Well, it's not that. Let's just focus on our problems, and then you lose market share. That's what's been happening. And real quick, this Speaker 4 (29:11) is why I said that there's no decoupling from China, and our conversations need to keep going on, because there's a checklist of things that are a high priority. Obviously, Taiwan is important to them. And you know the two words that Trump and the administration says to China whenever Taiwan comes up? Status quo. They don't even get into it. They're like, Our position is the status quo. They don't even address it. I'm Speaker 6 (29:31) going Speaker 4 (29:31) to go to Speaker 1 (29:31) the next story. I'm going to go to the next story. Next story I want to get to is Scott Besant talks about what's going on with Iran, Speaker 6 (29:37) that they have two more weeks left because they're about to get their last payment of oil. They have nothing else left to sell, and they're going to be hit very hard. I want you to watch this. Then we're going to go to the foreign minister of Iran. Watch what he says. Go for it. A million Speaker 5 (29:49) more barrels of Iranian oil on the water that Iran will have nothing left to trade for anything. They will have nothing to trade for anything. Probably within the next two weeks, they are going to make their final deliveries of oil to China, and then they will have nothing. It is an empty set, and I believe that they are feeling the pressure here, and that's why they want a deal. And you saw when President Trump was leaving the White House this morning. The Iranians say they'll open the straits within seven days. Larry the streets are open. Speaker 8 (30:26) If Speaker 5 (30:27) you take out the if you take out the Iranian oil which we're not letting out