Just two weeks after Craft Ventures co-founder David Sacks hosted a high-profile fundraiser for former President Trump at his Silicon Valley mansion, filled with venture capitalists and tech elites, Trump made an appearance on Sacks' podcast on Thursday, covering a wide range of topics from taxes and tariffs to energy to artificial intelligence to foreign policy decisions to Ukraine to China to Covid to immigration and many other issues the Biden administration seems to be failing on.
The podcast features Sacks, entrepreneurs Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, and David Friedberg, who spoke with Trump for about 50 minutes - asking intelligent and clear questions. There were no 'gotchas' like you see with corporate media activists.
Sacks began the interview by explaining how business leaders at his fundraiser expressed tremendous difficulty in today's economy under the Biden administration.
"You got the crypto guys who just want a framework. They just want the government to tell them how to operate - and they can't get that. You have no M&A happening right now in tech. The real estate guys can't get loans because interest rates are through the roof, and there's a credit crunch. So I think one of the common themes we just heard across that dinner was that it was just so hard to do business right now," Sacks said.
He then asked the former president: "What are the three things that you would do to kind of get things moving again, you know if you're reelected?"
Trump responded: "Regulation Regulation and Taxes - Okay. I gave the biggest tax cut in the history of our country a lot to the business," adding, "As you know, companies were paying 40% 45% including state and city taxes in many cases, and we got it down to 21% - would like to get it down lower."
Trump defended his tariff proposals against criticism that they would spark more inflation, asserting the policy was essential for maintaining the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency. He stated he would penalize countries that abandoned their peg to the dollar by slapping them with tariffs on their products coming in the US, adding, "With tariffs, it gives you a tremendous power."
Trump then pivoted to energy, in which he said, "We have more liquid gold under our feet," referring to fossil fuels. He focused on energy independence and the need for reliable power, not necessarily overloading the nation's power grid with unreliable wind and solar.
The former president appears to have been sold on 'The Next AI' trade and the importance of powering up America for the digital age.
"To be a leader in AI, the amount of electricity that is like double what we have right now and even triple what we have right now," he said, adding that "a windmill turning with its blade knocking out the birds and everything else is not going to be able to make us competitive."
Trump also said, "Nuclear is okay with me ... and you have to do it in a way that makes sense," explaining that the future of America's nuclear power plant revival is likely to be based on small, advanced reactors instead of massive plants.
Sacks then shifts the conversation to foreign policy, asking Trump, "Can you guarantee that no matter what, you're not going to put American boots on the ground in Ukraine?"
Trump responded: "I wouldn't do it. It's different for France. You know they're neighbors, and more or less, we have an ocean in between. It's different for Germany, although Germany's much less involved than it should be, and other countries, but uh, you know, we have a big ocean in between."
"Ukraine would've never happened, the Israeli attack would've never happened, and inflation would've never happened - those are three big things," Trump continued.
When asked if he would support a national abortion ban, Trump stated that he doesn't need one because the issue is now up to the states.
On Covid, Trump emphasized that Dr. Fauci played a larger role in the Biden Administration than in his own, as he didn't rely on or trust Fauci much.
Around the 40-minute mark, Sacks brings up the immigration crisis. He asked the former president, "A lot of tech CEOs say, uh, if we fix the Border, can we get more H-1Bs for Tech workers?"
Trump responded: "What I want to do and what I will do is you graduate from a college. I think you should get automatically as part of your diploma a green card to be able to stay in this country, and that includes junior colleges."
At the end of the discussion, Chamath asks Trump about releasing the JFK files. Trump says he will release the files the moment he gets into office.
When asked if he believes Biden is in cognitive decline, Trump avoided a direct answer, stating he doesn't think Biden is doing well and has never thought of him as smart.
In the post-interview recap, the hosts share their thoughts on Trump's comments made around the 50-minute mark.
Here's the full breakdown of the interview:
(0:00) bestie intros: big house talk!
(1:37) economy: regulation, taxes, tariffs, taming inflation, de-dollarization
(12:02) federal debt: growth, spend control, where to cut, role of energy, nuclear
(20:22) foreign policy: ukraine/russia
(25:05) foreign policy: israel/palestine
(28:13) abortion: stance on a national ban
(31:09) foreign policy: china
(32:33) covid: origins, fauci relationship, deep state, bad deals
(39:39) border: wall, immigration, h-1bs, recruiting global talent
(46:07) jfk files: full release, importance of transparency
(48:06) debate prediction
(50:15) post-interview debrief
Watch the full interview below:
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