Sound On: Inflation Cools, Trump Legal Woes (Radio)

I believed he was gonna run before. I'm a stronger in my belief now, Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. It might be ridiculously hot outside, but inflation is cooling. The CPI number out this morning was eight point five. We're gonna hear more from Wisconsin Congressman Brian's Style on his reaction to that news. Plus, Donald Trump was in the hot seat again today pleading the fits during a live deposition in a New York case

involved in his real estate business. And then we're gonna we had another round of mid term elections yesterday. What do they tell us about November. I'm Emily Wilkins filling in for Joe Matthew today for the fastest hour in politics. So obviously big story today, that's CPI report. Inflation is still high, but not as high as it was last month, all onta eight point five percent gas, airfares, those prices are down, but cost of rent, cost of food that's

still climbing. Inflation has remained a top issues for voters throughout this year, and we know from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that we can expect high inflation to persist into three with us now to discuss this and other issues. As Congressman Brian Style, Wisconsin Republican Congressman, thank you so much for joining sound On. Absolutely thanks for having me on.

I wanted to just sort of jump right into it, start talking about the big news of the day, obviously the CPI numbers, and I want to get your sense of what the takeaway is. Obviously, the report this morning showed that inflation is slightly down to eight point five Is this a good sign? It's it's good that it's down, but when we dig into the numbers, I don't think it gives a lot of confidence that long term we're

moving in the right direction. What do I mean by that We look and see that energy prices are down, but not because supply is up, but because demand is down, as if we're already in a recession. And so I remain concerned about the broader impact that this is going to have on our economy, that our economy, which is contracted last quarter, we may continue to see that going forward.

What we need to do is work in Washington, d C. To increase supply and predict in particularly unleashing American energy. And what we're seeing from the Biden administration from one party Democratic control is further taxes on oil and gas production, which will only increase the end cost to consumers and do nothing to address the supply constraints that we have with American energy. I do want to ask about that a little bit, because you did see legislation passed recently

that deals with funding for semiconductor semiconductor manufacturing. You're seeing a legislation that's going to be voted on in the House on Friday dealing with tax credits for various renewable energy sources as well as other things that are meant to lower some costs. I mean, aren't those bills meant to bolster the supply side of things. What we're seeing is government subsidies in specific industries, green energy, chips, other

key sectors in the economy. But what we need to be working on in Washington is the fundamentals of economic growth to allow this to be a sustainable growth And one of the challenges we see is a refusal to unleashed American energy, which is a key component of the inflationary pressure people are feeling. Further, they're actually raising taxes

on a whole host of businesses. Is going to come in impact everyday Americans, whether or not that's a that's a tax on stock buy back that's going to hurt American retirement accounts, whether or not that's the tax on domestic production of oil and natural gas, which people are going to feel when they're heating their homes this upcoming winter or filling up their car with gas this summer. And so I continue to see the policies move in

the wrong direction. Simply subsidizing key sectors does not make a sustainable growth pattern in the United States. Congressman, talk with me a little bit about what Republicans are thinking. I know that right now you're working on a larger policy plan. Obviously, there is a really good chance right now that Republicans will be in the majority in the House next year and be able to implement things I think, you know, we we could be easily see inflation still

at a very high level. Uh, if Republicans get the gavel and control next year. So what are Republicans going to do to address some of this inflation and make sure that that we're not going into a recession? Well, I a great question in one is unleashing American energy. We referenced that too. We need to make sure that businesses are in a position to increase supply across us the board, and so as we've seen from this administration,

we've seen constraints in particular in the supply chain. We need to be allowing businesses to go out to hire people, to bring workers in from the sidelines, changing those key social policies that have left far too many workers on the sidelines. And then we need to do a broader approach here of unwinding a lot of the COVID era

policies that are still impacting Americans every day. That's everything from addressing ways that we can look at the social safety net structures that were altered during the COVID period. How do we unwind those to help workers get back up and on their feet and sustainably into the middle class. How do we unwind the tax policies that this administration is moving forward by increasing their increasing taxes on businesses

and all Americans. I think we should be doing the opposite of particular during a period of time of recession which we are seeing ourselves in. I'm wondering if you do think that there is something to be said about the renewable energies that we are seeing being promoted in the bill on Friday. And no, obviously that Republicans are not supporting the bill. Republicans will not be voting for

the bill. But at the same point, I've spoken with with folks in your in your conference, including Congressman Garrett Graves, who feels like there is some spot for renewables. How are you thinking about that we need an all of the above energy approach. There's absolutely in need for additional sources of clean energy. There needs to be more win, more solar, and we could go down the line. The

key is that market fundamentals need to be driving this movement. Forward, not simply government subsidies, and so I'm a I'm a believer that there probably will be more electric cars in the future. I don't think it's the role of the federal government to be subsidizing people who can afford a sixty five dollar electric vehicle. I think that's the wrong approach.

I think that's an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars. And so I'm a believer that we do need in all of the above energy approach, we're going to see more investment in the mess to clean production of energy. But simply working on the subsidy side rather than looking at how we broadened the supply generally, I think it's the wrong approach. I also want to ask you a little bit. Obviously,

there were elections last night in Wisconsin. Um, you easily won your your primary, congratulations on that, but there were a number of really contested races. I know that a lot of big questions about the governor, about other other seats in the in the in Wisconsin. What were your

sort of main takeaways from last night? The main takeaway in Wisconsin to me is that people are ready to move forward and talk about how do we unwind ourselves from one party Democratic control in Washington and a Democratic governor in Wisconsin that hasn't been good for workers. People want to rip the band aid off the COVID era policies that we've seen, some of the spending that we have seen this driven the inflation. People want to get

spending under control. They want inflation under control. They want to make sure, in particular in schools, that children are being taught how to think, not what to think, and that we keep our community safe. And so I think we're going to have a robust national dialogue, in a national dialogue taking place in the state Wisconsin as well, about the direction of our country. And I think people are ready to put a check on the Biden administration. I also wanted to get your thoughts just on the

Senate race. There's been some criticism of the Republican who currently has has a seat, Ron Johnson, just given some of the statements that he's made that have been a bit controversial on on covid uh, just on various conspiracy theories kind of flying around, And I'm wondering if if you can comment a little bit, if you think that that kind of rhetoric is helpful for the Republican Party.

I think Ron Johnson is ultimately going to be successful, and I think it's because he shares what's on his mind, and so he shares the frustration. I think that a lot of voters have what's taken place in our country over the past two years, and so that frustration, I think will show up on the polls that people want to get our way of life back. They want to rip off the bandit off these COVID era policies. They want to get prices under control so they can afford

the things for their families. And so we're going to have one of the major and most important U S Senate races in the country. But I think when voters walk into the polling boot, they're gonna want to return to the life we had pre COVID rather than continuing under this high inflationary environment that we've seen. I think the result of that will be Rod Johnson will be successful come November. But haven't we kind of already moved past COVID. I mean, you and I are both on

Capitol Hill. The masks are off, their folks are back. You know you're not. We're not having to even even in d C show our vaccine cards that many places anymore. I mean, wouldn't you say that that COVID is already over and yet we're still struggling with this inflation. But I would say it's a lot of the COVID era policies that put us in the place that we are today. I say, there's still a lot of the spending that's related to COVID era spending policies that are still flowing

through the economy and having a significant impact. The so called American Rescue Plan that was one point nine trillion dollars of new government spending authorized just over now a year and a half ago. But the reality of that is that spending is going to continue for the next eight years in front of us, and so we have an opportunity to unwind many of these policies and get spending under control. And so the fact that COVID is beyond us and I believe we are from a health standpoint,

more or less. On the other side of it, I do think that a lot of the policies that were put in play beefed up social safety net programs that encouraged workers to stay on the sideline rather than getting back to work. We're still navigating through those terrible policy decisions, and that is one of the key drivers, I believe of the inflationary environment that we're in. I did want you to very quickly weigh in on the search warrant

that was executed down in Mara Logo. Can you just talk very quickly about if you think that what is at this point, what should the next step be. Should there be an investigation of the FBI or do we need to really know more information about what that search warrant was based on. The rate is unquestionably unprecedented, and I think what is still challenging for myself and many people is the FBI and the d o J have not come forward and provided an update. And so what

I would like to see is additional transparency. We need to understand what was the decision making process that went into this, why was this conducted? And I think the reason so many people like myself have questions is because we haven't seen that transparency yet the FBI in the d o J. And so I think step one is the FBI and the d o J need to come forward and provide the American people an update. Congressman, thank you again. So much for being with us today. Thank you.

That was Congressman Brian Style, Republican from the great Midwest state of Wisconsin. In just a minute, we are going to assemble the panel for a deep dive into today's inflation numbers, what they mean for Biden and if after months and months of low approval numbers, he might finally get a break this week. And we'll look forward to what both the upcoming primaries as well as last night's primaries. This is Emily Will This is I'm em lookins, this

is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg sound on on Bloomberg Radio. This is Emilin Wilkins here with sound on. Obviously, big news of today was that CPI report inflation. It might be an eight point five percent, but President Joe Biden wants you to focus on one number, that month over month change. Zero. Today we received news that our economy had zero percent inflation in the month of July. Zero percent.

Here's what that means. While the price of some things go up went up last month, the price of other things went down by the same amount. The result, zero inflation last month. But people were still hurting a zero inflation last month, zero zero, zero well, let's bring in Bloomberg Politics contributors Jamie Schanzano and Rick Davis. Rick, I'll just start with you here. I mean, is it fair to really be focusing on the number zero when inflation

is at eight point five? Well, I think they just picked something that they thought was sellable and wouldn't get them into trouble in the future, right, I mean, like they can make it sound really good. Hey, we had zero inflation in a month. But you know, the options are is this peak inflation or are we now seeing a drop in inflation? And and the question for them is going to be how they present this to the electorate who were going to be voting in a couple

of months. And I think it's kind of a an interesting trick that they're playing, you know, by picking on zero, because it's just it's a it's a positive number, right, everybody's been talking about how much inflation has been going up and up and up, and and I think this is a number that gets them comfortable. It gives them something positive to say without getting trapped into gosh, what if it goes back up or bounces up, you know, next month, and then all of a sudden you know

that zero isn't a zero anymore. Yeah, it feels like we're doing the whole transitory inflation thing again as lyrics. As you literally began talking. The White House Press Office just put out another release and the headline is a month of zero inflation. Uh, Jenny though, I mean I take Rick's point well that you know, they can message all they want on this zero number, but you still have higher inflation for voters. Are they really paying attention

to the fact that inflation zero present this month? Is this actually going to make a difference to the average American? Zero has never sounded so good to the White House. That is the watchword of the day. Um, and yes, it has been a very very good week, good week and a half for this White House. And you know, if anybody had told me a year ago that this is where they would be killing the number one terrorists, the Chips Act, the Reconciliation Bill, you know, the Packed Act,

you know so much. And now inflation today we get the number. It is cooling off. I mean, that is the reality. It is slowing from a year ago. We don't have to talk about this forty year high. And and you and Joe Matthew you don't have to play the number one song from forty years ago, so we can all remember how bad it was. So this is a very good day for this White House. And let's add to that, gas prices down for the fifty seventh day in a row that you know now hovering. I

think nationally around four dollars plus minus four dollars. So is it perfect? No, to Rick's point, you know, should it go up, you know they're gonna have to message that. But I think that they are trying to be very careful and moderate while making the case we're going in the right direction. I want to dig into a little bit about Biden's week. Jeanie laid it out really well. You got the CPI report, you had him signing the Chips Act yesterday, you had him signed the burn Pack

Act today. On Friday, the House is very likely to pass parts of his signature legislative plan. Rick, are we going to start seeing a turnaround in Biden's numbers? Well, it's certainly a better messaging right now. Um, you know the fact that they're actually getting something done on Capitol Hill. He's able to be seen, you know, signing important legislation, delivering financial aid to people all up and down the

economic sector. But you know, then wild cards happened in the FBI raid on Donald Trump's home in mar Lago kind of blew a couple of these big announcements right out the front page of the newspaper. And so I think that he's still struggling with how to do uh, positive announcements without Donald Trump interrupting his show. And the reality is he did have a good week. He's had a good month really in August, not a month that

many people are paying attention. But when Donald Trump gets to grab the headline and and he didn't even have to try to do it, it was done to him. Um, it's just an unforced atone attorney general exactly certain extent. Yeah, Jimmie, what do you think here? Is there any way for Biden to really begin to get his poll numbers back up? I mean, if if a week like this doesn't do it, what is It's tough. But I will note I was just looking at some of the three latest polls from

August seven to August nine. You've got Reuters res musen An Economists. He is ticking up and now he is forty to approval. Now that may not sound perfect. He's still underwater, but you know, you look at you know, previous polls and he was down sometimes in the load to mid thirties. So he's ticking up there. Um, you know, is it going to change him completely? No? The reality

is I think very important. The Democrats have been trying to show and Biden as a part of this in this last month, as Rick said that Washington is able to work, you know, narrowly, not doing as much as they wanted it to do, certainly, but they are able to talk about important pieces of legislation that are widely supported among Americans. Do I think it's going to be

a game changer in the mid terms. No. I think though that coupled with Donald Trump in the news and some of these extremest Republican candidates, maybe enough to say the Democrats the House, I mean the Senate. Rather, they will lose the House, and that in and of itself is a huge win for Democrats if it happens, a huge if I mean, Rick, I do want to toss it to you do. We've got only about thirty seconds left,

But you're the one with campaign experience. How difficult it is is it to take wins like this in Washington and really translate them to voters. Yeah, you need sustainability. You need to be able to do it over a decent amount of time. You can't just have one good day and then you know a series of back backlashes. So I think these guys are starting to get their

their mojo back at the White House. If they can launch a good campaign post Labor Day and let it last for a while and not be interrupted by global events or Donald Trump, they have a shot. Well, Rick and Jennie stick around. We will be back to talk a little bit more about some of those accomplishments, as well as the week that former President Donald Trump had certainly a lot of headlines. They're coming up. We will speak to Greg Jarrow with Bloomberg Government about the primaries.

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is Bloomberg Sound on with Joe Matthew. It is Wednesday in an election year, which means that last night another round of states held their Primariuses include set up a marquee Senate match in Wisconsin and a Trump backed candidates wound up having quite a good night. But the most interesting House primary is arguably yet to come. We're going to break it all down with Bloomberg Government Elections reporter Greg Jerow, a guru of all things elections at Bloomberg Government.

Greg Jerrow, Greg, thank you so much for joining us. Obviously a lot that went on last night, numerous states holding their primaries. I wanted to get started on the major win I think for Trump last night. His endorsed candidate for Wisconsin governor, businessman Tim Michaels, defeated former Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Cleefish on Tuesday to secure that Republican nomination. UH. The Wind's gonna pit Michael's against Democratic Governor Tony Evers

in November. Uh. In conceding the race, a Cleefish told supporters that the fights now against Tony Evers and the liberals who want to take our way of life. Let's listen to what Michael's told his supporters, and as governor, my number one prioritis take care of the hard working people of Wisconsin. Definitely, well, all the way with Wisconsin, all the way with Chee's Kurds. Greg Darrow, what was

your takeaway from that governor's race last night? Well, that Republican primary family really accentuated the former president's continued sway and Republican primaries. Tim Michaels was probably began that race as the underdog, but he got a well timed endorsement by Trump and he defeated as he met Rebecca Cleefish, who was Wisconsin's lieutenant governor under Scott Walker, the early

front runner. She had Walker's endorsement and also Mike Pences, so this was a proxy battle between Trump and Pence that Trump won. And I'd also note that the Wisconsin Republican Assembly Speaker, Robin Voss, was almost unseated by a pro Trump challenger just because Voss refused to agree with the ex presidents much debunked false claims that the Biden over Trump and Wisconsin could be discertified. So Voss held on too, barely held on to his seat against a

underfunded Trump challenger. So uh, this is still still very much Donal Trump's Republican Party, especially in Wisconsin. I mean, Greg, should we should we be surprised by this? I mean Wisconsin, They've got a Democratic senator, they've got a Democratic governor, they voted for Democrats in the past. What do you make of the fact that Trump backed candidates did as well as they did? Uh, well, it's it's definitely on

general elections, it's definitely a quintessential swing state. Wisconsin is the only state that was within one point for the winner of the presidential elections. Um, in Republican primaries are just a different ballgame because it's a smaller and much

different ideological electorate. But now, um, you know that we have to move forward to the general election where I think you know Tim Michaels and um, he's probably gonna have to maybe modulate his strategy and maybe some of his rhetoric to compete in a fifty fifty state against the Democratic governor Tony Evers. And then we've got that Marquee Senate race where um, yesterday we had a lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes, Democrat, when the party's nomination to face

Republican incumbent Ron Johnson. That's going to be one of the five or six Senate races. I think that will determine which party wins a majority in November. Yeah, I was about to ask about that one. I mean, you mentioned that Michael sort of need to regulate his rhetoric a little bit. I mean, certainly, Ron Johnson has had his fair share of controversial statements, particular around COVID. Is he also going into have to change his tune a

little bit if he hopes to keep his seat. I think he'll probably, I think he'll Any adjustments he makes will probably depend on the political environment. Um. You know, he's um, he's known for kind of fiscal issue conservatism. You know, I remember when I covered his first race when he upset Russ Fineld. He very much ran with the the energy and enthusiasm of the Tea Party movement as existed then. Um. He still focuses a lot on

cutting regulation, cutting taxes, cutting spending. Has had some controversial statements, as you've mentioned. But this is going to be a very close race, for sure. I also see that Vermont is on the path to get its first woman to represent the state in Congress. Greg what took Vermont so long, I thought, I thought Vermont would have had this one already, I would have two. And Vermont actually has one of the best records in the country when it comes to

electing women to state legislative offices. But they've never It's the only state that's never elected a woman in Congress. That's going to change in November, right thinka Becka Balance who is the UH state Senate President pro tempore A one the key Democratic primary in UH yesterday for Vermont's loan statewide seat. Peter Welsh is giving up that seat to run for the Senate, so that created an opening.

One reason why women have not had really many opportunities in Vermont is that it has just one seat in the US House, as I mentioned, but also a lot of the male incumbents who have served there, including Pat Leahy, the forty eight year Senator, Bernie Sanders, and Peter Welsh, have served for a very long time, and it always is always very odd for me to think that Bernie Sanders is the junior senator from from Vermont, just because

Pat lay has been there for so long. Well, Greg, I want to look forward a little bit too next week when Liz Cheney daughter of Dick Cheney, outspoken anti Trumper, is going to face the fate of Wyoming voters. I saw there was a poll recently from the Casper s Jar Tribune showing that she is trailing her opponent by twenty two points. Greg, is there any way that Liz Cheney pull this off. It's hard to see how she

does it. I mean, she's a queer underdog in a state where Trump won seventy of the vote in that was his best showing nationwide. And so of the ten Republicans voted to impeach Trump, you know, four declined to run free election, and Shaney is the last of the six seeking reelection to face the primary voters. Three of those six have already lost in the primary to barely advanced and Shaney is more likely than not to lose

to Harriet Hageman, who's backed by Trump. So we may have at the end of the day, one, maybe two of the ten Republicans voted to impeach Trump left in the next Congress in January. Yeah, I mean also yesterday, even though this primary happened back on August two, you saw a Congresswoman Jamie Harrara Butler, a congresswoman in Washington State, also one of the ten who voted for Trump's impeachment,

also concede to her opponent. Uh, there was a Watchington as a bit of a different primary structure, but basically the top two spots, one of them was taken by a Democrat and one was taken by a Republican who Trump endorsed. Greg, we only have about thirty seconds left, but from your perspective, it seems like Trump is still

the kingmaker within the Republican Party. Is that fair to say? Yes, he still has a lot of clout and as we've seen from the results of the primaries involving the Trump and peats, including Jamie Horror Butler, it really underscores how Trump and his supporters have almost completely purged the House Republican Conference of Trump opponents and skeptics. Well, Greg Darrow, thank you so much for joining us, and I'm sure we'll be hearing from you soon as the primaries continue.

That's Greg Jarrow Bloomberg, Government election reporter. The one are the hosts of the Down Ballotcounts podcast. Definitely take a listen to that. Up next, we're going to get into burn pits legislation finally signed into law, and the wild week that former President Donald Trump has had. I'm Emily Wilkins. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg sound on on Bloomberg Radio. Usually, usually August in d C is quiet, lawmakers are gone, everyone goes on vacation. But that is

not the case this week. We have all been busy. President Joe Biden among us signing. He signed legislation into law expanding care to veterans who have suffered from toxins released by burn Pits. I know that we've talked a lot about this particular bill on the show. It has now become law, but even we might not have talked about it as much as the former host of The Daily Stow, John Stewart, who camped out on the Senate steps with veterans and families were impacted to pressure the

Senate to pass a bill. He was at the White House today with President Biden, and Biden made sure to give him a shout out, and John, I want to thank you again. I I wanted to come up and hang out in the Capitol steps, and the Secret Service said I would be pain the neck and wouldn't let me do so at least we did a little video on there. But but what you've done, John matters, and you know it does. You should know it really really matters.

Your reshuges. Let anybody forget refuge to let them forget, and we owe your big man, We owe your big Let's go ahead and bring back in Bloomberg Politics contributors Jimmy Chanzano and Rick Davis. You know, Rick, I feel like this bill could have been such an easy slam dunk right getting help for veterans. Everyone supports the veterans, and yet you had to have Jon Stewart get involved because the bureaucracy of Washington just weighed this bill down.

It was bogged down by process. It was bogged down by politics. Rick, what is your overall takeaway from the movement of this bill. Yeah, I think that this is a bill that was going to happen, and as you point out, Emily, the process got in its way. I don't know any Republicans who are actually opposed to the bill, but they got characterized for voting against it because of some procedural issues, especially with where the money was coming

from to fund it. It was a big, big funding item over you know, almost three billion dollars and um and and it was gonna happen. It just didn't happen along the way that that it should have. And I think that John Stewart took good advantage of the fact that sometimes making sausage in Washington, d C. Looks a little gross. But you know, they got to build out, and they got to build past and sign and I don't think that people will remember sort of the hiccups

along the way. I think this will be a bill that everybody goes back after recess and says to their constituents, we took care of veterans. Ten do other advocacy groups need to take a page out of the playbook here and find a celebrity to camp out on the Capitol steps until their legislation's passed. Yeah, it's not a bad strategy, but I think it's really important to out for a moment and say this was a long term promise made to veterans. It's a critically important bill, very deeply personal

to the president. He attributes the death of his son bow to these toxic pits, and so you know, this is a very big moment across the board, and it's you know, it's ric it's bipartisan. The Repulicans got caught up in the spending issue, you know, discretionary otherwise. But you know, this is a huge win for veterans and a very long time coming. And it was a very

moving bill signing, and John Stuart deserves a lot of credit. Um. But you know, I think the celebrity asside, we should underscore how important this is for veterans who have suffered long, too long as a result of this not being taken care of much earlier. Absolutely, I mean to think that these are folks you know, sacrificed um, their time and effort and work to defend us, and that they got sick on the job, and that you know, we it's taken us this song to do something. Uh. Certainly a

very big moment there at the White House today. Um. We think we mentioned a little bit earlier about how Donald Trump was stumping all over Biden's week. I'm just gonna go ahead and follow that trend because there's so much to discuss here. You had a federal appeals court saying that a House committee could be looking could now have Biden's sorry rather Trump's tax returns. You obviously saw that really unprecedented search warrant executed at Mara Lago by

the FBI. And then today you saw Trump go for a live deposition with the New York Attorney General. They're looking into his real estate and and the amount that he claimed that it was worth. And then when he was there, Trump said, I'm just going to plead the fifth. And you think that maybe after all of this, if you're wondering how it's playing out. Uh. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has a has a big takeaway on this one. I believe he was gonna run before. I'm

a stronger in my belief. Now, Rick Davis, tell me about the dynamics going on here. I mean, this doesn't sound like a great week for Trump, and yet it seems like there's a lot of enthusiasm and momentum behind him right now. Yeah, And and that doesn't even cover half of the lawsuits that have been registered both civil and federal and state against Donald Trump. I mean, he's gonna spend a lot of time in depositions. But look, I mean it does, as Lindsay say, kind of force

him out right. I Mean, what's a good way of wiping out a lot of these lawsuits, run and win another terminent uh for president. So I think it's almost like an action forcing event. You know, the dial is so turned up on all this legal harangue against Donald Trump that it's almost leaving him no option but to run. And um, the legal process has to run in stuke. Course, it's going to there's no stopping it. Um, these things are all going to find their their their level set.

But uh, it does kind of force don Trump's hand. And we saw him release, you know, right after the FBI rate on mar Lago, a very well produced video that was obviously done in advance, ready to start talking about him running for president. And I really by the time the three and a half minute video was over, I thought, I assume it's gonna say at the end he's running for president. Yeah, that was I think they also displayed that video at Sea Pack, the the big

Republican annual conference that that took place this year. Correct, Yeah, a version of it. I think they juiced it up a little bit for this occasion. But like this is where their heads are. They are out there actively telling people keep your powder dry, uh, talking to donors about them run uh, you know, and he, of course, Donald Trump is a master at the marketing effort, and and

he doesn't know anything to market better than himself. And so he's taken full advantage of the opportunities that that these lawsuits are given him to uh, to look like that this is gonna be the reason gonna run. I wouldn't be surprised to here out of his mouth. You know, if I hadn't been sued so many times, I probably

wouldn't have run for president. I mean, this is this is really a kind of a grade A class in in making lemons are making rather lemons lemonade out of lemons, Jennie, I wanted to switch to you sort of for the Democratic side on this. I mean, you have seen narratives and studies that have said that when Trump tends to be in the news, it can actually be a good thing for Democrats because it really mobilizes their base and gets done to turn out. Is that something we could

potentially see this time around too, Yeah, we can. Um, you know, Donald Trump has had a very good, as you spoke with Greg, a very good showing in all of these primaries. Are many of these primaries, you know, there were some exceptions like Georgia for instance, but across the board, you know, I would say of his endorsements

at these top levels have done very well. But Democrats are betting on the fact that the very people he is getting into these uh you know, positions of being the Republican nominee in some of these states like Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia's Senate are going to not be able to pull it through in the general election, which will help them potentially hold the Senate. So from that perspective, Democrats feel like the more Trump in the news, the better, um.

You know. The flip side of this, of course, is as we look to, for instance, the raid um, as we look to the Donald Trump pleading the fifth Um. I noted the fact that both the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have pieces today that this puts real pressure on the Attorney General Merrick Garland to put up and show why they had to take this unprecedented step. And it is truly historic and unprecedented. Um, why not, for instance, couldn't they cooperate? Why not do

this via subpoena? Why this sort of dramatic what Donald Trump called falsely raid on his compound or his Mara Lago estate, So that I think puts real pressure on the Attorney General, who of course is you know, works with then and for the Democrats and Joe Biden, and in turn it does energize Republicans. So I think this can split both ways in that perspective, and I think that's really something to watch. And as Rick said, Trump is saying, now he's there after me because they're worried

I'm going to run. So he's marching himself right into a potential run. No, And I think, Jennie, that's such a great point to break up, because now I think there is this big question, well, what prompted this search of mar logo? What were they looking for? What's actually the takeaway? I mean, we know that there were some boxes that the former Trump administration gave over to the National Archives willingly. I think it was about fifteen boxes

of information. This is before the search, and it's a kind of a question now, like, well, was you know what was missing? Was there something in those documents? I do want to pivot quickly to the deposition today for the New York Attorney General. Trump went ahead and pleaded the fifth Rick what does that actually mean in terms of the investigation. Well, as Donald Trump has said in the past, only guilty people take the fifth, so state

applies to him. Um, you know, look, I mean I I think these are the kinds of tactics that real estate people sometimes using New York and and it's pretty clear that they think, Um, you know, these inflated valuations and diminished h insurance coverages, you know, gave him outstanding financial leverage, and he's now paying a price for that because you know, the state is looking into it and

and sounds like they've got quite a case. So the fact that he even had to do a U a subpoena and and talked to the case officers was a victory for the stake and lots of investigations that we will be keeping our eye on here at Bloomberg. Jamie Schanzano, Rick Davis, thank you so much for joining us, as well as Greg Darrow and Republican Congressman Brian Style. I'm Emily Wilkins, and for Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg