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We're joined now by Governor Mike Dunleavy of Alaska. Governor is great to see you, Thank you for joining us. Great here in Milwaukee. We're all sweating a little bit here. It's not quite a last weather.
I hope you're enjoying it so far. What do you make of this pick? JD. Vance?
So many of us were surprised by it not being a surprise name yesterday.
This has been something long in the works.
Oh well, I think I think the President is picking somebody that will carry forth his agenda after he leaves office and while President Trump is in office. Obviously JD. Vance will be a close confidant to the president. He's younger. That'll probably appeal to younger Americans. But I think, you know, I have confidence in the President that he knows what he's doing. I don't know JD that well. I know he's a senator from Ohio, but hope you get to know here in the future. Off the November fifth.
Well, he's only been a Senator from Ohio for about a year and a half. He is a political newbie, and I wonder as a sitting Republican governor. But you think about the idea of a governor who has executive leadership running one of the states in the United States of America, why that selection may not have been made.
Well, keep in mind President Trump was not elected in the office before he was elected president. And sometimes when you get a perspective outside of government, and I've been outside of government, I've been inside of government. Sometimes when you get a perspective outside of government, you carry a perspective of the people into government as opposed to being a career government official, and you know, looking at the
world from that perspective. So I think that's what probably factored, you know, at least partly into the decision by the president bring.
Us your a unique perspective on energy coming from Alaska, and what a Trump two point o would mean, because the Biden administration is reminding us on the daily that our output right now, we're pumping more oil and gas than ever in the history of the United States. Yet there seems to be this idea that Trump would be friendlier to the energy sector than Joe Biden.
What would in fact change.
I think he will, I think of the luck for it.
Tell us specifically, I mean President Biden has called for a moratorium on shipping gas overseats.
That's not going to happen.
Under President So that's lifted immediately.
Yeah, okay, in terms of anwar, which was the National Whilife Refuge in Alaska on the North Slope where there is oil in his gas. Under the twenty seventeen law that was passed, those leases went up for sale. The Biden administration illegally, and it is true it's illegally shut those leases down. That'd be lifted, I believe under President Trump. And then taking up upwards of thirteen million acres of NPRA National Patrolling Reserve off the table for oil and gas.
I think that'll go back on the table.
President Trump was the best president in the history of Alaska from my perspective. When I came into office and I had my first meeting with President Trump, he said to me, what can I do to help Alaska? And that was every single meeting, and he probably did more than any other president in the history of the state.
President Biden. Under his administration, there are approximately sixty five actions by the federal government against Alaska, taking land off the table for oil and gas exploration, closing down the tongest National Force not going through with a land exchange to help some of our indigenous people in King Kove be able to get a road out so their people don't have to fight weather with their planes.
The list goes on and on or not.
But under our president that we have right now, President Biden, sixty five actions.
That's more actions against.
A state than the federal government has against places like Iran.
It's incredible if.
We could just continue the energy conversation for a moment longer. What we have heard a lot from Donald Trump and those close to him is this idea that it's just deregulation on leasha American energy, if you will, and he spoke of it to that idea. But when we think about these oil and gas companies, which we're very familiar with here at Bloomberg, they have to be incentivized to actually spend their capital. Capital discipline has been the name
of the game for years. It's about we're turning it to shareholders, not necessarily investing in new production in a world that is trying to transition to green energy. So beyond just deregulating, does more need to be done to incentivize these business businesses? To actually drill more well in places like.
Less truly deregulate. That is going to save money.
You won't have to spend as much money potentially on permitting and a litigation. And to the concept of transition, I really believe that that concept disappeared several months ago with the advent of new chips from the video, the Blackbell chip, the whole AI movement. You're going to need three to six times as much energy as you have now to power those server factories. So I think it's going to be additionality, not transition. They're going to see
more discussion about additionality. More win than solar, more oil and gas, more nuclear, more any type of energy possible. And I think the locales and the countries that win the energy war and that respect are going to win the supercomputing in the AI world to war too.
If you were the energy secretary, and you can respond to that as you want, how would you approach nuclear This is something actually we talk about a lot on Bloomer because of the incredible boom and data centers and AI and the massive amounts of power required. We're talking about now potentially opening data centers on the sites of nuclear power plants.
What does the future hold form and nuclear?
You know, nuclear has had a troubled pass and unfortunately some of the President Scott I think is unwarranted. There's probably been fewer individuals killed or died as a result of nuclear accidents and almost any other type of energy
put forward in terms of accidents. But if I were the Energy Secretary, and we're dreaming here for a moment, I would facilitate a consortium amongst states, among private industry provinces in Canada and maybe other countries to come up with a calendar, for example, on small nukes, to say how many small nukes can we get in the hopper, to permit to design, and to get a whole industry set up behind creating new nuclear facilities across the country.
I think that's one of the things that the nuclear industry wants is they want to know if we're going to begin a process of creating a whole new industry on small nukes, do we have the commitment to actually fund those nukes, pay for those nukes, and cite those nukes in various places.
So I think that would be a big stop.
Governor. I just picked up on the words you use there, we're dreaming here? Are you saying that is another way to say we're speaking hypothetically or because you actually do dream of being Energy secretary?
No?
No, no, that was that was hypothetical. I'm just saying for the moment.
Here, So Donald Trump offered you that job, Well.
I'd have to have discussions with the president, but you know, I'm looking forward to working with the president, helping the president and moving this great country forward and Alaska forward.
Have you spoken with him since Saturday?
I spoke with his campaign folks, and I sent him a text. But you know, I also understand that after such a traumatic moment, the President's going to need to talk with his in a circle on his family more so than folks.
Spond Was he texting over the weekend?
He was textually with some I got a text back immediately from a campaign chair, So we're in contact.
Yeah.
Well, as we continue to grapple with the aftermass of this week, and pretty much every person we have talked to, elected official or otherwise has talked about how the tone of this convention needs to be different. As a result, much more toned down rhetoric, the lowering of the temperature
across the board more of a message of unity. And I just wonder, given what you see in your state, or just in your position as a governor, if you see in America that is truly capable of that right now, given how deeply rooted our division seemed to.
Be, I do I think what happened. Yes, they shook everyone to the core. I really do believe that. And I was on the floor yesterday on the convention, and I did not pick up from anyone that there was an attitude or atmosphere of vindictimness or quote going after folks.
Quite the opposite.
I think people were excited about the possibilities of another Trump administration coming in here November fifth. The discussions were very I think positive, And you know, I'm an individual that doesn't really tolerate that type of talk, to be honest with you, I'm not part of that, don't want to be part of that. And I think I think then I hope the country is at a point now where we start to focus more on policies as opposed to personalities.
Well, tonight's theme, today's theme crime and immigration. If there's any one of these four days where the rhetoric could get hot, where the red meat's going out the crowd. I presume it will be today.
Do you agree?
Possibly?
Possibly, But I mean those two topics, crime and immigration, I think are topics that are near and dear to most Americans. Hearts, and we are a country of immigrants. We are a country of immigrants. But I believe in a strong wall with many doors. I believe that we should have a strong wall in which we have immigration, in which we're bringing people in this country that want to be Americans are going to contribute to America. Unfettered, wide open borders, I think is a catastrophe for any
sovereign in the world, especially this country. And in terms of crime, I think over the last couple of years, we've seen our cities burn, We've seen the homeless issue escalate. I think it's problematic, and I do think a change in administration will bring changes on the ground.
Well, it's interesting to hear you say this is the governor of Alaska, which is perhaps furthest removed from the southern border, at least in a physical senses as any state can be. So what extent would you say this is the dominant thought? Well, we know people that you governed. Where is it a different issue.
We are far away, but unfortunately for Alaska, we've had more depths per capita through fetanyl than any other state in the country. Met fentanyl is coming through the southern border.
So just that.
Alone, if we can somehow impact that effect that in a positive way to reduce that flow, it's going to help Alaska, it's going to help every country in the state in the United States, probably Hawaii as well, even though Hawaii is in the Middle Pacific. But unfettered borders doesn't help anyone. And as I mentioned, in Alaska's case, the fetanyl coming of the border hurts us as well.
Is that so much a border issue if I could ask you quickly, or is that actually a China issue at the root?
How do we a combination of both? Probably a combination of both.
But if you have a southern border in which there are thousands in thousands and thousands of people coming over, not checked, unfettered getting into the country, and you have cartels in Mexico, it doesn't take you know, it doesn't take a genius put two and two together that you're gonna have some drug problems.
It's really interesting to hear that that's a long journey from the southern border to Alaska, talk to us about the path that it takes and the policy needed to stop us.
Just the same way it's the Minnesota re main. You could drive to Alaska, you have to go through Canada. You can fly, you can mail it, you can take it on ships. There's these people are very creative. As a response to this, we just passed the bill that I signed a week before I came to the Convention that increased the penalties for dealing drugs that result in a death to a second degree murder charge. Because we have to get serious about this. Everybody knows somebody that
knows somebody that has been impacted by drugs. Everybody knows somebody that knows somebody in which they may have had a loved one that overdosed on some of these on some of these drugs and cut short of promising lives for these people. We've got to do something about it. The border is part of that solution. Discussions with China is part of that solution as well.
Of course, Senator jd Vance has a very personal history with drug abuse in his own family as well. He has talked about that openly. He did so again when discussing fentanyl in his first interview after being named the vice presidential nominee yesterday. As we consider policy that jd Vance is likely to adopt, we've been describing him as a populist, an isolationist, potentially just a newer, younger version
of Donald Trump. How do you see your party changing as a Republican governor as we are not just considering President Donald Trump, but potentially a vice president jd Vance who is very very similar.
You know.
I think again time will tell exactly what the new vice president nominee is really thinking on some of these issues. I tend to know what President Trump is thinking on these issues. The change is that you're referring to the I don't know how big. I don't know how large or big those changes are really going to be. I think there's going to be some nuances and implementation. I think there's going to be some emphasis on certain policy decisions.
But I don't know how great it's changed. I mean, I think the Republican Party, this.
Isn't Mitch McConnell's Republican Party anymore.
Really, I think it's the America's Republican Party. I think when Donald Trump came in, it became a party of the people as opposed to elected officials, politicos, oligarchs, etc.
There are fifty thousand people here for this Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Most of them have never been to Alaska, and I'm guessing will never go.
What do you want to know? What do you want them to know about that?
Well, from an economic standpoint, Alaska's part of the solution for America. We have the largest oil field in North American conventional oil field in North America.
We have over one.
Hundred trillion cubic feet of gas that can help American our Asian allies. We have forty nine of the fifth the rare earths that could help the United States be strategically independent of China. We have one seventh of the country's timber. We have some of the largest fishing ports in North America.
No, we're a bashing of freedom.
We're the only Republican state left on the West Coast, and we take our freedom seriously. We're a Second Amendment state on any other We have the highest per capital of retired veterans in the state of Alaska. We have admirals and generals that retire to the state of Alaska, and that we are the fort for Alaska. We're only two and a half miles from Russia, fifty water miles from Russia. We have the Russians in our airspace that
we chase out on a continual basis. We have the Chinese working their ships up through the Bering Strait, so we are a strategic part of this country.
Great Governor, well, thank you for spending some of your time here in Wisconsin with us. Maybe one day we will see you in Alaska. That's Governor Mike don Levy of Alaska, thank you so much for joining us.