Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, Wall Street's biggest banks looking for some clarity on policy. JP Morgan's Jamie Timon urging Trump to start talks with China and telling the ft quote, we should be careful. I don't think anyone should assume they have a divine right to success and therefore don't worry about it. Joining us now to discuss the former Republican House Majority leader Eric Cancer. Eric, welcome to the program, So welcome back. It's good to see it.
Nice to be here, Jonathan.
Let's reach that. What do you make of the approach from the administration to trade over the last few weeks.
Well, listen, I mean there are so many there's so much noise, so many signals coming from the White House right now.
I think that.
Market players are just, you know, sort of trying to take a step back and figure out if they have a portfolio of companies, you know, what it is that they look like, if they're import sensitive. Obviously, there's now a little bit more focus on what's coming out every single day of the White House. I think the imperative for the President and his team today as we're meeting
with Japan is to demonstrate success. I mean, this is where I think people are looking for some amount of clarity and that what does it mean when we're supposed to be enduring some pain and the president's been pretty clear said hey, we've got we're going to change sort of the trajectory of the country.
We're going to strengthen the foundation. And if that's the case, what.
Does it really look like when he's dealing with the counterparty and if it's Japan and I would say even India, because India is the one that is most protectionist, that comes to mind. If we can demonstrate there's an opening up of that marketsa this is what it's all about. I think that that would calm some nerves right now.
Are you convinced that is the metric for success?
Well, I think you know there is at leasta you talked about sort of taking him literally, taking him seriously or hinted of that what you just said. And I look at this term of the Trump administration somewhat differently than the way we look at the last one in that almost he is sticking to his little word when we're talking about tariffs and trade here.
So Jonathan, back to your question.
If he's about trade deficits, because that's been one of the real metrics that he's put out there consistently.
That's what it's about.
So who are we going to see the Japanese buying more of our goods? Are we going to see that along with the opening up of their markets so that our exports can flow into these other countries.
The President ran though, on hutting everyday goods down in prices, things like groceries, things like gas. A recent CBS poll says the majority of American sea tariffs adding to prices, adding to inflation. Can they wrap this up before the midterms?
Well, this is the and then this brings up the last point.
I think that's really important about today, and when we look at Capitol Hill when Congress gets bad, I think the administration and the Republicans need to act with dispatch. It's important that the get there is some success under the belt demonstrably, so the markets see that in terms of dealing with countries, and I think from the Republican standpoint in Congress, they've got to get this reconciliation bill done.
Simplicity is their friend right now. Adding additional taxes doing those kinds of things is going to take weeks, if not months, to bring everyone on board. And I think if we can just extend what President Trump had said was the greatest tax bill ever twenty seventeen, they should just go ahead and do that.
If I had said to you, Congress right now is debating whether or not to raise taxes on people that make a million dollars a year. Would you think that came from a Republican or a Democrat.
It is an extraordinary concept coming out of what I believe is still a very pro growth party. And I think, as I think you've been discussing this morning, the three legs of the stool of the Trump Economic Plan. One of them is taxes, the other deregulation. Along with the trade agenda, all that has to come together to help growth in this country, to see incomes rise, wages, growth, wealth, all of it opportunity. And to sit here and say that we are going to be increasing marginal rates on
individuals that ends up hurting small businesses. I mean, that's the trick there. When they start talking about millionaires. Remember we've got a lot of people in this country that file taxes, that have subs or LPs or that are taxed at the individual level, but actually run businesses. And I don't think they're going to get too far with that concept.
But what if they do. This is a pillar of conservative orthodoxy, not to raise taxes period on anyone. What do you make of the party in the direction of travel if they were to go ahead with this, Well, again.
I'm not sure that they're going to go ahead with this.
So they're discussing, well, I'm not so sure how widespread that discussion is and what kind of enthusiasm there is. This is not a pro growth item, and I think more of the focus is going to be on how they come together on these pay fors because we saw again the important data point that occurred last week was the bond markets.
We saw the concern.
There about the fiscal health going forward, and I think it's really important they focus on that so they can act with dispatch and get these tax rates extended.
Heading into this year, the belief was that President Trump was going to be a pro business president who is going to focus on fiscal responsibility as well as celebrating national champions. We have seen policies that have reached the opposite consequences in markets. Do you think that this President is still pro growth.
I do think he's a business guy.
I mean, we all know he's a real estate developer from New York City that was very successful and had times here where just like any in the real estate business, they are ups and downs. But he has demonstrated the ability in business to create wealth.
And I think he wants to do that for America.
And so yes, I think he is now what he's going about doing in re ordering our economy and trying to sort.
Of rebalance, if you will, the balance of trade as well as the burden.
Sharing that occurs with US and our allies, importantly in the financial realm as well as the defense realm.
Although you have a unique position because you wear the hat of both being in government in a leadership position and also talking with tons of companies while being vice chair of molus. Do they have the confidence to invest? Do they feel like they can be expanding right now and have confidence and conviction that ultimately this whole mix will benefit where they're heading?
Well, I mean I would say, first of all, we're still America, right, I Mean, there is still this unbelievable country that we've got with and we can go through the various aspects of what draws capital and investors here, rule of law, transparency, you name it, innovation, the rest.
We're still that the Trump administration understands. The President in particular has said the biggest asset we've got is this huge consumer market that the world now has tooled up to take advantage of, and he's trying to use that to go in and create a more stable trajectory longer term,
both from a fiscal and economic standpoint. So I think listen right now, as we started, there's a lot of signals that are creating this sort of question on the minds of individuals, whether they are strategics, whether they are sponsors, and how to go about in terms of conducting their business. And that's why I say again, really really important that we see manifestation of success.
You know, the present's really good at communicating.
I hope we can see some communication of success and that people will begin to understand what the trade off here is.
This is ambitious stuff. Let's finish on this. Governor. Youngki is in your seat yesterday and we asked him this question. I'll phrase it differently. At the moment, there are two very left wing politicians in this country Philly stadiums. Getting support at a time in the Democratic part is an absolute mess in supporters rock Bottom. I get that, But do you worry that if the president isn't successful that a number of years time this pendulum could swing aggressively
to the left. If the right can't provide the solutions, does this country seacunt solutions from the left?
Look, all I know is the left is so in tatters, and.
The one pillar that they've got of any kind of unity is so extreme on the cultural side and the design of where they see the world. There is no way that the mass of this country, in terms of an electorate, is going to adhere to that extreme Bernie Sanders AOC agenda. There is just no way now not to say that there will be unhappiness if we don't see success again. Which is why I come back to the point it's important that we act with that we see some urgency and acting with dispatch in Washington.
Because you understand the risk here to bring up the em example that you swing between Bolsonnaro and Lula. Bolscenaro and Lula start to resemble what we see in Latin America. Repeatedly, we are America.
We are America.
We are not Brazil, right, so we have a long tradition of continued institutional guardrails, protections. We have the deepest, broadest capital markets there are. I still believe that we can get through this. Again, as you said, this is a very ambitious goal that the president has set out to sort of rebalance. It is where we can head.
And the fact that there have been some people left out, and when you talk about these stadiums that are filled by Bernie Sanders and aoc accolytes, it is those people that are looking for the answers and frankly a lot of sort of people who feel left out if there are those stadiums. They are looking to the president to deliver on the promises.
That he's made.
It's an ambitious agenda. We've said it repeatedly on this program. For the good of the country. We hope he's successful. Eric is good to see it. Thanks for droving night the former House majority to their Eric cancer