David Pivnick
speaker
231 appearances
7 recordings
1 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard Jun 2025
David Pivnick’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Yeah, I'll start with it from a bit of a side angle, which is I find the whole attack on that front and the coining of the phrase taco, you know, one part clever and one part incredibly stupid. The one part that's clever about it is Clearly, the folks who are pushing it recognize fully that it's the kind of thing that will get under President Trump's skin, will irritate him, will make him unhappy.
And they're doing it, clearly, to tweak him and to get under his skin. And so from that standpoint, you can see how it's a little bit clever because they're sort of succeeding politically. in their goal.
The flip side of that is the very people who are doing that are the same people who in the next breath would tell you what they don't like about President Trump is that he's mercurial and unpredictable and potentially will lash out. It seems weird to criticize the tariffs and criticize the approach and then do something that is almost affirmatively prodding President Trump
to take stronger action to avoid the taco name sticking. I feel like the very folks who are upset about tariffs and how things have played out are creating a situation where they're almost priming the pump for President Trump to take a harder stand. So from that standpoint, I find it just...
Clever in part, but almost too clever by half or too cute by half, where they're potentially going to make the problem they're worried about worse.
You might be right, and that's not a point I would argue. What I would say is if that's the case and you are right, I find that disappointing and somewhat intellectually bankrupt of those folks, because it's folks who are, again, fundamentally opposed to President Trump. And I think the most typical criticism that I hear about President Trump is some variation of
He doesn't really care about what's good for the country. He's self-interested and he just wants the chaos or to protect his own self-interest.
And so for someone to be being provocative for the point of waving the red flag in front of him to get him all riled up and have him do things improperly, those folks would be doing exactly what they claim to be concerned about President Trump doing, trying to inspire ratings. and fun news bites for their own benefit, which would be very disappointing if that was really the thought process.
I think as much as anything else, it's trying to get clicks and less focused on the Trump reaction and viewing that as a happy side effect, a happy coincidence. It's a click-driven time period these days where people just want the attention and the eyeballs and almost, I think, approach things with a let the chips fall where they may afterwards dynamic.
And that is on the tariffs and the general initial question of what do I think about it? Look, I think there are definitely instances where the United States has been maybe taken advantage of as a bridge too far, but certainly has gotten the lesser side of trade deals and where I think addressing some of those imbalances and double standards that have existed made sense and was prudent.
I think the unpredictability of tariffs and some of the unintended consequences of that, whether it's on the stock market or on domestic jobs or pricing, inflation, et cetera, I think is unfortunate. And so look, as a general statement, I would like to have cohesive plans, whether it's on a sports team I cheer for, a business, the firm I work for, I'm a partner in, or with government.
Having a cohesive plan and then moving towards that plan, to me, has value. If I felt truly in my heart of hearts that the instituting of tariffs and then retrading and then pulling back and then reinstitution, if I thought that was part of a grand plan to get from point A to point B, I'd feel a little bit more confident in it than
where I think some of it is very much reactionary and feeling things out and trying to assess how bad things might be or how much you might be able to apply pressure. So I think trying to focus on trade and trying to correct some of the imbalances, broadly speaking, is good strategy.
I think having a cohesive game plan for doing that would be better strategy, and I'm hoping to see a bit more of that going forward.
No, I think that's right. It's going to be trying to figure out exactly what we can accomplish, and I think from his standpoint – what he can sell as a win and as being accretive to the American people. And I think as things progress, that's going to be more difficult to sell if things like the deficit are not and debt spending are not addressed.
And I think there's been lots of consternation on both sides of the aisle regarding the budget and And I think things like the tariffs are not going to be a one-size-fits-all solution there. So I think, really, it's got to be figuring out a negotiated outcome that has at least incremental wins for the country.
But just as importantly, I think it's recognizing tariffs aren't a cure-all to the financial problems that exist. And a lot of that is going to have to come down to addressing spending and also strongly thinking about taxation in the country as well. which are much more complicated discussions.
Yeah, look, I think my biggest thought on it really comes down to Elon and how he's personally reacting. I've seen the tweets that you're referencing or maybe the X's, I don't know what I'm supposed to call them these days, but I find Elon Musk endlessly fascinating because I think he is
On the one hand, an incredibly smart, capable person with an incredible ability to understand big picture issues and to think about them and to think about the future of the country, the planet, etc.
And then I also see him sometimes as a guy who just wants to get on Twitter and post memes and troll people, which, frankly, I think should be beneath him relative to his wealth and intellectual capabilities. And the fact that he could be spending his time making the world a better place rather than, you know, trolling to live.
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