Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Libraries Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Blog Pricing
Podcast Image

TBPN

Trump-Xi Summit, Space Data Center Debate, Inflation Up | Diet TBPN

13 May 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the significance of the Trump-Xi summit?

2.123 - 24.758 John Coogan

The big news this week, and I'm sure what everyone will be focused on, is, of course, on the cover of the Wall Street Journal. That's the Trump-Xi Jinping summit that's happening in Beijing. Trump and Xi Jinping vie for wins at summit. They're duking it out. And Trump brought—they both brought a big crew with them. A team. Yeah.

0

24.778 - 26.781 Unknown

Trump brought— Geopolitics.

0

26.761 - 41.145 John Coogan

A couple of political people that we won't even care about, but the business leaders are what is particularly interesting. So we got Elon Musk from Tesla, Tim Cook from Apple, Jensen from NVIDIA, Kelly Ortberg from Boeing.

0

Chapter 2: Who are the key business leaders attending the summit?

41.165 - 61.415 John Coogan

A little flex there because Boeing has been able to maintain the lead in manufacturing large planes for a very long time. DJI has not been able to scale up and make a 747. What's going on over there? David Solomon from Goldman Sachs, Stephen Schwarzman from Blackstone, Larry Fink from BlackRock, Jane Fraser from Citi, and Dina Powell McCormick from Meta.

0

62.596 - 71.127 John Coogan

So we should read through the stakes of the Trump-Xi Jinping summit in the Wall Street Journal from the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

0

71.147 - 81.426 Unknown

Before we get into that, let's get into the more important stuff, which is... Do you think Jensen was always coming on the trip, right? There's been some speculation. He got on the plane in Alaska.

0

81.767 - 82.027 John Coogan

Oh, yeah.

0

82.187 - 86.533 Unknown

Was that just the most convenient place for him to get on, or was he a late addition?

86.553 - 90.798 John Coogan

I don't know. Why would he have been a late addition? I don't know. It seems like a logical person to bring.

90.818 - 92.681 Unknown

Well, because there was reporting earlier this week that he wasn't going.

92.701 - 93.842 John Coogan

He runs the largest company in Alaska.

93.822 - 98.807 Unknown

I know, but there have been statements made from what I saw that he wasn't going.

Chapter 3: What are the stakes for the U.S. in the Trump-Xi discussions?

205.501 - 226.363 John Coogan

Trump arrives in Beijing with Elon Musk and Jensen in tow. I guess the rest of the business leaders came separately. Their arrival with, are those cheerleaders or something? I don't know what, they seem to be waving, oh flags, they're waving flags. That makes sense. Well, there they go walking down the red carpet. Air Force One is truly stately.

0

226.483 - 249.637 John Coogan

It's so disappointing that the economics of the airline industry didn't just get bigger and bigger. And so you find yourself very rarely on 747s unless you're flying across the world because they do have such a presence. And there's spaces inside. But we have been, you know, cramped down into the 737 for pretty much everything.

0

249.717 - 253.781 Unknown

Are there videos where they give a proper tour of Air Force One, or is it kind of locked down?

0

254.141 - 276.361 John Coogan

I think they've done tours. I mean, there are several Air Force Ones, I believe, that are on display at presidential libraries, and so you can go and tour them. There might be one at the Smithsonian. I'm not exactly sure, but I'm pretty sure you can go walk around old ones. I wouldn't be surprised if they keep the current spec somewhat secretive. There we go. This is very grainy footage.

0

276.421 - 292.894 John Coogan

It looks like, oh, maybe it's just the middle of the night or something. And it reminds me of Dune. Dune. My Arrakis. That's Taiwan, though. Anyway, let's go through Jensen's pack list. He was having trouble thinking of what was he going to bring. Of course, he landed on just a ton of leather jackets.

293.375 - 296.241 Unknown

And even the sneakers, I feel like, are pretty iconic.

296.221 - 302.092 John Coogan

Yeah, like the uniform is really starting to compound where it used to just be the jacket.

Chapter 4: How does AI influence the U.S.-China relationship?

302.292 - 311.829 John Coogan

Soon we will know the exact brand and specs of the pants as well as the shoes and the whole Jensen uniform will be out in full force.

0

311.95 - 333.078 Unknown

Yeah, the clothing industry doesn't want you to know this. Just getting a few pieces of clothes that you like and then wearing them until they fall apart is incredibly underrated. Not saying that's what Jensen's doing, but it's pretty funny. I tend to wear almost the exact same thing every day. And so sometimes people on the team will come in and be like, oh, we're matching today.

0

333.498 - 336.522 Unknown

Like, every day you dress like this, you will match with me.

0

336.502 - 360.872 John Coogan

Yeah, that's right. That's right. There's obviously a personal brand benefit to adopting a uniform. We've seen it with Jensen, Steve Jobs with the black turtleneck, Palmer Luckey with the Hawaiian shirt. Big news from Anderle today. New round series. Are they running out of letters? Series H? H. Series H. 51, 61 billion, something like that. Fantastic progress.

0

361.013 - 369.542 John Coogan

You adopt the uniform, you become more iconic, you become more recognizable outside of your face, and that builds your personal brand, your lore, and it helps you sort of differentiate and stand out, right?

369.723 - 387.163 John Coogan

The flip side, the thing you gotta watch out for is that if you are always dressed exactly the same, and you never switch your wardrobe, clips of you saying something a decade ago can go viral, and if you're aging gracefully, it will look like you said them just yesterday.

387.143 - 405.802 John Coogan

And that can be a big problem if, say, you're an AI CEO who a decade ago was reading some sci-fi and thinking like, man, there's something to this Terminator thing. And then maybe in the past decade, you've done a lot of work, you've investigated the systems, you have a more informed position and opinion. Well, the old video of you still looks like you today.

405.982 - 416.273 John Coogan

And so there might be something to leveling up the wardrobe and changing the wardrobe over time that actually creates more distance between, oh, well, clearly that was

416.253 - 423.744 Unknown

So this is an indirect way of saying you want Jensen to be in a leather sort of trench coat eventually, like flowing robes?

Chapter 5: What are the implications of the space data center debate?

485.59 - 487.313 John Coogan

It looks like a normal 747 on the outside.

0

487.333 - 488.295 Unknown

It looks like a yacht.

0

488.275 - 509.163 John Coogan

I feel like there's a big swing in fuel efficiency based on the color of the plane. If you paint your plane black because you think it looks cool, it will attract more heat and you will burn a lot more fuel. And so most companies go with white. Spirit Airlines went yellow. I don't know if that had anything to do with their downfall.

0

509.203 - 520.837 John Coogan

But you would think, is there a chance, is there some weird economic logic where If you paint it gold, the gold will reflect the sunlight and increase fuel efficiency.

0

520.857 - 526.183 Jordi Hays

Well, unfortunately, the exterior is not good. Well, so you should wrap your plane in like a mirror-like surface. Yeah, maybe.

526.523 - 544.028 John Coogan

But yeah, I don't know if that actually... That would reflect the most. That would probably reflect the most, right? Yeah. Mirrored plane. There are some silver bombers and jets that are in service across the United States Air Force. I can't call upon it right now. This really is a sky yacht. Chessboard.

Chapter 6: How is inflation affecting the current economic landscape?

544.351 - 547.78 John Coogan

You think anybody's played chess on there? 4D chess.

0

549.937 - 554.181 Jordi Hays

Yeah, the whole plane is actually used for 4D chess, John.

0

554.201 - 575.522 John Coogan

4D chess. AI is being put to good use, visualizing Xi Jinping, Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Tim Cook having a beer and I guess a cigarette as well in China somewhere. And then look who pulled up. If you scroll down, Jensen coming in from the back, looking pretty good, looking pretty good. Maybe not 320 lean, but he's certainly up there.

0

575.502 - 583.118 John Coogan

Let's go through the Wall Street Journal's report and what the editorial board had to say about the stakes of this summit. What's actually at stake?

0

Chapter 7: What are the potential consequences of rising inflation?

583.178 - 601.893 John Coogan

So the United States wants stability, but Chinese communist leader has larger ambitions, says the Wall Street Journal. Journal's editorial board. President Trump visits Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday, and the pre-meeting U.S. spin is a search for stability, in quotes.

0

602.394 - 624.785 John Coogan

It's a nice idea as long as Mr. Trump doesn't think personal rapport can overcome Mr. Xi Jinping's anti-American purposes, says the Wall Street Journal. The agenda ranges from trade to technology to Iran. On trade, the best outcome may be ratifying the status quo, a truce on tariffs with a promise from Beijing not to hold the world's rare earth supply hostage again.

0

625.125 - 634.316 John Coogan

The markets, business leaders, no one wants chaos. Everyone can sort of work around a tariff plan if it's going to stay in use for a long time.

0

634.336 - 640.002 Unknown

It is really funny for Trump to be coming in being like, look, guys, all I'm asking for is a little stability here and there.

0

Chapter 8: How do geopolitical tensions impact technology sectors?

640.927 - 647.913 Unknown

I just want stability. I want calmness. I don't want any conflict.

0

648.093 - 673.197 John Coogan

Didn't he famously call himself a stable genius? Stability has been part of his brand for a long time, at least the one that he projects. Mr. Xi Jinping, on the other hand, China's weak economy is an incentive for him to cooperate, and he'll hope to placate Mr. Trump with promises of buying more farm goods, We talked about this previously. More aircraft and other things.

0

673.577 - 696.043 John Coogan

But Mr. Xi Jinping has made that promise before and U.S. farmers have never regained their lost market share in China. Rare Earth's ransom offer, the Rare Earth's ransom offer may be more U.S. advanced chip exports to China. Xi Jinping views artificial intelligence as a decisive theater in Beijing's competition with the United States.

0

696.023 - 715.235 John Coogan

And he is trailing, though not by much, maybe six months by most people's estimates. The administration wants to talk with Beijing about AI guardrails and by all means keep the phone lines open. But don't expect much from AI arms control. And the best deterrent is U.S. dominance on models and computing power.

0

715.275 - 727.333 John Coogan

Beijing will be happy to make pronouncements about responsible stewardship and then pursue its own interests with little regard for norms or limitations. laws. Beijing is engaging in, quote, industrial scale theft of American AI models.

727.793 - 745.437 John Coogan

The Trump administration warned this year, and don't forget the Justice Department's indictment this year of a technology executive and associates allegedly running a sophisticated operation to divert high-end chips to China. That was Super Micro. Yeah, they were doing the heater. What was it? The hairdryer?

745.417 - 748.401 Jordi Hays

Yeah, they're putting the sticker shipping labels on there.

748.421 - 772.757 John Coogan

Fake shipping labels. Noticeably absent from this trip are the key leaders of the top AI labs. I mean, Elon Musk is there, yes. And Jensen is there, obviously, deeply involved in AI, as are many of the other folks. Dina Powell McCormick at Meta. But you don't have Demis from Google. You don't have Sundar from Google, DeepMind. You don't have Dario from Anthropic or Sam Altman from OpenAI either.

772.737 - 791.569 John Coogan

And each one of those leaders has their own complicated relationships with the federal government and the Trump administration. So it's not shocking that they aren't there, but it does feel like there's a little bit of a disconnect between the conversation that's happening in Silicon Valley and the conversation that's happening on the global geopolitical stage at the highest levels.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.