Wall Street WeekBloomberg Washington Correspondents Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz deliver insight and analysis on the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
On this edition, Joe and Kailey speak with:
- Former-Trump Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette
- Lindsay Chervinsky, Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library
- Shirley Martey Hargis, nonresident fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub
- Rep. Brad Sherman x RussellU.S. Representative for California's 32nd Congressional District
- United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and five pm Eastern on Apple Coarclay, and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
It's official now, having been sworn in as the forty seventh President of the United States, Donald Trump delivering his second inaugural address, The.
Golden Age of America begins right now. From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again.
All over the world.
We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. Every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first. Our sovereignty will be reclaimed, our safety will be restored.
As we bring our signature panel back in Bloomberg Politics, contributors Rick Davis and Janie Schanzano have been with us for the duration today and great to have both of you with us here. Donald Trump says, the Golden Age of America begins right now.
Rick, Is that true?
Well, look, I mean we have a fantastic economy, We're respected around the world. Our military is second to none. Why wouldn't it be a golden age of America for now? I mean, American exceptionalism is adopted around the world. Everybody wishes they had what we have, and so I think if we could take that to the next level and look, if he can make good on his promise that our strength can create peace around the world, then that is a worthy task to try and accomplish.
We want to go live now to Capitol Hill as Rick and Jeanie stay with us, and please to say Republican Senator Bill Haggerty of Tennessee is joining us now from the Russell Senate Building. Senator, thank you so much for being with us. Happy Inauguration day two. You, of course are quite close with now the forty seventh President of the United States, but he's going to need a team alongside him. What is your expectation about just how quickly you will be casting votes to confirm his cabinet nominees.
It's actually going to be as soon as this evening. The Senate forig Relations Committee's going to meet later this afternoon, four thirty five o'clock. I expect Marco Rubio to be reported out unanimously from that committee. He's our next Secretary of State, and I hope that our Democrat colleagues will cooperate with us, go ahead and accelerate the process, and let's get him appointed tonight.
We can do that.
We have the authority to do that here in the Senate with Democrat cooperation. I think that's the possibility. I also think that John Ratcliffe could come out of the Intelligence Committee tonight. We could see the same thing this time. The pace, I think is absolutely necessary given the national security challenges that we face right now.
These two gentlemen, Marco.
Rubio, John Ratcliffe critical elements a President Trump's team, and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to move very rapidly. And similarly, just keep making this pace as rapid as possible through the course of this week and next and really put the core part of President.
Trump's team around him as soon as possible.
It's good to see you, Senator, thanks for joining us on a very busy day here in Washington. Of course, presidents push on a lot of paper today. When do mass deportations begin? And what should employers who are watching and listening right now prepare for So.
I talked to Tom Homan just shortly after the inaugural speech. Tom is going to be the busiest man in America starting tomorrow.
But I think we're going to see a lot of action. Fast.
Executive orders will be coming into place this afternoon, and we're going to see a tremendous amount of movement because this mandate has been clear. So seventy five percent of Americans said this nation was on the wrong track before election day.
The number one issue has been.
Immigration, the crime in our cities, the fentanyl coming into towns across my home state of Tennessee. And we're going to also be passing the Lake and Riley Act here in the Senate. That may be the first piece of legislation. I believe it will be that President Trump will sign into law.
With all of the focus that he seems to want to put on the current US borders. Senator, and with your foreign policy expertise, having served as ambassador to Japan, what do you make of the kind of manifest destiny language, this notion of potentially expanding US borders in this administration.
Well, he's made a very clear point that he's got America's interest. First, if you think about the conversations around Greenland critical minerals, I think these conversations are extremely healthy. The Panama Canal is something he's been focused on for some time. I've talked with him about this on numerous occasions. That should be an asset that is very favorably directed toward US interest and not in any way contradictory to those interests. And President Trump went through it today in terms of the way our navy is treated moving through there, the fact that we've got Chinese own shipyards on either end of the canal, these are serious national security concerns that he wants to address. He also talked about basically putting us in a position to go to Mars. I think that's incredibly exciting for young people.
It's a great challenge.
It's something I've talked with Elon Musk about the possibility of doing. Elon told me it's a six month voyage. I think we're on the cusp of being able to see that happen here in America, and President Trump can inspire that type of activity here in America. Were the only nation that could possibly do this, I believe, and I think we will.
Senator Thank you so much. Bill Haggerty, Republican from Tennessee.
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We have the.
Voice of Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman of he is on Capitol Hill and joins us now live on Bloomberg. Congressman, it's good to see you. Before we get into some of the politics at play today, I just would like to start by asking you, with your district in California as part of the Los Angeles area, if your family are well, if you have any news on the containment of the wildfires, because we're going to start talking about a funding mechanism next. What's happening on the ground now.
Well, the Palisades fire is virtually entirely in my district. So many people have lost their home, so many people don't have insurance or have very little insurance. My personal family is fine, But as to the fires, they're mostly contained and even the portion of the line where it's not officially contained hasn't grown in the last three days. So I'm confident that we can put this fire out, even though the winds are going to be gusting later today. What really was a gut punch, though, was listening to the President's inaugural speech where he says the Los Angeles we are watching the fires tragically burn from weeks ago, and then he says, without even a token defense. I was with so many firefighters.
This is not a token defense. This is an incredible defense.
These guys are brave.
They are work in twelve and twenty four hour shifts. And for the President to use his inauguration to say it isn't even a token defense is just a stab in the guts of every one of the people that we rely on.
It's simply outrageous.
Well, Congressman, as they do that work fighting these blazes, even once they're contained entirely, there is going to be the question of rebuilding and recovery. Are you confident that that aid can come through, get through both the House and the Senate in Republican control, without conditions.
Frankly, I'm not.
Frankly, I think that Donald Trump's visit on Friday will be important. I think if he advocates for the AID, I think it will get through Congress. We have never conditioned aid, but this has been an enormously expensive event. So many people don't have insurance, and we're gonna need the help of Congress. Now. FEMA has enough money to do everything it's supposed to do for the next several months, So this isn't something like it's do or die in February, but we're going to need a major appropriation for the programs that will allow people to rebuild. It sounds like the same kind of aid that we provided for Hawaii, for Louisiana and other disasters as well.
Well.
He made some references to North Carolina when he was speaking to the overflow crowd as well, suggesting that FEMA was unable to bring relief to that area. Congressman Donald Trump saying and doing a lot today, two hundred or so executive orders. We understand he focused on the border quite a bit.
In his remarks earlier.
Of course, you represent a border state, and I wonder if you can tell us what's coming next, what you know about mass deportations and whether they may start in a place like California.
Look, we've got to get the border under control. That's what people voted for. What they didn't vote for is to come into my district and find people who have lived in the San Fernando Valley for ten twenty thirty years, who have children, sometimes grandchildren, who are American born, American citizens, and to yank them out of their homes or even make them afraid that that's what might happen. Law abiding long term residents of California need to be out from under this tremendous fear.
Well, we know that in addition to executive orders, Congressman Donald Trump would like to see the issues of the border and immigration, as well as energy and tax policy addressed through the budget reconciliation process. He was joking with the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson in Emancipation Hall about just how narrow the Republican majority is, with only really a vote that can afford to be lost. Will Democrats provide a single vote to any of that agenda.
There are parts of Trump's rhetoric that we can endorse. We certainly want to keep the government open.
We know that.
Trump does not want to dishonor our debt by not dealing with the debt limit. So there are certain elements of keeping the federal government going that I think we can all unite behind. And I think the country's going to learn an awful lot about the very technical issues involved in reconciliation, because only things in one of the two reconciliation bills can get through the Senate without Democratic support.
All right, Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman of California, thank you so much for your time today, sir.
We appreciate it.
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On energy, President Trump today announcing in his inaugural address plans to use executive power to lower energy prices.
The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices, and that is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, Baby, Drill.
Joining us now for more on this here on Bloomberg TV and radio. As Dan Bourriette, former Secretary of Energy for the first Trump administration. Mister secretary, thank you for being here, he says. Drill, baby, drill or frame. We've heard often from now President Trump, how easy is it to make that drilling happen via executive order exclusively.
Well, thank you for having me today. It's actually quite easy. If you think about what it takes in terms of regulation to get a permit today in the United States. If we can make that more efficient, we can make that more easily done. If you will shorten the timetables for achieving production type permits or infrastructure permits, then we can increase production here in the United States. And I think that's what the President wants to do. He's absolutely correct about the underlying cause of inflation.
The rising of energy prices in early.
Twenty twenty one and twenty two had a devastating effect on the US economy with regard to pricing here. So I think he's on the right track. I think he's going to be very effective in doing that. Each of those cabinet secretaries, each of those cabinet agencies are going to move very very quickly to streamline the regulatory processes.
So that's the first step, or first couple of steps down. How easy will it be to keep producers pumping and drilling when oil prices inevitably start to fall.
Only only start to fall if demand goes down. And what we're seeing here in the United States as well as around the world, is that demand continues to grow. And as we think about what technology is bringing to the US economy and to the demand curve, you.
See a very steep upward curve.
So as long as that demand continues, and I think it will, then we need more production.
As we look today and were.
Not expect lower oil prices, I thought Donald Trump promised to cut them by half.
No, I think you will.
If you make that production more efficient, if you make it less costly, then consumers will be the benefit of that.
That's one of the things that we've seen.
Over the course of the last four years, our oil and gas production has gone up. We have indeed set new records from the twenty nineteen to twenty twenty period. We've exceeded those numbers roughly thirteen million barrels per day here in the United States. But the challenge is that consumers are not seeing the benefit of that increase supply in the marketplace because we've made it more expensive to produce. So if we can shorten the timetables, if we can reduce the gation or the you know, the judiciary burdens that producers now face, then we can pass those consumers or pass those costs or lower cost onto consumers and they'll be the beneficiary. And I think that's the president's focus today.
Well, and we're obviously talking about traditional oil and gas and fossil fuels here, Dan bo He also has made a number of proclamations or at least saying he intends to do things like and wind farms and offshore wind farms, specifically pull back the ev mandate, as he calls it, elements of the Green New Deal. When we consider the wider energy composition in the United States, what do you ultimately see as the appropriate balance for cleaner fuels versus the traditional ones.
Well, I think you're going to see increased production from wind and from solar as well. I think, you know, the record gets a bit skewed if you look back at the record. Twenty nineteen was actually the high high water mark for the installation of both solar and wind capacity. Here in the United States, and that was under the first Trump term. So you know, this notion that Donald Trump just flat out opposes renewable power, I don't think is a correct one. I think he understands full well that all of the above means, in fact, all of the above. Now, should we be giving preferences to certain types of fuel in the marketplace? I think you'll see the President say no to that, And what he wants to do is to eliminate those distortions in the marketplace that are created by either legislation or by yet sometimes you know, regulation as well.
So I think you'll see a very in depth look at that.
Do you expect the executive orders that the President will be signing throughout the day to day, we understand we could have as many as two hundred, maybe even more. DAN will actually address some of these matters first before we actually see legislation writing. And I wonder specifically if that will include a lifting of the ban on LNG exports.
Oh.
I almost certainly think that's going to be the case. There's no question about that, and there's a number of different reasons for it. One, our allies are crying for us LNG all around the world. I just met with the Japanese ministers of energy and they were very, very concerned about the announcement by the Biden administration that we were going to pause lergy exports for a period of time, or at least the export authorizations for a period of time. Same thing for the Europeans. They're facing the same types of demand curves that we are here in the United States, and that energy is absolutely critical to their meeting not only their economic goals, but their environmental goals as well, because in many cases, this lerg is displacing heavier hydrocarbons like coal or dung in certain places if you're in a developing country. So the demand for energy is going to continue to rise, and I think you'll see the Trump administration move very quickly to lift that pause.
So that's what we'll be exporting. But I do wonder about the energy we do still import, as he's throwed the idea of twenty five percent tariffs on every coming from Canada, which exports a lot in terms of energy to the United States, or what would the actual immediate impact be if that were to be implemented.
Well, I'm not quite sure what the President has in mind in terms of specifics on a tariff or whether or not it would apply to Canadian crude oil. But the president's mission here is to increase our independence, our energy independent's not our dependents. And when we think about trade and we think about imports and exports and what we do with various countries, there's an enormous difference between depending upon a certain product in our marketplace and simply trading for that product.
Canadian crud is obviously different than US crewed.
It's heavier, it's called sour crude, and refiners are set up in the United States, certain refiners are to accept that type of crude. The United States produces light or sweet crude, and that's a good export product. So to the extent that we can trade rather than be dependent is I think the president's goal, as you've heard them say many many times in the past, energy security is national security. He wants balance in the economics, he wants balance in the trade policies all around the world.
Dan Briat, former Secretary of Energy in the first Trump administration. Dan, thank you so much for the insights. We appreciate that as part of our special coverage.
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We're joined live in Washington by Lindsay Trevinsky, presidential historian and executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library. She joins us from Mount Vernon up here in the District of Columbia. And it's great to have you back, just the voice we wanted on not just this day, but at this moment talk to us about the importance of this stage of the ceremony.
Well, thank you for having me back. I'm struck by these images. You know what caught my eye is that former Vice President Harris said a few words to now President Trump, and she did not do that at Carter's funeral the last time I spoke with you all, and I would dearly love to know what they were saying to one another. But you know, it is an important moment because this is sort of the final capstone and the peaceful transfer of power, which is the bedrock of what it means to be a republic. If you have a different type of transfer, it's a different type of government.
Well, and it is a start contrast to what we experienced just four years ago when Donald Trump did not attend the inauguration of Joe Biden. And of course remarkable as we see the Bidens making their way toward Marine one. Now to consider that Trump and Biden rode over to the Capitol together today after having tea at the White House, a relationship between the two of them that has been adversarial to say the least, and that's perhaps a kind way of describing it, Lindsay, But to see them doing this now, as you say, a pillar of the American Republic, Donald Trump escorting Joe Biden physically to the helicopter. Just so, how far we've come in the last four years.
Yeah, I think it does.
You know, what you said is important is they don't have to like each other, they don't have to get along, they don't even have to necessarily enjoy the experience. But it is a part of the process. And notably, we didn't have this image from four years ago because Trump didn't attend, and instead we had a split screen where he was leaving to go directly to Florida. And so you know, for all that we might feel about this moment, I think it is worth noting and is admirable that the Bidens are there because no one likes losing.
This is a remarkable moment that we're witnessing here as Jill Biden just gave a hug to Malania Trump and Donald Trump was yelling over the wind to try to say something to Joe Biden. I can only imagine what that message was. The current President and First Lady are now walking away from the helicopter where the Bidens have boarded, will now prepare for them to fly away, Kaylee. The official end of his presidency career in Washington, Donald Trump has quite a bit ahead of him, still signing executive orders. First, he'll likely be addressing the crowd in that overflow room as you described it, where almost two thousand of his supporters are waiting.
As we consider now that he is president for a second time, only the second in history to serve non consecutive terms, and Lindsay, he described it himself during his inaugural address as something of a comeback, talking about how he saw himself as having been politically persecuted over the last several years, and yet he has returned to this highest office in the country. Just talk about that turnaround of the political fate of Donald Trump, that he once again finds himself here.
Yeah, you've never seen anything like it. I mean, we have had one president lose and then come back, and that was Grover Cleveland in the nineteenth century, of course, but he had not been indicted, he had not played a role in inciting a violent elect a violent insurrection, and those are very different political circumstances, and so to see this type of comeback is really unusual. It is surprising. I don't think anyone would have predicted it four years ago, and I think the ramifications of it on our political system are going to take a long time to actually unfold.
The Trump's advances waving goodbye to the bidens. Now the stairs have been lifted, the doors closed on the helicopter, and the Trump Party is heading back indoors into the Capitol. I'm curious, as a point of inauguration trivia, we watched the swearing in very closely. I don't know if you noticed. We didn't see Donald Trump put his hand on the Bible, and I'm brought back to two thousand and nine when Barack Obama decided to do it all over again with the Chief Justice after flubbing out an abundance of caution. As he said at the time, some of the language in the oath. Are we going to see another swearing in, potentially of Donald Trump.
I don't think we will, because they're actually not required to take the oath on a Bible. John Quincy Adams took it on a book of laws and copy of the Constitution. So the oath is actually not based on a religious foundation. It's based on a commitment to the Constitution and to the American people.
This is why we have you here to answer questions like these. As the voters turn on the helicopter, Kaylee, Joe Biden will soon.
Be taking off yep, making his way, of course, from the Capitol Grounds to Joint Base Andrews, while another departure ceremony will be taking places. We say goodbye not to just Joe Biden's four years as president, but more than half a century of service in public office. A career politician, Frankly lindsay, in contrast to the man who is now succeeding him, and who preceded him, Donald Trump, who was not that when he was first elected. Now he of course is far and away seen as the leader of the Republican Party, having not had as warm of a reception to the political world back in twenty seventeen. But he's walking into that Capitol building with both chambers of Congress behind him. How much power does that give him as an executive authority, which he's planning to exercise today through a series of executive orders, But knowing he has basically the whole of government, including a conservative Supreme Court, at.
His back, Well, normally I would say that a second term president, with the limitation of the twenty second Amendment, would not necessarily have that much power. Usually in the second term, a president focuses more on executive orders and foreign policy because they are a bit of a lame duck and so their ability to shape domestic politics is limited. And yet, as you said, Trump has really remade the party in his image. We saw this week with the Cabinet Secretary hearings that many of the people were willing to do whatever he wanted, even if they disagreed on certain policies and so I don't know how much pushback they're actually really going to give. Now that being said, no president achieves everything they want. It's just kind of a political rule that I think is probably going to stand here, regardless of how much support.
He does have.
The presidential helicopter many know as Marine One is now wheels up in Washington, d C. On a frigid twentieth of January. The inaugural ceremonies largely complete for Donald Trump. Now Joe Biden and Joe Biden will get their life last view of the capital Kayley as they hover over Capitol Hill, will likely fly past the White House before making their way to join.
Bass Andrews incredible as we consider that Joe Biden wanted, at least up until roughly seven months ago, to serve a second term as president. He was hoping it would be his inauguration today, not that of another Democrat or of Donald Trump, but instead him, and reporting does suggest that he is leaving this office having still believed that he could have won this election in November. And it does make you wonder what must be going through the head of the now former first couple as they leave Washington behind me.
That right, the man he replaced has now replaced him, and you can speak to what's happening on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue as they prepare for the Trump's arrival.
Yes, so in just a couple of hours, the White House undergoes a complete shift. So usually there's some staff that stays, but there's also new staff that comes in. There's a whole team of volunteers that will pack up all the Biden's belongings, including photographs and personal mementos. They will take out a lot of the choices that the Bidens made in terms of art and decor, especially in the Oval office, and then all new selections will come in. Sometimes that's rugs, sometimes that's drapery, sometimes it's art and furniture. And they will complete that entire process in just a couple of hours.
It's incredible to consider. And also just in the next couple of hours, we do expect Trump could sign dozens, if not upward of one hundred executive orders. Have we ever seen as potentially active a first day of a presidency is what we could see today, Lindsay.
We have.
Actually recent history has been quite intense in terms of executive orders. The overall number of them are not actually as high as Franklin D. Roosevelt, which was the peak of executive orders in the presidency, but the number on the first day does tend to have that concentration. And usually we saw this four years ago. It's a president undoing the things that their predecessor did through executive order because they didn't do it through legislation. Biden also swore and I think thousands of political appointees that were at the lower level on his first day four years ago. So I think that it's pretty common at this point to see that type of activity. Now, the scope and breadth and the type of executive order that might be a little bit different. I don't think that Biden or Obama attempted to rename a body of water.
All right.
Lindsay Tchervinsky, presidential historian and executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon.
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We're learning from the White House that he will be ending leasing to massive wind farms, bringing federal employees back to in person work as part of the suite of executive orders, and also the White House saying Trump will announce the America First trade policy, though our reporting here at Bloomberg today does suggest he's not going to immediately impost tariffs or additional tariffs on Chinese goods. And it's on the conversation around the economic and geopolitical relationship with China that we turned to our next guest, Shirley Marty hargas non Resident Fellow at the Atlanta Council's Global China Hub, is joining us now. Thank you for being here on Bloomberg, Shirley, as we consider just the broad threat of tariffs being placed not on specific Chinese goods, but potentially all of them that they export to the United States. Just how braced for what is coming is China right now as they watch Donald Trump take the oath of office today.
Thank you, Joe and Kayley's lovely to see the both of you again.
I was just that some of the events for the now Trump administration last night, and there's been ample much discussion around this topic.
I think that with the reinstatement of TikTok.
Just in the last I believe fourteen hours this was reinstated, and now we're seeing Sia Hongshu the redin app that everybody it's it's, it's Americans and Chinese are able to Chinese citizens are able to interface with one another. I think these pieces also factor into how China's bracing itself. I think Chairman, she has had a discussion already with President Trump, and we see that, yes, he declined the invite to the inauguration, which I think was wise on his part, but he made a good faith effort and brought in his vice President Han Jung, And so there is clearly a it appears that there will be a prc US interaction of some sort of mutual benefit on the front end.
And so I think that matters.
I think that matters fundamentally when we're discussing we're speaking about how China's bracing itself for the.
Tariffs, Well, so aren't we talking out of both sides of our mouths here a little bit? Surely that all the tough talk, bipartisan tough talk against China, this is the one thing Democrats and Republicans have agreed on the last couple of years, and Donald Trump was pretty tough on China every time he mentioned these issues, promising tariffs on a lot more than that over the course of the presidential campaign. But to your point, you've got the Vice President of China in attendance show too. The CEO of TikTok was not only at the inaugural he was in the US capital rotunda today, one of the most precious tickets in town. What does that tell us about the approach that this administration will actually take, not the rhetoric but the action.
When it comes to the action itself.
I think that what Trump understands, especially as a businessman, you have to I believe it was a couple of weeks ago when he was announced as a couple weeks ago he may have announced.
I believe on his true social that how much TikTok.
Was significant to his winning the presidential election cross board. I do think though, that he is recognizing that that period where shall Hong Shu, the red note app was interfacing Americans and Chinese were interfacing with one another.
Yeah, that's a.
National security challenge right there.
And this is happening as Americans across the country are upset with their TikTok being taken away.
And as we see the movement through the capital. Here we want to turn back to Shirley Marty Hargus, non Resident Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub. Shirley, thank you for your patients and apologies for the interruption as we track the events of this important day. It's noteworthy in the remarks that Donald Trump has given, aside from suggesting that America might be expanding its borders and that he does not want to see the US involved in further wards, there was a noteworthy absence of mention of some geopolitical relationships or conflicts, whether it be the war in Ukraine, the relationship with China, even Taiwan, and I wonder on the Taiwan front specifically, what your expectation is as to what is going to happen with Taiwan's defense supported by the US and China's responsiveness to whatever decisions the US makes regarding Taiwan will be.
When it comes to Taiwan, we can pretty much expect she to react. He has to, especially with FDI so low and especially with challenges domestically with his populace, with the economy in general, and I think that when it comes to Taiwan, we will continue to support Taiwan. Ninety percent of our semiconductors come semiconductors and chips come from the island. Eighty five percent of global economic output regarding their founderies are four of those larger founderies. Largest foundaries are on that island, and so we have significant investment in the island. I think that I think that President Trump has this in his mind as he's.
Engaging, as he's getting engaging. Excuse me, Chairman She. And if we cycle back to TikTok.
His his pulling back of the of the band on TikTok, maybe because he wants to reset the stage for his relations with with with Chairman She.
Surely, what does David Purdue, Donald Trump's pick to be the next ambassador to China bring to the table?
Business background?
Business background is substantial, and I think, I think again, I think what's significant about having folks from the business community come into the room when it comes especially dealing with a China business Folks know that to do business successfully in any country, you have to understand the cultural you have to have the cultural comptancies of the country. You have to understand how to interact and engage the country. And this is a skill set that can be leveraged significantly in times of tension, in times of rivalry, and I think that the strategic choice of Purdue as ambassador to China is very much steeped in that.
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