President Donald Trump has never been a typical politician. In his first campaign, he whiffed an easy question about nuclear weapons at a debate, failed to understand the need for a presidential transition and regularly expressed surprise that subjects like healthcare policy were complex.
But if there was one subject he was supposed to be an expert in, it was real estate. Trump built his reputation around it, from the towers and golf clubs that bear his name to “The Apprentice,” where he role-played a decisive mogul who knew how to make a deal.
Now, in his second term, Trump has undermined that reputation with his handling of the housing market. His policies have made it more expensive to build homes, more difficult for potential buyers to afford them and less likely that developers will build more.
Trump’s tariffs have raised the price of lumber, steel, appliances and other building materials, adding an estimated $10,900 to the cost of a typical new home. His immigration crackdown has worsened a construction-worker shortage, while his war with Iran has helped push up energy prices, inflation and mortgage rates. At the same time, his administration has cut Department of Housing and Urban Development staff and housing grants and proposed deep cuts to programs that help communities finance affordable homes.
The result is a housing policy that seems to have been designed by someone who knows the price of a penthouse but not the economics of building a single-family home.
White House tour
It was a visit featuring flattery over real conversations about serious issues confronting the U.S. and China: the Iran war, artificial intelligence, trade and tariffs, Taiwan and human rights, just to name a few. Instead, Trump played tour guide, showing off the helipad and future ballroom to Chinese President Xi Jinping. If Trump relished pointing out his golden redecoration of the White House and the autopen “portrait” of former President Joe Biden, Xi stayed focused on keeping the rivalry between the two countries from heating up, even citing Thucydides (again). As for deals, the two countries extended until January a trade truce that keeps tariffs lower. Perhaps the most noticeable accomplishments were two pandas for the Atlanta Zoo and a giant bald eagle sculpture for Xi.
“We hope it will find a nice place, a wonderful place, in Beijing,” the president said at the state dinner.
Miss Anthropic
Just about everyone who’s anyone from Wall Street to Silicon Valley dined on sesame encrusted sea bass at the state dinner, except for Anthropic’s Dario Amodei. (Axios reported the White House is considering casting Amodei as a leader of a fringe movement.) Many in the room dislike one another (that’s putting it mildly), while others disagree about whether or not to slow down the development of AI, including the two presidents. Xi acknowledged the risk and suggested there is space for more government oversight, but his concern might be more maintaining political and social control in China.
As both countries want to “win” the AI race, agreeing to actual steps will be difficult. Trump has also been dismissive about the recent warnings around AI, posting on social media, “Whoever wins AI, wins.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Chinese vice premier met ahead of the summit and discussed creating a direct line for AI-related national security issues reminiscent of the Cold War “red phone,” but for our digital era.
Meanwhile, the hacks keep coming as OpenAI agents broke into an Australian government website. OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Amodei addressed the United Nations about their concerns, with a headline from The Associated Press summing it up: “Tech leaders to UN: For the sake of humanity, please control the AI technology we created.”
Day trader in chief
As Trump actively supports the unfettered expansion of AI, he also continues to actively trade stocks in those companies making it happen. New disclosures show over 1,100 securities trades in July. The Guardian estimated the value between $79 million and $270 million that included as much as $5 million to $25 million in shares of Amazon and Microsoft. He also traded Oracle, Nvidia and Salesforce. The White House said his portfolio was “independently managed by third-party financial institutions” and that there were no conflicts of interests. The Washington Post kicked off the week with a story about how his “sprawling family business empire has become increasingly intertwined with the boom in artificial intelligence.” The White House responded saying there are “no conflicts of interest.” Representatives for his family’s businesses said they are private citizens.
Running on fumes
Trump’s energy secretary said it won’t work: “The blunt tool of banning diesel exports definitely doesn’t work because the U.S. exports a lot of diesel.” His interior secretary said the same last week: “We would consider an export ban if we thought that actually might lower prices, but that’s not the case.” The energy industry, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers urged Trump to “to reject calls to ban or otherwise limit the exports of diesel,” saying, “You have been asked by some to ban or limit the export of diesel to help lower prices, when in fact the opposite would occur.”
But with the war with Iran unresolved, gas prices a few cents from their highest level since the war began and diesel regularly setting new records, the administration is actively considering a ban of some sort.
“The U.S. is not short of diesel. The world is,” Patrick De Haan at Gas Buddy said on social media. “A potential export ban treats the global price problem as if it was a U.S. only problem, and the cure would be far worse than the disease.”
An easier solution to bring down price would be to end the war.
Nobody puts BB-8 in a corner
Are runway models and backup dancers the latest job at threat from AI and robots? At the Vogue World event in Milan this week, four robots made by the Chinese-firm Unitree walked the runway. They weren’t even wearing clothes. The Cut suspected Meta’s sponsorship, along with OpenAI, might have been the reason. Also, backup dancers need to watch their backs. Chinese robots made it to the finale of “America’s Got Talent,” performing with a Chinese engineer a Chinese-inspired dance. Read that again. It still doesn’t make sense.
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