Balance of Power

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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Donald Trump is embarking on a travel blitz aimed at shoring up struggling Republicans in states he won two years ago, as the president’s mood darkens about his party’s prospects in the November midterm elections. 

In the coming days, Trump plans to appear in Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio and Nebraska, GOP strongholds where a visit could deliver a jolt of energy to his base. But the choice of destinations points to a...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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The Federal Reserve’s internal watchdog found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the central bank’s renovation of its Washington headquarters, a $2.4 billion project that became a flashpoint between the Fed and the Trump administration as the president pushed for lower interest rates last year.

The findings came in a report released Wednesday by the Office of Inspector General that identified a series of missteps that led to surging costs for...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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President Donald Trump shot down the idea of new federal regulations on artificial intelligence after meeting at the White House with top industry executives amid growing global concerns over threats posed by the technology.

Speaking Tuesday after a luncheon with nearly two dozen Silicon Valley leaders, including Anthropic PBC Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei and Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang, Trump said existing laws would be enough to safeguard Americans from...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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Global anxiety over artificial intelligence risks has intensified following fresh disclosures about a far wider range of breaches by advanced AI models, setting the stage for a high-stakes meeting between Anthropic PBC Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei and President Donald Trump.

Amodei and Trump met on Sunday night, according to a White House official, bringing together two men at opposite ends of the AI safety debate. The meeting marked their first...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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President Donald Trump said he would meet again with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in November, following what he said was a successful summit in Washington.

“We will be meeting again in November, in China, and then at the G20 in December, in Miami, Florida. Much has been, and will be, accomplished,” Trump said in a social media post Friday.

Trump’s comments followed a summit in Washington with Xi that w...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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Donald Trump and Xi Jinping addressed their intense competition over artificial intelligence on Thursday during a summit aimed at keeping ties between the world’s largest economies on track. 

How the leaders are handling AI is one of the key questions looming over the state visit, with the US president arguing for unfettered development to keep his nation’s edge. China, meanwhile, has criticized American export controls on semiconductors and other input...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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Xi Jinping and Donald Trump will sit down this week to hash out a plethora of thorny issues from trade to Taiwan. One thing both sides agree on: neither can afford to tap the brakes on AI.

While Silicon Valley debates the possibility of artificial intelligence wiping out humanity, Washington and Beijing appear more worried about global technological supremacy. The two countries have signaled no intention to slow down AI development — a...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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President Donald Trump said US officials had a “very good” meeting with Iranian envoys in New York, reviving fragile hopes for a new diplomatic off-ramp hours after he again threatened to annihilate the country.

Trump said the three-hour meeting — held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting — was “very productive” and that another was being planned for the near future. Iran has yet to comment on the meeting or say who atte...

A preview of the meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping led Bloomberg Intelligence's Washington Policy Pulse for Sept. 21. Topics that could be discussed at the summit include artificial intelligence regulations, tariffs, the conflict with Iran and the likelihood of Chinese automobiles in the the US market. We also discussed the future of AI regulations in the US, where legislation and regulatory views seem to differ, allowing states to take their place. We also reviewed a speech from the Fed Vice Chair for Supervision on the future of rulemakings related for stress testing and bank capital.<...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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US and Chinese officials offered upbeat assessments of their talks on artificial intelligence, trade and investment, signaling a mutual desire to steady ties ahead of this week’s summit between leaders Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, said the talks were held in a “good atmosphere” as he left JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s headquarters in New York on Sunday, while US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent lauded “ve...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom said artificial intelligence systems will face a slew of new safety and security standards as he pushes for leading companies to develop an AI “kill switch.”

Newsom cited recent incidents at major AI labs OpenAI and Anthropic that have led researchers to sound alarms on the potential catastrophic consequences of the unchecked development of the technology. Newsom, a likely presidential contender for 2028, particularly blamed Congress and President Dona...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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President Donald Trump visited North Carolina in his first campaign stop since the GOP’s Dallas midterm convention, seeking to boost Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, who is trailing Democrat Roy Cooper in the polls.

The race in North Carolina could be critical to determining which party controls the Senate, and the president’s rally at an airfield in Gastonia, outside Charlotte, offered a sign of the deep concern within GOP rank...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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US midterm elections were already shaping up to be a key risk for AI-related stocks amid a backlash against data centers. But with a growing number of lawmakers from both parties sounding the alarm on the need for AI safety regulations, the stakes have only gotten higher.

Optimism about AI has powered the stock-market rally for the better part of four years amid soaring spending on computing infrastructure. That trade, however...

Bloomberg's Tom Keene, Jon Ferro and Lisa Abramowicz discuss remarks from Fed Chair Kevin Warsh following the Federal Reserve's latest policy decision on a special edition of Bloomberg Surveillance. 

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point and penciled in an additional hike later this year, steps aimed at containing inflation that will test Chairman Kevin Warsh’s relationship with President Donald Trump.

Wall Street traders drove stocks to the lowest since July on bets the Federal Reserve will keep raising rates to combat inflation after delivering its first hike in three yea...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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President Donald Trump’s opposition to guardrails on artificial intelligence puts him at odds with a growing number of lawmakers from both parties, with AI safety fears adding to voters’ misgivings about the technology heading into the midterm elections.

In a rapid-fire series of social media posts, Trump on Monday belittled a push led by Anthropic PBC and OpenAI to slow work on cutting-edge systems, invoking bombastic language to dismiss existential fear...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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President Donald Trump attacked Anthropic PBC Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei for urging a slowdown in artificial intelligence development, intensifying his opposition to new guardrails for the technology.

In a Monday social media post, Trump blamed a “SICK conspiracy” for voter backlash on AI data centers and increased concern about frontier models, adding that “the only one that is happy about it is China.”

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs...

Bloomberg News' Ottawa Bureau Chief Brian Platt sits down with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney ahead of the country's first national investment summit in Toronto. Carney says he thinks it’s still possible for the US and Canada to reach a “mutually advantageous” deal that would reduce trade barriers. He notes that Canada is "ready to sit down and negotiate that and move it forward". Carney adds that he welcomed President Trump’s comments over the weekend that he believed the countries could reach an agreement fairly soon. He also discusses the need to strengthen AI guardrails and more. 

See...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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Anthropic says its artificial intelligence model Claude has been misused in attempts to develop a wide range of military applications, including kamikaze drone swarms, missile navigation systems and research tied to potential biological weapons.Users from countries including Iran, Russia, China and Yemen are among those flagged for misusing the AI company’s frontier models in the past year, according to a report by Anthropic’s threat intelligence team on Thursday. None of the...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

Watch Joe and Kailey LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.

Bloomberg Washington Correspondents Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz deliver insight and analysis on the latest headlines from the White House and Capitol Hill, including conversations with influential lawmakers and key figures in politics and policy.

On this special edition of Balance of Power, Kailey Leinz hosts from our Dallas bureau to speak with several key figures in Texas for the first of its kind midterm convention for the Republican party, headlined...

US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says she is not running for Texas governor or a Senate seat for now. “That is a ‘no’ right now for sure,” Rollins said while speaking to Bloomberg Television from the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. She is attending the event in her personal capacity.

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Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

Watch Joe and Kailey LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.

Bloomberg Washington Correspondents Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz deliver insight and analysis on the latest headlines from the White House and Capitol Hill, including conversations with influential lawmakers and key figures in politics and policy.

On this special edition of Balance of Power, Kailey Leinz hosts from our Dallas bureau to speak with several key figures in Texas for the first of its kind midterm convention for the Republican party, headlined...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.
Watch Joe and Kailey LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.

Bloomberg Washington Correspondents Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz deliver insight and analysis on the latest headlines from the White House and Capitol Hill, including conversations with influential lawmakers and key figures in politics and policy. On this edition, Joe and Kailey speak with:

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

Watch Joe and Kailey LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.

US job growth surged in August and the unemployment rate held steady, suggesting the labor market has more momentum than previously thought.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 162,000 last month and July’s job losses were revised away, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data out Friday. The August increase topped all estimates in a Bloomberg survey. The unemployment rate remained at 4.1%.

The report indicates the labor market is powering through uncertainty fr...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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The US and Iran have intensified tit-for-tat military strikes in recent days, remaining locked between ceasefire and all-out war as the White House struggles to end the six-month conflict.

“Very clearly militarily, we are stalled,” Republican Representative Pat Harrigan of North Carolina, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said in an interview on Wednesday. “There’s no question about that.”

The latest back and forth has seen Iran hit m...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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Bloomberg Washington Correspondents Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz deliver insight and analysis on the latest headlines from the White House and Capitol Hill, including conversations with influential lawmakers and key figures in politics and policy. On this edition, Joe and Kailey speak with:

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick lauds the benefits of artificial intelligence. Speaking with Bloomberg Balance of Power co-host Joe Mathieu at the G20 Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Lutnick also says Anthropic has settled differences with the Trump administration and discusses the state of US-Canada trade negotiations. Listen to the full conversation, as heard live on Bloomberg TV and Radio.

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US Energy Secretary Chris Wright discusses details of Venezuelan oil production and exports, deals signed with Chevron, ENI, and GE Vernova, and offers an update on the Strait of Hormuz. He speaks with Tyler Kendall in Caracas, Venezuela.

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Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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The US launched a fresh wave of strikes against targets in Iran and the Islamic Republic said it retaliated, as the back-and-forth of fighting between the two escalated.

President Donald Trump said the US strikes were in retaliation for Iran trying to put mines in the Strait of Hormuz and for an earlier attack on a military base in Jordan. He warned of more attacks to come if Tehran responded.
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With the House of Representatives returning to Washington after August recess, the likelihood of a government shutdown -- only 20% in our view -- led Bloomberg Intelligence's Aug. 31 Washington Policy Pulse. The House will most likely embrace a Senate deal that extends the government funding until Dec. 11 before leaving town to further campaign ahead of the midterm elections. A potential vote on a separate measure on a Russian sanctions package will likely be pushed back until after the election.

We also discussed President Donald Trump's announcement of a deal in Venezuela to have the US take a stake...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

Watch Joe and Kailey LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.

House members return to Capitol Hill after a monthlong break with a crowded docket and just 16 days in session to complete it before the November midterm elections.

A planned vote to avoid a fall government shutdown is atop their to-do list, and continued GOP hopes of a third party-line budget package loom over other legislative priorities lawmakers want to pass and campaign on in their districts.

House leaders have...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh warned inflation isn’t meaningfully slowing and said policymakers must be confident that it is, otherwise the central bank has “work to do.” 

In a sweeping speech, his first since becoming chairman of the central bank in May, Warsh reiterated that policymakers will return inflation to their 2% goal, which he said is a firm and fixed target. 

“Here is my standard: We must be confident...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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President Donald Trump announced he was moving to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, escalating his clash with Canada after trade negotiations between the two nations collapsed.

Trump on Thursday signed a directive changing the name of the lake and said the move would take place “effective immediately.” The president previewed the move in a social media post earlier this week. The order signed by Trump said the Interior Department had 30 days...

Utah Governor Spencer Cox discusses Meta’s settlement, arguing the amount should have been much higher, yet argues the more consequential result is the equitable relief requiring child accounts, age-gating, parental controls, algorithm changes, overnight restrictions and healthy pauses. Cox thinks Meta buried research showing significant harms to young users and says Utah will use the money to mitigate those harms, help struggling children, and create more opportunities for them in the real world. Cox spoke with Bloomberg's Joe Mathieu and Tyler Kendall.

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Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

Watch Joe and Kailey LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.

President Donald Trump’s latest trade upheaval is threatening to deepen Republicans’ peril in November’s midterm elections, saddling Senate GOP candidates with another economic headache as the party fights to hold onto its majority. 

In recent days, Trump has announced plans for tariff relief on some ground beef imports, enraging cattle producers in states such as Iowa and Nebraska, and launched a new trade war with Canada, rattling manufacturers and busines...

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said his war of words with President Donald Trump got a little heated, but he had to "hit back." Ford says the US and Canada need a fair trade deal, but he says no deal is better than a bad deal. Ford speaks to Joe Mathieu on "Balance of Power."

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Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney matched the new tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump and announced new support programs for Canadian businesses hurt by the escalating trade war with the country’s largest trading partner.

Canada will double its existing counter-tariffs on US steel and aluminum products to 50%. American-made milk, furniture, clothing and apparel will also have new 50% duties applied, as will video-game consoles, smartphones and other electronics. 

Overall, the ret...

With Congress still out and the week of Aug. 24 likely light on policy developments, the Bloomberg Intelligence's Aug. 24 Washington Policy Pulse call focused the US 50% additional tariff on roughly $20 billion of Canadian imports that took effect on Aug. 22 as well as Trump's Aug. 24 remarks that forthcoming tariffs were coming for the Canadian automotive industry. Canadian Prime Minster Mark Carney has vowed to respond with dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs beginning Sept. 8, which could influence Senate races in Ohio, Maine and Alaska.

Finally, we reviewed a White House meeting last week with executives from Coinbase, Intercontinental Exchange and Nasdaq and...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

Watch Joe and Kailey LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.

Bloomberg Washington Correspondents Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz deliver insight and analysis on the latest headlines from the White House and Capitol Hill, including conversations with influential lawmakers and key figures in politics and policy.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened economic punishment against any country doing business with Iran as part of what he called an “economic D-Day” campaign to isolate the country and end nearly six months of war.Presi...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney expressed optimism about finalizing a tariff agreement as negotiators from both countries met in Washington for further talks. 

Trump on Wednesday declared that “we’ve come to a deal with Canada,” saying that Canadian representatives “gave us the points we had to have” on issues including market access for US agricultural products. “It’s all subject to finalization of documents,” the president told re...

Insight & analysis on the White House and Capitol Hill.

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Total US public debt surpassed $40 trillion for the first time, and has now surged by a third in less than five years, as US lawmakers continue to shrug off calls to contend with historically wide fiscal deficits.

Public debt outstanding stood at $40.05 trillion as of the close of business Tuesday, a Treasury Department release on Wednesday showed. 

The news came hours after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made a fresh a...