Hey, we are back. Mark Penn with us, the CEO and chairman of Stagwell Inc. Just to keep you up to date on what happened a few hours ago at the president of the United States, after a 13-hour trip, landed in China, at which time he's with a bunch of dozens of CEOs, and they're looking to do deals. They're not looking to do cursory appearances and promises for later. And some of the people like Tim Cook actually.
Their products made in China, so they are totally there's nothing that can happen on this trip I think that would change anything. Same with Tesla. I also think that their presence in China, basically, their technology seems to have been stolen and put in the new BYD that is running Tesla literally off the road. Mark Penn, first off, What would you like to see come out of this trip from the American perspective? What do you think is the best scenario that Trump can hope for?
Well, look, I think this is kind of a business summit. You know, it's like we really want the Chinese to back off or stay out of Iran. We want them to stay out of Taiwan. And we want to do better business with them. We want to have more fairness in trade and opportunity.
And anything that the president brings back with that will help the American economy.
So we have two days, and there'll be pomp and circumstances and respect overseas. Will that help him at home? It doesn't hurt. You know, going to China is always considered a big deal. And I think to the extent that the president is on the world stage at the highest level with the biggest leaders, going toe-to-toe and coming home.
Look, with something good, usually you plan the results of a summit before the summit.
So it is not typical that you just go into a summit willy-nilly without expecting to come out with something. And I don't know what the White House has planned here, but that's generally the way it would work when I was there. And that's what the hallmark of a success will be. There's a couple of things on the agenda. You've kind of pre-programmed them.
And if things go well, you go home with them. And obviously the AI chips and AI strategy here relative to the two countries and the competition that's going on is I think if I is surprisingly at the forefront of this, and if I'd said two years ago, what was going to be the big agenda item at a summit with the United States and China, you wouldn't have said AI chips was at the top. It's true. The other thing is the reason why you got to protect Taiwan, even if they are an ally and you got to do it, democracy in the strait, I got it. But they're also the number one chip manufacturer right now.
Do you want China in control of rare earth end chip manufacturing in the world? I mean, that's it's a security nightmare.
Well, but these summits are a delicate dance because the more you push on Taiwan, the more they push back and the more you kind of recognize that no one's doing anything in a way that lets them save face, the better that comes off.
So if you get belly coast on Taiwan, because that really doesn't really suit anyone because of the Chinese. Bellicose in Chinese doesn't work. They get their pride up more than anything else. Yeah, it just backfires.
So I want to talk about the midterms and the redistricting mania. This, for you, must be like the Super Bowl because just you can look at trends and you look at polls, but not many people predicted this.
So in case you do not know, California was an answer to the redistricting in Texas, got it, basically awash. But then since that time, Virginia's Supreme Court overturned their redistricting, would have given a handful of seats. Florida got theirs, expected to have their Supreme Court okay it. And now you have the Georgia Louisiana decision. Decision that says you can no longer redistrict and gerrymander as it relates to race.
Here's what Mike Johnson said when people claim it's Jim Crow 2.0, Cut 18. People feel as though it was a pushback against segregation, which was pushed forward in Jim Crow by Democrats in the 60s. Is this a step back for race relations? No, it's not. It's a step forward for fairness.
I mean, this is not the 60s, and we're in a different time in America. But the court, this current court, the majority, looks at the Constitution and evaluates it on its face as umpires. No one should be discriminated against because of their race. No one. And by resetting this and correcting the application of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, that's the outcome.
And not everybody's happy about it, but people aren't happy about anywhere congressional lines are drawn. Remember, the Democrats started the mid-cycle redistricting in New York in 2024. Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats are out trying to say that Republicans began this. We did, and it was the Democrats that did that. And it failed.
And it failed and it backfired. Yeah, in New York, but they're going to try to go into Blue States and redistrict it. What is the redistricting what does it look like it's going to do to the midterms? It looks like there's a slight advantage to the Republicans, but then Democratic voters seem to be energized and angry over the whole thing, which maybe was as much of a Democratic objective. I mean, I've never heard so much talk about midterms before.
We're six months out, midterms, midterms, midterms. It's like, so I think we're probably going to have record voting, you know, in this midterms. We'll probably have record fundraising. We're going to have record interest because the country is so split, 50-50. Look, I think, you know, the Supreme Court here.
basically said, look, I'm turning all this over to the state legislatures. And I don't know how that's going to work out because the state legislatures, every Democratic state is going to push Democrat and every Republican state is going to push Republican. And then net net nationwide, it probably won't make all that much of a difference. Voters tend to, you know, tend to kind of say what they think and come out in the polls. And, you know, I think their verdict is going to be relatively clear.
Mark, I know you've done this for decades and you have candidates and you've set up plans, but I just think there are real numbers now that would mean that the House has never been so close. I think that Ryan's previous, you tell me if you think this is correct. He says there's only maybe 15, 20 seats in play. And if that is indeed The truth, and that number holds up. And then you say 14.6 Republicans get more seats after the redistricting.
That could be the balance of power, don't you think? It could be. I mean, it could be. I tend to think that there's a battle here between. The people, you know, the voters in the middle here are unhappy.
They're unhappy with inflation and the economy. It's not about the war. And those unhappy voters are unhappy with everybody. And they're unhappy actually a little bit more with the Democrats than the Republicans. But the Republicans are in power.
So I think this is a very volatile electorate. This is going to be a highly contested election. I think each side is going to have a strong case to make. I think how the economy eventually is perceived is going to be perhaps the single most important element. I don't think it's about what the economy looks like today.
There's a lot of good fundamentals in this economy. And so this, you know, I presided in 98 when we Democrats actually won seats, even though we were in the party in power.
So it does happen.
So I tell everybody on each side, this midterm is far from over, and this electorate could go either way because they think the Democrats have gone too far to the left and they think they're unhappy with inflation. And those two things are going to kind of come into conflict. Mark, tell me about common sense. Because when you talk about common sense, Republicans used to be: okay, they're party of let's cut spending, let's build up defense. And there were some commonalities when George H.W.
Bush was running against Bill Clinton and Gore was running against George W. Bush. But now we have a situation where you have a lot of extremists. Bernie Sanders seems to be the kingmaker, and he's ascendant. And he's got his disciples as mayor in New York, mayor in Seattle.
He's got his disciple over as a Senate candidate about to get the nomination over in Maine, and another one over in Michigan. How's the Democrat Party dealing with this? Because that's not what Shapiro, Bashir, Fetterman, for the most part, stand for. I don't look at them as socialists. These guys say, yeah, I am a socialist.
And in fact, Plattner said I'm a communist. Yeah, well, I think there's no question that the left is driving the leadership of the Democratic Party. You see Hakeem Jeffries, who is hoping to get the speakership turning kind of more hysterical day by day, even though he used to be kind of a more moderate, sensible kind of leader. And so that is to me what the Democratic Party thinks is its strength and what I think is its real vulnerability. Its real vulnerability is that they look absolutely crazed.
And this idea after losing the Virginia Supreme Court, oh, let's just lower the voting age down to 54. They should never have let that even get spoken on a call. It's so crazy. It's crazy. I want to talk about, if I can, the California race.
There's a chance. That we could have two Republicans in a runoff, at the very least, one Republican in a runoff. And Steve Hilton has been pretty strong, first or second, the entire time. Being that California has had so many struggles, and you could link it back to not natural disasters, but from disastrous politicians. And the mayor of Los Angeles, and how little she has done, not only to not be there when the Pacific Palisades burn down, but do so little to rebuild.
She seems to be vulnerable to the rise of Spencer Prime. Pratt. And now on the right, you have another leader, Xavier Bashira, who is a walking disaster. Listen to what KTLA put out prior to his interview. Listen to this: cut 34.
By the way, this is a profile piece. This is not a gotcha piece, right?
Well, look, I think these questions are fair. It's in order to learn about you as a candidate.
So why is about the profile? I don't know how you define profile, but I'd like to begin the interview. The way I describe profile is: you talk about all the things that I've done, things I want to do. and uh along with some tough questions, but not only tough questions. Trying to harangue the reporter.
It's like Katie Porter did, caught on camera. And then she ends up screaming at the reporter. Eric Swalwell imploded in a way I've never seen. And now this guy is the frontrunner on the left. What's going on here, Mark?
Well, you know, California, this is kind of what happens when you have one-party states. Yes. When you have one-party states, you know, it's not a competition of competence. It's a competition of, you know, politics, you know, primary constituencies. Look, I think the Democrats do realize that they're in some trouble out in California.
I don't know how deep that trouble is going to be or end up. I mean, the state's a mess, right? The state has been a mess. The fires, the costs, the gasoline, the policies, the state budgets, you know, all of it has been a total mess. And so sometimes you wonder in these messes, when are the voters going to wake up when you've got a mess?
It used to be, if you had a mess, you got thrown out. But there has not been an alternative. And Chicago's the same way in Illinois. You have to say, are you still this guy's got 18% approval rating?
So the Republicans just throw up their hands and say we can't win there. It's about time. I think Spencer Pratt's showing, who's not like a hard, a firebrand Republican, but he's showing you can win. I believe he's on track because he's talking common sense.
So the attack ad that they ran against him. Yeah, the attacker they ran against him. I thought it was actually a big push for him. Should you be paying for health care for illegal immigrants? Should you be getting more cops or more social workers?
He said, There's the attacker that says, yes, he wants, he's going to stop both those things, as if it's going to hurt him in the polls. You know more Democrats than I do. Do they believe that? Do they believe that the best thing to do is to give Healthcare and social workers to help fix a city, fix a state. Yeah, well, you know, I asked a number of questions now in the Harvard Cap's post: Do you think the Democrats are for open borders?
Everybody says yes. right and then if i and so the perception out there uh is the democrats are for open borders and then you look in the democratic primaries and the people who want open borders seem to be running strongest in the in the primary so so you know right now i i don't think i've ever seen things as uh crazy and disorganized uh as i've ever seen them. The Republican candidates are have a have a shot. You know, I wouldn't say that they're like, you know, barn burners, but they've got a, you know, they're getting some publicity after all. The mayor didn't go to a second debate because you lost the first debate so badly.
Right.
So like, you know, if you're winning, you show up at the debate. Hey, Mark, I want to squeeze this in. I want you to, you're an expert. I want you to hear this. Listen.
Republican Spencer Pratt is the last thing Los Angeles needs for mayor. Pratt opposes using taxpayer money to build brand new houses for our unhoused neighbors, saying it's time for the homeless to get help or get out. Pratt thinks LA needs thousands more police officers rather than more social workers, and Republican Spencer Pratt thinks public employee unions should have less power, not more. LA is on the right track and needs to stay the course. Vote no on Republican Spencer Pratt.
Really? That helps Vengeance a prat, doesn't it? Yeah, uh that is yes, in a general election, which this is, that is a surprising ad. It's like somebody believed that they're running in a Democratic primary and that they're running against uh some Republican opponent somewhere. Uh that is a pretty funny ad.
Mark Fenn, thanks. It's just crazy times. And it's almost as if, like, do you not realize what you did? And as if they're saying, no, no, what human being would not want a social worker knocking at your door in times of a domestic dispute? Of course, we don't need as many cops.
So I was stunned by it, but it shows we really have different visions right now for a country and a city, in a way. Mark Penn, thanks so much.
