A Tariff Tally & Blackstone’s Former President Tony James 2/27/25

Squawk Pod

CNBC

Business News, Investing, Business, News

4 • 494 Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Trump has said tariffs on Mexico and Canada will begin next week. Eamon Javers reports from Washington on the tariff messaging from The White House. Once COO and President of Blackstone and now Chairman of Costco Tony James shares his perspective on the US economy, business strength, and consumer confidence. James considers American business to be slowing down, thanks to uncertainty from the administration. In the face of DEI rollbacks across corporate America, Costco remains consistent in their commitment to equity. Plus, Nvidia topped analyst estimates, for the first time in a decade, a child in the US has died from the measles, and Elon Musk’s efforts in the US government could affect his businesses. Eamon Javers - 16:39 Tony James - 27:10 In this episode: Eamon Javers, @EamonJavers Joe Kernen, @JoeSquawk Becky Quick, @BeckyQuick Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Katie Kramer, @Kramer_Katie

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bring in show music, please.
0:04.3	Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer.
0:07.2	Today on Squawk Pod.
0:09.8	The world's richest man walks in to the White House.
0:13.0	So, Elon, if you could get up and explain where you are, how you're doing?
0:17.0	I just just put myself for public tech support here.
0:20.0	Elon Musk's role in the new Trump government got a public viewing at the administration's first cabinet meeting,
0:24.6	but is the work impacting his valuable companies.
0:28.6	Trump's strategy in danger shift to elect a car.
0:31.6	I mean, you'd have to think that that's true.
0:33.6	Plus, who's in charge?
0:35.6	Staff firings on the bubble, tariff deadlines once again approaching,
0:39.7	are reporter Amin Javers on the culture inside Trump world. What he's doing is setting up a process
0:45.4	here in which all the deadlines are up to him by Fiat. And a special conversation with Tony James,
0:52.0	once Blackstone's president and CO.O. He's chairman of the
0:55.0	board of Costco. And in a world of DEI rollbacks, James says Costco strategy isn't going anywhere.
1:01.9	We think of this is not so much for the social good, although I think it is. We think of this as part
1:07.8	of a meritocracy. Business strength, on the other hand, he says that is changing.
1:13.1	There's a lot of things to say the consumer is starting to buckle a little bit.
1:16.7	At the same time, I think the uncertainty coming out of washing is causing businesses to slow down.
1:22.4	All that today and much more.
1:24.4	It's Thursday, February 27th.
	...

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