Morning Joe - Work on Trump's triumphal arch to begin within two weeks

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

September 4, 2026: 8am — Work on Trump's triumphal arch to begin within two weeks To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

America has fought a lot of wars since I've been alive, 42 years, and we have won almost none of them until Donald J. Trump became the President of the United States. Will this war be over by the time of the midterm elections? Well, Caitlin, again, I don't, I wouldn't call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting. I recognize there have been places where this is flared up. Major combat operations, again, major combat operations lasted for about six weeks. President, Vice President J.D. Vance playing press secretary at the White House yesterday, praising President Trump for winning a war, then moments later claiming it's no longer a war. Good morning. Welcome to Morning Joe. It's Friday, September 4th with us, the co-host of our 8 a.m. Our staff writer at the Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire, MS now, Senior Natural Security Reporter, David Rode, managing editor at the bulwark, Sam Stein, and White House correspondent for Bloomberg, Jeff Mason. A lot to get to this morning. David, I want to start with you just to pick through a little bit of what we heard. There's a lot to go. through with what Vice President Van said yesterday in the White House briefing room. But let's start with the idea that we are not currently engaged in a war. The word war is one that's

been used many, many times by President Trump over these last seven months. But there has been active fire just in the last couple of days. Look, there are 50,000 service members serving across that region right now. Just give us the scale of this. There are 19 naval ships. There are several squad squadrons of airplanes, there's air battery units, there's thousands of paratroopers. And so you can get into a legalist, a guardian, but this is obviously a war. And then what was extraordinary was that he sort of mentioned flare-ups so that there's no active shooting.

Two days earlier, the United States carried out attacks and retaliation for Iranian efforts to mine the Strait of Hormuz. And the times that are very deep dive on us, we don't have this confirmed ourselves, but it does look like an American bomb hit, and I believe it was a mistake, a house where a wedding was occurring. Five people were killed, some of them children, it's my understanding, and dozens of people were injured. So to sort of call that a flare-up, you've just had this whole, you know, the experience of the Lincoln, the longest ever deployments. Sorry, there's no American aircraft carrier. We had to send the one we had near Taiwan

into the strait to replace the Lincoln. So to play this down, to say we're not at war, is stunning to me. And then just lastly, the point about we're not at war, but by the way, the president now we're winning wars because of President Donald J. Trump, George H.W. Bush, would disagree. He, in terms of no president's ever winning wars, recently at least, you know, he successfully drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. He invaded Panama and arrested that country's leader. I'll leave it there. But it's just extraordinary to say we don't have a war and then say every past president for the last 40 years has been a failure. As long as we're talking about wars is going back to 84, the Cold War comes to mind as well.

18 American service members so far killed in this war with Iran. Hundreds more have been injured. Our Gulf neighbors have been attacked across the region and on and on and on. So as you heard there, Vice President Vance yesterday did reject the use of the word war to describe what's going on in Iran. Those comments came hours after Iran fired at U.S. ally Kuwait. in retaliation for American strikes on Iranian targets earlier this week. The vice president also refused to provide a timeline for when the conflict may end

and steered clear of predicting when rising gas prices may return to pre-war levels. Will this war be over by the time of the midterm elections? Well, Caitlin, again, I don't, I wouldn't call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting. I recognize there have been places where this is flared up. major combat operations. Again, major combat operations lasted for about six weeks. And since then, we destroyed, of course, their nuclear facilities with Midnight Hammer. With Epic Fury, we destroyed their defense industrial base for producing weapons and also a lot of their conventional military.

And then we made it harder for them to rebuild that nuclear program. But when you ask, when will this end, you're asking me a question, like, when will the Iranians stop shooting at ships? I think the reality is, I don't know the answer to that question. You would have to ask the Iranians. We're not going to set an artificial timeline because, let's just say, hypothetically, let's say I told you three months. Let's say I told you three days. Okay?

And then the Iranians start blowing up oil and gas ships, and the United States is the only country with the capability to ensure that those oil and gas ships get to market. Well, what I would say is it would be irresponsible for us to write out our strategy in our timeline for an Iranian nation that simply, cannot honor its commitments and cannot stop shooting at commercial ships. On July 2nd, Treasury Secretary Bessent was asked when Americans could see $3 gas again, and he said maybe by Labor Day. Things haven't worked out that way, but do you have a new timetable for Americans on when they could expect lower gas prices, and should they not expect

to see $3 gas again until at least 2027? Well, in defense of Scott, he said maybe by Labor Day, because we're talking about things that are inherently unpredictable. And I think it's important, you know, I'm a strong believer that the American people are our fellow citizens and we should speak with them honestly about these things. And the fundamental reality is that the reason gas prices are so high right now is because the Iranians are shooting at commercial shipping. Gas, frankly, could have been much, much higher were it not for our efforts. But I'm not going to make a promise about when it's going to return to $3. What I will say is that we have to remember, why are we doing this?

Number one, it's so that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. And number two, what we're doing right now is protecting commercial shipping in order to ensure that we don't have a worldwide energy crisis. Well, this morning, the price of diesel fuel is at an all-time high. The average is 585 a gallon because diesel is the primary fuel for freight and delivery networks. Consumers likely will face higher prices as businesses across all sales. sectors have to pay for those rising transportation costs. Meanwhile, the average price for a gallon of gas back up to $4.15. That's nearly a dollar more than it was at this time last year. So Jonathan Lemire, we had Secretary Besson a couple days ago blaming Ukraine for rising gas prices. This is the

problem with JD Vance and others trying to explain away the war and try to put out this cloud of misinformation about what's really going on. Americans watch it every day when they go to the gas station. the price of gas, and they know it's because of the war in Iran. Yeah, we've been chronicling this since the war began, whether it was President Bill Clinton or top members of Joe Biden's administration, they would say almost the first thing they would check every day was the price of gas because it is so visible. It's on these billboards that dot the side of American highways, American major roads. You know, consumers, drivers, voters, Americans know the price of gas because they're either actually filling up their car or at the very least they're driving.

by it and they can chart whether it's going up or down, and it is definitely up. And the vice president there is a bit of a show. He's certainly performative in the briefing room, combative at times. He also took a swipe at Ted Cruz, which I found interesting, considering in the wake of news, that Cruz himself might be looking at a 2028 presidential run, which we certainly assume Vice President Vance will be as well. But Jeff Mason, he had no good answers about this war because they don't have any good answers about this war. The president and his team have been trying to wind this down for months. You know, we had a couple of days of violence earlier this week.

It slowed some, but as the advance is right, it could perk up at any time. It does seem like they're focusing the Americans on the straight of Fomuos. They're like, that needs to be the goal. We need to get the straight open. It's true. A little more oil is getting, fuel is getting through there than previously, but still nowhere near where it needs to be to actually have any meaningful impact on energy prices. In fact, as Willie just read, they're going the other direction.

They're going the other direction, and they're going the other direction at the wrong time. I mean, you can see the president and the vice president trying to shift a little bit into campaign mode heading into the midterm elections. We understand the president's going to do a lot more travel. The vice president is out auditioning a little bit in that briefing room yesterday. But as you say, John, they don't have a strong answer on Iran. And Caitlin asked him about a timeline. I mean, the president sort of laid out a timeline at the very beginning of the conflict and said four to six weeks. and now we're more than half a year in.

So there's a reason that people are asking. Promises were made at the beginning of this conflict by the administration, or at least forecasts were made. And the president used to say, I'm ready for a deal, or we're going to get this wrapped up quickly, or I think the Iranians are going to make a deal. All of that has proven not to be true. That has had an impact on the markets.

It's had an impact on energy prices, and it's going to have an impact at the voting booth. Sam Stein, I'm sure you've been hearing what Politico has been hearing, speaking with Republican campaigns, operatives. Reporting, many of them have come to grudgingly accept the Iran war will, in fact, last, well past the November election and that gas prices will remain stubbornly high. We're seeing a lot of this. We're hearing White House staff talking about lawyers that they're going to hire to get ready

for the Democratic takeover, at least to the House of Representatives, all the investigations that may follow. But in terms of voting, this Iran war and these high gas prices now, Republicans are saying out loud, unlikely to go away by the midterms. Yeah, but you see, Willie, if you don't call it a war, it goes away. That's what you got to do. Wish it away. Okay.

Yeah, just switch it away. Actually, this is a pretty remarkable, a press briefing by Vance. When he says things like this was inherently unpredictable and the U.S. is the only country that can have with the capacity to open the straits and we are doing this to protect commercial shipping, he is alighting the fact that he was the one. who negotiated or tried to negotiate the memorandum of understanding to bring an end to the war. When he's talking about the, we can't have a time frame on this. There was a time frame.

It was a 60-day time frame under the memorandum of understanding to end the war. And it failed. It was his diplomatic failure, which is why we are in this place. And at one point in the press conference, he said something akin to, you know, it's irresponsible of the Europeans for not helping us reopen the strait because their energy prices depend on what's happening in the straight, too. and it's almost as if he's just trying to evade utter responsibility for being an administration

that launched this war. This is a war of choice. And it's because it's a war of choice, it's because it's got no end in sight, it's because it is inherently unpredictable, and it's because there is no defined purpose to it that it's becoming a political liability in November. It would be one thing if we could say, yeah, this is the objective, this is the time frame,

We recognize their sacrifices to make, but here's why we're doing it. But he can't do that now. He can't even call it a war now, and that becomes impossible to sell politically. And, John, the president's come all the way back around to talking about regime change again, and the people of Iran needing to rise up against now these more extreme leaders that have taken over the country after the United States and Israel took out the leadership all those months back. Also, the president has harped on the idea that Iran must never get a nuclear weapon. Well, yesterday in that news briefing, J.D. Vann said, we took out their nuclear capabilities

with Operation Midnight Hammer a year and a half ago. Right. So if that is true, why do we go into this conflict in the first place? And this is, I mean, as you just said, Willie, and again, this is from day one, the administration has not been able to offer the American people of coherent reasoning as to why they went to war with Iran. And it is indeed a war. The goals have shifted. David Rhodes, I'll ask you to sec. David Road has been chronicling since day one, how the checklist, have we've achieved none of it.

None of the goals, and they changed by the day, it seemed, has actually been accomplished by the administration, which is partially why, A, it hasn't gone well because there hasn't been a real clear sense of directive remission, but B, why the American people don't like it. The poll, and polls suggest it has been unpopular since the beginning and continues to grow more so because voters across this country, and it seems like those in red and blue states, simply don't know why we're doing this, and they're only seeing bad consequences, rising prices, a more hardline regime in Iran, rather than anything good coming out of it, David.

And it also points to right now a real spotlight on the Pentagon. Like, this comes this week as the Army Secretary Driscoll resigns. And while doing so, says to the president he's concerned about the readiness in the military. We have seen general after general either being fired or passed over for deserving promotions. We have seen Hegset consolidating power. We've seen a lack of munitions. And that's the part of this. As much as I think Trump politically doesn't want to escalate hostilities, he kind of can't,

even if he wanted to, because we may not be able to defend our allies and assets in the region from the inevitable Iran counterattack. That's the problem is that they're able to attack all these allies of ours across the region. And the broader theme here, and, you know, Vance is the frontrunner for the next presidential race is to essentially try to lie your way out of the problem. I mean, he did that repeatedly. I was surprised on many different levels. One other fact check was he sort of said, well, and last night, you know, 15 million barrels of oils, you know, are coming out of the straight. And made it sound like that was happening every day.

The estimate before the war, it was 20 million barrels a day. 15 was a high. And the average, you know, in the last few weeks has been, according to companies, attract this has been about 8 million barrels of oil. So there was just tons of false statements yesterday from the vice president, and that's what was so surprising. Again, the most basic one is it's all the Iranians' fault that keep shooting at these ships. We chose, Donald Trump chose, and Donald Trump ignored J.D. Vance's advice. That's the other part of this is defend the president, don't offend the president, you know, and also don't attack Pete Higgsath, apparently.

But the president chose to kill the Iranian leadership, launch a war alongside Israel, and that's why Iran has seized control of the strait-hormuz. And did he vans joined the President of the United States yesterday at that briefing and saying, no, we control the strait of Hormuz, something that's objectively untrue. MS now, senior national security reporter David wrote, David, thanks as always. Still ahead on morning, Joe. President Trump again is asking the Supreme Court to allow his restrictions on voting by mail. What, the latest in that legal effort ahead of the midterms.

Plus, the administration is moving forward with plans for that 250-foot triumphal arc, as they're calling it, there in Washington. That's despite a federal lawsuit. They are ready to break ground on this thing, what we're learning about the construction. And as we go to break, a look at the travelers' forecast this morning and for the Labor Day weekend from Acuethers, Bernie Rayno. Bernie, how's it looking out there? Willie, one more steamy day before relief from the heat and humidity arrives this weekend, some drenching heavy. thunderstorms. Washington, D.C., Richmond, into the Carolinas, spotty shower, thunderstorm. Philadelphia, New York City, fog will give way to sunshine in Boston, hot in Chicago with a

spotty thunderstorm as well. Southeast, not much change, drenching thunderstorms across Florida this afternoon, just spotty thunderstorms in East Texas. Not many delays to talk about Boston this morning, Philadelphia and Miami this afternoon. To help you make the best decisions and be more in the know, download Yakweather app today. Construction on President Trump's controversial triumphal arch in Washington is set to begin within days. Interior Secretary Doug Bergam made the announcement yesterday on social media, writing preparations are currently underway to begin excavation work over the next two weeks.

President Trump first unveiled plans last October to build the 250-foot arch near Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial, saying it would be taller than the Arc to Triumph in Paris. The administration has said the monument is intended to commemorate the nation's 250th anniversary. Projects facing a federal lawsuit, though, brought by three veterans and an architectural historian. They argue the administration lacks the required congressional authorization. The project was never approved by the Capital Planning Commission. The Justice Department is seeking to have the case dismissed. So Jonathan Lemire, this is kind of a whiff of the ballroom, which is just keep going, try to outrun the

courts, break ground, start building, and by the time they catch up to you, it's halfway done and there's no turning back. But this is kind of the arch that no one asked for except for President Trump. How do you suspect this is going to end? And how's it going over in Washington? I mean, this arch is an obscenity. That's a sacred place between Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. The monument to President Lincoln and then across the river, you know, where he's almost in conversation with some of the soldiers there who served him as scanner chief and then subsequent commanders in chief. That is one of the,

the cemetery, Willie, as you well know, is arguably the most hollowed ground in these United States. And this arch will completely obscure views of it. It's not just taller than the Ark of Triumph. It will be twice the size of the Arctic Triumph.

It is an arch that no one wants, except for President Trump. It is something, it is legally dubious, whether he even has the authority to build this thing. I would argue it's, far worse than the ballroom. The ballroom is really bad. That's the people's house, and he has

raised it down, and I think you're right. The strategy here is just build it and then claim it's too far along to stop. The Trump administration, meanwhile, is again asking the Supreme Court to allow new restrictions on mail-in voting, a move that potentially could affect millions of voters in the upcoming November midterms. The emergency appeal filed yesterday comes after a federal judge in Boston recently blocked parts of the president's executive order from going into effect. The Supreme Court, though, remember, previously allowed the president's plan to move ahead, but has not decided whether it was legal. It was a question of standing in that case.

The Trump administration is urging the High Court to intervene now due to the fast-approaching midterms. Under the controversial order, Trump signed in March, the U.S. Postal Service would set standards for ballot mail envelopes and states must submit lists of verified voters. The Postal Service then can refuse to deliver ballots that do not, meet the new rules or bear the name of a voter who is not on one of their lists. Again, Sam, just to bottom line this, this administration comes up with a list of voters who they believe should be allowed to vote. They use the U.S. Postal Service stack with a board of governors.

It's their appointees, many of them election deniers, and prohibit certain people based on their standards from voting in an American election. It's crazy. I mean, it's crazy that we would turn. turnover this much election infrastructure to the postmaster general. I mean, what are we talking about? It's blatantly, seems to me, blatantly unconstitutional, but beyond that, operationally, it's insane. And there was a recent whistleblower report that was uncovered by Democrats in Congress that said, it gets even worse than that. They're doing these batch of mail-in ballots, and something like if there's,

you know, 10,000 ballots a batch. And if one of them is erroneous or filled out wrong or the Bar core code doesn't quite scan because, I don't know, the ink was blotted. Then all 10,000 of those ballots will be invalidated in that batch. This is chaos waiting to happen, but that's the point, right? Trump has this entire vendetta against mail and voting. He doesn't want people to trust the elections. He doesn't want people to vote in the election. And so what do you do?

You create chaos. You create confusion. You throw up roadblocks. and then when things don't go particularly well, you say, well, I tried to bring order, but the Supreme Court didn't uphold this directive I had for the Postmaster General, or Congress didn't pass the Save Act to ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting. And then you say, that's why I lost. And maybe we shouldn't seat these people because we can't trust this election.

Look, the Supreme Court did indeed allow this to go forward on standing grounds because the rules had not been implemented, and they said no one had been actually harmed. The rules are now posted. I'll be eager to see what the court does here. This is a real Tinder box. And if they were to allow this go forward, it could have incredible ramifications on our elections and our trusted democracy. Coming up, we'll take an early look at the markets ahead of the opening bell as Wall Street makes sense of the August jobs report that is just crossing this morning. A full breakdown of the numbers straight ahead on Morning Joe.

Welcome back now 830 here on the East Coast, 530 out west on this Friday morning. Major medical organizations released vaccination guidelines this week in an attempt to fill the void left by the Trump administration. Now, these recommendations issued by the groups include an updated COVID shot for all adults, a flu shot for everyone six months and older prior to the end of October, and a one-time RSV vaccine for adults who are 75 and not. It comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has been the authority on vaccination guidelines in the past, has yet to release its recommendations on COVID. The agency also declined to share new flu shot advice, instead opting to reaffirm last year's recommendations. Let's bring in MS now, senior medical analyst, Dr. Vin Gupta.

Dr. Gupta, always good to see you. We're so value your insights. Let's just start with this. From what those groups are recommended, what I just listed there, and do you feel like these are practical common sense recommendations that Americans should follow? Good morning, Jonathan. I do. And just to take our audience through it, there's remarkable consistency where it makes sense.

So with flu shots, everybody six months of age and older should get it. because outside of grandstanding politicians, wellness grifters looking for clicks on social media, you know, what's happening actually in hospitals, pediatric hospitals, adult hospitals across the country, is that flu is still an RSV and COVID still pose serious threats to the American public. We had 250,000 hospitalizations just last year from COVID, 40,000 plus deaths, Jonathan, terrible flu season last year. So there is real consequences despite what sometimes we see on social media. So flu vaccination, remarkable consistency, please get your flu shot at six months of age and older.

If you have questions, of course, speak to your medical provider or your child's medical provider. RSV, you know, there's some nuance here. We have new tools on our toolkit over the last three years. So just if you're 75 years of age and older or something to talk about with your primary care provider, if you're pregnant, expecting, make sure you talk to your obstetrician at best. out the RSV vaccine and the timing of that. And then, of course, COVID, in a trust-building exercise here, things change. COVID vaccine guidelines have changed Jonathan through the years. And it's something that is reflected through these guidelines. Yeah. And again, so much of the confusion

could be avoided if the CDC would simply do its traditional role and advocate the best science in their recommendations. Dr. Gupta, you know, school has resumed across, most of the country, although I'll note here in New York City, still a few days away. What would be some of your recommendations, though, for parents and kids as they reenter a school year? What are some other health tips suggestions you'd make? You know, I would make sure that everybody makes sure that they check in in the month of September. If you can with your pediatrician for your child, when it comes to just wellness visit, if they have an underlying condition, say like asthma, which is common and can be undiagnosed.

that their inhalers are ready, that their school has a stock supply of medications if they need to be on hand, epipens for allergies, alpudorol inhalers, if they have asthma. It's important to check in and make sure that there's that communication with school staff, if they have a nurse on staff, or just generally with a staff, they don't have a nurse on staff just to know how to respond to any emergencies. Those are the most important. And then also, just for everybody out there, both parents, grandparents, children, that the time to talk about these vaccines and to get them,

end of the month, Jonathan, into early October for optimal protection. And Dr. Gupta, switching gears for our final question here. There's so much, of course, right now about the affordability crisis in this nation, in front of mind for so many voters as the midterms approach. But health care costs make a big, up a big part of that. Tell us what you're seeing. You know, yesterday, Jonathan, there was a hallmark of American health. health care is that one in two adult Americans get their health insurance through their employer.

If they're gainfully employed, probably their employers covering their health care costs. And what we see is that next year, it's anticipated that employers are going to shoulder and bear a 10% increase in health care costs for their health care plan that they provide their employees. That's the highest increase in two decades, Jonathan. We've seen a 76% increase in the cost of employer-sponsored health plans since 2018. That's double. I mean, that is many factors above the rate of inflation over that same time period.

So what does that mean for employees and American adults? That means higher deductibles because then those costs get passed on to the employee, higher costs, higher deductibles, narrower networks, maybe you won't be able to see your preferred provider, less benefits, maybe no longer access to these new weight loss drugs that we're hearing a lot about. So there's real impacts to American families here. And we don't talk enough about uncoupling employer-sponsored health from American healthcare, not tying employment to health care.

That's something we need to be talking about. Yeah, and you're certainly right. This is such a strain, such a burden for so many Americans. MS now, senior medical analyst, Dr. Van Gupta, Dr. Gupta, thank you. Have a good weekend. We really appreciate it. We want to now bring you an update on a story we first told you about yesterday, related to those catastrophic floods in Nepal and Tibet.

MS now's Nick McCool spoke to the son of Vivek Shervasa, who went missing while on a pilgrimage in the region. He told Nick the family had reached out to the U.S. embassies in Nepal and Beijing, as well as the State Department here in the United States, but hadn't received much information. Now, after that story aired, the State Department did get back to us, saying the safety and security of Americans is the Trump administration's highest priority. The department says it's assessing the welfare of Americans in Nepal and is in regular contact with their families, providing information as quickly as possible, despite the difficulty of getting updates from a remote region dealing with such devastation.

We will continue to monitor those recovery efforts and, of course, continue to send our best to that family and so many others impacted by this tragedy. And we'll be right back here on Morning Joe with the jobs report that just crossed moments ago. So CNBC's Dom Chu will join us to help break down those numbers. Welcome back. Live shot there at Times Square. You see NASDAQ and CNBC studios across the street. US job growth came in higher than expected in August with jobs increasing by 160,000. That's according to numbers just in from the Department of Labor. That number leaves the unemployment rate unchanged at 4.1%.

Let's now bring in CNBC, see your market's correspondent. Domite Chudad, Dom, great to see you. what do we make of this number, hotter than a thought? Yeah, hotter, and it is having a bit of a market impact as well right now. We were relatively stable going into it, and we're seeing a little bit of that happen in the equity markets. But what we are seeing right now is some movement in the bond market on the interest rate side of things tied to future Fed policy expectations. I'll get to that in just a moment here. But let's kind of go through the numbers as we get them in here to give viewers and listeners an idea of what's going on.

You mentioned the headline number much hotter than expectations. expected. So that 162,000 jobs, the estimate from economists was for 53,000 jobs. So we pretty much tripled the estimate. And that follows up on last month, the July jobs report, which was minus 23,000. The unemployment rate, you said, hold steady at 4.1%. Here's where a lot of people start to focus on this jobs report is it's with regard to the earnings picture. How much more are people making? On a month over month basis between July and August, paychecks rose. average hourly earnings by 3 tenths of 1%. That was pretty banged in line with expectations.

Average hourly earnings on a year-over-year basis coming in at 3.1%. That was slightly better than expectations. The labor force participation rate also ticked a little bit higher. So more people are entering the workforce, looking for jobs, or are currently employed. The revisions is interesting here as well. Remember I told you that, or remember we told you that last month, we saw a 20, 23,000 job drop. Well, now we have positive revisions for both the months of July and June, totaling 55,000 added jobs. So that's helping the story there. As for where the jobs were created,

food service and drinking establishments plus 59,000. Local government education up 42,000. Manufacturing, up 16. Health care up 13 and construction up 22,000, where we saw the notable job decline. were in information-related industries, those fell by 23,000. And I brought up the Fed expectations. I'm just looking right now, Jonathan, on both prediction markets like Kalshi and from the futures markets at the CME. Entering this particular jobs report before we knew what the number was, the odds on prediction markets platform Kalshi for no Fed policy change came in at around

57%. That has now dropped to 44% and the increase in odds for a quarter percentage point interest rate hike went from 43% to 56%. So there has been somewhat of a rejiggering of expectations on what this hotter than expected jobs report will do to interest rates. And right now, those people who are transacting on predictions markets are now slightly revising higher their interest rate expectations when the Fed meets in just a couple weeks time on September 16th. So Jonathan, a lot to parse through here. We'll go through more of it. But those are the headline numbers and the reason why the markets are moving, especially

with regard to interest rates. I'll send things back over to you. Certainly be closely watched meeting, Pablo. Yeah. I mean, so, Dom, just to really translate it then, we're feeling better than we thought we might. And is there a question of then why? How is it that we are pleasantly surprised if that is the...

surprise. This is also one of those months, August, that has typically been a little bit more volatile, and it might be revised differently come the September jobs report that we're going to get in October. But on balance right now, this is a jobs market that has been viewed kind of in a transitionary phase, trying to figure out whether or not there's going to be some kind of continued strength or momentum. It is not that the jobs market is growing nearly as fast as it had been, say a year ago or a couple years ago and certainly not kind of in the since the emergence from the pandemic, but it certainly appears right now that the jobs market remains relatively stable. It is one of the reasons why the Fed policymakers and even central bankers around the world have

been watching very closely because there hasn't really been any kind of a real reason to either lower interest rates markedly like the administration wants the Fed to do or to raise them markedly. The issue in the coming months is going to be on the inflation prints that we are going to see. We're, of course, talking about all of this jobs data, in the context of the recent numbers that we've seen, even just today, about record high diesel prices, what that's going to do to consumer inflation for everything that gets transported by a truck. So all of those things, I think, are in play right now, and something certainly that policymakers will be looking very closely at in the coming weeks. The inflation data specifically.

Absolutely right. CNBC's Dominic Chute. Don, thank you so much. Have a great weekend. Up next here on Morning Joe, Jimmy Donaldson, or as he's better known, to his more than 500 million, and YouTube followers as Mr. Beast. You see him right there, as long with New York Times, best-selling author James Patterson. They're going to join us together next to talk about their new novel, The Most Dangerous Games. You won't want to miss that. Keep it right here. I'm Morning Joe. 100 players, $1 billion, and one chance to save the world. That was the trailer. We just saw it. For the new novel, The Most Dangerous Games, following a massive high-stakes global competition

reminiscent of squid games and The Hunger Games, but with its own unique twist. Join us now, the co-authors of the new book. Jimmy Donaldson, who's widely known as Mr. Beast with the most subscribers on YouTube at more than $515 million featuring videos of his extremely popular endurance challenges. And not to be outdone, New York Times bestselling author, James Patterson, here as well. The Mr. Beast of Literature. The Mr. Beast of Literature is Patterson. I've met my match here.

Thank you both for being here. Congratulations on the book. I mean, let's just come around out and say it. I pick people look at this and go, wait a minute. This seems like a somewhat unlikely pairing. So talk to us, Jimmy, if you will, how did this come about? Yeah. Well, honestly, I mean, you said it. I mean, he's one of the most successful authors to ever live. And so I just wanted to hang out with him and get to know him. And so I invited him down to my studio. And as we were walking around, I was like, oh, he's actually pretty fun to be around. And we just started talking about, you know, if we were to do something together, what would it look like? And how could we get a lot of younger people? people in a reading and, you know, this is where it ended up. And we wanted to do a book that our adult readers and the kid readers would all go, this, this, I really like, this is a cool book. And so many, especially with kids now, I have one book, a maximum ride, and I still have people come up and go, that's the book that got me reading. And I mean, you know, this is a book that will get hundreds of thousands. Later in life, they'll say, that's the book that got me reading. That one that starts it. For me, it was Treasure Island, but, you know. So we'll dive into the, into the book itself in just a second. But on that idea, because you both said this as you sat down,

too. Part of the concept here is we know that people don't read as much as they used to. Young people don't read as much as they used to, right? And that's your audience. I mean, you were so beloved among young people. Why is it important to you? You're obviously a video-based story. Yeah. But why is it important to you that your fans also read? Yeah, no, that's a phenomenal question. Honestly, when I was younger, I didn't read much either. And it wasn't until I started reading Walter Isaac's and biographies and a bunch of other books. I was like, I started learning a lot. And I really enjoy reading books and it helps calm your mind.

And so I just wanted to hopefully, like we were saying, make this the catalyst that helps people realize reading isn't boring. It's just, you know, you probably just aren't reading things that interests you. And this is a very thrilling, exciting book that once you start turning the pages, you can't stop. And hopefully that, you know, results in them reading 100 books over their life, which they otherwise wouldn't have. So the most dangerous games here, the story kicks off when a thousand strangers receive a

mysterious invitation and gets pulled, goes down to 100. And then they have to, it's a gauntlet. It's games. Yeah. Dangerous games. So dangerous games. So obviously a lot of that is your thriller background. So tell us more about the story.

That's the two of us, really. I mean, we're really back and forth on the outline and everything in the book. And just want to keep people. It's so important that, and we're already getting it because kids are, you know, people are reading it and they're blogging about it. And I've never seen comments like these because they're so specific. Like, I can't believe that that happened to Luca in the 12th pay, you know, whatever. And there has to be a sequel. Oh, my God.

You know, I never get things like that. They're usually about, well, the book was good or what, you know. But they're so specific. They really get into it. And they're going to start telling one another. One of the things about anybody that's watching, if you've got kids or grandkids, you ask them whether they want this book and they will say, please, let's go to the store and do this, which is great.

Well, I consider both of you really top-shelf strategists in terms of how to gain audience in your respective fields. You think I think about that more than I do, but I don't. Well, I want to understand, though, because I've thought about what Jimmy thinks about as a guy with a YouTube channel. I'm like, this is the man who I've read his manifesto about retention, editing, and how to keep the attention of a YouTube viewer. What have you learned from him, given that you've been working on a book, a different product for him? Yeah, what did you learn from me? What I loved about working with Jimmy on this thing is just his attention to detail. Yeah.

Really? I mean, sentences. You know, I knew this structure. I knew this, you know, really, and also getting us to care about these characters, which in a 20-minute video, that's very hard to do. But in this, and it's really essential that as you go on, because they're getting eliminated. And there's a duel somewhere in here where you go, oh, my God, that's my favorite character, and my third favorite character, and only one of them's going to get out of this.

So that attention to the characters, and he really pushed that again and again and again and beat me up, and it was good. Yes, same question. It was a better book. Same question to you, Jim. Yeah. Well, honestly, I mean, if you first opened up, you'll see, like, there's a lot of characters described.

And I remember when we were first time, I was like, wow, we're really going to be able to get people to remember their names and get to know them all. And as we're working on it, I was just seeing how he sprinkles out information and things like that. There's a lot about storytelling. But you can see it with the people that are reviewing it already, they love these characters, which is really, it's very cool. And I've never seen anything like in any book that I've done in terms of how people are

responding. Jimmy's strategies are so optimized on YouTube. And I've noticed also that you yourself have been sort of trying to go longer form by some degree over time. Like eight hours? Well, so has this inspired you in any way to reevaluate how you tell stories on video? Yeah. Oh, 100%. I mean, obviously, there's a reason why he's one of the most successful writers ever live. And so I learned definitely a lot about storytelling and character development that I'm applying over on the videos.

Every piece of content I watch consume I'm always trying to take an inspiration. And so it definitely will have an impact. And yeah, YouTube videos now, just because television, so many people watching it on it are just getting longer and longer over time. And with this, we do, I mean, every game we try to make the next game top the last one, which is really interesting. And, of course, we don't have to worry about a production budget. So it makes it a low-eas.

Oh, in real life, a million dollars. In a book, billion dollars. Right. For you, Jimmy, Jimmy's the latest in a pretty illustrious list of co-authors, Bill Clinton. Yeah. Mike Lupica, your wife, obviously. I'm not laughing, Mike. In no particular one.

Reverse order, perhaps. So what was this experience like? Intense in good ways. I mean, as I say, he really, Viola and Jimmy, I think, in terms of the real intensity with the writing process, Dolly, the best cheerleader,

but really into it, but the best cheerleader. And we should note there's a fictionalized version of Mr. Beast acts as the face of the competition. Yes, I know. I'm in it, which is why sometimes it's weird because I'm like, he seems kind of cool in the book. Are you sure? Like, uh, and it was funny giving him notes on

me in it. I'm like, I don't know if I should. Maybe I should just let him perceive me. I would follow the notes that he said about himself in the book, for sure. And Pablo, we should note, as James pointed out when we sat down, Jimmy probably has more fans than anyone else we've ever had on Morning Joe, slightly edging out, Richard Haas. I was going to say Richard Haas is right there. close second. So you've edged him out. Congratulations. Thank you. The new book. The Most Dangerous Games Available Now. Jimmy Donaldson

and James Patterson, thank you both very much. Thank you so much. Thanks for having us. Congratulations. And that does it for us this morning. We appreciate you watching. We'll see you next week for more morning, Joe. Enjoy the long weekend if you've got one. Stephanie Ruhl picks up MS Now's live coverage right now.