Power Lunch - Stocks largely unchanged after President Trump moved to fired Fed Governor Lisa Cook 8/26/25

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

President Trump moved to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook. William Blair initiated coverage on 11 exploration & production names. And Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont weighs in on the halting of Revolution Wind Project.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And welcome to Power Lunch. I'm Brian Sullivan. Breaking news at this hour. President Trump holding a cabinet meeting right now. That is a live look. All the heads of the various departments. In fact, you just heard right here on this network from Treasury Secretary Scott Besant. We're going to monitor this meeting, bringing you all the headlines as they come out, any relevant comments made by any of the key cabinet secretaries or the president himself. And we will bring those to you live. There you can see Secretary of the Interior, Doug Bergam, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to the president. presidents right? President Trump is speaking. Again, they make comments about energy. They make comments about markets. They make comments about fiscal or monetary policy. And of course, comments about Lisa Cook on the Federal Reserve. And we will bring those to you. In fact, why don't we dip out of this and start there? Because this really is the bombshell news of the day. President Trump firing or saying he's going to fire, attempting to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook. It is a fluent story is kind of a fast-moving story. Steve Leasman has been on it all day.

Steve, we appreciate you joining us. I have seen both on our network and various networks, I've seen the term fired, firing, wants to fire, will fire, thinking about firing, where do we stand right now? We honestly don't know what this is. He has fired her according to him.

She says no. Well, let's talk at their latest statement. The attorney firm battled Fed Governor, Lisa Cook actually issued a fire statement today saying Cook would file a lawsuit to challenge her firing by the president. Cook attorney Abby Lowell saying, quote, President Trump has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. His attempt to fire her based solely on a federal letter, on a referral letter, lacks any factual or illegal basis. We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action.

Now, this importantly, appears to be the first time the Cook has actually challenged the, quote, factual basis of mortgage fraud that's at the root of the president's decision to fire her. The president said he fired Cook, quote, for allegedly making false statements on one or more mortgage agreements. Cook has never explained her side of the story publicly. Unclear if Cook was at work at the Fed today, no comment for Fed Chair Powell whether he will enforce the president's firing decision. Unclear how if the president himself will enforce this decision. If the president replaces Cook, he will have a majority of the seven members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, once Stephen Myron is confirmed. That's the CEA chair.

No charges again have been filed. There's been no ruling on the facts, raising questions about the extent to which this, at least partly, Brian, is politically motivated to give the president greater control of the Fed. Some people saying that if this is allowed to stand, you can say goodbye to the Independent Federal Reserve. Although, and I heard you say this earlier, the CNN, I think, got the documents that she listed a primary residence in two different states. Obviously, that's not possible. And there are benefits. So there is a... Well, there are actually exceptions that allow you to do that.

I thought there are five of them. We don't know. Again, we don't know the story. We know that we have not heard her. But no charges have been filed. As Jim Kramer said this morning, there's no charges against it. The status is that there's been a criminal referral from the FHFA director to the Justice Department. Justice has not yet filed charges.

And Cook has not yet responded to the criminal referral in terms of the factual basis of just what you're asking. Brian, there are people who are ready to convict, people who are ready to say, let's wait a second and see what her side of the story is. Okay, so we'll leave that to the future when we actually get some hard information. Let's talk more about the Federal Reserve because here's a weird situation. The president basically says, I fired her. She's gone. We don't know if her badge works. If you can physically get in the building, correct?

We don't know that. Is it possible the president moves quickly to try to confirm somebody else into Cook's spot, but Cook wins whatever lawsuit or appeal she's going to file? and now you ostensibly have two people who claim they have the same job. That could be part of what happens before you get to that confusion is you have to have hearings in Senate banking, and then you have to have the full Senate approve that person. It is unclear among other things at this time, Brian,

the extent to which the Senate wants to go along with this. We just had an interesting conversation with Libby, Cantrell, from Pimco, and the question would be, the Senate and the Congress have gone. along with a lot of what the president has done, which has been unorthodox or unconventional to say the least. The question is, do they want to draw a line in keeping the Fed the way it is, or are they willing also to give the President greater power or sway over the Fed? Now, correct me if I'm, you are the Fed historian, so I defer. But you know our friend Richard Clarita. Yeah. Now with Pimco.

Right. He stepped down from the Fed in 2022. So there's, you're going to read, Folks, you're going to read a lot of stuff about how there's never been a Fed Governor fired. That is accurate, correct? I don't think he's ever been a Fed Governor who has been forcibly removed from his or her role. Right, or for cause. But we have had Fed governors who have quit under extreme pressure or maybe the threat of eventually being fired. All that is true. Richard Clarita, 2022.

Robert Kaplan and Eric Rosengren, by the way, who the IG from the Fed found actually did know wrong, even though he was trading the bonds that the Fed was buying, or trading the kind of bonds the Fed was buying. But ultimately, the IG determined this was not in contravention of the Fed's conflict of interest. But those three gentlemen, and they're all different situations, but they all quit basically either out of frustration or they were just trying to get ahead of a, how about we say, a different possible outcome? I think that's true.

But notice that the president was not involved, right? And so if what we're talking about here, Brian, is the independence of the Federal Reserve, one of the things that might be a hallmark of that independence is that you allow the Fed to sort of take care of its own, in the sense that if you have a problem, the Fed takes care of it, either through a resignation, or in some cases we've had charges filed or a referral from the IG to the Justice Department from the Fed, IG, rather than the president getting involved. The problem with all of this is if this came out of the blue, it would be one of the first. thing. But this comes after a concerted effort by the president, right, to get the Fed to lower rates,

to call for Powell's resignation, to create an issue around the remodeling of the federal bank, all of which may make sense individually, but as part of a campaign where what you're trying to do or what the intention of Congress appeared to have been is to create an independent Fed. In that case, you cannot ignore the context. And as you said earlier, Brian, you also can't or what the documents say. Where's done? Time will tell. It's a hell of a story.

It's kind of an unfortunate, an ugly story in many levels. We're glad you're on it. We'll see where this goes, because to your point, we actually don't know. But we're glad you're here. Steve Leesman.

Thank you very much. Pleasure. All right. We're going to go into that cabinet meeting where I believe U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer is speaking. This is the number one guy on trade

for four years ago. You have reset global trade policy in the past few months and it shows that it's been working for American workers. When you look at President Biden, in the last quarter of 2024, median weekly earnings fell 2.1%.

In the first quarter of your term, they went up 3.3%. And that's why we're doing the trade policy we're doing. It's to help the workers of the United States of America. And they're the best in the world, but they can't do it without a level playing field and you have flipped the script. For many years, the other countries had high tariffs

and high non-tariff barriers. While we were open to all of their labor and services and goods and capital, you flipped it. Now we have the tariffs and they have lowered theirs and non-tariff barriers. And we could have done it without you and the leverage you've created. So between the tariffs and the deals,

the hot streak continues for the workers of America. So thank you. Thank you very much. Really good job, by the way. It's good to go. I could negotiate her. Thank you. Please. Well, Mr. President, I feel like, as everybody here has talked about how great working with his team is. All right, that was Trade Representative Jameson Greer speaking.

Again, we heard from Treasury Secretary Scott Besson a few minutes ago. We get comments from some of the other cabinet members that you want to hear from, and we will dip back in to that cabinet meeting happening right now at the White House. But let's turn now to the markets and your money, because with all this stuff going on, guess what? Stocks, they're still higher. The bond market slowly starting to shift. It all as the Fed feud unfolds. Joe Davis is chief global economist at Vanguard.

He is head of Vanguard's Investment Strategy Group. Joe, don't worry. I'm not going to ask you to dive into the politics of this, but I will ask you, does a fight over any Fed governor like this without going into the detail? jealous because we don't, to be frank, we don't know much. But a fight at the Fed or about or over the Fed, does that influence how you or what you recommend to your clients in any way? Well, it certainly could, but it's not right now. I mean, you know, clearly Federal Reserve independence is important, primarily because it just makes monetary policy just more effective. And that has implications for the interest rates we see and for the financial markets that we

participate in. You know, again, we ultimately tend to focus on economic fundamentals. And that's clearly what I think. Despite the headlines that we are seeing at the moment, more likely than not, we'll drive the markets over the next several months. Yeah. If, and again, if Cook, we don't know what's going to happen. Cook is removed. Somebody else comes in that is more dovish, that they are more likely to agree with faster or deeper cuts to interest rates. Do you adjust your mind? Do you adjust your and say, well, I guess we'll be one quarter of 1% or 25 basis points lower, faster than we thought. Is that kind of how the thinking would go? It could go.

I mean, this is not the first time that we've had debates, even on portfolio managers, or is the Federal Reserve writ large, dovish, hawkish. These are conversations we have all the time, just in sort of normal environments. I think the also thing is what the bond market is saying, because what the shape of the yield curve may be, where inflation expectations are, currency markets, they will have a very large bearing. And in fact, are some of the indicators

that we will ingest and think about for our outlook. Yeah, we look at the U.S., we look around the world, and the U.S. is at a pretty good run. But the rest of the world, Joe, as you know, has had a better run than the United States. Do you see a trend, the international over the U.S. trend continuing? or will we pivot back to U.S. outperformance? Well, we believe there is a timestamp, the U.S. exceptionalism.

That's not necessarily a pessimistic statement. Now, again, we have said this for the record for several years, and so clearly the U.S. markets have outperformed. The S&P 500 has dominated any equity market, but we have to be forward-looking. And so I think whether you are Bush on AI, for an example, or you're bearish on AI, tends to leave you down to the same sort of let's diversify outside the U.S.

Because it's unlikely we will continue to see this outperformance. We just can't time when that sort of transition will occur. Yeah. And what's amazing is not only has gold outperformed the U.S. equity market, I think, over 25 years, but many bonds have as well because you have the 2000 collapse, you've got the 2008-2010 collapse, you had that very brief tariff collapse. where is their opportunity on the bond side? We love talking stocks, but guess what?

There's a lot of money to be made in the bond market as well, Joe. We couldn't agree more, and it's been one of our thesis of our entire investment management team. Our outlook this year was on a, you know, if you're going to take some active risk, the fixed income market is probably more compelling today than it has been in 15 or 20 years. You know, we have a higher interest rate that's above the rate of inflation. you know, one of my colleagues says bonds are back. And I think it's a great phrase. You're earning a higher coupon.

And whether you're a little bit skittish on the equity market or just trying to drive real returns, it's solely not an equity story, which was the case five or six years ago. We've been rewarded on that. But from a return perspective, as well as a diversification perspective, fixed income is very compelling.

I mean, that's both corporates as well as munis. Yeah, and quickly, on the Treasury side, the 230 spread, that yield curve, it's the highest in three years. It's really moved off the bottom. Do we need to lock in return now? If one of our viewers, your clients, listeners right now says, you know what, I'm nervous about where rates are going to go. If you want to get, you know, four or whatever percent on Treasury, should we lock in buy a longer dated note now? Well, I think you'd want to think about it. It depends, all right? But I think you want to, you want to have some intermediate exposure as a starting point. If you go

short duration where people have wanted to go, you know, they've missed that sort of, you know, upper sloping yield curve that you're talking about. If you're trying to lock things in, I would just caution what's the exit strategy when the Federal Reserve, let's say to ease two or three times. Are you getting back in? Just think that through. It's the reentry point that's usually the challenging part of being a little bit more tactical in this environment. Joe Davis, Vanguard. Joe, really appreciate you coming on. Appreciate your kind of flexibility and rolling around at the top with all the breaking news that's happening. Joe, thank you. Thanks.

All right. So this is a natural segue from Joe Davis of Vanguard to Rick Santelli and the bond report. Rick, you obviously heard, oh, no Rick. So now I'm Rick. All right, we just referred to the three-year and the two-year treasury note. Well, there has been a move. Look at that far right side of your screen. By the way, in New York, Nick colors.

Some would say Mets, but I'm not going to say that. The spread between the 30 and the two, the whitest it has been in three. years. There's a lot of uncertainty, obviously, not just around Lisa Cook and the Fed. That's today. We'll see where that goes, but also around Fed policy. Will they agree, disagree to make a rate cut? We will see what happenings. That was your daily bond report brought to you by Brian Sullivan. All right. Is the energy trade losing a little bit of juice and industry insider is going to weigh in on that? Plus, Trump says he is killing off a big wind farm off the Connecticut and Rhode Island coast. Governor of Connecticut is not happy about it. He is here live with

weather he is ready to deal. It's a busy day. Let's have a little bit of fun. Delicious fun. Celebrity chef, restaurateur, and entrepreneur, Wolfgang Puck will join us on set. And there's some talk. He may bring meat. We're back right after this. All right. Welcome back. Let's talk oil and gas. Oil prices today down a bit, retreating from a nearly three-week high, investors kind of reassessing any potential disruption to Russian fuel supplies, Ukraine's retaliatory strikes on Russia, disrupting Moscow's oil exports and causing some gas shortages in various parts of the region. Now, in the meantime, President Trump renewing his threat to impose sanctions on Russia if there is no more progress toward a peace

deal in the next two weeks. We'll see if that happens. But what does all of this mean for the oil and gas stocks while your next guest is bullish on parts of the oil business. And today, he's calling 10 different exploration and production companies as outperforms. Joining us to talk about it, Neil Dingman, he is energy analyst at William Blair. Neil, great to have you all in the program. I love your names because these are not the chevrons and exons of the world. These are the Diamondbacks, these are the Vipers, these are the Permian resources, kind of the more mid-cap-sized names, Diamondback is the name that every time I talk to everybody, they say, look at Diamondback and what that team is doing. Why do you like them? That's simple. By the way, nice to happen.

Good to see you, Sully. Diamondback is easy. It's the lowest, the company with the lowest well break-even. Company makes money down to even $40, $35. And, you know, even at 65 where we're at today, 63 to 65, they're just printing, printing dollars. So you look right now, and, you know, not to mention, You mentioned Viper. They have that subsidiary public company. Viper, it's the largest mineral company out there by a large extent. Having that combination, I just think gives them a huge, huge advantage. Yeah, and you reference oil and gas prices.

And by the way, if you figure out where prices are going, let me know because every expert I talk to has got a different view. And they can probably both eventually be right. But the president did say he kind of promised the voter. He wanted lower oil and gas prices. the question is how low might it go, if it goes down, maybe it goes higher. But do you feel like there is kind of a floor at 60 bucks, Neil? I do. We're a bit non-consensus here. We're calling for a bit of an oil bottom. I guess you'd almost call it an inflection point, and that's driven by a couple things. I think one, our data shows that U.S. production, remember, I think I think investors forget

that oil is right now U.S. production is around 13.5 million barrels a day. But the U. us companies have to produce five million just to keep that flat. It's the only industry where you have that type of declining, you know, asset out there, if you will. So one, I think the supply side, especially domestically, is going to be more challenging. And then even the demand side. I think, you know, again, EIA, IEA, others estimate I know they're calling for 50th dollar oil next year. I mean, shoot, they're wrong probably 30% of the time. So I'll take the bet the other way of what they're saying. Yeah, and by the way, OPEC is a little more bullish on oil as well. So kind of a split between the IEA, the acronym agencies. And then, of course, OPEC, back to the names here.

Crescent Energy, Magnolia Oil, mock natural resources. These are not widely known names. I mean, I've heard of them. I couldn't tell you a whole lot about them. What makes these smaller caps outperforms to you? Just, you know, that, again, kind of like a diamondback, they can operate in a low environment. You look at somebody like Magnolia, you mentioned. This little company has over 500,000 acres, all in the Eagleford. They virtually have no debt so they can take on. And, you know, again, if there is pressure on prices, a lot of these companies, I'll use

Magnolia as an example. They can come in buy assets on the cheap and add that to their existing production. So, again, you know, some people view. temporary lower prices as just a negative. Look, a better company like a Magnolia is going to come in, use that to an advantage and take that external production, add it to the organic, and make the company even better off for it. And look, Sell, I think you know this better than I. I mean, the amount of shareholder return my group is paying out, I think, is second to none. I would, I would, you know, put that up against any other sector analysts and try to show another sector that's

paying out more shareholder return, whether that's buyback, whether that's base dividends, whether that's variable dividends, you name it. But here's the weird sort of dichotomy, Neil, is that the push for free cash flow return, shareholder return is now. It's not five years from now. It is right now, which means these companies, the ones you cover, and many more, they want to kick a lot of that cash back to shareholders or make decisions that benefit the stock. That may not always mean drilling for more oil, and there are some very smart people I've talked about. to that say they think U.S. oil production is going to go down, not up, because companies,

well, they may listen to the president and respect what he says. They're going to do what's best for shareholders, not just because the White House tells them to do something. That's right. I think the drill baby drill, that's not going to happen. I think it's just the opposite of that. And I think what's key, though, for the better companies is fortunately right now, Sully, their reinvestment rate for most of them is only about 45 percent. The ones that are not as good can have a reinvestment rate as high as 75 percent, meaning they have to reinvested at least 75 percent of the capital to keep production flat. So again, the Diamondbacks, the Magnolia, the Permian Resources, some of these that you mentioned. Fortunately, they have such a low

reinvestment rate that I think, one, they can keep production flattish. None of them want to grow at these prices. It doesn't make sense. But they can keep paying out these kind of returns to shareholders. So again, you know, if a shareholder wants to get a big dividend, if they want to see their per share growth go up, I just don't think there's a better, better sector to find. Neil Dingman, William Blair, equity analyst, and we've got outperforms on 10 and poor old Civitas resources, just sitting out there by itself with the market perform. Neil, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks, all right. All right. Up next, the biggest risk to the market right now and how you can protect yourself and your portfolio from that.

All right, welcome back. Time for Market Navigator, where we try to help you figure out how to deal with the market's ups and downs that are clearly going to happen maybe tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. We don't know when, but I could tell you we do know markets will go up and they will go down. Joining us down is Paisley Nardini, managing director and head of multi-asset solutions at Simplify. All right, Paisley Nardini. Welcome to Market Navigator.

The firm is called Simplify, but I will say that some of your strategies here are not as simple for the sort of the retail investor. So in plain English, lay out what do you think that people should do now to mitigate some of the bumps that no doubt are coming down the road? Awesome. Well, thanks for having me on today, Brian. Really happy to be here. And you're right. We're doing something a little bit different, and that's by design. Very intentional when Simplify came to market in 2020.

20, we wanted to offer our investors a way to access parts of the market that could help them navigate the exact volatility and uncertainty that we're seeing today. So I would say everything feels really calm on the surface. Volatility is low. Equities are up 10 plus percent this year. Bonds are actually doing okay. And that gives us a bit of pause for concern. We're still bullish long term on the market.

There's a lot of uncertainty ahead of us, whether it be employment data, price data, what direction is the Fed going to take? What's going on with tariff? all of this warrants a little bit more of a diversification play in portfolios for the back half of this year, in our opinion. Also, just who's going to be on the Fed? But that's a different story that's leading the market today, Paisley. You say that if we go into bonds, that we should maybe look at high yield where spreads are less than 3% from sort of the basics of high yield. So if we want to go into credit, where are we investing in high?

You know, great question. So yields across the board are pretty tight as relative to historic standards. This would lead many investors to say, I want to get out of really anything that has credit spread. We think there's a more prudent way to access these parts of the market that are still kicking off really attractive yield for those portfolios that do need income. So the way that we think about accessing these higher yielding parts of the market is through a more prudent hedged approach. And so high-yield bonds, if you have a mechanism or a hedge, embedded within them to think about cushioning returns when spreads widen. That's a way to still access those returns in a more prudent way.

And that's how simplify things about the high-yield market today. Yeah, it's interesting. We talk a lot about treasuries. We talk a lot about stocks. Maybe we don't talk enough about the in-between, sort of that credit market that acts a little bit like stocks. But we'll say goodbye. We'll bring you back soon. Paisley Nardini on Market Navigator, Paisley.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. All right, you're welcome. Let's get now to Julia Borson for a CNBC News Update. Hi, Brian. Well, President Trump said during a cabinet meeting today, the U.S. government would seek the death penalty for anyone found guilty of murder in Washington, D.C., and nearly two dozen states have abolished the death penalty. The president's push for capital punishment comes as the federal government has taken over the D.C. police department and as Trump has deployed National Guard troops in the capital. A federal appeals court ruled today that the battleground state of Pennsylvania can no longer throw out mailing. in ballots if the voter writes an inaccurate date on the return envelope. The three judge panels said it was unable to justify the discarding of the ballots, which it says has resulted in the disqualification of thousands of votes.

For today's ruling to be reversed, the issue would need to go to the Supreme Court. And the new Cadillac Formula One team just added two veteran drivers to its lineup. Sergio Perez and Valturi Botas are returning to the grid after being dropped at the end of 2024. The GM-backed American team will join F1 in 2026 as its 11th team. Brian, back over to you. This is a big move. I'm the racing guy. Sergio Perez is from Mexico.

They call him Czechos. Cadillac GM, obviously a huge market in Mexico. Checo kind of got whacked a little maybe before he should have. Botas from Finland, sweet mustache, mullet. You can't go wrong with that. I'll let you have the last word in that one, Brian. There we go. That's it.

Went to my first F1 race in 1978. All right. Coming up, the president shutting down a massive offshore wind farm. The governor of Connecticut says it's the wrong move at the wrong time. And Governor Ned Lamont of Connecticut will be here live to make his case coming up. I welcome back some big news and energy the last couple of days. The Revolution Wind Project was halted by the Trump administration on Friday. Revolution Wind is a big offshore wind farm being built off the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island.

If completed, it would help power more than 300,000 homes. But Trump says the project is over, citing some environmental and security concerns. But here's the thing, Revolution Wind is not some pie-in-the-sky project dream. It's not only already being built, but it's actually close to being finished. 45 of the planned 65 wind turbines have already been installed. Denmark-based Orsted is the developer. As you know, as we've talked about, that stock's been crushed over the past years. This and other projects took a hit.

Now, Trump talked about energy earlier today and made it pretty clear in the Trump way that he is not a fan of wind energy, and he referenced the United Kingdom and its reliance on wind. And windmills, we're just not going to allow them. They ruin our, they're ruining our country. They're ruining everyone. If you look at, I hate to mention countries, but you look at the UK what's happened at UK. They have energy costs have gone through the risks because of wind. They want to do everything. close up the north the northern parts of the country they have oil it's tremendous and they close it up and they're building windmills all over the place and i tell them you and my friends but man you're gonna have a bad awakening very soon you're gonna it's gonna be very bad they're ugly they don't work they kill your birds they're bad for the environment and if you look at them from a house

your house is worth less than 50%. there's obviously a lot to unpack there, but is there any scenario where a deal could be reached to keep revolution wind spinning like a deal was just reached to keep a big offshore wind farm in New York going? Joining us now in a power lunch exclusive interview is Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont. Governor Lamont, I'd like to get you on in better circumstances, but let's talk about this. You saw what happened at the Empire Wind in New York. It was basically canceled. Then there was some deal made. It came back online. Do you think there is, is some sort of chance that you and your team could reach a deal with the Department of Interior or the White House to keep Revolution Wind going?

I sure hope so, and I'm going to try, Brian, because this decision was sudden, erratic and insane. Look, as you point out, Revolution Wind is in the eighth inning, and it's going to generate 700 megawatts of power for our region. It's going to bring down costs for people. It's almost done. It turns on in six or eight months. And this is a breach of contract. President wrote the art of the deal. The next sequel should have been a deal is a deal.

We made a deal. We have all the permits. Money has been expended. Let's get this over the finish line. I dust off my law books. Governor, you said breach of contract. You think there's a lawsuit here? Let's sit down first.

I'm looking forward to sitting down with Doug Bergam. I've talked to Secretary of Energy. See what we can do. I don't know what their objections are. but let's see what they are. So you have spoken, and we're going to speak with Secretary's Bergam and Wright, by the way, in about two weeks at a big conference. But have you been in contact with them or their offices?

I have. I talked to Chris Wright, and I'll be talking to Doug as soon as he's back and look forward to seeing what was up. You know, we had a deal. You know, they said, look, I don't want any wind power. I said, okay, how about wind power that's almost complete? Governor, I apologize. I sincerely apologize for cutting you off. sit tight for second. President Trump is speaking about Fed Governor Lisa Cook.

Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift are engaged and the world wants your reactions are. Well, I wish I'm a lot a lot. I think it's, I think it's. The question changed. Governor Lamont, you're still there, I hope. I apologize, sir. I guess he gave a very quick answer on Lisa Cook, kind of what we've been, you know that story, obviously. You know what a big deal that is. I found secretaries, Bergam and Wright to be informed and pleasant, at least to me, in the media. How have you found them? Are you, do you think they're willing to engage and negotiate? I do. We had talked about this going back, you know, many months. This took me by surprise. It took, you know, not everybody

in Washington knew about this. It was a sudden decision that came out of the White House. And I think we'll be able to get this corrected pretty soon. I sure hope so. So here is my concern about when I've got a lot of friends on the New Jersey. Jersey Shore, they don't want to look at the wind turbines. I don't own a house there. So, but their problem, not mine, I get it. But I guess when I heard that this project would be canceled, but 45 of the 65 already been built, if this project were to not go forward, what would happen to the giant wind turbines? Would they just kind of sit there rotting?

Well, first thing that happens is much more likely we have blackouts in coming years, because the energy use is going up. This is a way that we could generate a lot of electricity now. I'm talking to the Trump administration about natural gas and nuclear and other things we can do to take longer. So it will jack up prices and make our power a lot less reliable. It's a terrible negative. They're not going to shut it down.

You can't just leave these things hanging out there. We're going to get these things going. I just got to see what the terms of engagement are. They change every day. I know, but it sounds like you're pretty confident, Governor, that you can reach some kind of a deal. There was those talk, and we don't know, that Empire Wind kind of got going back because of a nuclear agreement in New York State. Do you feel like if you made a deal to maybe put in a pipeline, you know, because you're only about 200 miles away from one of the biggest

natural gas fields in the world, that you might be able to get this kind of thing done? Yeah, you don't have to ransom notice, though. We already support this. We're already talking to all the necessary players to see if we can bring some more natural gas pipe. Pipe into our region. That's not an issue for me. This was just a sudden and hasty decision. I think we're going to be able to turn it back. Well, you know, the pipeline issue is one that's not an issue for you, but it is an issue for a lot of people. And to your point about use, you know, I look at the power generation, say in like the New England region, right, north of you, Boston, New Hampshire, a lot of times they're burning trash and trees to make power. That's not environmental, and it's not

particularly clean or they're shipping in LNG on a ship from Trinidad into Boston Harbor. It's kind of weird. You obviously don't want to see that happen either. No, those LNG ships sit right outside of Boston Harbor. They wait for Putin to invade Ukraine. You watch the price of natural gas through the roof. Then they come in and sell it to us at a 500% premium. One of the things wind does is give us 2.5% extra capacity that will mitigate those spikes. You know what those spikes mean? Higher electricity prices for you. Don't get in the way of that, President Trump. We've got to reduce electric prices in New England. Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, sounds pretty rational to me, Governor Lamont. We're really glad that you came on. Thank you very much.

Appreciate that, sir. Nice to see it, Brian. All right, good to see you as well. By the way, we're going to bring it back. President Trump making some very brief comments about Fed Governor Lisa Cook at that cabinet meeting at the White House. Here they are moments ago. legal action, what is your response, are you prepared for a legal fight? And then a little bit more of a- Oh, she always. She always had legal fights. Look, I had a legal fight that went on for years with crooked people with very horrible

people, people that have been found out now between John Ratcliffe and Tulsi and Pam and, I mean, the things that we found out, of course, it's a very, very sad group of people. But now she seems to have had an infraction and she can't have an infraction, and especially that infraction because she's in charge of, if you think about it, mortgages, and we need people that are 100% above board, and it doesn't seem like she was. I would love to ask me a serious question, but I have to. All right, it doesn't seem like she was 100% above board. Again, that is President Trump's opinion.

Speaking about Lisa Cook and the allegations of potential alleged mortgage fraud, again, it's just a big fight that's clouding the Federal Reserve right now. Again, we don't have a lot of information on it. We've heard reporting all day. The minute we get something, you'll get it. A lot of serious stuff going on. Coming up next, though, we're going to have some fun. Celebrity chef, entrepreneur, restaurateur, wolfgang puck.

He is here. He is in studio. He will join us on the other side of this break. Talk about where he got to where he is and where he sees his business and empire going in the future. That's next. Crypto Watch is sponsored by Crypto.com. Crypto.com is America's premier crypto platform. If I had a fork, it's not even cooked, I might eat it.

If you're planning a Labor Day weekend barbecue, you're going to have to pay up a little bit more. Beef prices continue to hit new highs. But when we're looking, zoom in on this, chef, entrepreneur, restaurateur, Wolfgang Puck, joining us on set, and they said you were bringing meat. I thought they were joking. No. You bring meat. Yeah, I said you were hungry, so the only thing is I didn't bring my charcoal grill, so we could cook it.

This looks, honestly, this looks healthy and good enough to just eat. But what are we looking at here? And how are you, it's a business show, how are you managing through some of these beef costs? You know, a great thing for guests out there, for our customers, is really to share things. For example, I brought here an avaraska beef chop or coat the buff, we call it. So you have that for two or three people. Then it's actually maybe $60, $65 per person. And obviously, if you go to Australian baguio beef, it's very expensive.

Our Snake River Farm, which is a crossing between Vagio and Black Angers, there are also reasonable still, you know, in comparison to Vagio. But this is really my favorite snake river farm, the New York, is perfectly, perfectly marbled. You can see a great marble on it. You grill it, put a little salt on it. I know it's not a cooking show. It might turn into a cooking show.

Because this is, the show is called Power Lunch, by the way. Okay, so perfect. So next time we have a little lunch here too. So put a little salt, pepper on it, put it on the grill, and that's it. Because if the quality of the meat is great, you don't need a lot of different thing. And this is all the cuts we have at our restaurant cut at the four season down. down here. And I must say, beef prices since January, especially with, like, Cricstone, especially with some beef from Nebraska, the prime beef, this is dry age, have fallen like 15%.

So you're seeing a little mitigation, of course. A little bit better. Yeah. So it's not going, but, you know, during the holiday season, it's always going to go up again. I can see that coming already. Obviously, you're in L.A. You live in L.A. Spago's a legendary, but you got cut there at the Beverly Wilshire, you got cut here at the four seasons, but you're all over the world. Yeah, and this continue to open, you know, Vegas, Bahrain, whatever, Asia. Are you seeing any slowdown at the top end of the consumer? You know, I think the top end is still okay, but I think the middle is really where it's the most difficult. You know, you're not the top. You don't give great service if you give people a great experience. If you have a great stake, maybe instead of going

three times a month, you might go twice a month. But you know. once you like quality, you don't gonna settle for second best anymore. And I think that's really the most important thing. And I tell the guest, you know, eat a little bit less. Like I share with my wife a stake of 10 ounces, five ounces each. We have like three appetizers. And I'm totally satisfied. Yeah.

Well, the American way, as you know, a lot of it is, give me a lot of food. Give me a lot of food. You get a thing like that for yourself. I mean, easy, Fred Flintstone. I mean, by the way, I might pick that to pick that up. and start chewing on it. So where do you see other costs going? Meat is one part of your business.

You've got labor. You've got wine. You've got utilities. We talk a lot about utilities and insurance. You know, in California, the insurance is getting through the roof because of all the fires we had and everything. So nobody wants to insure you anymore. I think labor cost is getting through the roof.

Like in LAX, we have restaurants at the airport. Yeah. And $30 minimum wage. So if I pay for the dishwasher $30, I have to pay they cook $40. And we want people to earn a living wage because L.A. is a spectacularly expensive city. I was born and raised there. My parents' first home in Torrance was three bedrooms, one bath. I think they paid $61,000.

The house is now like a million bucks. I know. Still one bathroom. I know. So you have to pay up. So how do we, is there a balance? You know, there should be a balance. And I really believe all the workers out there, they should make a living.

They should be able to live maybe 30 minutes away from where they work, not two hours away. I mean, I have people who drive two hours from and to their house. They live in Victorville and they commute to Beverly Hills. All the way out in the valley somewhere. And that's where they can afford a little house. In our neighborhood, it's impossible. I remember when I started, I was a chef at my maison. I bought a duplex for $75,000.

I know it was a little while ago, but still. Still, I love it. Mom is over my house. So what would, we're going to wrap it up with this. What would you've got all these different cuts here? What would Wolfgang Puck eat for dinner tonight? So for me, I probably would eat unless I'm with my son, Alexander, who actually just enrolled at NYU.

So you're going to start it there. That's a big bill, by the way. Yeah. You're right. Thank you for reminding. Sorry. I know. Nothing is cheap.

So what can we do? So with my wife, we have the. the Snake River Farm, New York here, which is my favorite. We share it. Now, if I have the family, we're always going to have a dry-aged coat of beef or rib job here, and I slice it in, a little salt and pepper, maybe some French fries on the side and some vegetables, and you're very happy. You don't have to eat a lot of good beef.

You don't have to eat a huge portion, I want to say. You eat a little bit, but eat quality. Has there been, this is a little weird, but I'm like sort of. salivating, I'm sort of entranced by the meat. Is there any kind of a Zempeg effect in your business, Wolfgang? Have you seen it or felt it at all? I think people eat beef, then they take their Zembek, so they stay at the same level. Or maybe they go out, but to your point, they'll eat a little bit less. My friends that are on the shot, and they'll just, they'll eat the same stuff they used to, they'll eat a lot less of it. You know, that's what I hear. And I had one of

our chefs is taking Ossempic, and he actually told me that it doesn't make you hungry. So you're not really feeling like you have to eat more. You eat a little bit and you feel full. So that way you lose weight. So I think one of the main thing is we eat such large portions. You know, in America, more is more. I have people who come from Europe and we give them like a New York steak here, like there's a Crichton, New York here from Kansas.

And they think, is that for two? I know. And in Europe, eight ounces of meat is a lot. A lot. Any of this tariff, do you see a tariff impact on avocados from Mexico? Yeah. What are you seeing on the tariff side? Well, in California, we are still lucky because we grow in Fort Brook and everywhere,

avocados too. But, you know, because of the prices, they imported a lot from Mexico and people farm less. But we have more and more small producers for beef, which is really good for us. And now they specialize, even in America, even in California, they raise vaguely cattle, You know, not as good as Japan yet, but at least the quality is good. And Snake River Farm has shown that you can really do a great beef by mixing black hangars and bagu together. And you have the flavor of the beef, what we like in America. You know, we love this prime beef, dry-age beef, but also the richness.

So it's a perfect combination. Quickly, immigration. You got the White House probably watching, or policymakers, what would your message be on immigration? Well, I really believe, you know, we need immigrants, but it has to be controlled. You know, we cannot do like we had a year ago where we opened the borders. Anybody can come in. And then when I tried to get a qualified person from France or Italy or Japan, they said you have to wait one year. So we'll fix that.

But in the meantime, we'll enjoy this Wolfgang Puck, delaying your flight home. Yeah. We really appreciate your time today, sir. Thank you very much. Eduardo, the great chef from the four seasons. Cut. Cut. Cut downtown New York is here in the house as well.

We need to get a grill. We're going to go to break. We're back right after this. All right, before we go, I want to highlight the most red story on CNBC Pro. Today, our colleagues wrote an article about what happened to the financial markets after Richard Nixon, pressure then Fed Chair, Arthur Burns, to loosen monetary policy before the 72 election. Wow. To read that story and many more, go to CNBC.com slash pro, become a pro.

subscriber today. I don't know about you folks. I'm really, really hungry, but I got to go do fast money. I'll see at 5 p.m. Thanks for watching Power Lunch. The closing bell. Starts