Ep 163: John Jovanovic on Turning Around the U.S. Export-Import Bank, Trump’s $12B Critical Mineral Reserve, and "Revenge of the Physical World"

John Jovanovic (0:00)

We need to manufacture more in America in order to innovate more in America. You can't innovate if you can't iterate.

Joe Lonsdale (0:06)

You and President Trump stood together and announced a critical mineral reserve. I think it's $12 billion to start.

John Jovanovic (0:11)

The White House came to us with a very clear directive. You know the problem.

Think about the solution differently.

Joe Lonsdale (0:17)

You're the president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the US.

John Jovanovic (0:21)

After a decade or more of being unprofitable, we return the bank to profitability.

Joe Lonsdale (0:27)

What are you seeing with AI driving reindustrialization?

John Jovanovic (0:29)

People on the factory floor almost have superhuman strength now.

Joe Lonsdale (0:33)

Our adversaries seem to want us to turn off all of our data centers.

John Jovanovic (0:37)

The average data center being built today uses as much water as your local bakery. The best way for a small business in America to leapfrog its competitors is to adopt AI. My grandfather worked at a steel mill in the South Side of Chicago.

And in two generations, you know, I got to truly live the American dream. These are the things that matter.

Joe Lonsdale (1:02)

The United States Export-Import Bank was an important tool during the Cold War for American interests and American jobs.

But it decayed into a money losing institution that many accused of cronyism and waste. Now John Jovanovic has taken over the bank, is making money again, and it's helping America with jobs, energy dominance and technologies of the future.

John is a really strong background in a lot of industries that were considered very boring 10 years ago. Energy, infrastructure, the core, high capex areas of our society.

And now these areas are hot again as American industry is ramping up. John's helping President Trump re-industrialize, export American industry, create American jobs, and make sure that this is the next American century. Welcome to American Optimist. We have John Jovanovic here with us today. Thank you for joining us.

John Jovanovic (1:48)

Joe, such a pleasure to be here.

Joe Lonsdale (1:49)

It's awesome to see you. You're the president and chairman of the Export and Import Bank of the US right now. What's the Ex-Im Bank?

John Jovanovic (1:55)

Yeah, it's a great question. So 92 years ago, Franklin Roosevelt started the Export and Import Bank with one clear idea in mind, which was he believed we needed more well-paying jobs in America to pull the US out of the Great Depression, right? And so what he didn't quite appreciate at the time was all of that industrial capacity would be needed for the war effort a few short years later. And by the way, the premise was simple. If we open up more markets for American companies all around the world, and if we make them more competitive, that will equate to sticky, real well-paying jobs here at home.

Now after World War II, what Ex-Im then became was a vehicle, a shield, if you will, for American companies looking to battle up the Cold War in every single market around the globe.

And so we actually helped usher in by this big muscle memory that we inherited in the building, a great moment of prosperity, security, stability all around the planet. Now, when I got to serve the president in the first administration and was very proud to be a part of the transition well before the election, preparing for what we hoped would be, it was a big victory in November of 24, and focusing on the economic agencies, I firmly believe that Ex-Im was a diamond in the rough. And that was the argument I made to the president, which was, Mr. President, there's a tremendous amount of muscle memory in that building. We have to channel it. We have to direct it to deliver the American Dream 2.0, which you and I both know is really the president's agenda fundamentally. But at the core of it is we need to manufacture more in America in order to innovate more in America. You and I have talked about this a lot. You can't innovate if you can't iterate, right? If your competitor is in a day or two after tweaking a prototype, able to see the result in real life, that's way different than waiting two weeks for something to come back from all the way around the globe. And so what I presented to the president was a plan to reinvigorate Ex-Im. And the plan was to reorient around four key strategic priorities, which is actually so much of what you've dedicated your career to, both in business building and investing, but also at Cicero Institute and other things. So this will kind of ring true for your viewers. Number one, let's bring the bank back to basics. Like so many of the big agencies, so many of the government tools that were built for purpose, we knew how to build things 92 years ago, right? We didn't build them as a sort of a compromise to a bunch of different objectives. We built it with a very clear need. Does it help create more jobs in America? Does it help make American industry more competitive? And so, all right, let's bring it back to basics. Let's help American companies win where they want to compete if we're around the globe. Number two, energy dominance, energy security. How do we position Ex-Im to help bring American energy molecules and technology to every corner of the globe? Well, not just energy molecules, right? The president has done a tremendous job at ensuring that American energy dominance pays a peace dividend, but also gives us flexibility in a lot of strategic areas around the world, which you and I have also talked about in the past. But also, it's our technologies that are cutting edge, upon which if you want to do a natural gas liquefaction project anywhere in the world, Joe, chances are you are relying on US technology. So let's keep it front and center. Number three, supply chain security. I know you want to talk about that today. We do too, right? We have inherited a supply chain issue that has been festering for a few decades, right?