Iran War, Oil Shock, Off Ramps, AI's Revenue Explosion and PR Nightmare

**Jason Calacanis** (0:00)
All right, everybody. Welcome back to the number one podcast in the world. Friedberg's out saving the world, creating new potatoes or, I don't know, quinoa, maybe some Brussels sprouts. I'm not sure what he's working on at this point. In his place, his personal favorite bestie, he always says that when I'm not here, I want Brad Gerstner in the seat. Welcome back. We haven't seen you on the pod since. Your shout out at the State of the Union. Take us behind the scenes for a brief moment here, Brad, of what it's like to get a shout out from POTUS at the State of...

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:31)
Did you know it was coming? Did you choreograph to this thing? Did you choreograph that or was that more spontaneous?

**Brad Gerstner** (0:35)
I honestly had no idea it was coming. In fact, I found out after the fact that it wasn't in the speech and the president added it to the speech. I don't even think it was a few days before going to happen. But we got an invite to the State of the Union and listen, it's an institution. This has happened every year for 250 years in the country. I've never been. I thought, I did know he was going to talk about Trump accounts, so I figured if I'm ever going to go, that's the time to go. I have to say, I'm just a sucker for democratic institutions and democratic traditions. It was an extraordinary night. Set aside the headlines about what Democrats did or Republicans did, just whether it's a Democrat president or Republican president, that this happens every year. You have to go report on the State of the Union. So it was a special night, a dinner ahead of time, we're in the chamber. The chamber, as you all know, is very small. And so just to your right was the First Family and Jared and Ivanka.
And so we were there to observe, like everybody else. And wow, it was quite a moment.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:42)
I want to just say, you did a great job. Because when you sent your heart out to all of America...

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (1:48)
I took it. I took it.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:49)
You sent it out, but you kept it at the right angle.

**Brad Gerstner** (1:53)
Right. Right.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:54)
You had just got up a little bit extra and out another five degrees.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (1:58)
You'd be a Nazi.

**Brad Gerstner** (1:59)
That would have been no bueno.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (2:01)
Those would be some super racist Trump accounts.

**Jason Calacanis** (2:04)
Keep your protractor and your ruler out when you send your heart out. Okay.

**Brad Gerstner** (2:08)
One final thing on it, Jason. You know, we're signing up over a hundred thousand kids a day to these Trump accounts. We have millions of kids who've already claimed their account. We have nearly 30 million kids in America who are eligible for at least $250. If they just go claim their account, these things are going to go live on July 4th. What it really showed, I think the country, it accelerated after the State of the Union because the president really believes this is a way to get everybody in Main Street America into the game of capitalism and get them all directly owning the great companies in America. So it meant a lot to me in that regard, that it highlights the importance of the program. So I was deeply grateful to the president for not only making sure this happens, but the shout out was pretty cool.

**Jason Calacanis** (2:50)
Good for you, bro. I have an interesting idea for you. I'm sure it's come up already, but with this whole discussion of UBI, somebody said to me, oh, you know, I really like these Trump accounts your friends did, the Invest America because it's like the start of UBI. I was like, well, that's not exactly the intention, but I get it. With wealth disparity going on in the country that has a lot of people concerned, what if there was a giving pledge around equities and people could opt into it, they don't have to. But if somebody like, I don't know, Larry and Sergey or Zuckerberg said, I want to pledge 5% of my shares to go into kids' accounts over the next 20 years. What an amazing, beautiful thing that could be. And it would be incredibly material to get whatever it is, a 10th of a share, a 100th of a share, a 1000th of a share of whatever company. Has that come up yet as an idea? Yeah, I'm sure it's obvious, right?

**Brad Gerstner** (3:41)