Welcome! The White House ballroom’s first architect resigned after repeatedly warning that Trump’s demands violated fire and safety codes, prompting Trump to reportedly respond, “𝕏I am the code.”
✅ WINNING: Hospitals Shutter Youth Gender Clinics in Deal With Trump Administration - NYT (free)
⛽ RECORD: The national average for a gallon of Diesel hit an all-time high of $6.53 on Tuesday.
➡️ TODAY: Trump’s Board of Peace to unveil $2.45 billion Gaza recovery plan - Axios
‼️ DEVELOPING: ‘The New York Times’ Sued by Shareholders Over Biased Israel Coverage - The Free Press (paywall) & National Center (free)
🚨 SIGN OF THE TIMES: Byron Donalds scrubs most Trump references from new campaign site for Florida governor’s race - NBC
🎟️ GET YOUR TICKETS: It’s the Not Safe For Radio show, things not safe to say on radio, not safe in front of kids or my mom, but a ton of fun stories on an off-the-record night, October 10th at the Gas South District / Gas South Theater, great hotel on site, tickets are on sale now.
👂 The Show Notes is my blueprint for radio but is only for subscribers. You can subscribe and listen here.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will get an unusually high-profile welcome Wednesday, with President Trump expected to personally greet him on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews as Xi begins his first U.S. state visit in more than a decade.
The tarmac greeting is a rare presidential gesture, one not seen for a visiting foreign leader since John F. Kennedy welcomed British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1962.
The arrival will kick off a three-day visit heavy on ceremony, culminating in a formal White House state dinner Thursday. The elaborate welcome is intended in part to reciprocate the pageantry surrounding Trump’s visit to China in May.
But the symbolism also comes after 20 months of escalating U.S.-China tariffs followed by a fragile truce. The warmer treatment of Xi highlights the administration’s shift toward managing tensions with Beijing after an earlier push by China hawks for a more aggressive confrontation with America’s biggest geopolitical rival.
**Meta may have created the first true consumer AI hit. **Just two weeks after launching Muse, Meta’s new personal AI agent, the app has climbed to No. 1 on Apple’s U.S. App Store, helping send Meta shares up 11% on Monday.
Muse is designed to act across a user’s digital life, potentially accessing emails, text messages, calendars and other personal data to shop, book travel, compare services and complete tasks. Truist Securities estimates the product could eventually generate $28.5 billion in additional revenue by 2030.
But the bigger story may be what Muse could do to everyone else:
Shares of banks, insurers, travel companies, telecom providers and even Planet Fitness fell Tuesday as investors considered what happens when AI agents begin automatically shopping around for consumers instead of allowing them to stick with the same bank, insurer, airline or subscription out of habit.
JPMorgan and Wells Fargo fell more than 3%. Allstate dropped 5.5%. Charles Schwab lost more than 6%. Planet Fitness plunged 9.5%.
There are already obstacles. Amazon has blocked Muse from shopping on its website, privacy concerns are mounting, and Google and OpenAI are widely expected to introduce competing products.
Go deeper with Bloomberg or WSJ (free) or this WILD story: Meta’s New Muse AI Agent Read My Private Messages. I Never Asked It To -
Sen. Jon Husted became the latest battleground Republican this week to call for a quick end to the Iran war, as panic grows over how high gas prices and President Donald Trump’s agenda could imperil the party’s chances in November.
“The war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices,” the Ohio senator told POLITICO, in his furthest comments yet on the matter.
Coming after Iowa Senate nominee Ashley Hinson,
[who broke from Trump over the war on Monday], and[Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers], who followed suit hours later, Husted’s comments are another example of the pressure he and other Republicans are under to address prices at the pump. Several candidates are creating some distance from Trump, as voters continue to blame the president for the current economy and the Iran conflict for high costs of living.
Full story at Politico and Bloomberg (free).
Some Republican lawmakers are calling for a ban on U.S. diesel exports as a way to lower record-high prices. But energy experts warn the move could backfire and drive diesel prices even higher by worsening the global supply crunch.
Average diesel costs hit a record $6.53 a gallon on Tuesday, up 77% from a year ago, according to AAA data. Diesel is vital across the nation’s agriculture, trucking and construction sectors, with the price surge especially painful for farmers and small businesses.
Many of the calls for a diesel export ban are coming from lawmakers in states with agriculture-rich economies. Iowa Republicans Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Ashley Hinson are among those calling for American energy companies to be barred from selling diesel outside of the U.S., arguing that could help lower prices for Americans.
Full story at CBS.
Using AI chatbots to address financial questions could risk large losses, with models from a range of providers giving wrong answers most of the time, research has found.
The most popular AI models from ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Grok and Gemini provided wrong answers to financial queries 57 per cent of the time on average, according to research from technology firm Saturn.
When asked more complex questions, such as those which involved more than one calculation, the AI models made mistakes in 88 per cent of cases on average. Some models gave wrong answers to 99 per cent of these harder questions. The research used more than 100 different money-related questions through the free and paid-for AI models from providers including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot.
Questions were repeated up to five times, with more than 10,000 questions collectively put to 18 different AI models. Their answers contained calculation errors, omitted upcoming tax changes or hallucinated rules, according to the research.
Full story at FT (paywall).
Ukraine ready to sign landmark drone defense deal with U.S., sources say, amid new details on Kyiv’s role in Iran war -
CBSIranian president due to speak at UNGA on Wednesday -
ABCNearly 10% of borrowers opted for riskier mortgages last week, as rates soared over 7% -
CNBCUber’s robotaxi edge: human drivers -
AxiosPortland State coach explains why he declined Oregon’s offer of 10-minute quarters in second half of 84-0 loss -
YahooDOJ defends Trump White House media ban, citing national security and “professionalism and decorum” -
CBSTexas turning blue may hinge on Democrats harnessing data center opposition -
CNBC‘One after another, they started dying’: survivors recount deaths in detention in Nigeria -
ReutersDisney+ Price to Jump 13% to $21.49 Per Month as Soon as Wednesday -
Bloomberg(paywall)
For years, I’ve warned about the dangers of big banks using the financial system to push political agendas. But thanks to Consumers’ Research and the Open Banking Rule, consumers have access to more competitive banking options than ever before. That’s why I’m proud to stand with Consumers’ Research as they fight to keep you in charge of your financial future, not big banks that discriminate against conservatives and crush competition. Learn more about their work here.
For years, my friends at the American Energy Institute sounded the alarm on the progressive war on affordable energy. But thanks to the Trump administration’s commitment to safe, reliable nuclear energy, America’s energy future is brighter than ever. That’s why I am partnering with my friends at American Energy Institute to drive economic prosperity through abundant, affordable, and reliable energy for everyone. Learn more about the bright future of American energy here.
