The Tom Sullivan Show

Most Americans say they're anxious about AI — but is some of that anxiety being fed by Chinese messaging designed to slow us down in the AI race? Same question for data center backlash. And do you actually want Congress writing the technical rules for AI companies? We dig into all of it. Meanwhile gas and diesel keep climbing and here's why — Houthi rebels just seized Yemen's entire Red Sea coastline and a critical Saudi pipeline just got knocked offline for weeks, cutting off one of Saudi Arabia's last safe export routes. Brent crude is now over $107 a barrel. And President Trump publicly told Ukraine's Zelensky to stop striking Russian oil refineries because it's driving up diesel prices here at home — even as those strikes are one of Ukraine's most effective tools against Russia's war machine. Once again, he seems to be siding with Moscow's interests. All of it today.

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Twenty-five years ago today, everything changed. Those of us who were adults that morning will never forget — but a new generation is growing up knowing 9/11 only as history, not memory. Today we set the news aside and share firsthand stories from survivors, first responders, and families who lived through that day, so the memory of what we lost — and who we lost — stays alive for the people who weren't there to see it themselves.

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Remember to call with your money and investing questions 855-295-6600 for the Financial Friday podcast. https://www.spreaker.com/show/7102919/episodes/feed

Trump promised a $5,000 "Trump Dividend" to every adult American if Republicans hold both the House and Senate in November — but here's the problem. The President has no unilateral authority to issue this; Congress would have to pass a roughly $1.3 trillion bill, on top of $40 trillion in existing national debt. Vance already started walking it back within hours. And dumping that much money into the economy right now would almost certainly be wildly inflationary — just like it was under Biden's big spending, which helped push inflation to 9 percent. Speaking of inflation, PPI jumped 5.4 percent last month, driven largely by oil prices tied to the escalating Iran war. And despite Bessent tripling his bond buyback to try to push rates down, the bond market keeps winning — Treasury yields just hit their highest levels since 2023. All of it today.

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Remember to call with your money and investing questions 855-295-6600 for the Financial Friday podcast. https://www.spreaker.com/show/7102919/episodes/feed

Someone scheduled the GOP's first-ever midterm convention the same night as the NFL season opener — Seahawks vs. Patriots, a Super Bowl rematch on NBC. Vance's keynote goes head to head with kickoff. Bad planning or just bad luck? Trump said today the Iran war will end shortly after the midterms — a specific promise after six months of "almost over." Same day, oil spiked hard — Brent crude hit $101 after U.S. forces struck five Iranian tankers. And Treasury Secretary Bessent tripled a bond buyback to $6 billion specifically to push interest rates down. It backfired completely — yields hit their highest level since 2023, and even his own mentor Stanley Druckenmiller publicly called the move a mistake. All of it today.

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This Friday is the 25th anniversary of September 11th, and there's a real controversy in New York this year. Mayor Mamdani says he'll attend the Ground Zero ceremony despite nearly 100,000 people signing a petition asking him to stay away, retired Port Authority officers directly asking him not to come, and pushback from George Pataki and Rudy Giuliani — all centered on his appointment of a lawyer with a controversial past client and his own history with a Brooklyn imam named in the 1993 WTC bombing case. We walk through both sides fairly, but more than anything we want to take today to honor what this anniversary is actually about — the 2,977 people we lost and the families still carrying that grief 25 years later. President Trump will be at the Pentagon ceremony this year instead of New York. Meanwhile, more Iran strikes happened over the weekend, and we're still watching to see if the economic pressure campaign actually works. Oil and gas prices keep climbing in the meantime. All of it today.

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Remember to call with your money and investing questions 855-295-6600 for the Financial Friday podcast. https://www.spreaker.com/show/7102919/episodes/feed

Trump posted "LOWER THE RATE OR I'LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT," floating a total trade embargo with Canada, Mexico, and others as leverage against the Fed. A Wharton professor called the idea crazy, and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh just told Jackson Hole the Fed still has work to do on inflation, not room to cut. We explain why publicly attacking an independent Fed usually backfires. The August jobs report beat expectations at 162,000 added — good news, but after a year of downward revisions, don't get too attached to that number yet. And Mayor Mamdani just banned generative AI tools like chatbots for nearly 600,000 NYC students K-8 for a full year, while high schoolers still get AI literacy lessons. Good instinct on human connection, or a full year behind on the technology that's shaping their future? All of it today.

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Remember to call with your money and investing questions 855-295-6600 for the Financial Friday podcast. https://www.spreaker.com/show/7102919/episodes/feed

Millions are hitting the road for Labor Day despite high gas prices, but the real inflation threat is diesel, which is climbing fast. Everything you own arrived on a diesel truck, and your food was grown with diesel-powered equipment — so diesel inflation quietly hits everything. Part of the problem is structural — America hasn't built a new major refinery since one went up in Louisiana in 1977, nearly 50 years ago. Refining capacity, not just crude supply, is the real bottleneck. The Clippers just got hammered by the NBA — a $30 million fine, five forfeited first-round draft picks through 2033, and owner Steve Ballmer suspended a full year, after an investigation found the team funneled improper deals to Kawhi Leonard. And Trump says he's personally campaigning in 35 races before the midterms — we ask what that level of hands-on involvement really signals. All of it today.

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Remember to call with your money and investing questions 855-295-6600 for the Financial Friday podcast. https://www.spreaker.com/show/7102919/episodes/feed

Why does it take nearly a year just to decide if there's enough evidence to hold a trial for the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk? We ask directly. The Lindsay Clancy jury is deadlocked, and honestly, we'd be stuck too — prosecutors threw 80 expert witnesses and 300 pieces of evidence at them. That's overload, not clarity. Tiger Woods just had a DUI-related charge reduced to reckless driving again, avoiding jail after refusing a sobriety test with pills in his pocket. If courts keep doing this for people with money and lawyers, why should anyone take drunk driving laws seriously? And in Massachusetts, 80-year-old Ed Markey beat 47-year-old Seth Moulton in the Democratic Senate primary — voters chose the progressive over the generational-change candidate. All of it today.

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Remember to call with your money and investing questions 855-295-6600 for the Financial Friday podcast. https://www.spreaker.com/show/7102919/episodes/feed

The on-off-on-off war with Iran is on again, and right on schedule, oil prices are climbing and inflation is set to follow. Trump wants the Fed to cut rates, insisting "other things" besides his own policies are driving prices up — he never says what those things are, and we call that out directly. Meanwhile, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has resigned after 18 months, following months of clashes with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has now fired or forced out more than a dozen senior military leaders across every branch since taking office. When an organization keeps losing its best people one after another, the problem usually traces back to whoever's in charge. All of it today.

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Remember to call with your money and investing questions 855-295-6600 for the Financial Friday podcast. https://www.spreaker.com/show/7102919/episodes/feed

Trump announced a massive oil deal with Venezuela, claiming U.S. control over 65 billion barrels and promising lower gas prices. Reality check — it's a 25-year deal, not 100 years, the legal authority behind it is genuinely unclear since the full terms have never been published, and Chevron is the only major U.S. oil company actually willing to expand there. Aging ports and power outages mean production won't ramp up fast either. Still, strategically, reducing dependence on Canada and Mexico while locking down Western Hemisphere oil looks like a smart long-term bet even with the near-term hype overblown. Meanwhile Iran's economy is genuinely buckling under the sanctions pressure campaign — the IRGC hasn't caved yet, but the numbers inside Iran are getting ugly. All of it today.

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Remember to call with your money and investing questions 855-295-6600 for the Financial Friday podcast. https://www.spreaker.com/show/7102919/episodes/feed