Prince Lee, thank you very much. The reason I've been so anxious to talk to you is because as someone who's been investing more successfully at almost anyone around the world for 45 years, I think you've got a pretty good handle of what's going on in the world. Are you hopeful right now in this moment? Let's just start. The biggest possible picture.

Yes, I'm positive. I'm hopeful with the Trump administration coming very forcefully. Yes. With clear vision about where the world should be heading. I'm optimistic, cautious, optimistic, but it's going to take some time because the legacy that Trump had is a big one. Yes. On foreign policy, domestic policy, debt, immigration. We will talk about all these things, obviously, today. But the legacy is so big. We've seen that the first week of Trump or now the first 10 days is coming very strongly. I really hope that this momentum stays and have a positive effect on the international community as much as it will have a good impact on the domestic policy.

When Trump was elected in November, the world was really on the cusp of two big conflicts that could potentially get much bigger in Eastern Europe and in this region. Do you think he can successfully resolve those conflicts?

Look, we own No, Nathanya is going to meet him tomorrow.

Yes.

I really hope that President Trump is very forceful in imposing, or at least forcing Israel to have a peaceful resolution to this Palestine issue that's been going on since the late 1940s. It's about time to have a fine solution for the Palestinian cause to stop all those terrorist acts that are really unwanted, like the one happened in October. Obviously, you're alluding to the Ukraine war. Also, it's about time to have this war end, a useless war between Russia and Ukraine that caused hundreds of thousands of people die from both sides, civilians and otherwise.

What's the solution to the problem in the Middle East?

Look, the stated official position of Saudi Arabia, which I really support, of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, who was announced on your X channel Fox. He said publicly that we are having a discussion relations with Israel to acknowledge each other. But as a good pro quo, we need a Palestinian state. We need to have the rights of the Palestinians acknowledged, and we need to have Palestine independent and have as capital city East Jerusalem. So if these things are met, I think Saudi Arabia is more than ready to have diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, as Crown Prince, Prince Muhammad, announced a few months ago.

From an outsider's perspective, Saudi Arabia does not have official diplomatic relations with Israel, but it's certainly aligned with Israel against Iran. That's the way it looks from outside.

Do you think it's fair to say? Look, it's very easy to get aligned against Iran. Iran is It's a nation based dogmatically on terroristic ideas. We have seen how every country that Iran goes to, you have turmoil. Look at Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, Sudan, all those countries, what's common among them. You have the Iranian infiltration in them. Clearly, it's not easy, not difficult at all to be an alliance when any country against Iran because Iran always plant the seeds of trouble, chaos, and confusion wherever they are.

That's the view of Israel, too, as you know. Yes, exactly. You have that big perspective in common with the Israeli government despite your differences. So there's been progress, I would say, between Saudi Arabia and Israel, but I don't think there's been any progress on the prospect of a Palestinian state. People have been saying that for, well, certainly since 1967, but it feels like we're farther from that.

We are very far, of course, after what happened in Gaza. But I think with a strong leadership from the United States and with the effectiveness that the United States could really have in the West Bank with the Palestinian authorities, if they can have these people being more effective and more dynamic and inject some fluidity and some power and influence in them, there could really be the power to be reckoned with, so where Israel could have a... To negotiate with the Palestinian authority, and hopefully, that they can have a control over what's happening in Gaza also.

How closely are people in the Arab world following what's happening there?

For sure, the Arab world has been following very closely the destruction that happened in Gaza. I mean, for sure, a terrorist attack did happen there in October. But the disproportionate and the complete disproportionate of the Israeli attack on Gaza that wiped out the whole northern part of Gaza was really unwanted. Hospitals, schools, cities, universities, they were all demolished completely. So yes, we're following the very closely for sure.

Do people here hold the United States responsible for that?

I'm not sure at all that they hold the United States. I mean, some do that and they capitalize the very positive and strong alliance between United States and Israel. But realistically speaking, what happened there really was really Israeli-based. Clearly, United States did support that. But we have seen also, even the Biden administration and even in Trump, I'm not sure he was very much happy with what happened there at all. But at the end of the day, what happened did happen. Now we need to see how we can put this behind us and open a new chapter in the Middle East, clearly with the Syrian regime neutralized and having a new, I will not say pro-western regime, but at least not anti-American regime in Syria, with Hamas, hopefully demolished completely. More the Hezbollah being almost neutralized in Lebanon. These are a very big plusses and his inducement to have a peaceful solution for the Palestinian cause.

You know Donald Trump well.

I know long time ago, from From the time we bought from him the Plaza Hotel, and we also bought from him his Trump Princess yacht that they still have.

How did you wind up with Donald Trump's yacht? Not many people can say that. Not many people have Donald Trump's yacht, but you do. How did you get it? How did that happen?

We bought it, I think, in the late '80s. Trump did take possession of it and he renovated it. I think he reached a stage where he did not really want to have it anymore, so we did buy it from him.

What was your experience with Trump?

What's he like? Look, with Trump, I think if you're straight with him, you get a straight answer. We had very good dealing with President Trump when he was a businessman, whether during the purchase of the Plaza Hotel from him or buying his Trump Princess yacht.

So you were not anti-Trump?

Oh, no, we can't be anti-Trump because we are pro-American. We have to be pro-Trump, especially with the new policies that he's taking right now. I'm very much conservative, socially, really speaking. And all these policies right now in being anti-walk, being anti-left wing, being anti all those crazy things that's happening on the left. We are for sure for Trump on these matters. And also all these policies, economical policies that and looking after the eradication of the US deficit, these are all conservative policies that we support. Look, I lived in America. I graduated from the West Coast from University in California, and I finished my muscles in the East Coast in America. So we all love America. We want America to be strong.

What did you think over the last eight years as you watched the woke, the sexual politics in the United States?

It went just too far. Too much, really. It's about time for America to get a logical person, a pragmatic person like Trump. I know some policies are extreme to some people, but there's social policies being anti-woke, being anti-left wing completely, being too liberal. I mean, these are really policies that are logical. Look, I'm a religious person. America is still a very conservative country. One of the main ingredients of the success of Trump in the last election was really his social policies. Many people in America believe that America went too much to the left. I think getting back America the center, at least the center, not necessarily to the right, the center. That in itself is a big achievement for America.

So you hear that in countries around the world, we admire the United States, the entire leadership of most of the world went to college in the United States. Yes. How did people in this region and other countries visit feel about seeing men dressed as women at the White House and all that stuff?

Were they- It's crazy. It's nonsense. It's nonsense. And this transgender idea right now, I mean, having the military, all those transgender people and toilets having been mixed and having, for example, a male who was transferring the lady to go and compete into women's sports, it's too much. It's going too far. It's too There's too much. We reach the stage in America, if you're not walking, you are crazy or you are anti-establishment. It's too much. It's going too far. So I think what Trump is doing right now is at least move it to the center. We are not against LBGTQ, even the plus, whatever the plus means.

What is the plus?

That's a scary part.

I would rather not talk about it.

You'd rather not talk about the plus? I would rather not talk about it. That's very scary. Yeah, I- The plus. Lbt, you understand. But the plus, we can have another interview for that. Let's put this aside.

I'm comfortable with that. Thank you very much. You must have been confused watching that. This is a country you went to school and you know well.

Yeah, I lived in America. When I was in America, I know, you have left wing, right wing, that's fine. But to go that much to the left and have this work movement? No, it went too far. Look, America leads the world. I understand there are China wants to be there, India wants to be there, the European wants to be there. At the end of the day, America is leading the world, whether you like it or not. No matter how isolationist policy are adopted in America, America will still lead the world for many years to come, politically, economically, financially, in all cases. We want America to lead the right way. You You cannot lead the world with this woke movement. We all do not accept that.

You're one of the biggest media investors in the world and have been... I worked for a company, and I think you were the biggest outside investor, I think, in news Corp, Fox News. And you got investments in a million different media companies. Many of those media companies went way to the left. What did you think of that as a shareholder?

Our main investment was with Fox, frankly speaking, a news Corp, it was Murdoch. Murdoch was It falls mainstream to the right a little bit, obviously. We did have a lot of other investments, small ones, but they were all divested long time ago. But our main investment in all media, legacy media, was with Murdoch. We sold out a year before he merged his entities with Disney. In the media in America, went too much to the left, and most of them. The only remaining soldier, frankly speaking, who really withstood the heat is really Murdoch. The Murdoch5, whether it's Fox, New York Post, Worsy Journal, and Fox. They are all center the right.

You divested from Fox, from News Corp, and then you made a huge investment in X under Elon. Exactly. Why did you do that?

Most of our investments now went to X and XAI, obviously, with the Musk. Now, I call X really as the new media, frankly speaking. X. That's where we invested. With Mr. Musk, I think he He's a big force to be reckoned with, frankly speaking. And we are second big shareholder in X and XAI.

So the sale of X was closely watched by everybody around the world. He wound up buying the company yet what seemed like twice its actual value, and people made fun of him. Where is it now, would you say?

On our books, we have two investments. We have Kingdom Holding, which I share, and I have my private investments. We have with Musk around $3 billion investments. In our books, it's valued more than 50 % more. Clearly, as for X, we never devalued it. Some entities did devalue it by 30, 40, 50%. We never devalued it. Clearly, now, after the election of President Trump and after the strong alliance between Musk and President Trump, we've seen the market having revalue upwards, X dramatically, at least to its par value at the $44 billion that they paid for it.

What do you think its actual value is?

I believe the actual value is more than double, frankly speaking.

More than double the $44 you paid.

Exactly. And it's going to happen right now because video is going to come and now pay is going to come into it. They're going to pay X. It's going to happen right now in the first quarter. So many things are going to It's going to happen to Exeterly to have as the main hub and anchor for many things around it.

But as a political and social force, is there a more powerful media organization?

I stand today, I believe X is number one. We've seen how Metta tried to have another company, Thread, but it didn't take off. Why? Look, I think X really began very forcefully and strongly And the freedom of speech was there, was open. Whenever it was against X, freedom of speech and freedom of expression without much fact checking, that gave it the forum to be the anchor of the new media in the world. And you see right now, Meta is moving the X model. As I told you when I just met you off the record a minute ago, that Meta now is being exercized. It's being like X right now. And this helps X reaching its potential of being fully valued at $44 billion and more. So all the advertisers that really so-called fled or left X are coming back right now because the alternative is doing exactly what X used to do. Right.

So you think that Elon Musk has had a big effect on Mark Zuckerberg?

There's no doubt because we have seen now Mark Zuckerberg and Metta is moving to the X model. Not only that, not only operationally, but you have seen just lately that that meta is going to move this so-called administrative headquarters from Delaware to Texas. So really, Musk and X being followed all across the board.

So you think Zuckerberg is just trailing behind Elon Musk doing what he does?

Well, look, Musk is very close to the leader of the whole world, President Trump. And no one wants no businessman, whether it is Max Zuckerberg or Mr. Bezos, or the Google head, want Musk to be the only man who has the ear of President Trump. They all want to have at least a small piece of the pie. That's what's happening, basically.

But what's interesting, clearly, but what's interesting The interesting thing is that they didn't want it the first time. All these businessmen, smartest, most powerful in the world, made a bet in 2016 that opposing Trump would pay off for them.

Why do you think they did that? It was a long bet. Very bluntly speaking, it was a long bet. Trump came back in a major upset.

He must have scared the hell out of them when he got elected.

Can you imagine? No one expected Trump to come back, frankly speaking. Frankly speaking, the Democrats played a very big mistake. They custom made. I talk as an independent. I'm Saudi. I'm a royalist, either Democrat or Republican. I love America. They clearly custom made those lawsuits against them to be an election year. I understand it's very delicate. Not many people in America could speak this language freely, but they custom made it to be an election year. That backfired, frankly speaking, and helped Trump being elected. They were custom made to be. Why he waited three years after Trump left and they all came these lawsuits in the last one year of the Biden era, I was too much.

So you didn't see that as the equal application of the law?

Come on, give me a break. That's very clear. I lived in America. I know America very well. It's too much politics. There's one of the attributing attributing reasons that caused Trump to win. The American public rejected these lawsuits and all those so-called indictments or whatever they are.

Do you ever feel like you can't trust the things you hear or read? Like every news source is hollowed, it or clearly just propaganda lying to you? Well, you're not imagining it. If the last few years have proven anything, it's that legacy media exists to distort the truth and to control you, to gatekeep information from the public instead of letting you know what's going on. They don't want you to know. But there is, however, a publication that fights this that is not propaganda, the one that we read every month and have for many years. It's called In Primus. It's from Hillsdale College in Michigan. In Primus is a free speech digest that features some of the best minds in the country addressing the questions that actually matter, the ones that are not addressed in the Washington Post or on NBC News. The best part of it, it is free, no cost whatsoever, no strings attached. They just send it to you. Hillsdale will send in Primus right to your house No charge. All you got to do is ask. Go to tuckerforhillsdale. Com and subscribe for free today. That's tuckerforhillsdale. Com. The only way this stays a democracy is if the citizenry is informed.

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How do you feel? Terrified, right?

Well, at least to acknowledge your mistake and to correct it, it's better than continuing with your mistake. To be honest with you, I'm an investor in meta also. Smaller scale, not like X, but I'm an investor in X, and he's right. Look at the share price.

You've invested in X AI. What do you envision the world looks like in 10 years, thanks to AI?

Well, no doubt that artificial intelligence is going to a big role in having evolution in the whole in the social industry, in the economics, politics, analytics, finance, et cetera. So AI is just beginning. We're in the first ending right now. There's no doubt that AI and artificial intelligence will really impact the life of everybody.

I often hear people say that. I'm not exactly... I mean, I know that the entire upper middle class of the United States is going to be unemployed. It sounds like that's bad. But I don't understand what the other effects are of AI.

Look, it's too early to judge, frankly speaking, right now. But I hope that the AI really is used for the good causes. We hear a lot of doomsday scenarios. I talked to Musk about that. I had with him three video calls, and I did ask him about this question very explicitly. He believes that 80 to 90 % will be positive, but still, 0 to 10 % could be evilish. We have to be very careful about that. But I'm positive about AI because most people are really good, positive, and they utilize AI in any way to help the world society.

Elon, when he came into X, when you invested, fired what percentage of the staff?

When Musk took over, they had around 8,000 people, and he fired 6,500 people and went down to 1,500. That's all documented, obviously. That's one of the items where I I'm really upset from the legacy media, where they said they cursed Musk and X for firing 6,500 people, and they were worried about their social lives and how disrupted their lives, which is fine. Eventually, they'll have jobs. But no one talked about the economical and financial impact of firing 6,500 people on Twitter. They saved more than $2 billion. And that saved the day because many advertisers did leave He leave X. There are two components of profitability, increased revenues or decreased expenses. So clear, revenues did go down, but expenses went down dramatically also. So that broke even. So really, that saved the day. Yes, 6,500 people were out, and X was run more efficiently because I'm always in touch with Linda, the CEO of... I'm always in touch with Jared, right-hand man of Musk, and I'm in touch with Musk, and I follow this very closely because I'm a private investor there. So we know it's going inside. The company is performing a lot better with 1,500 people.

So if Mr. Musk duplicate that on what he's doing right now with US budget, and he can save hundreds of billions of dollars, forget $2 billion, maybe that's a bit too extreme, but he can save hundreds of billions of dollars and you can have America reduce his budget deficit dramatically, let alone to have it balanced, that would be a huge achievement. Huge achievement for Mr. Musk personally and for the US administration, Trump and US people. You think he can do it? Look, he's a bulldozer. I know him very well. When I talk to him, the guy is just so straight to the point, no nonsense at all. If there's anyone to do it, frankly speaking, it's Musk through the Dodge.

So you know Elon Musk and you know Donald Trump. They're in close alliance now. Elon is not a government official, obviously, but you have to say one of the top advisors. Can that partnership last?

Look, they are both big figures. But Trump is President of the United States. Musk is the richest man in the world. He's one of the most powerful, if not most powerful man in the world. You have to acknowledge that. That's a fact. Yes. I think for the sake of the United States, we want them to function very well. We want them to succeed very well. Clearly, each one has a huge ego for sure, and rightly so, they have to have an ego. Nothing wrong with that at all. I really, sincerely hope that they can function together. Musk is very programmatic person, logical person, because he has a mission. He wants to cut the cost in the US budget system, and he wants to really to balance the budget as much as he can. He told me that personally in my last phone call with him. I believe he's given the tools, and he's given the tools, frankly speaking. I hope they're all successful, frankly speaking. We all love United States. We want America to have strong footings. You cannot be strong if you have all these budget deficits and trade deficits, and that will will make you limp eventually.

Western Europe seems like it's falling apart.

Is that your impression? Western Europe really is aging, is sick. You've seen most of the West Europe, specifically, wrong policies, bureaucracy, low speed and movement. We see Italy, for example, under Meloni. She's not the star. She is a conservative. I would not say right wing, Frank, speak. No, it's very conservative and pragmatic lady. Look now, Italy is still a star in all Europe right now. But really- Did you ever think you would live long enough to say Italy is now the star of Europe? Yeah. I really hope that Europe wakes up because West Europe is alive United States. Of course. But really, look at the policies in England, UK, France, Germany, Spain. They are all really very much backwards. They need to wake up, frankly speaking.

Can a country run without energy?

It's almost impossible. You cannot. Look at UK. Look, the labor took the reign of power from the Conservatives, and look where they are right now. They're exactly what the Conservatives were when they left the government, a few months ago.

So the UK is running out of natural gas, and that's true across Western Europe. These countries don't have enough energy to have first-world economies. Will that change?

Look, I'm not worried about that, frankly speaking, because they will always find a way to find gas, whether it's United States or other parts. You see the Arab world also did help a lot in supplying the Western Europe with the gas once they shut down the pipes from Russia.

I think the Biden administration blew them up, right?

We heard about that. Did you hear about that? I know that. I heard about it. That made the news here. Unfortunately.

Why would the Germans allow their allies in Washington to blow up their natural gas pipeline and not say anything about it?

You said that. You should answer that question.

I have some theories. But you're saying that all their ideas are leading to their destruction?

I think at least they're leading to their... It's a They have so many problems in West Europe. Unfortunately, they are not being acknowledged. You have seen a lot of right wing parties, like in France, Le Pen, for example, coming very strongly. She may well win the elections a few years from now. So all this is causing the right wing to come up very strongly, unless they wake up so fast and do some quick remedies to their economical policies and also their political system.

It's just funny to hear you say that. In Europe, you often say it's a battle between the native population and the Muslim immigrants. Here you are, a Muslim with prayer beads in your hands saying you want more right wing parties in Europe.

Well, I really am asking for it to be more centrist, for sure. Look at, for example, Meloni, when she ran, she ran on a very right wing policy. But when she took over, she just went the center. That's true. When you reign, when you take power, you are forced to be more pragmatic. She's a pragmatic lady. Her policies are very logical and centrist. Many policies of the left wing really failed in Europe. It did not work. I really hope that they go back to center and take major decisions to really jumpstart the process like Trump is doing now in America. America, Trump is shaking up the whole US political system. Political This is the same economical financial system. Even now, we have serious tariffs now. This is still an unsharced territory. We don't know where it's going to be heading. We don't know if these tariffs are there to stay or they're there for negotiating tool to reach some conclusion with Canada and Mexico.

Well, you've negotiated with Trump against Trump to buy the Plaza in his boat. What do you think?

Well, when you're negotiating with your businessman, now he's the leader of the strongest country in the world, United States of America. I think with Trump, if you come with him straight, and not necessarily succumb to what he's asking for, but if you're logical and pragmatic with him, you can reach a conclusion in a deal, and very fast.

How long did it take you to negotiate the purchase of the Plaza?

Less than a week.

Less than a week? Yes.

And it's bought less than a week. Very swift, very fast.

So you think the tariffs are just an opening round in negotiation?

Possibly. We don't know yet. Possibly, The 25% tariffs on both the northern neighbor and Southern neighbor, Canada and Mexico, are pretty high. You've seen now how the auto industry was devastated today. They are down more than 10, 15%. Sure.

In trading, but the industry itself is the same.

It's too early to judge Frank speaking. That's the trading because today they announced the system. Today is Monday, they're going to announce. It was announced just now and the instantaneous reflection on that was very negative, obviously, on the auto industry.

So getting into a trade war with Canada and China, both of whom are totally dependent on the United States, they couldn't exist with the US, is different from doing that with China.

How does that work? Look, China China, I was reading yesterday that China, exeging pain, did not really answer, did not reply yet. This thing is time, it's composed, it's more long-term. Look, China, it's been 4,000 years old. So really, one year one month, four years of tenure of any president, really. They're not too fast in replying. We have seen Chinese government don't officially reply yet. We've seen Trudeau, we've seen Mexico replying already very aggressively in putting similar tariff, especially in Canada. We have not seen the reply of China yet. But China, for sure, is different behemoth completely. It's different ball game.

Do you believe the story about deep sea make their AI project that it was developed for under $6 million? Is that real?

Look, we're invested with Musk, and Musk is a genius of our era. Clearly, he's very conservative in the way he spend now. We put them billions of dollars in having all these big mega centers being built in the United States. Really, 5. 6 million for this deep seek. I laid out this a little bit. We're still very early part of this developing story to see if it's true or not and to see whether they steal anything from opening eye or where the truth is exactly. But I think you have to give it some more time to see where the deep fit in the overall AI equation globally.

So there's, by far the biggest real estate investments in the US and probably around the world are in data centers. Yeah. For AI and other processing. Can those data centers run on windmills and batteries?

Well, we have seen now many of those big companies now are trying to go other paths, nuclear. We are really very much in the early innings about all what's happening. But our bet, frankly speaking, is on Musk, on the AI game. We were invested with them in the first round and second round. We were backing them all the way. We've seen very strong alliance between XAI and X. There's a lot of relationship between them that's really causing a lot of positive for both companies. Yes.

But for the past 15 years, the rest of us have been getting lectures about renewable energy, the green agenda, carbon zero. Basically, hydrocarbons are bad, solar windmills are good. And the second it became clear that AI would need a lot more energy and projected people like Larry Fink said, well, maybe we look to maybe it's a whole bunch of different energy sources. Do you think the green agenda is over, thanks to AI?

Well, for sure, with the Trump election, the green revolution Now, it has diminished a little bit. It's not as being in the prime time as, if I can use this term now. It's there, but I don't think it's going to be so much as being number one priority for the Trump administration. You don't think it's been the number one priority? I know. Maybe number nine or 10. But your peers in business, big investors, have been pushing green energy projects all subsidized by various governments.

Yes. Do you think that will stop? Do you think we'll stop getting lectures about how windmills are the future?

No, it will not stop, frankly speaking. I know Bill Gates, we are partners with him in many projects, and we have with him a project called the BEV, the Breakthrough Energy Venture, that is invested in hundreds of companies that are in non-carbon energy. They're moving, frankly speaking, moving ahead. I think they'll still be there, but it will not be the same momentum and same omp.

Do you think the United States will change its relationship with Venezuela because of Venezuela's oil reserves?

Well, we have seen the US MSR yesterday being there. He met the Madora in Venezuela. So I think it was very cooperative. He gave some hostages and he welcomed getting back all the immigrants. So he was very welcoming. And I'm sure Mr. Trump will love this. So it has to remain to be seen because Venezuela, frankly speaking, they have a lot of orders reserves, more than 280 billion barrels.

So I think they have the deepest reserves in the world, proven reserves. Exactly.

So I don't know what's the ultimate policy for Mr. Trump. Trump is a very sophisticated man. And I think the fact that his ministry went immediately to Venezuela Venezuela, whereby you have no relationship between both countries. No. And Venezuela is very welcoming. So that story you have to follow because it's a developing story.

Well, I mean, we've spent the last, I don't know, 10 years trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government.

Unsuccessfully.

Quite unsuccessful. But then in one day, all of a sudden, Venezuela says, Yeah, here are all your hostages. And it flies the American flag in Maduro's office.

What is this? Yeah, Well, I mean, this is a Trump era.

Summary, quick summary. What would happen if the US did some big energy deal with Venezuela?

Well, look, at the end of the day, Trump is pragmatic. Trump also has good allies in Saudi Arabia, in UAE, in Qatar. We're always friends. I mean, even if Venezuela is being blessed by United States, it doesn't mean that they can go and produce two, three million barrels within months or weeks. So it's going to take them time to go back. There. All what they have has been obsolete. Frankly speaking, no new equipment has come there. So even the capacity of as well, they can't produce more than three, four million barrels. So it's still okay. It will not really impact the whole industry dramatically. It will impact it for sure, but not necessarily devastated.

But over time, and it takes a while to build the infrastructure necessary to efficiently extract it. But I mean, over the next 10 years, you could see cheaper oil prices as a result of that, right?

Well, for sure. That's why Saudi Arabia is transitioning from being an oil-based country into being a diversified economy. That's why we're investing heavily in tourism. We're investing heavily into new minerals. We're investing into other alternatives to oil. We are diversifying our economy in many areas. Really, when the price of oil do sink to below $70 or $60, we have other alternatives really to withstand the heat, understand the pressure of having less oil, less price of oil.

It's just funny that it was a year ago, if you talk to any big investor, at least in public, they would say, no, the future is not more drilling for oil. The future is more windmills and solar panels. But you are saying actually the future sounds like it's more drilling for oil.

Well, what I'm saying is a Trump drill, baby drill. Trump wants the price for oil to go down. For the gold. Yeah, clearly. But also Trump also has his eye on the fracking United States because the average cost to produce a barrel of fracking oil is also in the '50s to '60s also. So he doesn't want that also to go off So there's a balance here to what Mr. Trump can do, obviously.

You can put your own domestic extractors out of business.

Exactly. You don't do that. So you want to balance it now. Clearly, Trump came with a lot of momentum. But at the end of the day, when he has discussions with Saudi and with other OPEC countries, they will know that also Saudi Arabia wants the interest of the consumers to be taken into consideration.

Right. There are a lot of competing interests on the question of price per barrel. What do you think the right number balancing all that is?

It's very difficult to judge this. Really, it all depends on supply and demand, frankly speaking. And you see China. China also has a big role in that. And you see the economy of China right now is moving in the 5, 6% growth direction every year. There are a lot of factors that contribute into this whole big equation.

I know that obviously Donald Trump wants it in the '60s. Do you think we'll see it there?

I hope not, frankly speaking, because I have in this Saudi Arabia. I don't want to be in '60, but I think long term, there's no doubt that the price of oil is heading not necessarily to the 100, but at least to where it is now, 6, 70, 80.

Okay, you think it will stay there?

I I think so.

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Go to silencercentral. Com right now, start browsing, use the code Tucker10 for 10 off your first purchase of banish suppressors. Highly recommended. You made a big bet on Russian energy right after the war in Ukraine started. 2022, I think. With Lukoil, Gazprom, Rosnav, I think thoseCorrect.

We invested in three companies.

How did you do?

We did well, frankly speaking. We did sell part of it. We did with some small profit, and now we still have some stake there.

So the war starts in Ukraine and everyone's running away from Russia and Russian energy, the world is reorienting away from hydrocarbons in general, and you swoop in and make a huge bet on traditional Russian energy. Why did you do that?

This was part of our investment philosophy and policy. We invested We invested in so many companies that year in Western Europe, United States, and these three Russian companies were among them.

But other people were not doing that. Why did you do that?

We are sometimes contrarian, and successfully so.

If you were to pick apart from AI and energy, like another two or three industries that you think are a good bet moving forward.

Technology.

What kind?

Well, look, we are very heavily invested in technology. For example, in China, we are in many There are many companies like Baido, Alibaba, Tencent, DD. Baido is very heavily involved also in artificial intelligence. In America, we are also invested in We're Meta, We're X, XEI, In Snapchat. We are many companies also in America. So we have a diversified portfolio in technology. We are also in hospitality in Four Seasons and Accor. We have a very diversified portfolio.

So You're in Alibaba. Ten years ago, a little over 10 years ago, Jack Ma was a very famous person in the United States. He was doing his roadshow with J. P. Morgan. Everyone loved Jack Ma. Company gets one of the biggest market caps in the world, and then Jack Ma disappears. Whatever happened to Jack Ma?

I know Jack Ma very well. I bet you do. I used to meet him always at the Microsoft meeting with Bill Gates. I think Jack Ma really... China is a centralized political system, and I think he went a bit too far with the I'm being very frank with you. He went a bit too far in his being outspoken against the regime and against the Communist system. He was just told to just cool it down a little bit. And I think that's what happened. He's now in a cooling down period. He's in a cooling down.

Are his whereabouts known?

No, he's shuttling between Japan and China. He's coming in our public a little bit right now, but he's not as high profile as before.

Yeah, no, he's not. The United States is a big military footprint in East Asia, mostly in Korea and Japan, but also other countries. Can that continue?

Well, look, as I told you, that America is a big force to be reckoned with. America is an empire. Now, we don't call the empire these days, but America is an empire. You have hegemony on the whole world, and America is a force to be lessened with, too. I think these spaces are very important to stay there, to counter what's going on with China also. I know America now is being more somehow a bit isolationist in its approach. But I think once Trump get more in the second term, he will acknowledge the fact that America needs to have this presence in all these areas to keep the strength of America consolidated.

So you say that as a big investor in Chinese companies, you want to see American troops in Asia stay there?

Well, I mean, Not necessarily in China, but you have a crazy guy in North Korea.

It was really a proxy for China, though.

But still, he's Bruce Canon also. He does take all this from China and somehow from Russia, but also he's a very independent guy, and Bruce Canon also. Do you know him? No, I don't know him.

You have no North Korean investments at all?

No, not at all. If I'm going to go there, I'll ask Trump to introduce me to him. He's his friend. He was a bold He had a move from President Trump to meet him.

Oh, I was there. It was a bold move. There's no doubt about it. He took a lot of criticism. I mean, since you're from the Middle East, I would say your mother is Lebanese, you're related to people empowered a bunch of different countries. It's very common here for adversaries to meet and talk. In the West, in the last couple of decades, the idea has been, if we disagree with you, we're not talking to you. What do you think of that?

No, I am, frankly speaking, I'm very much supporting what Trump does here. To talk to his adversaries, I think it's a plus. Now we hear that Trump is going to open communication with Putin on Ukraine. I think I'm for it, frankly speaking. Unless you engage, how can you reach a conclusion, an agreement or arrangement. I am for it, Frank Smeid. I think that's very bold from him to meet the leader of North Korea. Yes.

How would you describe Putin?

Well, Putin is a very smart man, and he calculates his movements. He's a very smart guy. Clearly, one of the things he said, he feels sorry for the day that the Soviet Union disintegrated into all these 15 republics. He has this empire mentality in him. It's in him. It's in his mind for sure. He still craves for the Soviet Union Empire and the Tsarist Empire that used to be there before the revolution happened in 1917. Yes.

Everyone wants an empire. Do you think China wants an empire?

Look, China, I think they have 1. 3 billion people. I think the first priority really is to control their domestic situation and have growth. Because look, China has a big problem. Look, you have a very open, capitalistic economical system in China. Yet the political system is very centralized, authoritative, and communist, obviously. Now, these two don't go well together. So the question now, until when these two could happen and continue? China is very concerned about this internal situation, obviously. And they want to have this growth happening to really to have these people migrate from the poor level to being middle class. I think that's the main worry, frankly, is being Russia for the foreseeable But couldn't you say that about a lot of countries?

If you had a monarchy that was liberalizing its economy and opening itself to the world, had a state religion, had a thousand-year-old culture, wouldn't you be worried? How would that work? How could you maintain It's not a political control?

Look, I think you're alluding Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region. No, I'm not. I don't care. It's fine. We're just fine. We're not going to... Look, we talk very free and openly. Look, Saudi Arabia has legitimacy. I just said in one interview, a few weeks I go, look at the six monarchies in Arab world. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Oman, Kuwait. These six monarchies. Add to them, Morocco. Add to it, Jordan. These are eight monarchies. Look how, I'm not so great, how good they're doing, how stable they are. That is true. How legitimate they are. Look at Jordan. Look at the neighborhood of Jordan around Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Israel, and Hamas. Look how stable it is right now. Clearly, it's still a very difficult situation Eight monarchs, compare them with the other 14 republics. In the Arab world, there are 22, obviously. There's no comparison between them. We have legitimacy here when the monarch is headed by Saudi Arabia and other seven countries.

I mean, of course, I disagree with you as an American, but I agree with you as a traveler. What you're saying is obviously true. But in our system, legitimacy comes from the consent of the governed. Our leaders are legitimate because we vote for them. No one votes for your Crown Prince But it's also true that your country is thriving and the other seven monarchies you mentioned are doing well relative to the Republic. Why do you think that's true?

If you go to the public here and rate Prince Muhammad bin Salman, he will get 70 to 80 %, if not 90 % approval rating. I think that's true. To be honest with you. Yeah, I believe that. This says it all, frankly speaking. People would like to get stability, wants continuity, Wants to be sure that the economy is doing well. People are fed up from all these wars and all these turmoils, and they see what's happening to their neighborhood. We've seen what's happening in Saudi. For example, our Gulf region, Saudi head by Saudi Arabia. We see what's happening in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen. We don't want all that. We don't want all that. So really, frankly speaking, we are very happy country here. All the Saudis are very happy with what's going on. Crown Prince is very popular. King Salman is beloved by everybody here. So frankly speaking, forget the elections. We're happy. We're okay.

Well, I disagree with you in theory, but agree with you in practice because what you're saying is just true. It's a fact. I don't want it to be a fact, but it is a fact. So what is that? I mean, democracy is just a brief interlude in all human history. It's a pretty new thing. Do you think it has a future?

What do you mean by democracy?

I mean, in our region-I don't know. You're saying that all the republics in your region are struggling, all the monarchies are thriving, and that is, roughly speaking, true, there are other factors.

We have seen what happened to the so-called Bush democracy in Iraq. We have seen what happened there, that how could this whole thing collapse completely. Iraq is a Republic, correct? We had the elections there and we see the results. We don't want that confusion chaos. Look, we have monarchies. We're happy with them. People are happy. That's what counts for us, to be honest with you. With respect to Americans, with respect to Tucker Carlson, my friend, We're happy with our systems and we're going to continue with it.

What is crypto exactly?

Crypto is a new system, a currency system that I don't buy, frankly speaking. We're not investing in crypto at all. And I don't think it's for us at all, but it's there. It's fact right now.

It's a huge part of the fastest growing sector is the American economy.

But still, I'm not a believer in that at all. Why? I'm not investor in crypto. It's not regulated well. Many US big businessmen do agree with me on that subject. I don't understand it very well. And it is a new form of currency that is really is very confusing for me and complicated, and I don't understand it.

Is it a currency or is it- It's a form of payment. That's what it's supposed to be. But from what I can tell, it's like it's something that you invest in. It's imaginary gold.

We have so many other investments. The world is full investments and better investments to invest in. We never invested in crypto, and we never invest in crypto.

You're never going to invest in crypto. Then why are the... I mean, the banks, big banks, Banks in the United States. All your friends, they're all in crypto.

They are forced to. Even J. B. Morgan that never believed in that. Now, they're forced to. Sometimes you have facts that you have to go with, but not necessarily with full conviction, but they are forced to go with it, unfortunately. Why are they forced? Well, look, many other banks are doing it, so they are forced for the clients. Many clients believe in crypto. Many clients in the world believe in crypto, and so they have to reflect the needs and the wishes of their own clients. They go with it reluctantly.

I mean, if you have enough assets invested in crypto, at some point it becomes dangerous, doesn't it?

Sure, definitely. I believe it could be a time bomb waiting to explode. I could be wrong, but that does my own belief. And that's the belief of the head of J. M. Morgan also, Jimmy Dimon.

You think he still thinks that?

He thinks that. Actually, when he was in Davos, they asked him a question, he refused to comment on it completely. I saw his interview, he declined to comment on it because he's fed up from saying it's bad, bad, bad.

So he's just giving up and not comment.

Exactly. That's what's happening.

Are any other countries in this region embracing crypto?

Yeah, there are some countries, but not heavily. What about gold? No, gold. Many countries have gold as one of their investments, for sure, yes.

Are you an investor in gold?

No, but we do have some small portfolio of gold, but nothing major. No, nothing major.

Do you expect it to go much higher?

Well, it goes up and down based on supply and demand. But to But really, it's not a priority, gold. They were not very heavily invested in the gold.

For your country, for Saudi Arabia, you've opened it up very dramatically, both physically opened it up. You're issuing visas to everybody, which you were not doing ever. But you've opened it up socially, women in the workforce, getting rid of guardianship, women driving, most famously. What are the reforms, the liberalizations that you wouldn't do here? Where will you draw the line?

Look, Saudi Arabia opened a lot since 2015 when King Salman took over and Prince Hamamd bin Salman got in charge of the local situation and we opened up a lot. I'm very happy with this complete liberalization of the economy, liberalization socially, whereby women became incorporated in the society, equal opportunity, women can drive now. Basically, it's a normalization of the woman incorporation into the society. So Prince Muhammad just made a woman equal to two men, frankly speaking. It was a big achievement for us because for many years before that, we were deprived from that. And I called for that many years ago, and thanks God, it happened. So really, there's no limit to where we can go. But obviously, no one wants to go beyond the limit. It's just like America. If you do everything within the law, within the legal system, it's acceptable. That's what's happening here. Our country became normal. We were in a normal situation with all our countries in the world.

Well, normal in the West is, well, alcohol, for one thing, legalized marijuana, transgender teachers, transgender admirals. I mean, are there points where you say we don't want that?

No, look, frankly speaking, I'm very conservative. I live in America. I'm anti-alcohol, and I'm very happy that my country has no alcohol, frankly speaking, and I don't mind that at all. I'm a very liberal man socially, yet I'm very conservative when it comes to, for example, using drugs or alcohol, I'm very much against that. These are off the limits for us for sure, and we will not accept that in Saudi Arabia.

You can have tourism without alcohol?

It's happening already. That's true. It's happening already, to be honest with you. It's happening already. So it's been tested already right now. Frankly speaking, the answer is yes, it's possible and it's happening.

Do you think they'll stick with it? The government will stick?

Well, I think this is for Saudi government to decide. Of course. I'm not government official. So far, so good. But it's for the government to decide what are the next steps on that front.

In our country, we had Prohibition of alcohol for 14 years. Yes. And it is described to everybody. I mean, universally believed to be a massive failure. I don't know if that's actually true, but that's how history has recorded it. But you think it's a success here.

Why do you- Look, Saudi Arabia is an Islamic country. Religion is very an integral part of our society. Not having alcohol here is not really something that says people miss a lot. Clearly, when you have a Western come here, for sure, you would like to have some alcohol. There's no need to deny that, obviously. But I think to have an experience in Saudi Arabia without alcohol is something to be tried. But at the end of the day, it's the Saudi government to decide if this policy to continue or not to continue. I'm just going to continue in certain areas. You've been to Red Sea, I think. Yes. In certain areas, if you would like to have this to be a permit or not, it's not for me. But I'm going to live with both scenarios.

It's just interesting because it's one of the last pretty sober societies in the world. You've lived in a number of places. What are the differences?

It's good to be sober. Yeah, it is good to be sober. It's nice to be sober. I'll quote you for that. Beautiful to be sober. Love it. You're something else, Tucker. I Principal lead, thank you very much for taking all this time. Pleasure.

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