Trump Harvard and Tariff Rulings; Look Ahead to Miran Hearing

0:02Chris Kennedy:Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. Good morning. I'm Nathan Hager. And I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today. Karen, we begin with the latest on the trade wars and President Trump's latest effort to uphold his global tariff regime. The president is taking his case to the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court found he improperly imposed country by country duties under a 1977 economic emergency law. The administration's asking the high court to take up its case by September 10th. That's this coming Wednesday. It puts it on a highly expedited schedule with arguments in early November.

0:43The president addressed the case in Oval Office comments heard live on Bloomberg Radio. I think we're going to have a big victory. These deals are all done. I guess we'd have to unwind them. The money coming in is incredible. If we didn't have them, they would use them on us and we would have no way to fight them. And that was President Trump speaking from the Oval Office. Bloomberg Economics says a defeat for the president would cut the average U.S. effective tariff rate at least in half and could force the U.S. to refund billions of dollars in import taxes. Well, here's a defeat for the Trump administration in court.

1:17It lost to Harvard University. A federal court has ruled the U.S. illegally froze more than$2 billion in the Ivy League institution's research funds. The court found the move violated the school's free speech rights and did not follow proper procedures. Mr. Elena Agolfo-Pulu is head of Bloomberg's U.S. legal news team.

1:35Chris Kennedy:There wasn't an explicit explanation about whether the administration needs to release this funding immediately or whether the school is going to be able to get it. But the judge clearly laid out in this opinion, which was about 80 pages long, the way the administration went about freezing this fund, these funds, was illegal. illegal. And Bloomberg's Mr. Lena Golfopoulou adds that the ruling stated that the administration used anti-Semitism as a smokescreen for a targeted ideological motivated assault on Harvard and other universities. The Trump administration plans to appeal. Meantime, Karen, the White House is also engaged in another fight in Massachusetts, this one over wind farms.

2:14A court filing shows the U.S. is working to withdraw permits for the New England Wind 1 and 2 projects off the coast of Nantucket. It's part of a broader crackdown that has disrupted at least four East Coast wind projects this year. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy says the federal government should be working with states to build more power.

2:32Chris Kennedy:As governor, I am very focused on lowering costs for residents, for businesses. That includes energy costs. One thing we don't need is energy supply to our region cut off. And unfortunately, that's what we're seeing by the Trump administration's move to kill jobs and to literally take away power by dismantling wind operations on the East Coast. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey spoke with Bloomberg News in an interview from our Boston Bureau. You can catch her full comments on the Bloomberg Podcast channel on YouTube. Well, in New York, Nathan, Mayor Eric Adams is denying that he received an offer from the Trump administration to work at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

3:12It follows a report from Politico that the mayor was offered a job at HUD as incentive to drop out of the race in an effort to consolidate around one candidate to take on frontrunner Zoran Mamdani. A White House official neither confirmed nor denied the report, and Mamdani is addressing it. The same president who will throw millions of New Yorkers off their health insurance is now seeking to undermine the very fabric of this city. And New York City mayoral candidates are on Mamdani, currently leads Democrat Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa. For transparency, Michael Bloomberg, who has endorsed Cuomo, is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg Radio.

3:50Turning to markets now, Karen, stocks and bonds have been rising in the pre-market. Traders are anticipating a weak jobs report tomorrow. That could raise the prospect of a quarter percentage point rate cut at this month's Fed meeting. Fed Governor Christopher Waller tells CNBC the central bank should lower rates this month and more months from there. For me, I think we need to start cutting rates at the next meeting. And then we don't have to go in a locked sequence of steps. We can kind of see where things are going because people are still worried about tariff inflation. I'm not, but everybody else is.

4:25Fed Governor Chris Waller is a contender to succeed Jay Powell as Fed chair. And in a sign of labor market weakening, U.S. job openings fell to their lowest level in 10 months in July. And U.S. economic activity saw little to no change across most of the country in recent weeks. That's according to the latest Fed Beige Book survey of regional business contacts. Well, let's stick with the Fed here, Nathan. The Senate Banking Committee is holding a confirmation hearing today on Stephen Myron's appointment to be a governor of the Federal Reserve. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren tells Bloomberg's Balance of Power that she believes the Senate Banking Committee should be having the hearing, but says there should be an oversight committee investigating the president's attacks on the Federal Reserve.

5:06Chris Kennedy:It should not be a business as usual. Let's grease the skids and run through Donald Trump's nominee for the Fed. Instead, we should be having an oversight hearing about Donald Trump's unprecedented attacks on the independence of the Fed. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke with Bloomberg Balance of Power. Hear her full comments on the Bloomberg podcast channel on YouTube. Lots happening in geopolitics this morning, Karen. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting with several European leaders in Paris today. He is expected to continue talks on security guarantees. This comes with concern that Russia is going to mount a new offensive on Ukraine with peace stocks stalled.

5:52Russian President Volodymyr Putin says he'd be willing to meet with Zelensky under the right circumstances. Donald asked me if it is possible to hold such a meeting. I said, yes, it is possible. If Zelensky is ready, he should come to Moscow and the meeting will take place. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in Beijing there through an interpreter. President Trump says the U.S. could increase its troop presence in Poland, neighboring Ukraine. He's indicating that more financial penalties could target Moscow as well. Well, let's turn to AI now. Nathan and Shiny's platform DeepSeek is targeting an AI agent released by the end of the year.

6:30It's looking to develop a model with more advanced features to compete with U.S. rivals like OpenAI. The AI model is designed to carry out multi-step actions on a person's behalf with minimal direction from the user and to learn and improve based on its prior actions. And Karen, Apple is gearing up to launch its own AI-powered web search engine next year, directly challenging chat GPT and perplexity. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports Apple's gearing up to launch it next year. They haven't announced this yet. There's going to be an AI-based web search product within Siri competing with ChatGPT and Perplexity.

7:08If you're like me, I don't go to Google search anymore. I open ChatGPT to search it. Now, for the first time, Siri will be able to get you detailed results from the web using its own technology. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says Apple's aiming to turn its voice assistant Siri into a robust answer engine with large language models. Apple shares in the pre-market little changed.

7:32And it's time now for a look at some of the other stories making news in New York and around the world. And for that, we're joined by Bloomberg's Michael Barr. Michael, good morning. Good morning, Karen. Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse gathered on Capitol Hill to demand the release of the sex trafficking investigation into the late financier. Wednesday, they pushed back against President Donald Trump's dismissal of the issue as a hoax. During a news conference, the women shared their experiences and called for transparency and accountability. Liz Stein is one of those victims. I loved people and people genuinely enjoyed being around me.

8:09But after meeting Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, it felt like someone shut off the lights to my soul. At the White House, President Trump downplays the importance of releasing the full files. I think it's enough because I think we should talk about the greatness of our country and the success that we're having. I think we're probably having, according to what I read, even from two people in this room, we're having the most successful eight months of any president ever. And that's what I want to talk about. That's what we should be talking about, not the Epstein hoax. Lawmakers are divided on how to proceed with some Republicans supporting a bill to force the Department of Justice to release all of the records.

8:50The Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee has released some documents. Portuguese emergency services say an electric streetcar that is one of Lisbon's big tourist attractions has derailed, killing 15 people and injuring 18 others. The yellow and white streetcar, which goes up and down a steep downtown hill, was lying on its side on the narrow road after Wednesday's accident. Eyewitnesses said the streetcar careened down the hill apparently out of control. In the West, dozens of large wildfires are burning in at least 10 states. Near Raymond, California, Battalion Chief Mike Houck of Cal Fire says two fires just miles apart have forced evacuations in parts of Mariposa and Madeira counties.

9:37Everybody is out there. They are tireless nights that we are working, and they still give the same effort every fire. Outside New York City, hundreds of firefighters are trying to contain the Buckbeard Wildfire in a rural, heavily wooded area in Passaic County in northern New Jersey under investigation. Global news, 24 hours a day and whenever you want it with the Bloomberg News Now. I'm Michael Barr and this is Bloomberg, Karen. All right, Michael Barr, thank you. Thanks, Michael. Time now for our Bloomberg Sports Update. And for that, we bring in John Stashauer. Thanks, Karen. Tonight in Philadelphia, it's the start of the NFL season.

10:14The defending Super Bowl champion Eagles taking on the Dallas Cowboys. At the U.S. Open, Yannick Sinner moved into the men's semifinals. Naomi Osaka did for the women, and so did Amanda Anasimova. She upset Iga Shiantek, the same player that Anasimova lost to in the Wimbledon final. Six love, six love. The Yankees blew a big lead. They lost in Houston, eight to seven. That's your Bloomberg Sports Update. Stay with us.

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12:57Chris Kennedy:Coast to coast on Bloomberg Radio. Nationwide on SiriusXM. and around the world on Bloomberg.com and the Bloomberg Business App. This is Bloomberg Daybreak. Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager, and as promised, President Donald Trump is taking his tariffs to the Supreme Court. That's after an appeals court found he imposed his duties illegally under an emergency law. The president says the stakes in this case could not be higher. Our country has a chance to be unbelievably rich again, but it can also be unbelievably poor again. And if we don't win that case, our country is going to suffer so greatly.

13:34That was the president speaking in Oval Office comments heard live on Bloomberg Radio. And this morning, we are joined by Bloomberg's global trade czar, Brendan Murray. Brendan, good morning. Let's talk about the stakes in this case. What could be on the line for the president if the Supreme Court does take this up? Good morning. Yeah, the president is making this case that the economy will suffer greatly if he's not allowed to impose import taxes on American companies. But it's a bit of an exaggeration. He actually has a lot of other tools that he could use that have already survived legal challenges.

14:10He's already used these kinds of tariffs on steel, aluminum, and autos. So what the president is asking for here is the broad authority to impose tariffs on various countries and raise those or lower those as he see fits. And that is what the court did now, the Supreme Court is going to be asked to rule on. The president's already lost in a couple of lower courts, so he's asking the justices to overturn what's already been decided in federal court and an appeals court decision in late August. But with the framing of his argument, at least publicly, we'll have to wait and see what they say in court, but is that, you know, they're collecting a lot of revenue at the moment, and they are renegotiating lots of trade agreements with various countries, and all of that hinges on his ability to use these so-called reciprocal tariffs that he initially announced on April 2nd.

15:14Yeah, so it gets down to the fundamental question, doesn't it, as to whether Congress has essentially delegated that authority, the power of the purse, to the president under this law. Yeah, exactly. Congress has delegated a couple of different statutes to the executive branch, and this is one of them. And it's never been used as broadly as President Trump is using these for tariff. They're often, this particular statute is used more frequently for sanctions. So the president and his advisors are really you know, betting a lot on his ability and the Supreme Court's willingness to go along with his interpretation of this particular law.

15:58So in our last minute, Brandon, while we wait to see whether the Supreme Court takes this up and whether arguments are going to begin, what does this mean for the trade regime? What does this mean for countries? Are they sort of in limbo waiting for this to get decided? Well, first of all, companies are continuing to pay the tariffs. They're still in effect according to the way the appeals court laid down its ruling. And so the levies are still in effect for companies that have to pay them to import goods from overseas. For the countries that are negotiating, the read by some of the analysts that we're talking to is, you know, they're in no hurry now to speed up those talks.

16:38They're going to wait and see how this case plays out. It could be November before the Supreme Court has any sort of hearings. And then, you know, maybe we get a judgment at the end of the year or in the first quarter of 2026. But it's not going to be resolved in the next couple of weeks. This is a cloud of uncertainty that hangs over the U.S. economy and the global economy, really, for several more months. This is Bloomberg Daybreak, your morning podcast on the stories making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond. Look for us on your podcast feed by 6 a.m. Eastern each morning on Apple, Spotify or anywhere else you listen.

17:17You can also listen live each morning starting at 5 a.m. Wall Street time on Bloomberg 1130 in New York, Bloomberg 99.1 in Washington, Bloomberg 92.9 in Boston and nationwide on Sirius XM Channel 121. Plus, listen coast to coast on the Bloomberg Business app, now with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto interfaces. And don't forget to subscribe to Bloomberg News Now. It's the latest news whenever you want it, in five minutes or less. Search Bloomberg News Now on your favorite podcast platform to stay informed all day long. I'm Karen Moscow. And I'm Nathan Hager. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg Daybreak.

18:01Thank you.