NYC Mayor Mamdani & $120 Million for Animal Health 1/28/26

20:46And frankly, we also have to get through the kind of fear mongering that typically takes place in this. The other day, I was speaking to New Yorker who self-identified themselves as someone who would be taxed by our proposals. They said, I've heard that you're going to tax millionaires. Is that true? I said, yeah, that's what we want to do. We want to increase personal income taxes by 2%. They said, I'm going to leave like you're saying. I said, I don't think you will. They said, why? I said, because it's a 2 % increase. We're talking about$20 ,000 on an income of a million dollars. They said, that's actually much less than I thought it would be.

21:12I wouldn't actually be making a financial decision on the basis of that kind of an increase. I've got a philosophical question for you.

21:18Andrew Ross Sorkin:Come on, hit me. If you look at the top marginal tax rate for somebody who lives in New York City, this is somebody at the tip of the tip right now, you could be paying somewhere around 52%, 53%. Is there an invisible line in your mind where you say, actually, that the average New Yorker, not even average New Yorker, but the wealthy New Yorker says, no mas. This is just there's there's a number. I'm happy to give 50 percent of my income over annually. But after this, it's just it's just too much. I really think the invisible line comes from whether working people can afford to live in the city.

21:57And what I mean by that is for all of the talk about capital flight, the potential of it, we lose sight of the fact that there is an exodus of people from the city. It's working people. Right. We're talking about so many who are leaving because of housing costs, child care costs. And also, we tend to talk about this as if it's a conversation about a collective versus capital. But even when I sit down with business leaders, I ask them, what are some of your greatest retention issues? They'll tell me child care. They'll tell me that when their business invests in child care in the business setting, they see their retention rates increase.

22:30And part of the reason they have to invest is because the city has refused to acknowledge its own responsibility in this.

22:36Andrew Ross Sorkin:Well, I think the question is, can you do it without increasing taxes? I mean, you know, de Blasio ran on increasing wealth taxes and got pre-K through without an additional tax rate. You know, I think that we've shown that we are advancing universal child care. We're doing it with existing state revenue. And that was on day eight of our administration. However, we're also inheriting the largest fiscal crisis that we've seen since the Great Recession. And I think that here in the most expensive city in the United States of America, also the wealthiest city, we have one in four people living in poverty.

23:07And I think the last point I'd make, kind of more at the philosophical level as well, is that everyone benefits from a stronger city. And what I mean by that is that though you may not think that the programs we're speaking about might directly benefit you, the benefit it has to the strength of this society is one that is immeasurable just in terms of peace of mind.

23:31Andrew Ross Sorkin:I don't think people disagree with that. Business leaders don't disagree with that. I think the question is, how do you make this a super attractive place to do business? And so I want to ask you about this, which is part of the issue is about people talk about the flight, the exodus. The other piece is the incentive to come to the city, to start a new business in the city. You know, J.P. Morgan just built a big building on Park Avenue. It's very hard for them to go, right? They're locked in place. But for a lot of their other business, for example, they're moving to Texas. They're moving to Florida.

24:02Andrew Ross Sorkin:And so the thought isn't necessarily do they leave so much as do they come. And I think that to me is the health and vitality of the city is not by protecting what it has, but continuing to grow. And for too long in our politics, there's been this kind of reverse New York exceptionalism where we say things that worked elsewhere could never work here. We're in New York. We're always going to be great. We have to earn that greatness every day. And so part of my point here is that I want us to be delivering the best public services this country has ever seen. I want us to have a public transit system that is so good that no matter how much money is in your pocket, you say, quickest, best, easiest way to get around.

24:38I'm going to get on the train. I'm going to ride the bus. That is something that can be transformative. It's only possible, however, if we reckon with these structural issues.

24:45Andrew Ross Sorkin:Let me ask you about this. President Trump says that he is worried about an exodus as well. He told a radio show this week, I got along very well with him. That's you. Says you have a very good personality, by the way. I want to see New York be successful. And if he could make it successful, make it much more successful, because now it's heading in the wrong direction, losing people. You saw I said the New York Stock Exchange having a major stock exchange built in Dallas is not a good thing. How do you react to that? Well, look, I think the president and I had a productive meeting at the Oval Office.

25:18And after that meeting, he said when New York does better, he's happier. I think that for everything that we have firm and fundamental disagreements about, we are also two New Yorkers who care deeply about the city. And I would agree that this is a city that has become so expensive that so many are being pushed out of it. And I think even when we talk about the cost of child care, it's twenty five thousand dollars a year. And that's considered a good deal in New York City. You could be earning two, three hundred thousand dollars a year. That cost could still push you out of the city. And so I do think we need to take this affordability crisis seriously.

25:50I also think we have to pierce through the fiction and get to the fact of what's actually happening.

25:55Andrew Ross Sorkin:We're talking a lot about wealth taxes. We're not really talking about corporate taxes, which actually also have a big impact, not just on big corporations, even though they're called corporate taxes, but on small businesses and bodegas and the like. And the question I have for you is, I know you want to raise corporate taxes and you want to make that, you know, what you say is similar to New Jersey. But at the same time, by default, that is going to have a demonstrable impact on those corporations to employ people. So the corporate tax that I've been speaking about is the highest echelon of profitability.

26:26We're not talking about the bodega where you're getting your egg and cheese and jalapeno on a roll. We're talking about corporations that are making an immense amount of profit. And what this is about is redirecting to ensure that that profit is also something that helps the city remain strong, that helps the city also get back on a firm financial footing. because right now what we're seeing is there's an immense amount of money being made in the city, but that prosperity is not reaching enough New Yorkers' lives.

26:51Andrew Ross Sorkin:One of the big issues nationally is the question of ICE, what we've all seen happen in Minneapolis. But there's a big question about whether ICE is going to come to New York. And I'm curious about what kind of conversations you've been having with the president or the administration about that possibility and how you think you would be reacting to this. You know, I said to the president directly that these ICE raids are cruel and inhumane and that they do nothing to actually serve the interests of public safety. And that public safety is of paramount importance to us. It's the cornerstone of an affordability agenda.

27:20But to use it as a justification to pull people out of their cars, out of their homes, out of their lives, it is completely contradictory to what New Yorkers are seeing and what Americans are seeing. And I think what we've seen is that there is a fear that has gripped hold of so many. And this is a fear that is without respect to anyone's documentation. A friend of mine the other day told me that if ICE was to come here at the kind of presence that we're seeing elsewhere, they wouldn't feel comfortable with their mother, a U.S. citizen leaving the house, because they wouldn't know if she would be profiled.

27:51That's how people are living right now. Do you think ICE is coming to New York City? We're going to do everything in our power to ensure that what we see elsewhere. We keep making the case directly, directly to the president, directly to New Yorkers, to Americans, that these kinds of actions, they are the actions of a reckless agency that is operating with impunity, one that deserves to be abolished, frankly, and that they do nothing to actually serve public interest. The other thing I'd say is you have to prepare in advance in the same way that with this snowstorm. The reason we're able to actually respond to it on the day of the storm is not because sanitation's there on the morning of.

28:21It's because Friday morning they've brined all the highways and major roadways. Similarly, if we're talking about the prospect of ice coming here, we have to ensure New Yorkers actually know their rights. New Yorkers know what it means to be a sanctuary city, that we have a law department that's ready to use the courts as one form of the battleground. That's what we're also preparing for.

28:38Andrew Ross Sorkin:Now that you're the mayor, how has your relationship changed with the business community? And how do you feel about billionaires today who are now your constituents who you represent? Because you've talked about them in ways that frankly a lot of them don't like. And I'm curious if you think that being in the seat today changes your view in any way or changes your disposition about how to approach this. Well, I think being the mayor of this city is to be the mayor of all eight and a half million people of this city. And I've made very clear to members of the business community that my definition of success is not that anyone leaves this city.

29:13It's not that there's some kind of a win in a narrative war. It's that everyone stays and that we have more room for others to join as well. And I think there was this moment I was speaking with a real estate leader, and he was kind of portioning out where the profits of his company come from. He pointed back to his office, he said, about 20 % of what we make comes from what we do in the office. And then he pointed outside the window. And he said, and about 40 % comes from what you do out there. So he said, you know, whether I like you or not, our fates are intertwined. And I think no matter the scale of policy disagreement, what brings us together is a love of this city.

29:43That's what we're going to pursue with these policies.

29:45Andrew Ross Sorkin:Mr. Mayor, thank you for being on the broadcast. I hope we get to continue this conversation. Lots of big questions about capitalism and socialism and all sorts of things. I've never heard about any of that. So we'll do that more. But thank you this morning. Next on Squawk Pod, former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weil with a landmark donation for veterinary help, awarding$120 million to an institution that once treated his sick dog. I've been married for 70 years, and all that time we've had dogs. My wife loves dogs, and we finally now have a dog that likes me. But basically, our previous dog, Angel, had lymphoma.

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31:51Welcome back to Squawk Pod, and here's Becky Quick with our next interview. This morning, the Weill Family Foundation is announcing a$120 million gift to the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. That is the largest donation in the university's history. Joining us right now is Sandy Weill. He's the chairman and CEO of the Weill Family Foundation, chairman emeritus of Citigroup and CEO of Casa Rosa Ventures. Casa Rosa Ventures. University of California Davis Chancellor Gary May is here as well. And so is Mark Stetter. He is the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Dean and Professor. And gentlemen, welcome to all of you.

32:31It's great to have you here. Thank you for having us. Sandy, this is a big deal. We spoke about it a little while ago and you laid out why you're doing this. What happened? How did you come about? Because I think of you giving in a lot of different places, whether that be philanthropy to Carnegie Hall, whether that be some of the medical things that you've come on and talked with us about before, with cancer, with all kinds of different research that you're doing in autism and beyond. How did you get to the veterinary school? That kind of came out of left field when I heard about it at first. Well, I've been married for 70 years, and all that time we've had dogs.

33:07My wife loves dogs, and we finally now have a dog that likes me. which has become part of our family. But basically our previous dog, Angel, had lymphoma. And we didn't know what to do, but we had heard about UC Davis. So we decided to go there and see what they would do and could they be helpful. And they turned out to be terrific people, very knowledgeable about what they were doing. and we entered her into a clinical trial where the trial was terrific and she had some good results for a while, but unfortunately the medicines weren't developed enough for a small animal at that point in time.

33:56But what I learned was that animals have a lot of the same, small animals have a lot of the same characteristics as people. And they get the same diseases like cancer and cardio and some of the neurodegenerative diseases. And I found out that no place in the world is better than UC Davis. And that's how I started. And I met terrific people like Gary May and went on the board and watched the growth of the university in its reputation. and I'm really very, I've never been happier because now I think it makes so much sense to work with animals and experimenting on different things when they have diseases and being able to do things that are much tougher to do with humans with all the regulations and stuff like that.

34:54And I think great things are going to happen from institutions like UC Davis and working with other great research institutions with people. That's what hooked me. Mark, I'll come to you on this, because when Sandy first told me that he was giving this huge gift to a veterinary school, I thought, wow, that's great. I love animals. But it wasn't until he laid out the potential benefits for humans that I really thought, okay, this is something that I understand, that I get more about. Why don't you lay out what you're able to do at the veterinary school that helps you kind of figure out things that might eventually help humans with some of these advances in medicine too.

35:36Well, Becky, you know we have over 100 million dogs and cats that are family members across the country. Many of them are probably on beds and on couches and in the kitchen watching us today. And they get the same diseases, as Sandy said, whether that be cancer or heart disease. And we see 50 ,000 cases in our hospital, in our veterinary teaching hospital every year. Those animals come in and are getting cutting-edge treatment. And the things that we learn from those diseases and animals can absolutely help people. And we have a variety of collaborative projects with medical schools, with other programs that help elevate not only animal health but the human health.

36:14And so it's a real win-win situation. Yeah, Sandy, I think what you told me is when Angel came in, you were able to get Angel into a clinical trial that was cutting edge. I think it was at Johnson and Johnson, they had a treatment that was there. And these are things that are helping Angel and these other pets. But the idea that this is research that then goes back to Johnson and Johnson or other medical companies that they would not necessarily be able to do through trials. And by the way, you're not giving the animal the disease. You're experimenting on animals that already have these diseases trying to help them.

36:47Right. And, you know, and one of the things that convinced me even more is that like a place like UCSF, which is a great research institution, loves working with UC Davis and the veterinary school. And when you hear good things from people in the business, like in the neurosciences at UCSF or in cancer at UCSF. I mean, you really see how things can happen where you can come to discover things in one year working in a vet school that might just take you 10 years going through the regulations. And therefore, I think it's going to help over the next decade and are coming up with a lot of things that's going to help human life.

37:35Carrie, can you talk a little bit about that, the partnership that you have with other schools like UCSF and what that can mean for the speed and advancement for getting medicines to market more quickly? Yes, sure. Thank you for having us, Becky. This gift is going to be a game changer for UC Davis and it will not only impact the work that we do with other universities, but will also help to connect the collaborations between our basic scientists, our clinicians, our vets, and our physicians. We do a lot of work across the UC system. UCSF is a great partner, but we also collaborate with other public universities across the country.

38:13We're very pleased to be among the top ten publics in the United States. When did you say top five? I would say top two. Top two? Recently, the Wall Street Journal named us the second best public university in the country. And much of that is because of our outstanding veterinary medicine program, which is number one, number one in agriculture, number one in sustainability. But this gift is going to be something that allows us to get a really strong head start on a brand new$750 million veterinary medical complex. And I can't say enough about how grateful we are to Sandy and Joan for a long friendship with the university, a personal friendship.

38:55And this gift will just be the beginning. We hope to find some like-minded partners similar to Sandy and Joan to help us get across the finish line. But as has been said, human and animal medicine have a very strong connection. And some of the treatments we have been able to perfect for animals have been applicable to humans and changing lives. Mark, what's the most exciting one or two things that you've seen in terms of potential advancements in medicine that can make their way from what you're doing with animals to eventually to humans? Well, one of the most heartwarming collaborations that we've seen is with stem cells.

39:34And stem cells have really been one of these things that we know have incredible potential, but we still have a lot to learn about how to utilize them. Somebody once gave me the analogy of stem cells are like teenagers. They can do anything in the world, but they need the right motivation at the right time and the right mentorship to get where they need to be. And stem cells are the same way, right? So we have a lot to learn about how to motivate those stem cells to do the right things. I think you may be aware of some of the work we've done with spina bifida. And what we found is that if you have a puppy that's born with spina bifida, which is the same disease as in people, and you can use stem cells right after they're born and be able to put them in that lesion in their spinal cord, which otherwise they'd have to be euthanized because they couldn't walk, they'd be incontinent and we learned that with these puppies and then amazingly we were able to say to our medical school colleagues why don't you look at being able to use this with humans and and they took it one step further which meant that they were able to use the stem cells in utero before the baby was born and these kids that usually would be in a wheelchair for the rest of their life wouldn't be able to walk wouldn't be able to do many of the things that we think about suddenly we're able to walk and be have a normal life and so that's a great example of something that we all would have had concerns about trying this for the first time with a with a kid without it knowing if it was going to work and being able to use it with animals first animals that get the disease naturally helping them and then taking it to the next level and being able to say to the FDA to the regulators this will work and Now it's off to a much larger clinical trial.

41:15That's fantastic. Sandy, I know you look at philanthropy the same way you always looked at Citi, at Citi Group when you were building it. You wanted to turn it into a super center, a financial super center. How does that apply when you're looking at philanthropy? I think I'm doing the same thing that I did when I was in business, putting bright people together that believe collaboration is going to be a way where things can happen much faster than trying to do it by oneself. And I just find that in the business world, we put a lot of companies together that really work very well, and I was lucky enough to make some money as the stock went up over a long period of time.

42:01Here, I'm doing the same thing, except here I have to pay to play. What I mean by that is I have to make that first contribution that gets other people to think that this might be a good thing. And we're working with such smart people working together. It is the greatest pleasure I've had in my life. That's wonderful to hear. While you're here, I want to ask you a couple of questions about the markets, what you're seeing with financials right now. there is this new move from the administration or a proposal that President Trump has put forth to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent for a year.

42:38What do you think of that proposal? You know, I think a lot of people pay a lot less than 10 percent now. I think that the world is better when the private sector can operate and do what they think is right rather than to have to follow regulations all the time but you know this would be a project that would be tried if it happens for one year I think it could be disturbing if it is it'll change but we have a president now that changes his mind from time to time yes he does so you think that this is a proposal that won't necessarily make its way onto the books I think you never know you never know you know Congress is so divided, it's very hard to get anything to pass.

43:26That's true. We'll see if the government remains open towards the end of this week. And, Sandy, I know you've talked to us in the past about Jamie Dimon and said that it was probably your biggest mistake. I think you told us that in 2014 when you were here. You've got a good memory. I do. I went back and looked it up. When you watch what Jamie has built today, what do you think? 20 years on, JP Morgan is probably the size of the next three biggest banks that are out there. What do you think when you see all of that? Well, Jamie was working with me in 1997 when we spoke to JP Morgan about merging with our company.

44:07We're a bank and an insurance company. and he had never done anything together. And J.P. Morgan felt that all their people were brighter than every one of our people. And I said, do you really think that's true about Jamie too? He said, yep, everybody. And that was the end of our thinking about doing that merger. And watching Jamie now, I am so proud of what he's built. It's phenomenal. And God bless. Yeah, that's right. What do you think when you look at the markets right now? Do you pay that much attention to them these days? I mean, on some level, I would imagine it fuels what you're giving away in philanthropy.

44:48That's correct. Yeah. Yeah, that's where everything is going to go when we're not here. And we've given, I think, somewhat close to$2 billion already. Wow. $2 billion over the last? Well, our foundation is over 50 years old. And our first year, we gave away three checks. Two were for$10 and one was for$100. So the numbers have changed a little bit. A few more zeros on the checks these days. Sandy, I want to thank you very much for being with us today. I want to thank you, Gary and Mark. And I can't wait to see what you guys are doing with this because I think the potential for what this can mean for speeding up cures is a really fantastic thing.

45:31So thank you, Sandy, for bringing this to us today. Keep us updated on where things go. We appreciate it. Thank you for what you do. Thank you. And keeping everybody educated. Okay, thank you guys so much. And that is Squawk Pod for today. Thanks for listening. Squawk Box is hosted by Joe Kernan, Becky Quick, and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Tune in weekday mornings on CNBC at 6 Eastern, or get the smartest takes and analysis from our TV show right into your ears when you follow Squawk Pod wherever you like to get your podcasts. Have a great Wednesday. We'll meet you right back here tomorrow. We are clear.

46:10Thanks, guys.

46:21I'm honored to make history and to make my community proud. Oh, what a brilliant tackle from Naomi Kerma. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America, proud to be the official bank of U.S. soccer. Bank of America and a member FDSE.