Tim Cook, Neel Kashkari, & TikTok’s Future 9/19/25

0:00Bring in show music, please. Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer. Today on Squawk Pod. What a week. The U.S. Central Bank made its first interest rate cut all year. We have FOMC voting member and head of the Minneapolis Fed, Neil Kashkari, on the health of the U.S. economy. We're not OK with 3 percent inflation. I'm confident that we are going to get inflation back down to 2 percent. But these tariffs have pushed inflation back up. President Trump and China's President Xi set to speak today about a possible deal to keep TikTok from going dark in the U.S. Security expert Chris Krebs. The law is clear.

0:43It requires a complete divestiture of TikTok from ByteDance from China. And just who will own the wildly popular app? If you don't want someone deciding what you're allowed to see, it could change every four years. Plus, the iPhone 17 goes on sale today. We're on the ground at a New York Apple store with CEO Tim Cook. We are so happy with what we see. It's early going, but we're very happy. And the media fallout from ABC's benching of Jimmy Kimmel continues. A lot to blame for the mess we're in and the polarization that we're in and the idea that we're getting misinformation and being polarized and being pushed to different sides and all of those things.

1:24It's Friday, September 19th, 2025. Squawk Pod begins right now. Stand, Andrew, by in three, two, one, up in Andrew. Cue his mic. Good morning. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on CNBC. We're live at the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Andrew Ross Sorkin along with Joe Kernan, the one and only. Becky is off today. We've got a lot to talk about, though. Boy, do we have a lot to talk about. I've been jet-setting around the country once again. Where were you flying in and out of? I was flying in and out of Los Angeles. Oh, Newark. Newark. How any? Not bad. Really? Not bad. That's what Scott Kirby said.

2:05Last month was bad for both of us, back when Beck was in. You were good. I had a good experience and want to thank the nice people at United. Excellent. Yeah. It's good to keep them on your good side in Newark. And you were hobnobbing with Federer and KD. And KD and a whole bunch of sports folks, Gary Bettman. You did some off-the-record stuff, too, I think. On the record, on the record. Does that mean we can't talk about that? I mean, whisper to me what else was going on. Like Connie Chung. I still think that we need to have a separate digital show called During the Break. Yeah. Can we curse?

2:49On that show? Yes. F &A. Absolutely. Now to the fallout from comedian Jimmy Kimmel's comments about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and ABC pulling Kimball's show off the air. President Trump suggesting the government might revoke the broadcast licenses of TV networks that are, in his words, against him. That followed a suggestion from Trump's FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, that ABC station licenses could be at risk. Wall Street Journal now reported that Kimball was planning to address Carr's comments on his show on Wednesday night, but after meeting with Kimball, Disney Entertainment executive Dana Walden thought Kimball's approach could actually inflame that situation.

3:29The journal saying the Walden met with Disney CEO Bob Iger and the two executives decided to pull Kimmel's show. That was literally as the audience was getting ready to apparently walk in, taking the White House to task for this alleged censorship. There's been a whole number of comedians saying all sorts of things. I want to show you what Stephen Colbert had to say about it. If ABC thinks that this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive. And clearly, they've never read the children's book If You Give a Mouse a Kimmel.

4:25on his own, which I think he was in the process of doing. I think we can all agree that the comments themselves, in the words of the journal, false, callous, and stupid, or at least obnoxious. He certainly could have apologized, I think. Disney, and when guys like Sonnenfeld start making sense to me, I have a problem. He said Iger did absolutely the right thing based on brand damage with or without Brendan Carr and FCC. And that's the thing that we forget is those next star stations are in places where, I don't know, there's probably 30 of them. They're not in the big cities. And I think that if they had just left him on, I think if they had just left him on, that ratings would have imploded.

5:11The groundswell would have gotten even greater as it does. now you've basically created a martyr for the left. The right has, it's just been a little bit over a week since poor Charlie was assassinated, fired upon, not fired, as someone over at Fox said. And now each side, there are people who mourn what happened to Charlie Kirk, and there's people who mourn what happened to Jimmy Kimmel, and I don't think there's a lot of overlap there, which is sad. Now, I'm not going to say there's people celebrating. There are, but I'm not going to say celebrating what happened to Charlie Kirk. And then there are people celebrating what happened to Jimmy Kimmel, and I'm not going to say I'm one of them, but I'm pretty damn close.

6:04The thing about Brendan Carr is he has teeth, because the FCC on public airwaves, they can do things, And you could make an argument that Jimmy Kimmel hasn't told a joke since Trump came down that escalator. It's been 10 years since he told a normal joke. And is that OK for all the for all the next star people in the middle of the country that that are watching? And supposedly the public interest has to be part of what you do on on public airwaves. Was their entire side ever ever represented on Jimmy Kimmel? He trotted out Jasmine Crockett, Adam Schiff, Barack Obama. Every night, never Ted Cruz, never a conservative has graced the set of Jimmy Kimmel.

6:47Is that OK? That's OK. I don't give I don't give a crap. I'm asleep. But I just wish they would have let this all happen on its own. Are we headed for the UK? I know you're worried about. You know why I have a lot of hair? Because even when Biden was doing things, I never really set it on fire. Right. Are we headed towards the U.K., is that what you said? I don't think we're headed to that model. In fact, Trump and the vice president are both over there complaining about what goes on with free speech over in the U.K. Hopefully, we're not headed there. I don't think we are. But I don't want, next on my Twitter feed, I don't want genocide to the Jews on there.

7:27So I'm starting to think there is a time and place where anything doesn't go. You know what I mean? It's, oh, anything goes. Do you think that we should regulate parts of the social media world more than we are right now? I think maybe we should. I mean, starting to think that maybe we should. I'm glad you really, you know, Knoppy sent me something about when you listen, you've been listening the entire time. And I'm very, I admire this a lot. And now I'm going to let you talk and I'm going to listen the entire time. I might be making faces and I might be hand motions that probably are inappropriate at this hour.

8:03But I'm going to let you. So I think you and I will agree that there's something amiss in social media land. That to me is the lowest hanging fruit. And somewhat to blame for the mess we're in. I think a lot to blame for the mess we're in and the polarization that we're in and the idea that we're getting misinformation and being polarized and being pushed to different sides and all of those things, 100%. And I think that the extremeness of everything is what seems to work on social media, and so we're getting reinforced with all of that. So I think we agree that there's something wrong in social media that's not good.

8:43Unfortunately, it's what's wrong in ourselves, at least some of us. Sure. Oh, I think we're to blame. But I also think that systems are creating an addiction. They know how to take advantage of us. They exacerbate it. They do. Exacerbate. Someone once said exacerbate it. They do. And then the second question, I don't know if I agree about the... Free speech is a very interesting idea. I believe in free speech, and I believe that folks who can sit on the corner and scream their head off and do all those types of things. Then there's the question of whether it gets echoed and amplified in all sorts of other ways, whether, you know, here on cable or whether it's a broadcast network or whatnot versus social media.

9:29Is there a difference? I think there probably is in some responsibility. I don't think that Jimmy Kimmel's comments were good comments. Much worse than social media. Were terrible. But on the larger question about the FCC and how they regulate speech and different kinds of speech, I always thought it was the FCC's job to get involved when, do you remember when there was the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl? Complete accident. Whether it was an accident or not with Justin Timberlake, there was a view at that time that the public should not have been seeing a nude breast during the Super Bowl.

10:14It wasn't totally what you would do with a piece of it. It was. And that was something that, to me, if the FCC wanted to get involved, that sort of made sense. But I'm not sure. Now you sound like the conservatives that you don't like. But I'm not sure. You see a little tea and that's bad, but talking about some poor guy that got his head blown off. No, what I'm saying is that the idea of policing a certain type of speech and for companies, look, I agree with you. Nextar, I think there's two things going on with Nextar, and this is why everything's not always black and white. I think Nextar has that deal in front of the FCC, and so they're thinking about Trump and the way he thinks about it.

10:55And there's also the commercial interests that weighed on this. By the way, I think that clearly is what weighed on Sinclair, I imagine, and the politics of Sinclair itself. And I don't know whether Disney's got anything pending, but they certainly were worried about brand damage. And I think that they weren't... They've got FUBU. FUBU? Yeah. The sports network. but I don't think I think that this almost, they're like this is great, we get to do this and blame it on Trump and we're going to do it anyway because this guy is starting to be more of a problem than a benefit. You think that Disney was going to take out Kimmel anyway?

11:39Someday Oh, someday. And I still think Kimmel's coming back next week. I think Kimmel might come back Apple's iPhone 17 going on sale today, fans lining up from Beijing to London to get their hands on the latest piece of hardware. In early, signals show strong demand for the iPhone 17 lineup, but Apple's still grappling with AI issues, increasing competition, and we're going to take you live to Apple's flagship store here in New York City for that opening.

12:12What is happening at the flagship store right now? Jim Cramer's there with one special man named Tim Cook. Good morning. Tim reminds me I should have an iPad. Andrew, thank you so much. We are really at Central, at Ground Central for the new phones. Different vibe? What's it feel like? Three different players. Oh, it feels so exciting. It's our Super Bowl. It's the most important day of the year for us. Everybody comes out from the Apple community, and there's no place I'd rather be than Fifth Avenue on this day. Okay, so Pro, Max, Air, all very different. Tell us why we should get each one. The Pro is the most pro phone we've ever shipped.

12:50It's a totally new design, incredible performance, camera next level. I mean, if you think you've gotten good photos and videos off your iPhone before, this takes it to a new level. The air, thin, light, feels like it's going to fly away in your hand. It's so wonderful. The design is unbelievable. You literally cannot not feel it, it's so light, but it's a pro phone. This is what's so spectacular about it. It's pro performance in a thin package. And then the consumer product, unbelievable as well, dramatic step up from last year. Okay, now people tell me the reviews over and over again, there's always this caveat that they're expensive, and yet I see the trade-in value to be far higher than I remember.

13:33Is trade-in better? And when you add in the incentives from the phone companies, I don't see any increase even from tariffs. Trade-in is great. There's no increase for tariffs in the prices to be totally clear. And you can get a phone for free today with a plan from your favorite carrier. Now, right here, do you have supply? In Europe, they didn't have supply for everything. We keep supply in the store for walk-in customers and to serve the pre-orders. So there's supply today to get. Okay, got some numbers from Nanjing, from Mumbai, Beijing, Delhi. Dubai is the one that has the longest lines right now.

14:12Dubai is incredible. China was incredible. We are so happy with what we see. It's early going, but we're very happy. Okay, how about agencies? AirPod 3. People are very excited about the Siri translation. Yeah, live translation, four times ANC compared to the original AirPods Pro. You'll see a dramatic change in the AirPods Pro if you've been using it. It's to die for. Okay, watch. Hypertension. Any insurance companies contact you? This is a great way to be able to cut down the silent killer. Yeah, hypertension, incredible. We think we're going to notify a million people that they have hypertension this year alone.

14:54Over a billion people have it around the world, so there's a lot of people to notify. Okay, a lot of people saying, well, what are they saying? they doing with AI, but do you find anybody holding back fine, given the fact that I haven't seen it around the world? We have AI everywhere in the phone, everywhere in the AirPods. Live translation is AI. We just don't call it as such. Right, okay. Now, what do you think about when you, what are you hearing about the selfie camera? Because I've seen it many times, grabs, you'll probably do it again, grab selfies, but we're cut off in half. We're like, look at Yes.

15:27How have you changed that? Well, with Center Stage, you can enter, more people can enter the selfie, and it will readjust and recalibrate for the landscape size. It's unbelievable. And you can hold the phone in portrait mode, and it will take a selfie in landscape mode. You no longer have to turn your phone. It's incredible. Yeah, how about the picture within a picture? Oh, yeah. That's unbelievable, too. If you want to FaceTime somebody from a concert, for example, and show yourself and your excitement as well as the band. These things are things that some people didn't even know they wanted, but now they can't imagine their life without.

16:06All right, so I'm getting a sense. I mean, there's a different vibe because there's a little bit more than people realize when it comes to the Seventeen Family. Yes. Yeah, the Seventeen Family, it is a huge leap. You know, every year we move forward. This year is a huge step forward. All right. Now, what is your sense about yesterday? We saw this NVIDIA tie up. Now, NVIDIA and Intel have not been yours. Will you look at those again? You were over in Europe. Will you look at what they might be able to offer you? Sure. You know, competition is very good for the foundry business. We'd love to see Intel come back.

16:43Okay. Now, the president's talking about having$550 billion that he's gotten from other countries to do manufacturing. Tim, you're doing$550 billion. Do we have enough people in this country to actually staff all these different places? There's a lot of great people in America. And we're having training programs like the Manufacturing Academy that I'm visiting later today in Detroit. Yeah, and so we're putting a lot of energy in the education sector. Now, when I look at this place, I'm thinking, and I've been with you for a couple of launches, There is a different vibe, but this is too, it's not empirical, it's anecdotal.

17:21Do you get it? Oh, I get it. I get it, and I've been seeing it all night during the night, checking the lines in Australia, checking the lines in China, checking the lines in Thailand. It's incredible. It feels wonderful. India. And how about when we saw each other last Friday, you said, look, the pre-orders are starting. How did it feel? Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. I'm very happy with what we're seeing right now. It's early going, but I'm very happy. Do you look at what people were projecting versus what's happening? Because, you know, that's what Wall Street does. I think it's probably a meaningless gesture for you.

17:50I always look at what we're projecting, not what others are. All right. Fair enough. All right. Tim, congratulations. It's so wonderful to see you. Oh, it's great to see you. It's so great to see you. Great to see your audience. I'm going to get all three. All right. Great. I love that. I love that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Jim, thank you for bringing us that interview. Thank you and thank Tim for us. I think we've all been fascinated by the new devices, what's happening in the world. And yes, as you mentioned, the AirPod 3s, which I think I've got to put on my wish list.

18:23And one of the greatest things is that I don't know if we always knew retail stores were going to be in. You know, I don't like shopping and I like going to the Apple store. I mean, they got it down to the guy. Yes, they do. The guy or guy will meet you right at the front and send you exactly where you're in, you're out. It's good. It's good. And I need help. I need new batteries because I can't stand the Jerry Seinfeld when you get to 20 % battery and you're like crawling. That's where you're going to have to get this new phone. Crawling along in the desert. I'm dying. I'm. You know, I can't take it.

18:58Cheese will be next. Coming up on Squawk Pod, inside the Fed's rate cut with a member of the Federal Open Market Committee. He was in the room where it happened and where a White House approved new member of the Board of Governors was confirmed hours before its start. Minneapolis Fed President Neal Kashkari joins us. This was like any other transition where somebody comes in and everybody says, hey, welcome to the table. We look forward to hearing your contributions. And then everybody went about their business as normal. And so what was remarkable about this meeting is how unremarkable it was.

19:38This is Squawk Pod. Stand by Joe. And three, two, one, his mic. Time flies. You're watching Squawk Box on CNBC. I'm Joe Kernan. Along with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Becky is off today. And during the break. During the break. During the break. That's my idea. What do you think? A show called During the Break. The title is good. In a new essay, Minneapolis Fed President Neil Kashkari says he sees two more rate cuts coming from the central bank this year. Steve Leisman joins us now with Mr. Kashkari. Hey, Steve. And hey, Neil. Good morning. Thank you, Joe. Let's bring in Mr. Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Fed.

20:20Neil, let's talk about your essay this morning, which is fascinating. And I just want to ask you first about one of the things that you say in your piece, which is that you're concerned that there could be some erosion of the belief in the Fed's commitment to the 2 percent target. How much should we worry that you guys are cutting rates while you're away from your target? And not only that, don't forecast you hit your target until 2028. Well, Steve, I don't see the erosion yet. Thankfully, it's not there in the data, But it's something that we need to work extra hard to explain to the public why we're making the actions that we're making, why we're cutting rates right now in light of the elevated inflation that we've all been experiencing for four years.

21:05So I identified it in my essay as a risk that what could cause inflation expectations to rise if people believe that our what we call our reaction function has changed and that we would somehow be OK with 3 percent inflation. We're not OK with 3 percent inflation. I'm confident that we are going to get inflation back down to 2 percent. But these tariffs have pushed inflation back up and we're having to adjust policy to try to accommodate and keep the labor markets strong at the same time. So, Neil, the old saw is watch what they do, not what they say. What are you doing about bringing inflation back down?

21:37Well, if we look at the underlying components, and I don't get into this as much into my essay, housing services inflation is on a very steady trajectory to come down. I've got a lot of confidence that housing inflation is going to continue to come down. Non-housing services inflation is slowly coming down. It's pretty tied to wage growth and wages are on a downward trajectory. So I've got pretty good confidence that those two segments are going to continue to come down. The core goods inflation had actually ticked negative at the start of this year. That was very good news. It had been negative before the pandemic.

22:11They've now come up because of tariffs. And so it really comes down to, do you believe tariffs are a one-time effect or something more persistent? I'm getting more confident that it's more likely a one-time effect, but it's going to take a couple years for it to play out. Another thing you talk about in your essay is the concern that the erosion of Fed independence could lift inflation expectations. I get that concept theoretically, but you don't really see it in the bond market. What's the source of that concern, and why do you think the bond market doesn't seem to care about it? Well, I talk to a lot of market participants.

22:45I talk to folks up on Capitol Hill on both sides of the aisle. I think there's widespread appreciation for how important Fed independence is, both to keeping inflation expectations low and anchored as also to defending the dollar. Those two things are tightly related. But I also think there's a lot of confidence on both sides of the aisle that Fed independence is important and will be protected and that the courts also see it that way. You can see the Supreme Court's ruling a couple of months ago defending Fed independence. And so I think people are betting on the institutions of the country continuing to keep Fed independence, to keep it outside of the short term political process.

23:24And certainly I think we all want the same. Neil, couldn't you argue that a cut in rates, a quarter point rate, I mean, if you connect the dots to, OK, you know, money's cheaper. People are going to do more. That's going to cause the economy to heat up. I mean, way down the line, way down the road, maybe it's inflationary. But at face value, why doesn't it make certain things cheaper when interest rates go down? Why couldn't you say it actually might help inflation? And people have started to say that, haven't they, Leesman? Well, I've heard those arguments, Joe. But if you look at mortgage rates as an example, there's a lot of different things that go into mortgage rates.

24:02I wrote in my essay that I think the neutral rate of interest has actually gone up. And if you look at over the past year, the FOMC has cut rates by more than 100 basis points. the long end of the curve has been pretty unresponsive to our short-term policy moves. That tells me it's possible that the neutral rate has gone up. And so it's possible that we cut the short end a little bit over the course of the next six months or a year, and it ends up not translating into much movement down on mortgage rates. So I don't think it's one for one that a cut in mortgage rates is going to make things immediately cheaper.

24:35Right. There's other interest rate sensitive factors where it could be. And it's happened again. I mean, it's only 10 basis points. But ever since you cut the 10-year, it has actually ticked higher with just barely with the yield. But no one, including, I don't think, on the Fed. Is anyone complaining about 4.1 on the 10-year after all the worries about, you know, our status in the world and the reserve status? I mean, I would sign on for 4.13. Things are going great in the bottom. Things are quiet. The vigilantes are, you know, they're not making a peep. with$38 trillion in debt. I do write about that in the essay, what the disconnect is from the signals that we're getting from the labor market, which is showing a slowdown.

25:17Wage growth, payroll employment, for example, all of those are pointing in one direction, and yet financial markets seem quite exuberant, whether it's the stock market or the bond market. Credit spreads are very low. Meme stocks are back. Those are more signals that tell me, hey, wait a second, maybe policy is not all that tight. Nonetheless, I do take seriously half of our dual mandate, that the labor market is showing signs of weakening. And so I wrote in my piece that I thought it was appropriate to cut, but I'm not sure how many more cuts we have to get to before we get back to something that looks like neutral.

25:49Neil, I have an almost personal question. Being in the room, if you will, and I think everyone's always curious about independence and politics, and I know you've said repeatedly that politics don't enter these conversations, But with with Steve Moran in the room, given his role at the White House and in this temporary role now and being the outlier also in the room in terms of what he wanted to do with interest rates. Did politics enter that conversation? It really didn't. You know, we've the FOMC has 19 participants. And every year there's always some turnover with presidents retiring or governors retiring and new people coming in.