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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fear and Green Summer Series. I'm Michael

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Speaker 1: Thompson and Merry Christmas. Sean aylmer Merry Christmas, Michael, Merry Christmas.

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Speaker 2: Adam.

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Speaker 3: Yes, very Christmas to everyone.

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Speaker 1: Yes, season's greetings to you, Adam Lange. Today we are

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Speaker 1: looking at the very best gift of the year. This

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Speaker 1: is the story that the kind of the gift that

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Speaker 1: keeps on giving because it's a very Christmasy themed episode.

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Speaker 1: Would you like to kick us off, Adam, with your

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Speaker 1: very Christmasy themed story entry today?

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Speaker 3: Yes? Well, really, it's with a thank you to you

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Speaker 3: both for giving me the choice of this story, because

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Speaker 3: to me, it is such a massive gift. In twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty five, Donald Trump biggest gift to markets, media, diplomacy,

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Speaker 3: and perhaps also anxiety and chaos. This year, his return

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Speaker 3: to the White House has really reshaped politics around the world,

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Speaker 3: particularly in the US, and it's regularly reset global expectations.

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Speaker 3: US tariffs came back with a vengeance, Trade alliances were shaken,

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Speaker 3: defense spending has surged, Uncertainty has certainly thrived. Markets learned

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Speaker 3: to live again with policy by headline, diplomacy by true

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Speaker 3: social announcements, and economics driven by personality. For Australia, Trump

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Speaker 3: renewed pressure on our relationship with China, lifted expectations on

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Speaker 3: our defense spending and an orcut review, and set a

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Speaker 3: very different tone in strategic diplomacy. For global investors, it

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Speaker 3: delivered volatility on steroids, rallies fueled by Trump's familiar mix

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Speaker 3: of Tariff's, selective tax cuts, deregulation and deal making. And

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Speaker 3: for the media, he delivered what no algorithm yet has done,

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Speaker 3: daily drama, permanent tension, and an unending supply of stories

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Speaker 3: love him, all, loath him, or both. Donald Trump did

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Speaker 3: not just return to the US presidency in twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 3: He returned as the world's most destabilizing geopolitical force at

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Speaker 3: the helm of our biggest economy.

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Speaker 2: Big gift, Yeah, yeah, the twenty twenty six will all

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Speaker 2: just think, ugh, just he's at it again, like we.

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Speaker 3: Thought he couldn't lift his game.

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Speaker 1: I think the shock is the shock won't be there

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Speaker 1: for twenty twenty five. Just how hard he went at

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Speaker 1: it when he cut out after inauguration, just went straight in,

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Speaker 1: went in hard. How what about you, Sean?

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Speaker 2: Look, I think the biggest gift of twenty twenty five

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Speaker 2: was the Rays of the Rays, The Rise of AI

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Speaker 2: Artificial intelligence. Apparently AI is bigger, or at least as

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Speaker 2: big as the Internet. Now. Is the AI a revolution? Well,

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Speaker 2: I asked chat GPT, why wouldn't you that's what you do,

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Speaker 2: and it told me. AI is considered a revolution because

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Speaker 2: it fundamentally changes how we process information, make decisions, and

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Speaker 2: create value across almost every sector. It's not just an

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Speaker 2: incremental improvement. It's a shift in capability that can transform economies, societies,

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Speaker 2: and daily life. Going to university and studying economics, you'd

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Speaker 2: call that a paradigm shift on steroids. It is incredible

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Speaker 2: how many of us now use AI rather than a

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Speaker 2: search engine, so adoption is soaring. As journalists, we've spent

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Speaker 2: the year writing and talking about it. We will do

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Speaker 2: so for the next decade, probably the decade after that,

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Speaker 2: if we work out how to use it. Well. In fact,

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Speaker 2: AI probably did the writing and talking anyway, so we

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Speaker 2: won't even have to worry about that. But you know,

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Speaker 2: this has been the year where AI has provided the

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Speaker 2: biggest gift of all, not just to we journalists, but

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Speaker 2: to the world in terms of how we live.

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Speaker 1: That's a very good entry mine is probably a little

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Speaker 1: bit narrower. Mine is about one person, Elon Musk, the

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Speaker 1: gift that honestly just keeps on giving. The world's richest

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Speaker 1: person spent this year getting richer, also dabbling in politics.

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Speaker 1: Paying the price for all of that as well is

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Speaker 1: the Tesla boss. Of course. It was a pointed though,

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Speaker 1: to head up DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, tasked

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Speaker 1: with slashing Federals spending in the US and cutting grants,

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Speaker 1: and he had to fire a stack of workers, and

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Speaker 1: he canceled a bunch of contracts. The goal was to

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Speaker 1: reduce the deficit by one trillion dollars by September. A

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Speaker 1: few things did go wrong right, didn't save anywhere near

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Speaker 1: that much. There was a big backlash against him and

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Speaker 1: against Tesla because of the politics of it all. And

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Speaker 1: then he had a very very messy, very public split

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Speaker 1: with Donald Trump over the President's One Big Beautiful Bill

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Speaker 1: that saw the entire partnership unravel and it happened very publicly.

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Speaker 1: That's what happens when two people both own social media

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Speaker 1: platforms that are able to kind of have jabs at

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Speaker 1: each other online when they're doing it. So now he's

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Speaker 1: back to running his businesses, and he's got a few

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Speaker 1: of them, Tesla, SpaceX X and a few others, and

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Speaker 1: they want him there. Tesla shareholders have approved a deal

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Speaker 1: that would see Elon Musk receive a one trillion dollar

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Speaker 1: pay day, provided he meets a whole bunch of KPIs.

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Speaker 1: Some of the most specific KPI is about self driving

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Speaker 1: cars and humanoid robots. Imagine having that new contract. I

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Speaker 1: must produce a thousand humanoid robots or whatever it is,

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Speaker 1: otherwise I don't get a trillion dollars. It sounds like

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Speaker 1: something from the future. But Elon Musk has been a

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Speaker 1: gift to a business podcast all year long.

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Speaker 3: So are these like the three wise people of Christmas?

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Speaker 3: You know, Donald Trump, AI, and Elon Musk.

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure. I'll ask Ai.

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Speaker 1: I feels like a very dystopian Christmas. That one.

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Speaker 2: It's say that Donald Trump's the biggest gift, but hard

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Speaker 2: to argue to hear on a business podcast that Donald

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Speaker 2: Trump wasn't the biggest gift.

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Speaker 1: I think he might. I think you might be right,

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Speaker 1: and I think he is the biggest gift. Under the

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Speaker 1: fear and green.

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Speaker 2: I just tressed Ai. They said, no, AI was the

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Speaker 2: biggest gift.

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Speaker 3: That's fine.

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Speaker 1: I like how impartial it is.

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Speaker 3: Nice. All right, thank you.

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Speaker 1: Very much, Sean, thanks Michael, thank you very much, Adam,

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Speaker 1: thank you, Michael, thank you Sean, and don't forget to

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Speaker 1: hit follow on the podcast. We'll have new episodes every

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Speaker 1: day during our summer series and regular shows are back

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Speaker 1: from January twelve. I'm Michael Thompson and this is peer

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Speaker 1: and great