Governor Rick Perry announces a special session of the Texas General Assembly to address the devastating floods that have devastated the Texas Hill Country in recent days. Governor Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. Lupe Valdez are joined by House Speaker Joe Straus and Senate President Pro Tem John Cornyn to discuss the devastating flooding that has devastated the area.
00:07:13.920Department of Department of Department of Department of Department of Department of Department of Department of Department of Department of Department,
00:07:28.000and I did that already know how much that they have got to be placed in place.
00:07:30.960Today, I was out with a team, about 180 of us,
00:07:34.960um, exploring, uh, my parents, maybe, you know,
00:07:40.960day morning. I'm a 28-year-old from here.
00:17:41.960Folks, the biggest reveal today, and we got a packed show, but the biggest reveal, I think a few minutes ago, is that they have now said the missing is 161.
00:18:11.960They're also from morning's press conference.
00:18:13.960There has not been a rescue of a living human being since Friday.
00:18:18.960And I think he said Friday afternoon, which was, it hit at what, 4 o'clock in the morning or 3.30, 4 o'clock, 4.30 in the morning.
00:18:25.960Governor Abbott looks like they may be praying over there.
00:18:28.960He wheeled over after taking, it sounded like an onslaught of, I don't know if accusations or information or point of view from a woman in the crowd that sounds like she's either a victim or knows the victims or somehow is talking about the community.
00:18:46.960And Governor Abbott eventually decided to go over and actually mingle with the crowd.
00:18:52.960He's got the, the kind of head of the, of some of the leadership of the Texas department.
00:18:58.960It looks like from this, there's a lot more involvement in the state.
00:19:03.960I think taking control of it's going to be a recovery effort.
00:19:06.960Looks like it had a lot more input from the state.
00:19:09.960This was supposed to take place at 6 o'clock our time.
00:19:12.960In fact, we had the whole show wrapped around doing that.
00:19:16.960We're going to continue with this picture.
00:19:18.960Let's bring in, let's bring in our, is Dave Brat with me?
00:19:21.960Dave Brat joins me, my cohost for today for a little while.
00:19:26.960Natalie's going to join me in a little while to take over the duty as cohost.
00:19:32.960Dave Brat, your assessment, you're, you're, you were a professional politician.
00:19:35.960How do you think Governor Abbott handled that?
00:21:29.960We started having calls and messages on Wednesday from an area of I-35, out I-10, all the way to where it touches I-20, all the way back over to where I-20 touches I-35 again.
00:21:39.960That is a large chunk of Texas that was anywhere in the potential area of where this kind of rain could have fallen.
00:22:39.960The governor stepping in and handling it today.
00:22:42.960The big news, I think we're going to count here, but the big news is that they have announced a number that they haven't had before of missing of 161 folks still down in this area.
00:23:31.960Well, thank you for having me on, for one.
00:23:34.960My heart and prayers are with everybody affected in Texas and the entire state.
00:23:39.960I'm going to be down there tomorrow trying to help as I can.
00:23:42.960I run a company called Rainmaker that conducts cloud seeding to make it rain more for farms, for ecosystem restoration, for residential reservoirs when they're suffering from drought.
00:23:54.960And we work with municipalities and farmers throughout Texas to, when there is a drought or there isn't enough water, make it rain more.
00:24:02.960We unequivocally had nothing to do with the flooding that was caused by the remnants of the tropical storm that blew in.
00:24:10.960And our biggest cloud seeding missions to date have only produced 10 million gallons of precipitation approximately.
00:24:17.960And that tropical storm dumped about four trillion over the course of two days.
00:24:21.960So the order of magnitude difference between what cloud seeding is even capable of and what happened is incomparable.
00:24:29.960And again, I truly am heartbroken about what has happened, but want to make it abundantly clear that cloud seeding was not involved in any capacity.
00:24:41.960And it's a technology that is used to help farmers when there isn't enough water.
00:24:46.960Let me ask you, repeat that four trillion, you're saying four trillion gallons was dumped on the, on that time.
00:24:54.960I think they said 10 inches in the, oh no, excuse me, the river rose 26 feet in 45 minutes.
00:25:00.960I guess you're saying in the entire time of this storm that hit, there was over four trillion gallons of water that was dumped onto the locale?
00:25:11.960And cloud seeding, you only do, is cloud seeding that small?
00:25:15.960What is, what's the purpose, what a farmer, they're doing it when they're that desperate, when there's been like a drought for a while?
00:25:21.960Yeah. Yeah. They'll, they'll cloud seed either to try to fill up aquifers preemptively or when there is a drought.
00:25:27.960They not only use it for aquifer recharge and farming in Texas, but municipalities throughout Utah and Idaho also use it.
00:25:36.960This technology was invented in the United States in the 1940s.
00:25:40.960And only because of recent advents in radar, radar technology are we able to measure exactly what the results from it are.
00:25:47.960And that's what Rainmaker has been doing for the state of Texas and other states throughout the country.
00:25:52.960It's also worth noting quickly that the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has criteria to authorize cloud seeding operations in the state.
00:26:00.960Um, where one, you have to have an approved concept of operations, approved materials, and also you have to have what are called suspension criteria.
00:26:08.960Meaning if ever there's a risk of flooding, if reservoir spillage is risk, then you have to stop operating.
00:26:14.960And a day before there was any flash flood warning, our meteorologists proactively suspended operations before even that regulatory threshold from the state of Texas.
00:26:24.960So, um, again, uh, all of our operations were well within bounds from the state regulations and also had nothing to do with the, uh, flooding there.
00:26:32.960Is the, um, the aquifer situation I hear in Texas, Oklahoma and other places, and maybe even Arizona are kind of in a crisis.
00:26:41.960At least they were a couple of years ago, the droughts, different droughts have been so bad that the aquifer is where most of the water is obviously people use in a store in the wells.
00:26:50.960Because of real estate development and expansion is, is that one of the issues here, why your service is used?
00:26:58.960Um, the aquifers, namely the Ogalala in Texas are radically drawn down.
00:27:02.960Um, the Colorado river is very much over allocated.
00:27:06.960And so now cities like Phoenix, Arizona are turning off water to residences periodically because they just don't have enough farms throughout Utah, Texas, New Mexico, et cetera, are actually being paid by the state to not farm because the state doesn't want them to consume the water.
00:27:22.960And so rainmakers mission is when there is need for water to produce it, to stop the collapse of the American West, not just our environment, but also our agricultural interests and also to enable the growth or at least maintain the population of all of these Western cities and states.
00:27:40.960When you say the collapse of the West too, I take it, uh, my understanding is fairly rudimentary, but agriculture is still right now the least efficient use of water.
00:27:52.960It's not that we don't need agriculture, we do, but when we look at industrial, we look at home, that is it agriculture that's considered the least inefficient about how the agriculture community uses it?
00:28:02.960You know, um, agriculture far and away is the biggest consumer of water.
00:28:07.960Um, over time, they've become more efficient.
00:28:10.960I think that with things like drip irrigation, it's gotten a lot better, but I, I don't think that, uh, it's appropriate to think that, you know, agriculture is to blame for water scarcity in the American West, right?
00:28:21.960Like I am in favor of more American farms and more growing.
00:28:25.960Um, and I think that we should have an abundance mindset and consider cloud seeding insofar as it is safely regulated and not just anybody can do it.
00:28:34.960Um, I think the cloud seeding is one way to facilitate more abundant farming and more abundant cities in drought ridden areas of the world.
00:28:42.960And, and also it's worth noting that, um, it's not just the United States and it's not just Rainmaker that does this.
00:28:49.960Uh, I think it's in America's interest to continue doing it because other states around the world, like China, invest $1.4 billion a year into their program to produce more water for their farms, for their hydroelectric, to resupply their reservoirs.
00:29:03.960Um, and if we don't do it, then not only will, uh, the United States not have the capacity for it, but China will have the biggest program in the world by orders of magnitude.
00:29:11.960If, if China is 1.4 billion, what, what's the equivalent of the U S what's our total roughly?
00:29:16.960Uh, the United States federal government spent 2.4 billion, uh, $2.4 million, excuse me, uh, last year on cloud seeding.
00:29:24.960On, on the cloud seeding, you said during the, the evolution itself, you guys, you have a regulatory apparatus of what it tells you you can do and, and, and monitors that.
00:29:34.960You said you, you guys voluntarily, uh, took down and stopped.
00:29:39.960Cause I think you were, you were cloud seeding on the 2nd of July, right?
00:29:42.960You took it down and didn't do it on the 3rd.
00:29:45.960That's when the storm hit that night, I guess overnight.
00:29:47.960No one in the regulatory apparatus came to you.
00:29:50.960Cause one of the questions people have, and you can see it right there with the governor, governor, what is the regulatory, you know, chain of command for this apparatus?
00:30:00.960You got national weather service, but you also have local, you got state, uh, who's in charge, who was kind of watching it?
00:30:06.960I mean, did anybody come to you or do you guys just voluntarily say this looks like it could be bad.
00:30:11.960No need to, uh, no need to continue to cloud seed.
00:30:15.960So rainmaker acted proactively and suspended operations before the national weather service issued any warnings that would have constituted suspension criteria per the Texas department of licensing and regulations statutes.
00:30:28.960Um, now that being said, I think that there ought to be more regulation on cloud seeding to ensure that it's done safely.
00:30:35.960I think that there should be way more transparency in the industry and I'm actively trying to both on X right now and on platforms like yours.
00:30:43.960And thank you again for having me, uh, advocate for more regulation so that people do know what's going on and so that people can trust that it's being done safely.
00:30:51.960Well, that, you know, people, obviously you've got the natural process and then once people say we're going to use technology, what is it either about your competitors, the industry overall that you're concerned about either processes that you're concerned about and or transparency?
00:31:06.960What, what are you pushing for that certain processes shouldn't be done in cloud seeding or there should be more transparency about how everybody does this?
00:31:15.960So, yeah, I think there absolutely should be more transparency and one way in which we could do that is expand upon the weather modification reporting act of 1972.
00:31:25.960So right now, uh, if you want to conduct a cloud seeding operation, the only federal oversight for it is a notification to NOAA that you're going to conduct weather modification and then also a report on what your operations consisted of.
00:31:39.960But I think there needs to be much more rigorous analysis of the effect of cloud seeding from NOAA or some institution like the Bureau of Reclamation, which is, which is responsible for water in the West.
00:31:50.960Because there should be accountability and a manner by which people can scrutinize what the effects have been.
00:31:57.960Right now, there's no process like that in the federal government to enable scrutiny and oversight.
00:32:04.960And if there was, I think people would rightfully feel more trusting of it.
00:32:08.960Let me go back just the term weather modification.
00:32:12.960You have this issue of transhumanism and you have a different technologies, artificial general intelligence, regenerative robotics, quantum computing, CRISPR.
00:32:21.960All these things are saying, people are saying, we're heading towards a point called the singularity.
00:32:25.960And that's kind of man taking an active role in what heretofore has been a natural process.
00:32:30.960And clearly there's big advantages of huge, great things of AI, but there's also downside.
00:32:35.960The same with chipping people. There's moral questions, ethical questions as someone that's dedicated his life, not just to the industry, but then to go out to investors and say, hey, this is a smart thing to do.
00:32:46.960We need to do this. Do you have qualms or is it issues when you talk about weather modification?
00:32:51.960Like, for instance, why should the weather be, why should you have modifications?
00:32:57.960Why? It's just the weather. Just let it, just let it happen.
00:33:01.960Totally hear where you're coming from.
00:33:02.960Do you remember that Ross Dufat, Peter Thiel interview that blew up recently where Ross asked him, like, do you believe that the human race, the right, the human race should persist?
00:33:12.960And Peter paused and waited to respond to that.
00:33:15.960Yeah, I do. But, you know, Peter's got a deep moral compass on certain things, other things like particularly on technocracy, we don't totally agree.
00:33:26.960Is that your pause? Is this your pregnant pause?
00:33:31.960No, not at all. I want to say unequivocally, I'm interested in the persistence of humanity.
00:33:36.960And not only that, you know, I am a Christian.
00:33:40.960I was lucky enough to be saved when I was 20 years old while I was living in Fort Worth.
00:33:45.960I didn't grow up Christian. I grew up an atheist.
00:33:47.960But the guiding principle at Rainmaker is stewardship, right?
00:33:52.960In Genesis 126 through 28 and then also throughout the Psalms, one of the very first commandments that God ever gave us in the Garden of Eden before the fall was to take dominion and steward the earth, the seas, the skies and everything therein.
00:34:05.960And so I think that there is a aspect of human nature which is both like inclined to and responsible to responsible for making nature or rather working with nature to steward it for our interest and creations itself to honor God.
00:34:25.960And so I think not only is it something good to do is cloud seeding something good to do because it can help us produce water for farms in need.
00:34:33.960But as long as there are droughts, as long as there is severe weather, as long as there is hail, it does damage.
00:34:38.960And we have the technology to manage it, to mitigate the damage done by it.
00:34:43.960If we're not deploying it, then we're actually abdicating our responsibility to God to steward the creation that he gave us.
00:34:49.960And that's the perspective that I have as a Christian when I think about weather modification and whether we should be doing it.
00:34:58.960So in the New Testament in Mark, I think it's 13, when the disciples and apostles come back, Christ has sent them out to teach and to heal.
00:35:06.960And they come back and they say, hey, we've healed these people.
00:35:18.960He said, there's only one unforgivable sin, and that is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
00:35:23.960There's only one mortal sin, and that is to basically, you know, blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
00:35:29.960People would say the Holy Spirit is what innervates, is what the energy of the Spirit that came through Christ, you know, from the time he was baptized by John the Baptist.
00:35:39.960And that that's the guiding principle.
00:35:41.960We talked about this in transhumanism.
00:35:42.960Would that make you rethink it if you felt you were going against the tenets of the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit works through the world, particularly the natural world?
00:35:53.960If someone were to present to me theological arguments as to why this was not in God's interest or why this was wrong and blaspheming God in some manner, I would stop immediately.
00:36:12.960Like, I'm very concerned with heaven and hell and living a life that is to the extent possible without sin.
00:36:18.960And so, you know, I'm always open to discourse about it.
00:36:21.960I haven't yet been convinced that it's against God's interest to try to make creation better.
00:36:26.960But I also think the Tower of Babel is a story we should consider very seriously and cautiously, right?
00:36:33.960Whenever man is inclined to make himself God or make himself too much like God without the humility that we're supposed to have, there can be bad outcomes.
00:36:43.960And so I try to manage this company and this technology very prayerfully.
00:36:47.960And that's why I proactively, as a business owner, am advocating for more regulation on the technology in the industry so that we can ensure it's done safely and so that we can ensure it's done in the interest of both our country, our farmers in our country, God and all of his creation.
00:37:05.960Are you certain there weren't other people cloud seeding, particularly some of maybe these methods that you question or with lack of transparency?
00:37:12.960Do you think anybody is because here's what happened.
00:37:14.960You had this horrific thing on Friday, July 4th in the hill country of Texas.
00:37:21.960Then on on Sunday down in Southern Pines, North Carolina, Pinehurst, all the way up to Chapel Hill, you really had a biblical.
00:37:33.960In fact, people in the Southern Pines, Pinehurst area and central North Carolina was saying people have been there for 30 years, had never seen rain like this.
00:37:42.960It just seems odd that within 48 hours.
00:37:45.960Right. And we don't believe in coincidence here.
00:37:47.960You had these two kind of biblical biblical downpourings.
00:37:52.960Do you think in any way could be associated with people doing geoengineering?
00:37:57.960I have as yet not seen any evidence to suggest that any flooding in North Carolina or again, Texas had to do with cloud seeding or geoengineering.
00:38:08.960Now, that said, I think that if we as a country, be it through NOAA, the National Weather Service, private institutions or otherwise, have a better forecasting capacity, if we invest in researching the atmosphere more so that we can forecast farther into the future, warn people sooner, then we'll be able to alert people at the very least of these impending calamities and then potentially mitigate them in the future.
00:38:34.960Now, that being said, as well, there should be more federal oversight.
00:38:39.960Absolutely. Because if there is something going on that is nefarious or that's just grossly negligent, it should stop and be held to account.
00:38:47.960And, you know, again, a lot of people, maybe my lawyers would scrutinize me for saying that people contributing to calamities like this should be held to account.
00:38:56.960But I earnestly believe that and I'm willing to say it because I know that Rainmaker and to my knowledge, no other cloud seeding companies are responsible for those floods.
00:39:04.960Last question. Since you mentioned the lawyers, you saw the raw emotion.
00:39:10.960You were here. We had you up. You saw the raw emotion with Governor Abbott and it happened earlier today in the in the other press conference.
00:39:17.960And people, you know, because, you know, because, look, it's been since Friday morning.
00:39:22.960People are tired. This is this is a horrific not just event, but the recovery process is horrific.
00:39:28.960I mean, do you worry that as this thing goes, investigations and lawsuits are that that everything that you wanted to do and felt you were doing altruistically for the betterment of mankind, you may end up in, you know, depositions and hearings, commissions, all of it as they try to get to.
00:39:46.960And as you know, they're bad actors. In fact, they said the other day in one of the press conferences, they're not giving the names of the victims, particularly the little girls at Mystic, because and this is one of the director operations said people were actually calling the parents and saying, I have your child here, but you got to send me.
00:40:04.960You got to wire me money or people were saying I've had a vision or I'm a mystic and I can tell you exactly where they're they're calling out for you.
00:40:11.960Horrific things like this that no parent should have visited on them.
00:40:15.960So my point is, there's demonic people out there.
00:40:18.960They're bad actors out there. Are you concerned that everything you try to do altruistically for the betterment of mankind, in your view, may turn out to be something that just keeps you tied up for years?
00:40:31.960Walking through the events of July 2nd, 3rd, 4th of 2025.
00:40:37.960Yeah, I can't imagine what the people of Texas are feeling, particularly the parents and those that lost family members or friends in the floods.
00:40:46.960And so I'm sympathetic. Obviously, again, still can't understand, but I'm sympathetic to how emotions are running high right now, how people are looking for a scapegoat or someone to blame.
00:40:56.960Of that I'm understanding. And again, even though we didn't have anything to do with it, I understand where people might be coming from in this moment.
00:41:03.960And I'm trying to transparently and honestly and quickly answer as many questions from the public as I can about this.
00:41:09.960Now, that said, it would be a tragedy as well if farmers and people were deprived of water that they could have otherwise from cloud seeding because people want to capitalize politically on this tragedy to rally their base around some sort of legislation or investigation that would ban cloud seeding entirely.
00:41:32.960And so even though I think that that would be a bad outcome, I trust in the United States, in people's ability to scrutinize evidence.
00:41:42.960I trust in probably not our government writ large, but in the best possible outcome over the course of time.
00:41:51.960And so there is a lot of controversy about this right now, though I think some people are trying to politically capitalize on the tragedy with unfounded claims and accusations.
00:42:00.960I think that the truth will always come to light and that cloud seeding will be technology that we can use cautiously and for the benefit of all mankind.
00:42:09.960And last thing, Tuesday, Tuesday, 8 of July, in the year of our Lord, 2025, at 540 in the evening, you still believe in your heart and in your soul that weather modification and geoengineering are something that we should pursue as a country?
00:42:26.960Weather modification and cloud seeding. Yes, in my heart and my soul, I do.
00:42:31.960Geoengineering, dimming the sun, things with global climatic implications, I think deserve a lot more caution and scrutiny because we don't have 80 years of data on what their effects would be.
00:42:45.960But cloud seeding itself, yes, in my heart and in my soul, absolutely.
00:42:50.960Augustus de Ricci, thank you so much for coming on. Where do people follow you?
00:42:54.960I know you want to get your message out. The best way to do that, obviously, is social media and coming on shows like this.
00:42:59.960Where do people follow you, sir? And where do they go? I want to make sure they go to your company site and check it out.
00:43:04.960So where do they go? Sure. They can go to Rainmaker.com for more information on our company.
00:43:09.960And then also on X, Adorico, that's at A-D-O-R-I-C-K-O.
00:43:18.960Augustus de Ricci, thank you very much for joining us in the War Room on a very intense afternoon.
00:43:51.960Philip, you brought me a long memo this afternoon. Why don't you, we got some time.
00:43:55.960Why don't you break it down as we leave here, you know, you leave this conference,
00:44:00.960and Bolsonaro, President Trump threw down hard on Bolsonaro yesterday about the political situation, the lawfare situation.
00:44:06.960Lula's at the center of this, although it's the judge, Mauricio, that's doing it.
00:44:12.960But tell me about his handling of the BRICS conference and your thoughts as you get ready to leave of where we are on all this.
00:44:23.960Yeah. I mean, last time, I think it was Monday, Monday I was on last, and we were talking about how the entire conference at that point was covert, right?
00:44:33.960The dollarization without mentioning the dollar explicitly.
00:44:36.960It was trade security without talking about tariffs.
00:44:39.960And then, I think it was an hour after our last interview, everything changed, right?
00:44:43.960Obviously, President Trump came out overnight and posted a warning to BRICS nations, 10% tariffs on any nation if they continue to bypass the dollar.
00:44:52.960And Lula's response was swift, and it was unusually direct, I would say.
00:45:15.960Reducing dependence on the dollar will happen step by step until it's consolidated.
00:45:21.960So what was perhaps covert before is now in the open.
00:45:27.960The BRICS have made their intentions clear, and they sort of brought it to the forefront.
00:45:31.960And we've been seeing it, China and Russia striking deals in yuan and rubles, Brazil and Venezuela bypassing the dollar for regional commerce.
00:45:39.960So it's happening, and it's at the forefront.
00:45:42.960You know, the message I sent you, I spent a lot of time thinking last night, what do we do about this?
00:46:03.960What we've been seeing out here is that trust is eroding, not just because of our rivals, but because of what we've done domestically as well, right?
00:46:11.960So in terms of a plan, I don't know how much time I have here, Steve, so I'll sort of cut it.
00:48:38.960A former CIA, Pentagon, and White House advisor with an unmatched grasp of geopolitics and capital markets.
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00:52:02.960It's a very integrated, holistic approach.
00:52:05.960So the tariffs are used as an incentive to bring capital and monies back to the U.S.
00:52:11.960And as you know from all the deals that have been announced all over the world, there's trillions of dollars that are coming in.
00:52:16.960So the tariffs are an incentive to get capital to the U.S.
00:52:19.960But when you bring that capital to the U.S., you're also going to benefit from low corporate rates, cheap and abundant energy, and very pro-growth tax policy.
00:52:28.960So everything kind of works together, and that's how you're going to re-industrialize.
00:52:32.960On the tariffs, what we could say are two things very important.
00:52:35.960Number one, Steve, we could raise upwards of $300 billion.
00:52:39.960I mean, the numbers keep going up every month, like around the third week of the month.
00:52:42.960You get the customs payment that tends to be the biggest.
00:52:46.960I mean, we may have $300 billion in calendar year revenues this year, which is massive.
00:52:50.960CBO has scored potentially getting $2.8 trillion over the next 10 years.
00:52:54.960That's not part of their official scoring.
00:52:56.960So the tariffs right now, we know, are raising tremendous amounts of money.
00:52:59.960The other point, which is very important, is that my colleagues over at Council Economic Advisors have done incredible work that shows, actually, if you look at the price of imported goods, those prices have actually declined, which is remarkable.
00:53:12.960Declined in both the personal consumption expenditures deflator, which is what the Fed follows, or the more popular, at least in the Main Street consumer price index, where imported goods prices not only have risen, they've actually declined.
00:53:25.960So we're not seeing any inflation to this point, which tells us that foreign producers are absorbing it in their margins, which makes sense because the U.S. is the world's largest and most important consumer.
00:53:35.960We're about 35% of global consumption, or somewhere around there.
00:53:38.960I think the Secretary also said, I think $100 billion has already been collected, which is just absolutely stunning.
00:53:48.960We got Philip Patrick and our team from Birch Gold have covered for four or five days the Rio reset.
00:53:53.960And initially, they were just doing, they were trying to hide it.
00:53:56.960They didn't want to talk de-dollarization.
00:53:57.960They were doing these bilateral deals and saying it's all for free trade.
00:54:00.960President Trump came out as President Trump's want to do and say, yo, if you don't sign up for any of this BRICS nonsense, I'm going to add another 10% or more to the tariffs already.
00:55:31.960You're one of the guys brought in to help forecast this, put together the dashboard, monitor it, and help execute it with the Secretary of Treasury for the president.
00:55:40.960Do you feel better, you know, four or five days into this than you did last week when it was up in the air, what was actually we were going to close on?
00:56:11.960I thought it was going to get done on July 4th.
00:56:13.960And just as the president wanted, it got done.
00:56:15.960And it makes me more confident because, you know, people talk about all the uncertainty of the tariffs.
00:56:19.960What I think they missed or they miss now is the uncertainty the tax policy had posed.
00:56:24.960Companies not been able to plan for the outlook because they didn't know if they're going to get a huge tax hike next year, the biggest ever.
00:56:29.960Now that we've got that certainty, yes, I'm much more confident now that it's done, that there are going to be a second-half growth boom.
00:56:35.960And I'm expecting to see that in the data.