# Trump Mail-In Request Rejected; Obama Weighs In on AI

An episode of [Bloomberg Daybreak: US Edition](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663860720), 15 Sep 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/d15648c4-cee0-4e99-a5ca-af80014d921d/c87d9248-60f5-48ce-b70a-b4c6009d28b1/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=65ce2954-d8a8-4c66-9f42-af80014d923e

Today's top stories, with context, in just 15 minutes. On today's podcast: 1) The Supreme Court refused to clear the Postal Service to enforce new restrictions on mail-in ballots for the congressional midterm elections, rebuffing the Trump administration’s request to intervene. The court denied the Justice Department’s request to lift a Boston federal judge’s order that barred the Postal Service from making its new mail-in ballot rules mandatory through the November contests. The Supreme Court's decision means that the Postal Service cannot enforce the new rules for the midterms, but the legal fight over whether the agency can ultimately adopt the rules for future election cycles may still continue. 2) The 10-year US Treasury yield rose to the highest in almost two decades, driven by surging energy prices, mounting debt and inflation. The yield on the global bond benchmark rose to 5.02% on Tuesday, surpassing a peak from 2023 to hit the highest since 2007. The pressure in the bond market raises the stakes ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision, where investors expect officials to raise short-term borrowing costs for the first time since July 2023. 3) President Trump's opposition to guardrails on artificial intelligence puts him at odds with lawmakers from both parties who have AI safety fears. Trump belittled a push led by Anthropic PBC and OpenAI to slow work on cutting-edge systems, dismissing existential fears about AI as "a hoax." Lawmakers are working on legislation aimed at addressing AI safety concerns, including a bipartisan group of senators who are working on legislation requiring top AI developers to prevent catastrophic risks.Eric Mollo See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios.
[0:04] Speaker 2: Podcasts.
[0:05] Speaker 3: Radio.
[0:06] Speaker 2: News.
[0:10] Speaker 4: Good morning.
[0:10] Speaker 5: I'm Nathan Hager.
[0:11] Speaker 2: And I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today.
[0:15] Speaker 5: Karen, we'll have the latest on the artificial intelligence controversy
[0:18] Speaker 5: around the world, as well as new developments in the
[0:21] Speaker 5: war in the Middle East. But we begin this morning
[0:23] Speaker 5: with a legal setback for President Donald Trump. The Supreme
[0:27] Speaker 5: Court has rejected the president's bid to restrict mail ballots
[0:30] Speaker 5: ahead of the midterm elections. The decision allows states to
[0:33] Speaker 5: continue sending ballots under existing processes used by nearly one-third
[0:37] Speaker 5: of voters. We get more from Bloomberg Supreme Court reporter
[0:40] Speaker 5: Greg Storr.
[0:41] Speaker 6: If you recall about three weeks ago, the Supreme Court
[0:44] Speaker 6: issued a preliminary order that basically said an earlier lawsuit
[0:48] Speaker 6: challenging these rules had been filed too soon. And that
[0:52] Speaker 6: set us off on this three weeks of uncertainty about
[0:55] Speaker 6: whether states were gonna have to make major changes to
[0:58] Speaker 6: their mail ballot procedures in order to have those votes counted.
[1:02] Speaker 6: And the Supreme Court today said, no, they don't have to.
[1:04] Speaker 4: Make those changes.
[1:06] Speaker 5: Bloomberg Supreme Court reporter Greg Storr says the justices' decision
[1:09] Speaker 5: comes after North Carolina and Alabama have already begun mailing
[1:13] Speaker 5: thousands of ballots to voters, and many more states are
[1:16] Speaker 5: prepared to do the same in the coming days.
[1:19] Speaker 2: Now to the latest from the Middle East, Nathan. Saudi
[1:22] Speaker 2: Arabia is looking to boost oil supply through the Strait
[1:24] Speaker 2: of Hormuz after recent attacks forced it to shut down
[1:27] Speaker 2: its key east-west pipeline. We get more from Bloomberg Middle
[1:31] Speaker 2: East editor Patrick Sykes.
[1:33] Speaker 7: This is Saudi Arabia's main plan B as and when
[1:38] Speaker 7: the Strait of Hormuz gets shut. And since the war
[1:40] Speaker 7: started and that vital waterway has been disrupted, it's been
[1:45] Speaker 7: the main sort of outlet, along with a similar pipeline
[1:50] Speaker 7: running to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.
[1:54] Speaker 2: Bloomberg's Patrick Sykes reports the pipeline will be out of
[1:56] Speaker 2: service for several weeks, according to the Associated Press, though
[2:00] Speaker 2: Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Bloomberg he expects it to
[2:03] Speaker 2: be up and running very soon. Meantime, the Pentagon's internal
[2:06] Speaker 2: watchdog is acknowledging the war has strained the military's weapons supplies.
[2:10] Speaker 2: An inspector general's report says the U.S. fired so many
[2:13] Speaker 2: munitions in the first month that it's led to strategic
[2:16] Speaker 2: inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial resupply bottlenecks.
[2:20] Speaker 5: Now, Karen, to the issue that has caught the markets
[2:22] Speaker 5: and Washington's attention, reigning in artificial intelligence. President Trump spent
[2:27] Speaker 5: much of yesterday blasting anthropic and open AI for calling
[2:31] Speaker 5: for a slowdown to their cutting-edge systems. The president even
[2:34] Speaker 5: made a call about it to NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wong
[2:37] Speaker 5: while he was on stage at a tech conference in
[2:39] Speaker 5: Los Angeles.
[2:40] Speaker 8: They're just playing right into the hands of a lot
[2:42] Speaker 8: of people that don't want to.
[2:44] Speaker 9: See it happen. And that could be political people.
[2:47] Speaker 2: It could also be China.
[2:49] Speaker 5: And we're not going to let that happen.
[2:51] Speaker 7: It's a hoax.
[2:52] Speaker 5: Bloomberg's Anthony Stevens reports the president's hands-off approach could put
[2:55] Speaker 5: him at odds with voters.
[2:58] Speaker 3: You have the Trump administration by and large sticking to
[3:00] Speaker 3: their guns, saying that this is a problem that can
[3:03] Speaker 3: be solved, in the words of Kevin Hassett. But you
[3:06] Speaker 3: do have the US Speaker asking for a consultative approach
[3:10] Speaker 3: because there is this worry that this concern is reflected
[3:14] Speaker 3: in the wider population. Bear in mind, we had those
[3:16] Speaker 3: surveys showing that Americans are more worried about AI, for example,
[3:20] Speaker 3: than their Chinese counterparts.
[3:22] Speaker 5: Bloomberg's Anthony Stevens reports lawmakers are floating a range of
[3:25] Speaker 5: proposals to address AI safety concerns, but Congress is unlikely
[3:29] Speaker 5: to act soon. The House is leaving Washington on Thursday
[3:32] Speaker 5: and won't return until after the midterm elections.
[3:35] Speaker 2: Well, Nathan, President Trump's hands-off approach to AI is also
[3:39] Speaker 2: getting pushback from former President Barack Obama. The former president
[3:43] Speaker 2: released a statement saying the technology could unleash potential catastrophe
[3:46] Speaker 2: if not properly managed, and AI policy should be at
[3:49] Speaker 2: the center of our public debate. Obama's statement did not
[3:53] Speaker 2: mention President Trump by name, but he did say that
[3:55] Speaker 2: voluntary standards made by a handful of companies won't be enough.
[4:00] Speaker 5: Certain markets now, Karen, yields on 10-year Treasury bonds are
[4:04] Speaker 5: trading near 20-year highs ahead of tomorrow's rate decision from
[4:08] Speaker 5: the Federal Reserve. Right now, the yield on the benchmark
[4:10] Speaker 5: is at 5.02%. The Fed is widely expected to raise
[4:15] Speaker 5: short-term borrowing costs for the first time since July 2023.
[4:19] Speaker 5: Lori Calvicina is head of U.S. equity strategy at RBC
[4:23] Speaker 5: Capital Markets.
[4:24] Speaker 10: A couple of hikes over the next 12 months shouldn't
[4:27] Speaker 10: derail the market, but if you get too much more
[4:29] Speaker 10: than that, and specifically if the 10-year really breaks out
[4:32] Speaker 10: sustainably above 5%, those are some risks to consider that
[4:36] Speaker 10: would be more onerous longer term.
[4:38] Speaker 5: RBC Capital Markets' Lori Calvacina has a 12-month price target
[4:41] Speaker 5: of $ 81. 50 for the S & P 500. That's about 6%
[4:42] Speaker 5: above current levels.
[4:47] Speaker 2: Shares of Bank of America led bank stocks lower yesterday. Nathan,
[4:51] Speaker 2: it fell more than 5%. The drop came after CEO
[4:54] Speaker 2: Brian Moynihan said trading revenue will be relatively flat compared
[4:57] Speaker 2: with last year's third quarter. And Moynihan spoke to Bloomberg.
[5:02] Speaker 8: Last year's third quarter was a recovery quarter from Liberation Day.
[5:05] Speaker 9: Quarter, and the tariffs coming in.
[5:07] Speaker 8: I know it's hard to remember that far away, but
[5:09] Speaker 8: all of us are running around saying, oh my gosh,
[5:10] Speaker 8: the economy's going to stop cold. Third quarter, oh, it
[5:14] Speaker 8: got understandable, easier, everything kicked back in. So now you're
[5:18] Speaker 8: comparing that quarter with this year's third quarter. This year,
[5:21] Speaker 8: then the AI trade came in, and you guys report
[5:25] Speaker 8: about Korea and the leverage and all that stuff. And
[5:27] Speaker 8: a lot of it's come out of the system because
[5:28] Speaker 8: people brought the risk down.
[5:30] Speaker 2: Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan speaking to Bloomberg's Danny Berger.
[5:34] Speaker 2: And Moynihan went on to say that he feels very
[5:36] Speaker 2: good about the company's guidance for net interest income.
[5:39] Speaker 5: Let's get to the latest now, Karen, on the trade
[5:41] Speaker 5: dispute between the U.S.
[5:42] Speaker 1: And Canada.
[5:43] Speaker 5: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says the collapse in trade
[5:46] Speaker 5: talks helped to clarify Ottawa's negotiating red lines. Speaking to Bloomberg,
[5:51] Speaker 5: Carney said he's ready to get back to the table
[5:53] Speaker 5: for the right deal.
[5:54] Speaker 11: There's not a pride thing from our perspective. We're practical people.
[6:00] Speaker 11: that know what our bottom lines are, what our red
[6:02] Speaker 11: lines are for sovereignty, for culture, not being restricted on
[6:06] Speaker 11: our ability to sign other trade deals.
[6:08] Speaker 5: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke to Bloomberg ahead of
[6:10] Speaker 5: the country's first National Investment Summit in Toronto.
[6:14] Speaker 2: Well, Nathan, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant is expected to appear
[6:17] Speaker 2: before the House Financial Services Committee for annual testimony on
[6:21] Speaker 2: the international financial system. Bloomberg's Amy Morris reports from Washington.
[6:26] Speaker 1: Secretary Besant has been actively defending his expanded debt buyback
[6:30] Speaker 1: program after it failed to stop last week's bond market sell-off. That,
[6:35] Speaker 1: plus the 10-year Treasury yield hovering near 5 percent and
[6:38] Speaker 1: his recent remarks daring traders to bet against the yen.
[6:42] Speaker 1: could make for a contentious hearing. This will be Besant's
[6:45] Speaker 1: first major return before that committee since his appearance in
[6:48] Speaker 1: February when he clashed with House Democrats over the administration's
[6:51] Speaker 1: economic policies and inflation. In Washington, Amy Morris, Bloomberg Radio.
[6:56] Speaker 9: Amy, thanks.
[6:57] Speaker 5: Now to a Bloomberg tradition. Bloomberg Businessweek is out with
[7:00] Speaker 5: its annual list of the best business schools for the
[7:02] Speaker 5: 2026-27 school year. And for the eighth year in a row,
[7:06] Speaker 5: Stanford's Graduate School of Business comes out on top among
[7:10] Speaker 5: the 65 MBA programs in our survey. Stanford ranks number
[7:14] Speaker 5: one in entrepreneurship, one of the four indexes in the
[7:17] Speaker 5: Business Week survey, along with compensation, networking, and learning. Rounding
[7:21] Speaker 5: out the top five this year, the Wharton School at Penn,
[7:24] Speaker 5: Harvard Business School, Northwestern's Kellogg, and the Darden School at
[7:28] Speaker 5: the University of Virginia. Find the full list at Bloomberg.com
[7:31] Speaker 5: or on the Bloomberg Terminal.
[7:35] Speaker 2: Time now for a look at some of the other
[7:37] Speaker 2: stories making news in New York and around the world.
[7:40] Speaker 2: For that, we're joined by Bloomberg's Michael Barr. Michael, good morning.
[7:43] Speaker 4: Good morning, Karen. New York prosecutors say a dozen websites
[7:47] Speaker 4: that used artificial intelligence to create and sell deepfake porn,
[7:52] Speaker 4: most featuring images of celebrities, have been seized. The hyper-realistic
[7:56] Speaker 4: images and videos depicted 1,200 real people engaging in AI-generated
[8:02] Speaker 4: sexual conduct. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg called it horrific
[8:06] Speaker 4: violations of privacy. The victims here were primarily women.
[8:11] Speaker 11: And primarily celebrities or other public-facing figures.
[8:16] Speaker 4: Each of these websites was accessible right here in Manhattan.
[8:20] Speaker 4: So far, no arrests. Mayor Zoran Mamdani said New York
[8:24] Speaker 4: City and a coalition of cities filed a lawsuit challenging
[8:27] Speaker 4: a new Trump administration rule that would let the federal
[8:30] Speaker 4: government more easily deny green cards and visas to immigrants
[8:35] Speaker 4: based on their use of public benefits.
[8:38] Speaker 12: Immigrants are New Yorkers. And yet we know that all
[8:41] Speaker 12: too often, they are not treated as such. The federal
[8:45] Speaker 12: government has waged a campaign of violence and terror. Unaccompanied
[8:49] Speaker 12: children have been forced to navigate our judicial system alone.
[8:53] Speaker 12: ICE has broken into our neighbors' homes, work sites, and schools.
[8:57] Speaker 12: And it has targeted those who have come to our
[8:59] Speaker 12: country in search of refuge and in search of opportunity.
[9:03] Speaker 4: The lawsuit argues that the new rule goes against longstanding
[9:06] Speaker 4: legal precedents that had limited the denial of a green
[9:10] Speaker 4: card and visas to immigrants who are primarily dependent on
[9:13] Speaker 4: government assistance to live. Apple's new comedy horror series, Widow's Bay,
[9:19] Speaker 4: was the big winner at the Emmy Awards, aired on NBC,
[9:22] Speaker 4: taking home a total of 14 trophies, including Best Comedy.
[9:26] Speaker 4: Showrunner Kitty Dippold accepted the award.
[9:29] Speaker 10: This was such a great collaboration of the best, wonderful
[9:32] Speaker 10: weirdos and artists.
[9:34] Speaker 2: These writers, these producers, these amazing actors, these directors.
[9:37] Speaker 9: Hero, thank you again.
[9:39] Speaker 2: God, the editors, I'm going to name everyone.
[9:43] Speaker 4: The Pit took home the award for Outstanding Drama Series.
[9:46] Speaker 4: Global News, 24 hours a day and whenever you want
[9:49] Speaker 4: it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Michael Barr and this
[9:51] Speaker 4: is Bloomberg, Karen.
[9:53] Speaker 2: Thanks, Michael. Time now for our Bloomberg Sports Update. And
[9:56] Speaker 2: for that, we bring in John Stashower.
[9:58] Speaker 1: Thanks, Karen.
[9:59] Speaker 13: The first Monday Night Football. game of the season saw
[10:01] Speaker 13: two AFC West teams who have quarterbacks coming back from injuries.
[10:04] Speaker 13: Bo Nix broke his ankle last January. Pat Mahomes tore
[10:08] Speaker 13: his ACL last December. Mahomes looked good, and the Chiefs
[10:10] Speaker 13: pulled away. They beat the Broncos 31-10. Minnesota starting quarterback
[10:15] Speaker 13: Kyler Murray's in concussion protocol. Carson Wentz replaced him on
[10:18] Speaker 13: Sunday through three touchdown passes, and the Vikings come from
[10:21] Speaker 13: behind win. The Cleveland Browns say they're sticking with their quarterback,
[10:24] Speaker 13: Deshaun Watson. He struggled in a loss last Sunday. That's
[10:27] Speaker 13: your Bloomberg Sports Update.
[10:29] Speaker 2: Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Daybreak coming up after this.
[10:37] Speaker 9: Coast to coast on Bloomberg Radio. Nationwide on Sirius XM.
[10:42] Speaker 11: And around the world on Bloomberg.com and the Bloomberg Business App.
[10:46] Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Daybreak.
[10:48] Speaker 5: Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager. With seven weeks to go
[10:50] Speaker 5: until the midterm election, President Trump's bid to use the
[10:53] Speaker 5: Postal Service to limit voting by mail has taken another
[10:56] Speaker 5: setback at the Supreme Court. The justices have refused to
[11:00] Speaker 5: lift a Boston federal judge's order blocking new mail-in rules.
[11:04] Speaker 5: before the November vote. And for more, we're joined by
[11:07] Speaker 5: Bloomberg's Rosalind Matheson. Ros, can you walk us through exactly
[11:11] Speaker 5: what the Supreme Court ruled here and what it will
[11:13] Speaker 5: mean for this midterm vote now, just literally around the corner?
[11:17] Speaker 4: Good morning.
[11:19] Speaker 10: Good morning.
[11:20] Speaker 9: Well, as you're saying, this really is down to the wire.
[11:23] Speaker 9: North Carolina and Alabama are already mailing out ballots to voters,
[11:28] Speaker 9: a bunch more states getting ready to do so in
[11:31] Speaker 9: the coming days. So really a last minute effort to
[11:34] Speaker 9: try and get states to have to implement these rules
[11:37] Speaker 9: through the postal service around mail-in ballots and the Supreme
[11:41] Speaker 9: Court ruling against that. Essentially, in the ruling from the court,
[11:46] Speaker 9: you saw Justice Brett Kavanaugh, for example, saying that he
[11:49] Speaker 9: does think there's a fair prospect that the postal service
[11:52] Speaker 9: will prove it has the legal authority to adopt these rules.
[11:57] Speaker 9: But he also felt it would be unlawfully capricious, he said,
[12:01] Speaker 9: for them to rush to implement them into the midterms,
[12:04] Speaker 9: because at this point, the state and local election officials
[12:08] Speaker 9: have not got time to implement these rules. And they
[12:11] Speaker 9: are quite major changes for the Postal Service, the Postal
[12:15] Speaker 9: Service Union itself, saying that it felt that this would
[12:18] Speaker 9: bring the Postal Service in the US to a grinding
[12:20] Speaker 9: halt if it had to be implemented So it's certainly
[12:24] Speaker 9: the court seemingly taking the perspective not on the rules
[12:27] Speaker 9: themselves and their merit, but simply that the Justice Department
[12:31] Speaker 9: didn't make the case for urgency in getting them done
[12:35] Speaker 9: in time for the midterms. So now we are seeing
[12:37] Speaker 9: states continue to roll out the mail-out of those ballots
[12:43] Speaker 9: in the sense perhaps that this might have been the
[12:45] Speaker 9: last attempt from the Trump administration to try and enforce
[12:49] Speaker 9: those rules.
[12:50] Speaker 5: The last attempt at this election. Does this open the
[12:53] Speaker 5: door to this issue potentially being revisited for future elections?
[12:59] Speaker 9: Well, certainly it is because Donald Trump, the US president,
[13:02] Speaker 9: has repeatedly insisted, and this is without evidence, that US
[13:07] Speaker 9: elections are rigged both against him and against the Republican Party.
[13:11] Speaker 9: He's railed against some of the structures and he's really
[13:14] Speaker 9: pushed for these revised rules when it comes to mail-in voting.
[13:18] Speaker 9: He's also pressed lawmakers in some states to redraw congressional
[13:22] Speaker 9: boundaries to benefit the GOP. He's been trying unsuccessfully for
[13:27] Speaker 9: quite a while now to get Congress to pass a
[13:29] Speaker 9: a new voter ID law. Critics say that law will
[13:32] Speaker 9: prevent eligible voters from casting ballots. And I should note
[13:36] Speaker 9: that most studies show that there's very little sign of
[13:39] Speaker 9: illegal voting that occurs in US elections. But that's not
[13:44] Speaker 9: stopping Donald Trump. He certainly has strong views on it,
[13:47] Speaker 9: which he's enunciated many a time. And he's ready to
[13:51] Speaker 9: try and get this done The further elections, it just
[13:54] Speaker 9: seems in this case that trying to rush it through
[13:56] Speaker 9: and try and get it implemented at least for the
[13:59] Speaker 9: midterms has proven a bridge too far and the court
[14:02] Speaker 9: agrees on that.
[14:05] Speaker 2: This is Bloomberg Daybreak, your morning podcast on the stories
[14:08] Speaker 2: making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond.
[14:12] Speaker 5: Look for us on your podcast feed by 6 a.m.
[14:14] Speaker 5: Eastern each morning on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen.
[14:18] Speaker 2: You can also listen live each morning starting at 5 a.m.
[14:21] Speaker 2: Wall Street time on Bloomberg 1130 in New York, Bloomberg
[14:25] Speaker 2: 99.1 in Washington, Bloomberg 92.9 in Boston, and nationwide on
[14:30] Speaker 2: Sirius XM Channel 121.
[14:32] Speaker 5: Plus, listen coast to coast on the Bloomberg Business app
[14:35] Speaker 5: now with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto interfaces.
[14:38] Speaker 2: And don't forget to subscribe to Bloomberg News Now. It's
[14:41] Speaker 2: the latest news whenever you want it, in five minutes
[14:44] Speaker 2: or less. Search Bloomberg News Now on your favorite podcast
[14:47] Speaker 2: platform to stay informed all day long. I'm Karen Moscow.
[14:51] Speaker 5: And I'm Nathan Hager. Join us again tomorrow morning for
[14:54] Speaker 5: all the news you need to start your day right
[14:56] Speaker 5: here on Bloomberg Daybreak.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.