Things David Rubenstein Has Said on Podcasts

“If you flew in from Mars and you observed this situation, you would say, well, one party controls the House by two votes. They should surely compromise with a party that only has two votes less because that would be a sensible thing to do. But we don't do that. Both parties, if they control the House or the Senate by one or two votes, act as if they control it by 20 votes or 30 votes or 40 votes.” — David Rubenstein, Freakonomics Radio

Stephen Dubner asked whether the political center in the U.S. can hold. Rubenstein says he isn't sure and calls the system somewhat dysfunctional. Earlier in the conversation he blamed money in politics for making bipartisanship "archaic".

Freakonomics Radio · 2026-10-16 Permalink → Listen →

Freakonomics Radio Around 29:03 into the episode

David Rubenstein

…is corrosive. And if it's limited, I think it would be the best thing you could possibly do. Now, under our Constitution, you'd have to change it because the Supreme Court has ruled on several occasions that money affects speech. So you've got to change the Constitution, and that's difficult to do.

Stephen J. Dubner

I'm sure you know the line from Yeats, the center cannot hold. Things fall apart. Do you think the center can and will hold in the U.S.?

David Rubenstein

I'm not sure. Time will tell. Right now, it's clear that we have a somewhat dysfunctional system. Think about this. If you control the House of Representatives by two votes, if you flew in from Mars and you observed this situation, you would say, well, one party controls the House by two votes. They should surely compromise with a party that only has two votes less because that would be a sensible thing to do. But we don't do that. Both parties, if they control the House or the Senate by one or two votes, act as if they control it by 20 votes or 30 votes or 40 votes. So

Stephen J. Dubner

let's pretend that I just flew in from Mars and I don't know anything about your U.S. president. Tell me a little bit about him.

David Rubenstein

Well, Donald Trump was a real estate developer in New York who was not thought to be a likely candidate to be president of the United States. But he ran. He had 16 other people he ran against. And then to the surprise of, I think, himself and his family and everybody else running, he beat the other…

Stephen J. Dubner

How do you rate or assess his performance, his behaviors, his adherence to governing norms?

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

“Data centers have become something where people wanted them for a while in their backyard. They thought they produced jobs. Now people don't want them in their backyards. And in fact, recently there was a survey that said more people are willing to have a nuclear power plant in their backyard than a data center.” — David Rubenstein, Earn Your Leisure

Asked how he sees energy and the political fight over powering AI, Rubenstein says many politicians now oppose data centers outright. He concludes they will have to be built somewhere "nobody lives". He doesn't name the survey.

Earn Your Leisure · 2026-10-15 Permalink → Listen →

Earn Your Leisure Around 23:51 into the episode

David Rubenstein

…very expensive. And and I think don't help the global economy. Oil prices are at record heights because of what's going on in Russia, Ukraine, and what's going on in the Middle East. So I don't know what will ultimately happen, but I suspect the markets are not happy with what they see right now.

Speaker 3

…on a domestic issue that can't span the global, which is energy, specifically when we talk about data centers and how we're going to power them and the political effects that could have on the thoughts around it. How are you viewing data centers in terms of the overall build of the future of AI?

David Rubenstein

Well, as a general rule of thumb, people would say, I need more technology, more technology is good. As a general rule of thumb, some people are not in favor of technological improvements. But data centers have become something where people wanted them for a while in their backyard. They thought they produced jobs. Now people don't want them in their backyards. And in fact, recently there was a survey that said more people are willing to have a nuclear power plant in their backyard than than a data center. And as a result, many politicians are now saying, I don't want any data centers. And then the data centers have to be somewhere if you're going to have all these AI computing power. So at some point, we'll have to find some place where nobody lives and we can build a data center because right now people don't want them because they think it's going to be destructive to the environment. It's going to cost a lot of money. And in the end, they're nervous about it.

Speaker 2

Okay. Let's talk about sports. So you're the owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

David Rubenstein

I'm the control owner.

Speaker 3

Yes.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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