Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist on Trump Economic Disasters

0:00Ben Meiselas:This podcast is supported by Anthropic, the public benefit corporation behind Claude. Everyone's got a hard question about AI. Your job, your kids, where it's going. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way. Because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claude.ai slash Spotify and keep thinking. That's claude.ai slash Spotify. The right window treatments change everything. Your sleep, your privacy, the way every room looks and feels. At Blinds.com, we've spent 30 years making it surprisingly simple to get exactly what your home needs. We've covered over 25 million windows and have 50 ,000 five-star reviews to prove we deliver.

0:45Ben Meiselas:Whether you DIY it or want a pro to handle everything from measure to install, we have you covered. Real design professionals. Free samples. Zero pressure. Right now, get up to 40 % off site-wide. Plus, get a free professional measure at Blinds.com. Rules and restrictions apply. In business, the best days are when priorities stay on track. For midsize and large companies, that means managing multiple exposures, from property and liability to cyber and more. The Hartford helps companies plan for risk with insurance and proactive risk solutions. So focus can stay where it belongs. Prepare for risk.

1:21Ben Meiselas:Protect success. Smart risk management from the Hartford. Contact your agent or visit thehartford.com slash risk mitigation. When it comes to my policy, Farmers gives it to me straight, so there's no surprises. It's your coverage. You should never be confused. You hear that? An insurance provider with a conscience. We're a choir, but yes, we have that too. Straightforward coverage you can literally understand. That's what you get when you have Farmers. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Learn more at Farmers.com. Underwritten by Farmers Truck or Fire Insurance Exchanges or Affiliate. Products not available in every state.

2:00Ben Meiselas:Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. A stunning admission was just made by Donald Trump's top economic advisor, this guy, Kevin Hassett, by the way, who's basically been wrong about everything in his entire life when it comes to the economy, going back to the dot-com bust in 2000.

2:45Ben Meiselas:But he was on CNBC this morning, and after saying over the weekend that we can't trust the job report numbers and that it was the right thing to do to fire the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, he's now kind of changed his tune. And he's like, we didn't expect it. It seems like the job market is slowing. It's an interesting admission from this guy because he usually doesn't concede anything like this. And he's usually one of Trump's chief propagandists here. Watch this. Just the market seemed to believe the revisions in the numbers more than they believe the original numbers. That's why you saw bond yields tumble on Friday.

3:22Ben Meiselas:Are you in agreement with that? Do you think we are starting to see a real slowdown in the jobs market? Yeah, I think the jobs numbers were slower than we expected. I think that like one of the explanations for revisions is they have more complete data. And so I think it is likely that the revisions are a better read of the data if the data are not being manipulated. And so, yeah, I would say that it's a little bit weaker. But don't forget, this is before the big, beautiful bill is really kicking in. And so with our eyes on the horizon, we're highly optimistic about the future of this economy.

3:53Ben Meiselas:I mean, we've got the big, beautiful bill. We've got expensing of factories, got no taxes on it. Okay, now the big, beautiful bill, which is a big, disastrous bill, that's really going to attack healthcare industry, social services, which was actually the only two areas where there was any job growth at all on the last jobs report. Manufacturing jobs were significantly underwater. But did you hear what he said there? I mean, just watch what he said 24 hours before on the weekend shows when he says, can we even believe their numbers at all? And he cast doubt on on those jobs reports. Here's what he said over the weekend.

4:34Ben Meiselas:Let's play it. How far off was this jobs report from your expectations? I mean, the number for July was low, but the downward revisions of almost 250 ,000 more than that jobs could not have been welcome news. Right. Well, I think with the economy, it's really important to keep our eyes on the horizon and the eyes on the horizon are seeing really smooth sailing. ahead. We've got 3 % GDP growth. And yes, this week, a disappointing jobs number. When I first saw the big revisions, which, by the way, were the largest revisions going all the way back for 50 years, if we exclude the COVID years. When I saw those revisions, I thought it must be a typo.

5:08Ben Meiselas:I've never seen a revision like this. And as you know, you've known me a long time. I live in these data. At the 100th anniversary celebration of the Consumer Expenditure Survey at the Bureau of labor statistics, Alan Greenspan and I were the keynote speakers. I've been following this forever. I've never seen a revision like that. And so I think that the underlying strength is the headline for me. The big downward revision is something of a puzzle. I don't think it was explained very well. And I think that markets might be as much unsettled by the fact that the data are so noisy. So imagine if the revision in the data, so the correction of errors is five times bigger than the number itself, then that makes you wonder, well, can I believe this number at all?

5:49Ben Meiselas:And I think that that's actually something that needs to be fixed. It needs to be fixed fast. Well, so the president... It's a pretty significant turn in 24 hours. And the fact that, you know, he said, actually, it was a lot of good data now. I mean, you heard what he said in the first clip, but Donald Trump's obviously not on the same page as his own chief economic advisor, because Trump's post this morning was last week's job report was rigged, just like the numbers prior to the presidential election were rigged. That's why in both cases, there were massive record-setting revisions in favor of the radical left Democrats.

6:27Ben Meiselas:And then he goes and posts, Sidney Sweeney is the hottest out there, hottest ad campaign. I love Sidney Sweeney. I hate Taylor Swift and starts trying to distract from what's really going on. I want to bring in Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garland Gilchrist, who's running for governor in 2026 there in Michigan. You're there. Was this rigged? Was this whatever? Or is this pretty consistent with what you're seeing in terms of the struggles with jobs and what's happening in Michigan? I got to tell you, Donald Trump is so disconnected from real people. This is what happens when you surround yourself with these mega billionaire yes men and your cabinet and your team is all these sick of fans who only tell you what you want to hear so they don't know what the truth is because they're so surrounded with lies but let me tell you i'm connected to people i talk to people in michigan every single day people who are trying to figure out you know what the job prospects are going to be for their kids if they're going to be able to hold on to their job because these tariffs have been so destructive, skyrocketing prices.

7:33We've had businesses have to close. We had like a 100-year-old furniture and clockmaker in West Michigan called Howard Miller. It's outside of Grand Rapids. They closed after 100 years due to this economic uncertainty and tariffs. In the last 100 years, they've seen a lot of economic uncertainty, but nothing like this destructive Trump administration. And so those are the people who I talk to on a daily basis. And they just want to figure out how we can get through this. They want someone going to fight back against the liar in chief and Donald Trump. But that's what the people in Michigan, you know, they know the truth because they know what they're experiencing every day, prices they can't afford that are only going up because of these tariffs, the instability that is putting their jobs in jeopardy.

8:11And the fact that this Republicans in Congress just gutted health care for hundreds of thousands of people across the state. We need to fight back.

8:19Ben Meiselas:Look, you're a business guy. That's your background before becoming the lieutenant governor. When you do business deals, usually they're not made via social media posts. Usually there's contracts and agreements and binding deals that we can actually see and read and understand. We have zero trade deals in terms of binding agreements that are on pieces of paper that we can actually read. We have social media posts, which then the countries that Trump does these deals with then contradict. Japan says we ain't given$550 billion. We have the right to give discretionary high interest loans if we want to, but we're not going to invest.

9:02Ben Meiselas:South Korea this morning just said the same thing. We ain't given$350 billion. Yeah, discretionary high interest loans. European Union says they can't guarantee anything in terms of giving money to the United States. But Trump's like this is a signing bonus that's happening in the United States. But when you look at what potentially exists in the form of a deal, which isn't existing, I guess it's a number that he gives to a country about what the tariff is. But then when you look at that number, assuming that's the only piece that actually goes into place in terms of what's actually being taxed on our importers when goods are arriving.

9:47Ben Meiselas:Isn't it true that our manufacturers are getting screwed based on those numbers? Because our auto manufacturers, the businesses in Michigan, they're the ones, even if they build everything in Michigan in the United States, they now have to pay more for the parts based on where they import stuff from than what other countries do when they manufacture it in the UK, like Jaguar or Land Rover or Japanese vehicles. And isn't this screwing our auto manufacturing? It's killing not only the big three, you know, the United Auto Workers came out really strongly against that Japanese deal because now it actually advantages cars made in Japan over cars made in Michigan and in America.

10:28I mean, just like remember in the debate when Trump talked about he had concepts of a health care plan, but that is what we're working with, concepts of a deal and all these trade deals, they don't work. And what instead we're seeing is an auto supplier called Detroit Axel, for example, announced that they had to lay off 102 people and close a facility. This is Trump killing jobs because of this instability, this destruction, this distraction. And he just frankly is horrible for people and families and livelihoods in our state. That's why it's so important that we have to counterbalance this by fighting back and also by providing stability and sanity at the state level.

11:08This is what we need, especially in a state where there's so many people who work in manufacturing, who work in the service sectors and the sales sector, these small businesses that do retail that are reliant upon importing some of their products. These are the jobs that are getting set on fire by this Trump you know, arsonist trade regime.

11:26Ben Meiselas:You and I met, we did an interview two months ago or so. How much worse has it gotten? How much worse is the business environment do you see from when we last talked? And is this kind of a bipartisan issue in Michigan at this point? I mean, you know, are there any businesses that like that, like this uncertainty? It just, it baffles me that business people who need certainty and are organized and can ever like somebody who wakes up one day like a Trump and it's just like, you're 35, you're 50, you're 25. All of a sudden, Canada, if you recognize the Palestinian state, he just like makes up stuff.

12:09Ben Meiselas:If you recognize the Palestinian state, we don't do trade deals with you. Actually, I'm changing your tariff. And by the way, Sidney Sweeney, like this would never be someone who can lead an organization. So Whoa. Yeah. Is any people like this anywhere? The board would fire this guy instantly. I mean, here's what I know that these tariffs have not discriminated, whether you voted for Trump or not, whether you're a Democrat or Republican. One hundred and two people lost their jobs at Detroit Axel. More than one hundred people lost their jobs from Howard Miller over on the west side of the state of Michigan.

12:42The damage is falling upon communities, upon workers, among families all across the state of Michigan. You getting your health, your Medicaid gutted. That doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican because you're losing your health care. And so I haven't talked to anyone who's excited about uncertainty, who's excited about job losses, who's excited about prices going up, which is happening across Michigan and across sectors. And so I haven't found those people. The people who I'm talking to every day want to see stability. They want to see change. They want to get us out of this death cycle that Trump is putting the economy in, their well-being in.

13:14only the prices are going up only food is getting more expensive only medicine is getting more expensive nobody's been held accountable like this is just uh complete and utter chaos before we go

13:24Ben Meiselas:tell us about you know your background what you're going to do um how are you gonna how are you going to change this what can you do from from your position to fight back against this and where can people learn more about what you're doing you got to give people confidence that in my case in the state of michigan is a place where they know they can stay and succeed and build their dream of health and wealth, meaning that if they can know that they can get a good education and get a job that's going to be grounded in an industry that matters in Michigan, like manufacturing, like agriculture, we know we make the things that matter in our state.

13:57We did it when we invented the mobility sector. We did it when we were the arsenal of democracy during World War II. We can do it again and make the things that matter. If we have stability at the state level, the counterbalance is calamity and chaos at the federal level. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm an engineer. I'm a problem solver. I make systems work for people. And that's what we need to have as someone who can get things done for people, who's going to stand up and fight against this chaos, say we're going to protect people's healthcare. We're going to lower prices. We're going to put food on the table.

14:23We're going to put money in people's pockets. That's what I'm going to do. And then I want people to go to support that, to go to garlandgilchrist.com to find out more, to join this movement so you can stay and succeed.

14:34Ben Meiselas:Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garland Gilchrist, thanks for joining us as always. Thanks for having me. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers.

15:37Ben Meiselas:We'll be right back. arc and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better. Every plan,$15 a month, even unlimited. That's it. Happy ending. Zero tears. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required,$15 per month equivalent, taxes and fees extra, initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes, may slow when network is busy, see terms. Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. When it comes to my policy, Farmers gives it to me straight, so there's no surprises.

16:07Ben Meiselas:It's your coverage. You should never be confused. You hear that? An insurance provider with a conscience. We're a choir, but yes, we have that too. Straightforward coverage you can literally understand. That's what you get when you have farmers. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Learn more at Farmers.com. Underwritten by Farmers Truck or Fire Insurance Exchanges or Affiliate. Products not available in every state. The GLP-1 pill you've been waiting for is now on row. Yep, it's finally here. With the same clinically proven ingredient. now in a pill and now on row it's the first fda approved glp1 pill for weight loss at the lowest price available that's one daily glp1 pill for big results now on row go to row.co slash listen to see if you qualify rx only go to row.co slash safety for serious side effects and boxed warning associated with glp1s