April 11, 2025 • 49 mins
On this episode of The Middle, we ask you your thoughts on Trump's first 100 days in office. Jeremy is joined by Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram and Michigan Public political director Zoe Clark. DJ Tolliver joins as well, plus calls from around the country. #Trump #President #WhiteHouse #100Days #Tariffs #TradeWar #Economy #ExecutiveOrder #DOGE
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Middle is supported by Journalism Funding Partners, a nonprofit
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how you can support the Middle at listen to Themiddle
dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to the Middle.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I'm Jeremy Hobson along with our house DJ Tolliver and Taliver.
I'm going to start off by just coming clean about
one thing as we go to air. We are actually
a bit short of one hundred days of Trump's presidency.
But we were gonna do this show a bit later,
but it is actually quite hard to book guests.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yes, fault man.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
We got to take our guests where we can get.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Them, exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So we apologize to the one hundred day of purists
who don't think it's fair to assess a presidency before
you get to that exact number.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
We are going to do this show anyway.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Okay, And to be fair, a lot of our listeners
may feel more than one hundred years old after what
they've been watching with the stock market this week, man,
just in this last week with the tariffs.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And that's just one part of what we're going to
be talking about. Since Trump has come into office, he
has fired thousands of workers, appointed a cabinet of loyalists,
started unprecedented deportations, targeted law firms, media organizations, and educational
institutions that have crossed him, and most recently, as you said,
embarked on a global trade war. So what we want
to know from you is how are you feeling appalled, thrilled,
(01:22):
somewhere in between. That's our question this hour. Our number
is eight four to four four middle. That's eight four
four four six four three three five three, And we're
going to get to your calls in just a moment.
But first, last week we asked you what can be
done to improve legal immigration in the country. Here are
some of the comments that came in after the show.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
My name is George, calling from Champagne, Illinois. The power
of immigration to America is not limited to what we
can reap from immigrants here, but in the message that
successful immigration to America sends back home to the people
who choose not to come here.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
Yes, my name is Tanya Becker and I live in Montezoom, Colorado.
I agree with the moratorium on immigration because it's not
just about getting low skilled, low paid workers, but it's
looking at our other social services that are just firsting
at the scene. We need to deal with the immigrants,
(02:18):
communities and population we currently have.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
Hey, this is Brian from Canaan, New Hampshire. Why isn't
the media and the rest of us knocking on the
door of the Senate and House of Representative committees who
are charged with changing the laws of our lands. So
we have an immigration policy that has been updated since
nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well, thanks to everyone who called in.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
You can hear that entire episode on our podcast in
partnership with iHeart Podcasts on the iHeart app or wherever
you listen to podcasts, along with our extra episode One
Thing Trump Did, released weekly on the podcast. So now
to our tropic this hour, How do you feel about
the first one hundred days of Trump's presidency?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Tolliver the phone number please.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
It's eight four four four Middle that's eight four four
four six four three three five three, or you can
write to us that listen to the Middle dot com.
You can also comment on our live stream on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitch. I'm monitoring them all, so get him in on.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
All of them, including Twitch. LEAs to meet our panel.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Michigan Public Political Director Zoe Clark is with us. Zoe,
Great to have you back on the show, Hey Jeremy,
and also joining us Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad
Program Chad, welcome to the Middle.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Great to have you.
Speaker 7 (03:26):
Good evening, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Well, So, before we get to the phones, Chad, we're
gonna hear from ordinary Americans this hour. But you know
Capitol Hill better than just about any reporter there. How
is Trump's presidency playing out among lawmakers in both parties
so far? On Capitol Hill.
Speaker 8 (03:43):
Well, it's a little bit similar to what we saw
during the first Trump presidency, where there's a lot of reaction,
you know, from those of us in the press corps
covering it. You know, he will do something, he will
sign an executive order, he'll send out something on truth
social and there's reaction to that. So that's very similar.
One thing we've not seen as much, and we saw
this a lot in the first term, as you had
(04:04):
members on the Republican side of the always saying, oh,
I don't read the tweets or whatever. We learned that
that's kind of how he governs. He governs by sending
out these types of messages, and you have a Republican
party right now that is much more aligned with him
than was the case in twenty seventeen, so they're much
more you know, simpacado there. I think that people are
(04:25):
still reacting in that sense. I think a good example
of this over the past week was the you know,
chewing and froing with the tariffs. You had Republicans generally
standing behind him and saying, you know, I thought it
was interesting to listen to John Soon. You know, he's
the majority leader, represents Southota, a lot of agriculture there, absolutely,
(04:45):
and he was like, well, you know, he would give
these lines about well, if it's targeted, you know, if
these are things toward particular industries. Other Republicans would say,
you know, we should you be patient urge patients. For
a while there, that was a pretty solid message we
were hearing from most, but you had some others like
Don Bacon, a Republican from Omaha, one of the swingiest
districts in the country.
Speaker 7 (05:06):
He's a Republican who represents.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
Omaha, and he said, you know, you know, look, that's
a problem here. You had other people interjecting that they said, maybe,
you know, Congress should have a role in this. If
you look at the Constitution and you look at the
emergency provision that he was using, it does say that
there should be this consultation with Congress. Buried yesterday in
(05:28):
this procedural rule as it's called, that comes to the
House floor, this was to get the framework for the
so called big beautiful bill that they passed today in
the House of Representatives. Buried in that was a provision
which turned off the authority of the House of Representatives
to interfere with the tariffs until in one case September thirtieth,
(05:50):
and another till the rest of the year. And there
were some people who were quite upset with that. And
that's why, you know, Mike Turner, Republican of Ohio, he
voted against the rule.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
But Mikenson, the Speaker of the House, definitely on the
page of let's let President Trump do what he wants
to do with the tariffs so far, and he's the
one with the most power there. Zoe Clark, what about
in the key swing state of Michigan, a state that,
by the way, has voted for the winner of the
presidential election every time since two thousand and eight. What
are you hearing from people right now?
Speaker 9 (06:20):
I mean, first of all, let's just sort of set
the table that, like you said, we are doing this
about the first one hundred days, but what sort of
the joke like the first week felt like one hundred days,
The first day felt like one hundred years that we've
all lived through. You know, we have often talked about
just sort of the news cycle, and so Michiganders, folks
(06:41):
across the country are dealing with that. But if we're
talking about this microcosm this past week of again, what
feels like the past one hundred years here in Michigan.
More than a quarter of a million jobs are directly
tied to the auto industry. Some fifty billion dollars goes
directly between Michigan and Canada are trading partners. You know,
(07:03):
it's often said that when America catches a cold, Michigan
catches the flu. When we're talking about the economy, and
so over the past couple weeks now we're seeing just fear,
we're also seeing some excitement and some really strange bedfellows.
I mean, you had the president of the UAW coming
(07:24):
out and basically saying, you know, tariffs they're not all
that bad right, in fact, if anything, saying that he
sort of endorses this idea. And this is how Donald
Trump won in two sixteen, and it's how he won
a few months ago, which is in this rust belt
area of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, places that have been
(07:47):
hit because of previous trade agreements. And we'll talk a
lot about that. But so what we're seeing right now
in Michigan, which is a microcosm of the country. It's
why we're a swingyest of swing states. A lot of
interest right now over the past week, particularly visa Viva Economy.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Okay, well, let's get a Michigander into this conversation. Another
one into this conversation. Luke is in Portland, Michigan. Luke,
go ahead, what do you think of the first one
hundred days of Trump?
Speaker 10 (08:14):
Yes, I gotta say I cannot be happier with the
President's performance in the first one hundred days of this presidency.
This is everything I voted for. And every week just
seems to bring another thing to be excited about. This terror,
the task last week, we're exciting. The deportations before that,
we're exciting. It just keeps getting better and better.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Why were the tariffs exciting for you?
Speaker 10 (08:36):
Yeah? I think that major firms in this country have
gotten wealthy off of the expropriation of our industrial base
for a long time, and it was pretty cool to
see them freaking out while Trump tried to, you know,
go about not only correcting the record of China versus
free you know, fair trade, but also correcting the record
(08:57):
with firms that have sold out the rest belt for
the past thirty forty fifty years. That was exciting. And
then just as just as Trump sort of promised, right,
the market went down, and then the market went back up,
and so we kind of got everything that we wanted
and it costs us nothing.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
And that was all.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
But you don't see the fact that the market went
back up was because Trump pulled back away from what
he said he was going to do.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Did that bother you that he he.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Said, Okay, actually, no, we're going to pause this for
ninety days.
Speaker 7 (09:25):
No.
Speaker 10 (09:25):
I think one hundred and fifty percent tariff on China
and the ten percent tariff in every country is exactly
what I voted for. A pause is a pause. I
don't think that there's no there's no saying that that
wasn't a strategy all along, and it's still a tariff,
and it's still hurting China, it's still helping America.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I think it's great, Luke, thanks for that call. Chad program.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
I imagine we're going to hear many different views on
the tariffs in this hour, and I imagine that there
are a lot of different views on the tariffs in Washington,
even as you said, among Republicans.
Speaker 8 (09:58):
Yeah, probably the biggest voice on this who has spoken
out against the terraffs has been Rand Paul, the Republican
Center from Kentucky. He argued yesterday. He says there is
no such thing as unfair trade. If China makes a product,
or somebody in Asia makes a product and somebody here wants.
Speaker 7 (10:13):
To buy it, guess what, that's fair trade.
Speaker 8 (10:16):
He was talking about the price of, say, getting a
pair of shoes that maybe is made in Vietnam, where
before you.
Speaker 7 (10:22):
Know it cost one hundred dollars.
Speaker 8 (10:23):
If you were going to set up that plant here,
let alone get the materials and the worksmanship and everything
else to make those shoes, he said, suddenly it's going
to cost one hundred and fifty hundred and seventy five dollars.
Speaker 7 (10:33):
And again, Ran.
Speaker 8 (10:33):
Paul is one of those senators who has talked about
asserting the authority of Congress in this and again, you know,
to go back to this, you know, back and forth
about the terraffs and we're going to have terraffs or
they're going to pause them for ninety days or whatnot.
I was in the hearing room with the US Trade
Representative Jamison Greer yesterday. He did not seem like he
(10:54):
was dialed into this change that was coming. He was
sitting right there at the witness table. Corsford, the Democratic
representative from Nevada, really got his claws.
Speaker 7 (11:05):
Into him at one point said WTF.
Speaker 8 (11:07):
And I chase Greer down the hall of the Longworth
House office building, and there's video of this, said, were
you not dialed in? Was there the possibility of insider
trading on this? And he really didn't have any answers
that he provided in the hall.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Well, and it gets to the point that you've made before,
which is that Trump has a lot of the power
here and a lot of people are just reacting to
what he does. Tolliver, It's almost hard to recount all
the things that Trump has done in the last few months.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Oh you know what that calls romontage, right, Yes, do
you have one?
Speaker 4 (11:38):
I do? I get one? Right here?
Speaker 10 (11:40):
Your state is going to control your children's education.
Speaker 9 (11:44):
We're moving it out of Why.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I should I don't know. I think I'm not allowed
to run again.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
I'm not sure am I allowed to run again.
Speaker 11 (11:51):
We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf
of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
The US will take over.
Speaker 10 (11:58):
The Gaza Strip and we will do a job with
it too.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
We'll own it.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
We have to have Greenland.
Speaker 10 (12:03):
It will henceforth be the official policy of the United
States government that there are only two genders, male and female.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
That reminds me, Tolliver, we need to do a show
about Greenland. I think we've covered almost every one of
those topics other than Greenland.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
But right, oh my god, we got Canada.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
We got to go to Greenland.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Now we could do it from Greenland.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Right, We'll be right back with more of your calls
coming up on the Middle. This is the Middle. I'm
Jeremy Hobson. If you're just tuning in the Middle is
a national call in show. We are focused on elevating
voices from the middle, geographically, politically, philosophically, or maybe you
just want to meet in the middle. This hour, we're
asking you how you feel about Trump's first one hundred days. Tolliver,
(12:44):
what is the number to call in?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
It's eight four four four Middle. That's eight four four
four six four three three five three. You can also
write to us at Listen to the Middle dot com
or on all social media.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
I'm joined by Fox New Senior congressional correspondent Chad Program
and Michigan Public Political Director Zoe Clark. And the phone
lines are lit up, So let's get to another caller.
Jill in Kennesaw, Georgia is with US high.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Jill, go ahead with your thoughts.
Speaker 12 (13:07):
Oh, hi, Jeremy. My thoughts are that I'm actually very
horrified over what's happened. I think there's no strategy. I
think it's chaotic, purposely chaotic, and actually very frightening and
embarrassing as a US citizen. I'm horrified.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
What is the thing that horrifies you the most? Out
of we just heard all of those different snippets of
different things Trump has done since he became president.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Again, what gets you the most, well, I.
Speaker 12 (13:35):
Mean there's just a ton of things. But the tariffs
is crazy. The firing of federal workers with no thought,
no strategy is scary. I live in Atlanta. The CDC
and the firing of thirty five percent of the staff,
I mean, I can go on and on, taking over Greenland.
I mean, there's just nothing, nothing that makes me feel good.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, Jill, thank you for that call. Chad program.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
The firing of federal workers, it's sort of been drip, drip, drip.
But then you hear there's thousands in this organization, thousands
in that organization. Do you have a sense of the
overall of what's been happening with the firing of federal workers.
Speaker 8 (14:10):
Well, the one thing that Congress is talking about is that,
you know, you have to codify some of these changes.
If you're going to cut all these jobs, if you're
going to cut all this money for these departments, that
has to be codified. And this framework that was approved
by the House of Representatives today, supposedly, according to Mike Johnson,
the Speaker, they might put some of these so called
Doge cuts into that.
Speaker 7 (14:32):
I can tell you from somebody who lives in the Washington.
Speaker 8 (14:34):
DC area, you know there's a lot of people who
you know I talked to who are friends or neighbors,
some people saying, you know, should I go, should I
take the buyout? You know, Doge was in my department
last week, so to speak. You know, we think we
came out unscathed. That conversation is something that's being heard
consistently in and around Washington. And you know, the Washington
(14:55):
economy was always kind of thought to be insulated from
these other types of shocks that you might have in St.
Michigan or other parts of the Midwest. You know, as
you talked about the so called rust belt there, it
wasn't the case in Washington. That might be changing now
as they eliminate all these jobs in Washington and kind
of diversify where the federal government is.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
What about in Michigan, Zoe Clark, are you seeing effects
of the job cuts that have been happening with federal workers?
Speaker 7 (15:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (15:21):
I mean, let's just first again, as I feel like
I'm the one that's like, let's set the table, so
let's keep setting the table, which is, of course, so
much of this still is in courts, right, so as
we watch all of this back and forth, it's lawsuits
that have been brought so right now, when we're talking
about sort of federal courts, it's sort of like which
jobs and where. But I can tell you here in
(15:42):
the state of Michigan, we have a lot of national forests, right,
and so we have federal workers. And so there's a
lot of talk about what is this actually going to
look like in the summer tourism season, right when literally
folks whose jobs it is is to keep trails open
can't I mean, Michigan aside from manufacturing, you know, the
state that put the world on the wheels is the
(16:02):
first of the economy manufacturing, second, you know, is agriculture. Right,
we also have offices EPA offices where they are federal
workers that have been laid off at least right now.
As again, it goes through the courts, and so, I mean,
much like any other state, you're seeing it happen in
all of these different facets, and it feels like there's
(16:24):
always someone that knows someone right or family member, a
cousin or something like that, and that's continuing to spread.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Well, the federal government is the largest employer in the country,
so people are going to know people, especially as these
cuts continue Let's go to Kelly, who's in Albert Lee, Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Hi, Kelly, go ahead him.
Speaker 13 (16:44):
I'm terrified by the last one. First one hundred days,
it seems like forever, and it seems like it was
just a minute ago. And yet so much damage has
been done in that amount of time, and there's so
much on certainty and can.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
What are you thinking of specifically, Kelly?
Speaker 4 (17:04):
What? What?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
What troubles you the most?
Speaker 13 (17:10):
You know, he's destroying our standing in the world, attacking
our allies. Just I feel like it's almost a dictatorship.
There's no checks or balances Republicans, nobody is holding Trump
and Musk in check. They just are just kind of
(17:31):
running rampant and almost as if they're intentionally trying to
sabotage the government and our democracy.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
HM.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Kelly, thank you for that called Chad program. Take take
that one on and just either your response, your reaction
to it, to hearing that.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Are you hearing that on Capitol Hill?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
But also the the change in foreign policy that's happened.
There's been a lot so far.
Speaker 8 (17:58):
Yeah, and that's where members, certainly on the Democratic side
of the aisle, they've said, you know, look, we're destroying
certain relationships with allies. When you talk about the intelligence
community and how this trust is built, you know, to
share information.
Speaker 7 (18:13):
That's a big one right there.
Speaker 8 (18:15):
You know, when you when you start to you know,
having you know, these talks and calling Canada the fifty
first state and calling the Prime minister, governor, you know,
and things. You know, some members of Congress and said,
you know, that's below the President of the United States
to be talking like that, and it seems to have hardened,
you know, the resolve of the Canadians at least in
that case. I'll bring this back to trade. People have said,
(18:38):
you know, with the tariffs and what's been going on
over the past two weeks, you know, they criticized Canada
and said, you know, they're really putting the screws to
us on this.
Speaker 7 (18:47):
But it was President Trump back during.
Speaker 8 (18:49):
Twenty twenty who negotiated you know, the USMCA, the United
States Mexico Canada Agreement with which was to replace NAFTA.
He did that alongside Nancy Pelosi, you know, who was
always kind of looking at scans at NAFTA, and somebody said, well,
you know who, what what country would agree to another
trade pack with the United States there's no trust there
and that's going to take years to build back the well.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
And in terms of Canada, Zoe Clark, you know, Detroit
is right across the bridge from Ontario and Windsor and
you are probably seeing firsthand not just boycotts of US goods,
but the I think there's been a seventy percent drop
in Canadian tourists coming over the border.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
What how has the the.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Trump move on Canada and all the things he's done
with Canada affected things where you are?
Speaker 9 (19:37):
Yeah, things aren't great. It's like, you know what the relationship,
it's complicated. You know, folks are angry at the United States.
They are disappointed, there are We're already seeing signs right
by Canadian not selling this, not selling that from America.
(19:57):
You know, we are much closer to Windsor. I mean,
this is what people do. They go across the bridge,
they come back. There's frustration, there's there was you know,
hockey games right and booing. I mean, of course it's
a hockey game, folks are going to boo. But people
standing when the Canadian you know, national anthem is being.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Played, Americans standing.
Speaker 9 (20:18):
No, sorry, Canadians standing in Americans doing exactly yeah, correct,
it's been fascinating to see. And as Chad was talking
about these long term relationships, so that's for Michigan and Canada,
but I mean you can see that with conversations that
we're having with the EU and Britain, right, I mean,
(20:39):
just just these partners that for decades and decades and
decades felt like solidified friends that you you could turn to,
and we're just seeing a complete paradigm shift, right that,
whether that be our neighbors in Canada or halfway around
the world.
Speaker 7 (20:56):
And I have one quick point about Canada.
Speaker 8 (20:58):
This is something happened on the Hill, yes, and under
other circumstances we never would.
Speaker 7 (21:03):
Have paid attention to it. They confirmed.
Speaker 8 (21:05):
The Senate confirmed Pete Hookstro, the former Michigan congressman, as
the ambassador to Canada. I note that the ambassador to
Canada under Joe Biden was not confirmed until late November
of twenty twenty one, so this is pretty early on
and he got confirmed sixty votes. Okay, Pete Hookster, he's
been an ambassador before, he was ambassador to the Netherlands.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
But just the idea that there was a.
Speaker 8 (21:26):
Focus on who is going to be the ambassador to
Canada and what this job is going to be like.
That's not something we've ever had before.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah, Tolliver, what is coming in online?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yeah? Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota says I have no
trust in the current administration.
Speaker 10 (21:41):
We have foreign.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Policy by extortion, and the wild fluctuations in the stock
market to due to the contradictory tariff announcements is creating
a perfect storm for insider trading. Christina and Elkhart, Indiana
says Trump's first one hundred days is deshavu PTSD rolled together.
I worry about my investments, my democracy, and the world
wide body of politics being decimated, and this might be
(22:03):
my favorite. Mark says, I don't know what I'm more
scared of the first hundred days of Trump or the
potential first hundred.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Days of JD. Vans Man.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I can tell you JD. Vans is taking on the
channel line. Don't know if you've been seeing this the memes.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yes, there's a lot of means of JD. Evans.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Let's go to Scotty, who's in Augusta, Georgia. Hi, Scotty,
welcome to the middle. What are your thoughts on the
first one hundred days of.
Speaker 14 (22:24):
Trump, Hi, Jeremy big fan, Missal Marketplace. But when the
norm has become the acceptance of political candidates who win elections,
take office and then follows you on practically nothing they
promise during the campaign, here you have somebody who's hit
the ground running and doing something. I think a lot
of the outrage is misplaced. And while I'm not necessarily
(22:46):
agree with the haphazard and hand hammered way they go
about some things, I'm not mired into despair that this
country's been in the last four years, and this is
actually the hope that I can believe in.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Now.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
You're happy that he's getting things done.
Speaker 14 (23:02):
Exactly I mean, I mean political campaign promises of the
norm and not followings. You know, there's just come to
accept that, And I think that's where the outrage should be,
not that he was doing something. You might not agree
with what he's doing or how he's doing, but at
least he's doing something, which I said, the previous four years,
tell me what the standout achievements of that administration was,
(23:24):
and looking forward to another four years of that, no,
thank you. I at least have some hope. Now this
is the hope I can believe in.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Now, are you worried at all, Scotty, Just about the
economy right now, with all these blanket across the board
tariffs to friends and foes alike.
Speaker 14 (23:39):
Of course, I am in the gig economy, so the
less people spend, the less I'm going to make. I'm
trying to pay my bill. So yes, in the short term,
I think we're going to have to feel the pain
this country has flailed in so many areas for so
many years that something has to be done or is
only going to get worse. And that is actually worse
to me than the short term pain we might be feeling.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Now, Scottie, thank you for calling in and bringing me
back to marketplace that was a long time ago.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Chad program.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Just on the issue of getting things done, there are
a lot of Democrats right now and independence too, according
to the Poles who looking and saying, well, I don't
necessarily want these things to be the things that are
getting done, and I'm worried about the pace of what's
getting done. But I'm sure there are a lot of
Republicans in Congress who are very happy that things are
changing at the speed with which they are.
Speaker 8 (24:27):
Well, they're certainly seeing them from the administration standpoint, and
the reason the Republicans in Congress are happy to see
the things happening at the White House throughout the administration
is because Congress for decades now has continually seeded the
legislative authority, the Article one authority in the Constitution, to
the executive branch. In fact, it was Josh Hawley, the
Republican Center from Missouri yesterday who said, you know, the
(24:50):
reason that President Trump has taken the bull by the
horns on tariff and trade is because Congress didn't mess
with this for a while. It was too hot a potato.
He said, guess what President Trump is will to deal
with that. So I think that seating of power is
something that's been going on for a long time. I
think it's something that makes the job easier for Republicans,
which is why this struggle just to get this framework
(25:13):
through you know, the Senate to some degree, the House
is really going to be the problem. And then getting
these two together is just a monster task because that's
actually Congress having to do something, especially in the House.
Speaker 7 (25:24):
With these narrow margins.
Speaker 8 (25:25):
So as long as they can serve mostly on the
Republican side of the isle, as cheerleaders and support for
the administration and let him do the dirty work. The
Republican side of the isle in Congress is okay with that.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Bill is calling from Chicago. Bill, welcome to the middle.
Go ahead with your thoughts about the first one hundred
days of Trump.
Speaker 15 (25:45):
Hi, I would say that I am horrified and afraid.
There is a lot of talk about tariffs this evening,
but I actually that's not the first thing on my mind.
The first concern on my mind is the erosion of
civil rights and the weaponizing of the government against protest,
which is like Banana Republic level stuff, and also the
(26:07):
dismantling of the federal government. So willy nilly. I actually
am someone who believes that the government, even though it
is a clumsy and mysterious machine, does actually keep us
safe and healthy and keep the economy stable. And I
no longer feel like it can do that.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And we saw the news. Bill, you're in Chicago. Northwestern
University one of the latest targets of Trump in terms
of halting funding because of policies that he doesn't like
at the university.
Speaker 15 (26:38):
Yeah, that's Heritage Foundation stuff. Of course, that's the people
around him with the Heritage Foundation has headed out for universities,
and it's not because they're anti Semitic or it's just
because they're liberal. They're viewed as liberal places. So that's
all like a fig leaf. I mean, this has really
(26:59):
been a chance for the Heritage Foundation people around him
to dig their claws into public universities across the country
and private universities as well. It's bad. I mean, it's bad,
and people don't really understand the mechanics of what's going
on there.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, Bill, thank you very much for that call. Zoe Clark.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
You know you're coming to us from the home of
the University of Michigan. Is there concern there about what
he's talking about, the weaponization in Bill's view of the
government of the Trump administration going after institutions, including law
firms and universities.
Speaker 9 (27:32):
Yes, absolutely, and we should say, I mean, this idea
of sort of taking bites out of institutions has gone
back for a decade now with this president, whether it's
the institutions of sort of science and academia, whether it's
the institutions of journalism for example. But to your point, yes,
(27:52):
the University of Michigan is seeing huge cuts, particularly when
we're talking about any NIH grants and dollars that go
to medical research, for example, And so the university and
academics throughout the state and throughout the country, right, whether
you're talking about the University of Michigan or where you're
talking about Columbia, right, are trying to figure out what
(28:15):
you do and how far you are willing to sort
of succumb I can tell you that the University of
Michigan within just the past few weeks, has put out
a statement that they are closing all DEI offices. Folks
are already leaving the university in some higher up positions
who are overseeing those offices because of just pure anger
(28:38):
that they feel like the university is capitulating. And then
you're talking about student life. I can tell you that
here in Michigan there are many universities, not just the
University of Michigan, where students have had their visas revoked.
Speaker 15 (28:51):
Right.
Speaker 9 (28:51):
It made huge news a couple of weeks ago, but
again in this sort of day to day news cycle,
and we're losing sight of the fact that there're dozens
now that have gotten visus revoked and who are basically
being told to you know, go back to the countries
from which they came. So right, we're spending a lot
of time talking about the economy. Certainly, some of that
(29:12):
has to do with the fact that we know that's
what drove voters out to you know, the polling booths
last November, but we are seeing a lot having to
do with the day to day life that the caller
was just talking about that he's concerned about.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Well.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Interesting also that we're talking so much about the economy
because the tariffs have not even started to filter into
the things that we buy yet, but that could happen
very quickly, and then people are really going to start
to see you know, a ten percent or one hundred
and forty percent or whatever we're putting on China right
now in the in the cost of goods Tolliver. There
have been some growing protests around the country, but there
doesn't seem to be a leader to the opposition to
(29:50):
Trump so far.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Although we did have some sharp criticism from former President
Obama in a public event the other day, he's otherwise
been pretty quiet since Trump took office. But take a
listen to this.
Speaker 6 (30:02):
Imagine if I had done any of this. Let me
just I just I just want to be clear about this.
Speaker 7 (30:12):
Imagine that you imagine if I had pulled Fox News's
credentials from the White House Press Court.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
You're laughing, but no, that this is what's happening.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
I don't know, man, That tan suit was pretty gregious.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
I don't think you mentioned that in that but that
would have been a good moment to bring it up.
We'll be right back with more calls on the Middle.
This is the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson, and this hour
we're asking you how you feel about Trump's first one
hundred days. You can call us at eight four four
four Middle. That's eight four four four six four three
three five three. You can also reach out to us
(30:56):
at listen Toothemiddle dot com. My guests are Michigan Public
Political Director Zoe Clark and Fox News Senior congressional correspondent
Chad Program And the phone lines are full. So let's
go to Seth, who is in Barnard, Vermont. Hi, Seth,
what do you think so far of Trump's presidency?
Speaker 16 (31:12):
I cannot hear that name. And for the record, I'm
very concerned that we're looking at a situation where we
have thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of jobs on the
line in this country at the moment, and we're looking
at a situation where the National Endowment for the Humanities,
(31:33):
our museums and libraries have been cut from funding. And
that means quite literally that our publishers, our artists, our writers,
our teachers, our academics, and our children will suffer because
(31:53):
they're not able.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
To learn giving.
Speaker 16 (31:57):
But if we do not support those whom were looking
out for us in our culture, whom will support us
thinking about international allies and our present humanitarian situation, specifically,
our human intelligence for the present and future generations are
at stake if we do not prize back and fund
(32:21):
those whom look out for our culture.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Seth, I'm so glad you brought that up. Thank you
very much for that call and TAD program. It gets
to the issue of our cultural institutions. We haven't talked
about this, but you know, Trump has made himself the
chairman of the board of the Kennedy Center. He's now
going into the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and saying I
want you to focus on this and not that.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
What about that?
Speaker 1 (32:43):
What about the the Trump's role in our cultural institutions?
Speaker 8 (32:47):
Well, that's going to be something very interesting to watch
if they really start to, you know, change some of
the exhibits and displays. You know, Zoe talked about you know,
trails and forests and parks.
Speaker 7 (32:58):
Not being open.
Speaker 8 (32:59):
You know, that's the thing that people you know, come
to Washington, d c. To see and whether or not,
you know, that really starts to evolve. I want to
see what types of shows that they put on at
the Kennedy Center.
Speaker 7 (33:10):
You know.
Speaker 8 (33:10):
He commented the other day that he didn't think much
of Hamilton, he said, he said, but we're going to
have some big hips theater. I thought Hamilton was probably
as big a hit as you could possibly have. In fact,
I saw it at the Kennedy Center several years ago.
But that said, you know the thing I want to
watch and I'll bring it back to Congress.
Speaker 7 (33:26):
Just this evening, the.
Speaker 8 (33:28):
Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Susan Collins of Maine
and Patty Murray of Washington State, the Democrats, he's the
top Democrat on that committee, said they're starting the appropriations
process for fiscal year twenty twenty six, which will be
in in October. I want to see where that money
is cut, whether it goes up or down in those
appropriations bills, as the caller stated, you know, for the
(33:49):
National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities,
and you could see them trying to zero things out
in the House of Representatives.
Speaker 7 (33:57):
That's not new.
Speaker 8 (33:57):
They've done that type of thing, even public casting, you know,
that's something that goes back to the new Gingrich days
in the mid nineteen nineties. But when it comes to that,
that's going to be very challenging in the Senate. Why
because a the Senators generally think about these things a
little bit differently because they represent larger swaths of people.
And number two, just the idea that you need to
(34:18):
get sixty votes to overcome a filibuster and to pass
any one of those bills or a clump of those bills,
you're going to need sixty votes. And John Thune has
talked about I want to move the bills individually throughout
the year. He's criticized Chuck Schumer when he was the
majority leader last year. So guess what they might talk
a good game, but I want to see what that
number figure looks like in those appropriations bills.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
So just to be clear here, Chad and you can
make some news here for our four hundred and thirty
public radio stations listening to this. You think that it
will be harder for Congress to actually zero out funding
for public broadcasting.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
For any of those types of programs. Yeah, because again,
it might be zeroed.
Speaker 8 (34:57):
Out in the House, and they've done that in other
appropriations bills, but again to do it in the Scent
because of the sixty vote threshold to move that bill
or anything that has any sort of a cultural, artistic
or humanities.
Speaker 7 (35:11):
Or something like that, that's going to be talking. That's
gonna be very difficult.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Okay, let's go to Jenny, who's in Mission, Kansas. Hi, Jenny,
what do you think so far of the Trump presidency?
Speaker 17 (35:22):
Well, yes, I'm in the middle in almost every sent word.
I was a Trump voter in twenty sixteen, I was
a Biden voter in twenty twenty, and I was a
non voter in twenty twenty four. And I feel like
I'm just sort of observing from a distance. Honestly, I
(35:42):
feel like these hundred days are as advertised kind of
what he said, I mean, whether you like it or not.
And I certainly have things I like and things I don't,
but none of this should be like a huge surprise.
I mean, I think what's really frustrating me is the
(36:03):
focus of the people losing their jobs from the federal
government when there are people being laid off in the
private sector, which by the way, funds the federal government,
and with very little severance. There's no protections for us.
My company had layoffs the very weak. These started with
(36:26):
the federal government, and we were all looking at each
other like, wait, they're getting how many months of severance?
I mean, I just feel like there's so little recognition
in the media of the private sector, those of us
working not government jobs, and I'm kind of really sick
(36:46):
of seeing just this idea that these jobs are somehow
that they're supposed to be protected, when the rest of
us are the ones footing the bill for them. So
I may not really lie like the ham handed way.
I think somebody used that before. It's very ham handed.
There's a lot to not like. I'm not going to
(37:07):
disagree with that, but I think the level of just
pearl clutching is also very off putting.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Jenny, thank you very much for that call, and with
your voting record, you are most certainly in the middle there,
Zoe Clark, I imagine in the state of Michigan.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
And you know, we haven't talked.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
About this yet, but there are all the Arab American
voters that kind of switched from supporting Biden in twenty
twenty to either supporting Trump or supporting Jill Stein will
Stein because of the situation in Gaza.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, what do you make of that call from Jenny?
Speaker 9 (37:43):
Well, I mean, at first, I want to say something
that Jenny said first, which is that, my goodness, I'm
so sorry to hear about your job, and I empathize
with you. But one of the things that I think
is really fascinating when I've heard folks who sort of
say this line, And Jenny, if you're still maybe you
can tell me a little bit more what you think
when I say this. But I'm so curious about where
we got to this point in the United States where
(38:06):
you hear about someone else sort of losing their job
and then it's well, what about me? Right, that there
was this time sort of in I'd like to think
maybe you know, farther back than I can remember, where
it was sort of we can all be okay, right,
all boats rise, and now it very much feels like
it's well, you know, yeah, they're suffering, but my suffering
(38:28):
is bigger. And I'm not trying to discount that. But
this idea, well, what if everybody had enough, what if
we all were able to be okay? And sort of this,
there's just not enough to go around. And I think
it's something that's really changed in the United States over
the past few decades about how we see each other,
that it feels like we're against each other, that if
(38:50):
you have more than I have, it's not okay. And
the haves and have nots is getting bigger. So that's
not shocking. But when I've talked to a lot of
voters who say this, it's not fair that so and
so gets this. It's not fair that we're giving these
dollars to a different country when we should be giving
them to our cities, for example. So I don't know
(39:11):
if Jenny's still on the line, but I'm.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Not on the line anymore. But yeah, but I'm sure
she heard all of that. Let's get to Christine, who's
in Syracuse, Indiana. Hi, Christine, tell us about your your
thoughts about the Trump presidency so far.
Speaker 18 (39:25):
Well, I'm a Union member, I was a member of
the IBW. I've listened to Sean Fain. We've developed a
global economy, and the global economy has brought in prices down.
My difficulty has always been, and we started in twenty
seventeen because Trump tried to direct his encouragement and get
(39:46):
votes from union members. Well, his twenty seventeen tax bill
blew up our deficit. And within that tax bill, according
to the Taxation and Economic Policy Nonproper nonpartisan Organization, there
is a little something in there that if you invested overseas,
(40:07):
you didn't pay anything in the way of corporate income taxes,
which incentivized the moving of even more jobs. And that
was Donald Trump. And as one of your collars had
said earlier, you know, or one of your speakers said earlier,
because he negotiated these agreements and now he doesn't like
that in the union's business because I did collective bargaining.
(40:28):
That's bargaining in bad faith, It truly is, and that
is difficult. The other part is the young lady that
called previously. I'd like to say she needs to read
Michael Lewis's book where he talks about government employees. I
have a sister who works for the government. You speak
more dedicated people. And if you really want to get
all boats lifted, let's go back to the nineteen fifties
(40:52):
when unionization was everything I had. The man that's in
the White House now wants to gut the NRB. That's
something we want. We want good, strong unions where people
have We need to all be making a living wage.
We need to. I'm telling you, I worked thirty years
(41:12):
every time we talked about daycare. We're still talking about it.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, and christ the wealthy people, we've got it. Yes,
thank you very much. I appreciate your call. And let
me go to Chad program there. You know, she brings
up the issue of the tax cuts, the corporate taxes,
and it is interesting that one thing it seems like
those in power right now in Washington can agree on
(41:38):
is that they want more tax cuts. They want to
extend the Trump tax cuts from twenty seventeen. Do you
think that they'll be able to do that given the
repercussions for the deficit.
Speaker 8 (41:47):
You hear me say this all the time. It's about
the math. One of the things I honed in to
today on that vote that they passed at two sixteen
to two fourteen. So in other words, had they flipped
one vote, they have a tie. The thing goes down
at the end of the vote. We'd heard all this
clamoring of all the House Conservatives, the Freedom Caucus members
old this wasn't going to cut enough money. There was
(42:08):
a caucus on the floor with Mike Johnson and these
moderate New York Republicans Mike Lawler from just outside the city,
Nicole Malley Takas who represents Staten Island and a little
bit of Brooklyn. They are very concerned about these cuts.
They are moderate, and they are interested in what's called salt,
the reduction for state in a high tax state, salt
(42:31):
as it's called, and the idea that if you don't
put salt into the bill here, then you're going to
have more potential for deficits, you see, because you have
that tax revenue coming in, and so they want their assurances.
So this is going to be very hard to cut
all these taxes, cut all this spending, and also, as
they say, balance the budget, I don't know how they
(42:52):
could possibly do that. I mean, as Chip Roy said today,
the math doesn't math. But that's going to be very challenging.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Let's get to Chris, who's in Longmont, Colorado. Hi, Chris,
welcome to the middle. Go ahead with your thoughts.
Speaker 19 (43:07):
Yeah, So, the past underd days have been a lot
As a Canadian dual citizen, I've been really you know,
my family and I have been really anxious watching the news,
seeing everything that's happening.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
You know.
Speaker 19 (43:20):
And I have to say that he's really put off
a lot of people. I know, people who voted for him,
they won't vote for you know, that party ever again.
So I think that he's alienated a lot of people. Also,
you know, Pierre Elliott Trudeau famously said that being next
door to the United States is like being neighbors with
(43:42):
an elephant, you know. And I think that the United
States has a responsibility to the countries around it. The
country's in, you know, not just North America, but Central America,
South America, Guam, all these other areas that we've directly
impacted and affected. We're now saying, Okay, you guys are
(44:02):
hungh out to dry. You guys can figure this out
on your own and then chin us to spilling in
that gap. So I don't know where I don't know
what they want.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
To do here, But as a dual citizen. Yeah, I
can imagine. It's been a troubling, troubling period of time.
We did a live show that was live across the
United States and Canada and heard from a lot of
Canadians who were very upset and a lot of Americans
who were apologizing also for what was happening. So, Chris,
thank you very much for that. Zoe sort of gets
(44:33):
back to what we were talking about earlier and that
you're seeing right there on the ground in Michigan.
Speaker 9 (44:38):
It absolutely does right and it's again, as I said,
a paradigm shift of who we sort of imagined to
be our friends and our allies. And then when you
look at the countries that aren't having any tariffs be
put on, and it's Russia, and some will say, well
that's because of their sanctions, but there were other countries
(44:58):
that had been sanctioned as well where there were tariffs,
and so it's one of these things that I think
on the foreign stage of many folks are bracing themselves for.
And again we still have, you know, three and a
half years left to go, and if this much can
change within less than three months, it's a lot that's
(45:19):
likely to come again. In the next three and a
half years.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
I'm going to sneak in one more caller Andrew in Irwin, Pennsylvania. Hi, Andrew,
go ahead briefly with your thoughts about the first one hundred.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Days of Trump.
Speaker 11 (45:31):
Hello, guys, thank you for taking my call. What I
want to comment on is more about the feelings people
have about him being a little more authoritative than people
are used to, which I think is a feeling that many,
including myself, of feeling the general secure idea that there's
(45:52):
certain things in this country you just can't do that
people usually have. Some people don't quite feel that way anymore,
or you know, news articles saying what's gonna happen people,
you know, things are being challenged that haven't quite the
challenge before. My My greatest comfort is that I think
(46:12):
that more than that, though, your Constitution specifically is a
very in certain areas, a very specific document, and there
are things that, no matter how hard anybody pushes, nobody
in the country, including people in government, people of their republic,
equality are gonna let fly. People aren't just gonna, you know,
(46:37):
throw away certain protections and and things that have not
been allowed in this country. Just because of this, this
one man.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Yeah, yeah, so you've got you've got faith in the Constitution.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Andrew, thank you.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
We'll have to leave it there, but Chad Pergram a
good note to end on. And I just wonder, as
somebody who follows this every single day, is there something
happening differently than what you expected in the first one
hundred days of the Trump presidency or is there something
big that you are expecting will happen that hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 8 (47:10):
Covering it from a congressional standpoint, it seemed like a
lot of his battles last time around were with the Congress.
This battle so far, it's with the markets, it's with
other countries, it's with government itself.
Speaker 7 (47:24):
And because, as I said toward the.
Speaker 8 (47:26):
Top of the show, you know, we seem to have
had that you know, change in the shift of where
the Republican Party is, and I think that's partly why
he's not meeting up on the Congress as much. I mean,
he was at loggerheads with Paul Ryan, certainly Mitch McConnell,
you know, who was the Republican leader in the Senate
all the time. They couldn't undo Obamacare, which is something
he campaigned on and promised, so that is very different.
(47:47):
So far he's getting what he wants from Congress. That
could change if they fail to pass, as he calls it,
the big beautiful bill.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
The big beautiful Bill.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Well, thank you so much to my guest Fox New
Senior Congressional Course by on a Chad program and Michigan
Public Political Director Zoe Clark.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
Thanks to you.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Both, pleasure, Thank you, Thanks Jeremy, and thanks to everyone
who called in. And by the way, you can leave
us a message if you didn't get through at eight
four four four six four three three five three. Don't
Forget the Middle is available as a podcast in partnership
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to podcasts, and we're doing this extra episode every week
called One Thing Trump Did, And coming up next week
it's going to be about Trump's designation of drug card
(48:26):
tells as terrorist organizations.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
And next week right back.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Here we are taking your questions on the economy with
former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
Oh wow. You can also as always call in at
eight four four four Middle that's eight four four four
six four three three five three. You can also reach
out and Listen to the Middle dot com. You can
also sign up for our free weekly newsletter, buy a
t shirt, and find a new section called Tolliver's Tidbit.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
So Katie, it's a great section.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
Some of your new music that you're listening to the
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(49:15):
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to the Middle.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I'm Jeremy Hobson along with our house DJ Tolliver and Taliver.
I'm going to start off by just coming clean about
one thing as we go to air. We are actually
a bit short of one hundred days of Trump's presidency.
But we were gonna do this show a bit later,
but it is actually quite hard to book guests.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yes, fault man.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
We got to take our guests where we can get.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Them, exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So we apologize to the one hundred day of purists
who don't think it's fair to assess a presidency before
you get to that exact number.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
We are going to do this show anyway.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Okay, And to be fair, a lot of our listeners
may feel more than one hundred years old after what
they've been watching with the stock market this week, man,
just in this last week with the tariffs.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And that's just one part of what we're going to
be talking about. Since Trump has come into office, he
has fired thousands of workers, appointed a cabinet of loyalists,
started unprecedented deportations, targeted law firms, media organizations, and educational
institutions that have crossed him, and most recently, as you said,
embarked on a global trade war. So what we want
to know from you is how are you feeling appalled, thrilled,
(01:22):
somewhere in between. That's our question this hour. Our number
is eight four to four four middle. That's eight four
four four six four three three five three, And we're
going to get to your calls in just a moment.
But first, last week we asked you what can be
done to improve legal immigration in the country. Here are
some of the comments that came in after the show.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
My name is George, calling from Champagne, Illinois. The power
of immigration to America is not limited to what we
can reap from immigrants here, but in the message that
successful immigration to America sends back home to the people
who choose not to come here.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
Yes, my name is Tanya Becker and I live in Montezoom, Colorado.
I agree with the moratorium on immigration because it's not
just about getting low skilled, low paid workers, but it's
looking at our other social services that are just firsting
at the scene. We need to deal with the immigrants,
(02:18):
communities and population we currently have.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
Hey, this is Brian from Canaan, New Hampshire. Why isn't
the media and the rest of us knocking on the
door of the Senate and House of Representative committees who
are charged with changing the laws of our lands. So
we have an immigration policy that has been updated since
nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well, thanks to everyone who called in.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
You can hear that entire episode on our podcast in
partnership with iHeart Podcasts on the iHeart app or wherever
you listen to podcasts, along with our extra episode One
Thing Trump Did, released weekly on the podcast. So now
to our tropic this hour, How do you feel about
the first one hundred days of Trump's presidency?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Tolliver the phone number please.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
It's eight four four four Middle that's eight four four
four six four three three five three, or you can
write to us that listen to the Middle dot com.
You can also comment on our live stream on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitch. I'm monitoring them all, so get him in on.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
All of them, including Twitch. LEAs to meet our panel.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Michigan Public Political Director Zoe Clark is with us. Zoe,
Great to have you back on the show, Hey Jeremy,
and also joining us Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad
Program Chad, welcome to the Middle.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Great to have you.
Speaker 7 (03:26):
Good evening, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Well, So, before we get to the phones, Chad, we're
gonna hear from ordinary Americans this hour. But you know
Capitol Hill better than just about any reporter there. How
is Trump's presidency playing out among lawmakers in both parties
so far? On Capitol Hill.
Speaker 8 (03:43):
Well, it's a little bit similar to what we saw
during the first Trump presidency, where there's a lot of reaction,
you know, from those of us in the press corps
covering it. You know, he will do something, he will
sign an executive order, he'll send out something on truth
social and there's reaction to that. So that's very similar.
One thing we've not seen as much, and we saw
this a lot in the first term, as you had
(04:04):
members on the Republican side of the always saying, oh,
I don't read the tweets or whatever. We learned that
that's kind of how he governs. He governs by sending
out these types of messages, and you have a Republican
party right now that is much more aligned with him
than was the case in twenty seventeen, so they're much
more you know, simpacado there. I think that people are
(04:25):
still reacting in that sense. I think a good example
of this over the past week was the you know,
chewing and froing with the tariffs. You had Republicans generally
standing behind him and saying, you know, I thought it
was interesting to listen to John Soon. You know, he's
the majority leader, represents Southota, a lot of agriculture there, absolutely,
(04:45):
and he was like, well, you know, he would give
these lines about well, if it's targeted, you know, if
these are things toward particular industries. Other Republicans would say,
you know, we should you be patient urge patients. For
a while there, that was a pretty solid message we
were hearing from most, but you had some others like
Don Bacon, a Republican from Omaha, one of the swingiest
districts in the country.
Speaker 7 (05:06):
He's a Republican who represents.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
Omaha, and he said, you know, you know, look, that's
a problem here. You had other people interjecting that they said, maybe,
you know, Congress should have a role in this. If
you look at the Constitution and you look at the
emergency provision that he was using, it does say that
there should be this consultation with Congress. Buried yesterday in
(05:28):
this procedural rule as it's called, that comes to the
House floor, this was to get the framework for the
so called big beautiful bill that they passed today in
the House of Representatives. Buried in that was a provision
which turned off the authority of the House of Representatives
to interfere with the tariffs until in one case September thirtieth,
(05:50):
and another till the rest of the year. And there
were some people who were quite upset with that. And
that's why, you know, Mike Turner, Republican of Ohio, he
voted against the rule.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
But Mikenson, the Speaker of the House, definitely on the
page of let's let President Trump do what he wants
to do with the tariffs so far, and he's the
one with the most power there. Zoe Clark, what about
in the key swing state of Michigan, a state that,
by the way, has voted for the winner of the
presidential election every time since two thousand and eight. What
are you hearing from people right now?
Speaker 9 (06:20):
I mean, first of all, let's just sort of set
the table that, like you said, we are doing this
about the first one hundred days, but what sort of
the joke like the first week felt like one hundred days,
The first day felt like one hundred years that we've
all lived through. You know, we have often talked about
just sort of the news cycle, and so Michiganders, folks
(06:41):
across the country are dealing with that. But if we're
talking about this microcosm this past week of again, what
feels like the past one hundred years here in Michigan.
More than a quarter of a million jobs are directly
tied to the auto industry. Some fifty billion dollars goes
directly between Michigan and Canada are trading partners. You know,
(07:03):
it's often said that when America catches a cold, Michigan
catches the flu. When we're talking about the economy, and
so over the past couple weeks now we're seeing just fear,
we're also seeing some excitement and some really strange bedfellows.
I mean, you had the president of the UAW coming
(07:24):
out and basically saying, you know, tariffs they're not all
that bad right, in fact, if anything, saying that he
sort of endorses this idea. And this is how Donald
Trump won in two sixteen, and it's how he won
a few months ago, which is in this rust belt
area of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, places that have been
(07:47):
hit because of previous trade agreements. And we'll talk a
lot about that. But so what we're seeing right now
in Michigan, which is a microcosm of the country. It's
why we're a swingyest of swing states. A lot of
interest right now over the past week, particularly visa Viva Economy.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Okay, well, let's get a Michigander into this conversation. Another
one into this conversation. Luke is in Portland, Michigan. Luke,
go ahead, what do you think of the first one
hundred days of Trump?
Speaker 10 (08:14):
Yes, I gotta say I cannot be happier with the
President's performance in the first one hundred days of this presidency.
This is everything I voted for. And every week just
seems to bring another thing to be excited about. This terror,
the task last week, we're exciting. The deportations before that,
we're exciting. It just keeps getting better and better.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Why were the tariffs exciting for you?
Speaker 10 (08:36):
Yeah? I think that major firms in this country have
gotten wealthy off of the expropriation of our industrial base
for a long time, and it was pretty cool to
see them freaking out while Trump tried to, you know,
go about not only correcting the record of China versus
free you know, fair trade, but also correcting the record
(08:57):
with firms that have sold out the rest belt for
the past thirty forty fifty years. That was exciting. And
then just as just as Trump sort of promised, right,
the market went down, and then the market went back up,
and so we kind of got everything that we wanted
and it costs us nothing.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
And that was all.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
But you don't see the fact that the market went
back up was because Trump pulled back away from what
he said he was going to do.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Did that bother you that he he.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Said, Okay, actually, no, we're going to pause this for
ninety days.
Speaker 7 (09:25):
No.
Speaker 10 (09:25):
I think one hundred and fifty percent tariff on China
and the ten percent tariff in every country is exactly
what I voted for. A pause is a pause. I
don't think that there's no there's no saying that that
wasn't a strategy all along, and it's still a tariff,
and it's still hurting China, it's still helping America.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I think it's great, Luke, thanks for that call. Chad program.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
I imagine we're going to hear many different views on
the tariffs in this hour, and I imagine that there
are a lot of different views on the tariffs in Washington,
even as you said, among Republicans.
Speaker 8 (09:58):
Yeah, probably the biggest voice on this who has spoken
out against the terraffs has been Rand Paul, the Republican
Center from Kentucky. He argued yesterday. He says there is
no such thing as unfair trade. If China makes a product,
or somebody in Asia makes a product and somebody here wants.
Speaker 7 (10:13):
To buy it, guess what, that's fair trade.
Speaker 8 (10:16):
He was talking about the price of, say, getting a
pair of shoes that maybe is made in Vietnam, where
before you.
Speaker 7 (10:22):
Know it cost one hundred dollars.
Speaker 8 (10:23):
If you were going to set up that plant here,
let alone get the materials and the worksmanship and everything
else to make those shoes, he said, suddenly it's going
to cost one hundred and fifty hundred and seventy five dollars.
Speaker 7 (10:33):
And again, Ran.
Speaker 8 (10:33):
Paul is one of those senators who has talked about
asserting the authority of Congress in this and again, you know,
to go back to this, you know, back and forth
about the terraffs and we're going to have terraffs or
they're going to pause them for ninety days or whatnot.
I was in the hearing room with the US Trade
Representative Jamison Greer yesterday. He did not seem like he
(10:54):
was dialed into this change that was coming. He was
sitting right there at the witness table. Corsford, the Democratic
representative from Nevada, really got his claws.
Speaker 7 (11:05):
Into him at one point said WTF.
Speaker 8 (11:07):
And I chase Greer down the hall of the Longworth
House office building, and there's video of this, said, were
you not dialed in? Was there the possibility of insider
trading on this? And he really didn't have any answers
that he provided in the hall.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Well, and it gets to the point that you've made before,
which is that Trump has a lot of the power
here and a lot of people are just reacting to
what he does. Tolliver, It's almost hard to recount all
the things that Trump has done in the last few months.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Oh you know what that calls romontage, right, Yes, do
you have one?
Speaker 4 (11:38):
I do? I get one? Right here?
Speaker 10 (11:40):
Your state is going to control your children's education.
Speaker 9 (11:44):
We're moving it out of Why.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I should I don't know. I think I'm not allowed
to run again.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
I'm not sure am I allowed to run again.
Speaker 11 (11:51):
We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf
of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
The US will take over.
Speaker 10 (11:58):
The Gaza Strip and we will do a job with
it too.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
We'll own it.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
We have to have Greenland.
Speaker 10 (12:03):
It will henceforth be the official policy of the United
States government that there are only two genders, male and female.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
That reminds me, Tolliver, we need to do a show
about Greenland. I think we've covered almost every one of
those topics other than Greenland.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
But right, oh my god, we got Canada.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
We got to go to Greenland.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Now we could do it from Greenland.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Right, We'll be right back with more of your calls
coming up on the Middle. This is the Middle. I'm
Jeremy Hobson. If you're just tuning in the Middle is
a national call in show. We are focused on elevating
voices from the middle, geographically, politically, philosophically, or maybe you
just want to meet in the middle. This hour, we're
asking you how you feel about Trump's first one hundred days. Tolliver,
(12:44):
what is the number to call in?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
It's eight four four four Middle. That's eight four four
four six four three three five three. You can also
write to us at Listen to the Middle dot com
or on all social media.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
I'm joined by Fox New Senior congressional correspondent Chad Program
and Michigan Public Political Director Zoe Clark. And the phone
lines are lit up, So let's get to another caller.
Jill in Kennesaw, Georgia is with US high.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Jill, go ahead with your thoughts.
Speaker 12 (13:07):
Oh, hi, Jeremy. My thoughts are that I'm actually very
horrified over what's happened. I think there's no strategy. I
think it's chaotic, purposely chaotic, and actually very frightening and
embarrassing as a US citizen. I'm horrified.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
What is the thing that horrifies you the most? Out
of we just heard all of those different snippets of
different things Trump has done since he became president.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Again, what gets you the most, well, I.
Speaker 12 (13:35):
Mean there's just a ton of things. But the tariffs
is crazy. The firing of federal workers with no thought,
no strategy is scary. I live in Atlanta. The CDC
and the firing of thirty five percent of the staff,
I mean, I can go on and on, taking over Greenland.
I mean, there's just nothing, nothing that makes me feel good.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, Jill, thank you for that call. Chad program.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
The firing of federal workers, it's sort of been drip, drip, drip.
But then you hear there's thousands in this organization, thousands
in that organization. Do you have a sense of the
overall of what's been happening with the firing of federal workers.
Speaker 8 (14:10):
Well, the one thing that Congress is talking about is that,
you know, you have to codify some of these changes.
If you're going to cut all these jobs, if you're
going to cut all this money for these departments, that
has to be codified. And this framework that was approved
by the House of Representatives today, supposedly, according to Mike Johnson,
the Speaker, they might put some of these so called
Doge cuts into that.
Speaker 7 (14:32):
I can tell you from somebody who lives in the Washington.
Speaker 8 (14:34):
DC area, you know there's a lot of people who
you know I talked to who are friends or neighbors,
some people saying, you know, should I go, should I
take the buyout? You know, Doge was in my department
last week, so to speak. You know, we think we
came out unscathed. That conversation is something that's being heard
consistently in and around Washington. And you know, the Washington
(14:55):
economy was always kind of thought to be insulated from
these other types of shocks that you might have in St.
Michigan or other parts of the Midwest. You know, as
you talked about the so called rust belt there, it
wasn't the case in Washington. That might be changing now
as they eliminate all these jobs in Washington and kind
of diversify where the federal government is.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
What about in Michigan, Zoe Clark, are you seeing effects
of the job cuts that have been happening with federal workers?
Speaker 7 (15:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (15:21):
I mean, let's just first again, as I feel like
I'm the one that's like, let's set the table, so
let's keep setting the table, which is, of course, so
much of this still is in courts, right, so as
we watch all of this back and forth, it's lawsuits
that have been brought so right now, when we're talking
about sort of federal courts, it's sort of like which
jobs and where. But I can tell you here in
(15:42):
the state of Michigan, we have a lot of national forests, right,
and so we have federal workers. And so there's a
lot of talk about what is this actually going to
look like in the summer tourism season, right when literally
folks whose jobs it is is to keep trails open
can't I mean, Michigan aside from manufacturing, you know, the
state that put the world on the wheels is the
(16:02):
first of the economy manufacturing, second, you know, is agriculture. Right,
we also have offices EPA offices where they are federal
workers that have been laid off at least right now.
As again, it goes through the courts, and so, I mean,
much like any other state, you're seeing it happen in
all of these different facets, and it feels like there's
(16:24):
always someone that knows someone right or family member, a
cousin or something like that, and that's continuing to spread.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Well, the federal government is the largest employer in the country,
so people are going to know people, especially as these
cuts continue Let's go to Kelly, who's in Albert Lee, Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Hi, Kelly, go ahead him.
Speaker 13 (16:44):
I'm terrified by the last one. First one hundred days,
it seems like forever, and it seems like it was
just a minute ago. And yet so much damage has
been done in that amount of time, and there's so
much on certainty and can.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
What are you thinking of specifically, Kelly?
Speaker 4 (17:04):
What? What?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
What troubles you the most?
Speaker 13 (17:10):
You know, he's destroying our standing in the world, attacking
our allies. Just I feel like it's almost a dictatorship.
There's no checks or balances Republicans, nobody is holding Trump
and Musk in check. They just are just kind of
(17:31):
running rampant and almost as if they're intentionally trying to
sabotage the government and our democracy.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
HM.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Kelly, thank you for that called Chad program. Take take
that one on and just either your response, your reaction
to it, to hearing that.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Are you hearing that on Capitol Hill?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
But also the the change in foreign policy that's happened.
There's been a lot so far.
Speaker 8 (17:58):
Yeah, and that's where members, certainly on the Democratic side
of the aisle, they've said, you know, look, we're destroying
certain relationships with allies. When you talk about the intelligence
community and how this trust is built, you know, to
share information.
Speaker 7 (18:13):
That's a big one right there.
Speaker 8 (18:15):
You know, when you when you start to you know,
having you know, these talks and calling Canada the fifty
first state and calling the Prime minister, governor, you know,
and things. You know, some members of Congress and said,
you know, that's below the President of the United States
to be talking like that, and it seems to have hardened,
you know, the resolve of the Canadians at least in
that case. I'll bring this back to trade. People have said,
(18:38):
you know, with the tariffs and what's been going on
over the past two weeks, you know, they criticized Canada
and said, you know, they're really putting the screws to
us on this.
Speaker 7 (18:47):
But it was President Trump back during.
Speaker 8 (18:49):
Twenty twenty who negotiated you know, the USMCA, the United
States Mexico Canada Agreement with which was to replace NAFTA.
He did that alongside Nancy Pelosi, you know, who was
always kind of looking at scans at NAFTA, and somebody said, well,
you know who, what what country would agree to another
trade pack with the United States there's no trust there
and that's going to take years to build back the well.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
And in terms of Canada, Zoe Clark, you know, Detroit
is right across the bridge from Ontario and Windsor and
you are probably seeing firsthand not just boycotts of US goods,
but the I think there's been a seventy percent drop
in Canadian tourists coming over the border.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
What how has the the.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Trump move on Canada and all the things he's done
with Canada affected things where you are?
Speaker 9 (19:37):
Yeah, things aren't great. It's like, you know what the relationship,
it's complicated. You know, folks are angry at the United States.
They are disappointed, there are We're already seeing signs right
by Canadian not selling this, not selling that from America.
(19:57):
You know, we are much closer to Windsor. I mean,
this is what people do. They go across the bridge,
they come back. There's frustration, there's there was you know,
hockey games right and booing. I mean, of course it's
a hockey game, folks are going to boo. But people
standing when the Canadian you know, national anthem is being.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Played, Americans standing.
Speaker 9 (20:18):
No, sorry, Canadians standing in Americans doing exactly yeah, correct,
it's been fascinating to see. And as Chad was talking
about these long term relationships, so that's for Michigan and Canada,
but I mean you can see that with conversations that
we're having with the EU and Britain, right, I mean,
(20:39):
just just these partners that for decades and decades and
decades felt like solidified friends that you you could turn to,
and we're just seeing a complete paradigm shift, right that,
whether that be our neighbors in Canada or halfway around
the world.
Speaker 7 (20:56):
And I have one quick point about Canada.
Speaker 8 (20:58):
This is something happened on the Hill, yes, and under
other circumstances we never would.
Speaker 7 (21:03):
Have paid attention to it. They confirmed.
Speaker 8 (21:05):
The Senate confirmed Pete Hookstro, the former Michigan congressman, as
the ambassador to Canada. I note that the ambassador to
Canada under Joe Biden was not confirmed until late November
of twenty twenty one, so this is pretty early on
and he got confirmed sixty votes. Okay, Pete Hookster, he's
been an ambassador before, he was ambassador to the Netherlands.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
But just the idea that there was a.
Speaker 8 (21:26):
Focus on who is going to be the ambassador to
Canada and what this job is going to be like.
That's not something we've ever had before.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah, Tolliver, what is coming in online?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yeah? Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota says I have no
trust in the current administration.
Speaker 10 (21:41):
We have foreign.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Policy by extortion, and the wild fluctuations in the stock
market to due to the contradictory tariff announcements is creating
a perfect storm for insider trading. Christina and Elkhart, Indiana
says Trump's first one hundred days is deshavu PTSD rolled together.
I worry about my investments, my democracy, and the world
wide body of politics being decimated, and this might be
(22:03):
my favorite. Mark says, I don't know what I'm more
scared of the first hundred days of Trump or the
potential first hundred.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Days of JD. Vans Man.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I can tell you JD. Vans is taking on the
channel line. Don't know if you've been seeing this the memes.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yes, there's a lot of means of JD. Evans.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Let's go to Scotty, who's in Augusta, Georgia. Hi, Scotty,
welcome to the middle. What are your thoughts on the
first one hundred days of.
Speaker 14 (22:24):
Trump, Hi, Jeremy big fan, Missal Marketplace. But when the
norm has become the acceptance of political candidates who win elections,
take office and then follows you on practically nothing they
promise during the campaign, here you have somebody who's hit
the ground running and doing something. I think a lot
of the outrage is misplaced. And while I'm not necessarily
(22:46):
agree with the haphazard and hand hammered way they go
about some things, I'm not mired into despair that this
country's been in the last four years, and this is
actually the hope that I can believe in.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Now.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
You're happy that he's getting things done.
Speaker 14 (23:02):
Exactly I mean, I mean political campaign promises of the
norm and not followings. You know, there's just come to
accept that, And I think that's where the outrage should be,
not that he was doing something. You might not agree
with what he's doing or how he's doing, but at
least he's doing something, which I said, the previous four years,
tell me what the standout achievements of that administration was,
(23:24):
and looking forward to another four years of that, no,
thank you. I at least have some hope. Now this
is the hope I can believe in.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Now, are you worried at all, Scotty, Just about the
economy right now, with all these blanket across the board
tariffs to friends and foes alike.
Speaker 14 (23:39):
Of course, I am in the gig economy, so the
less people spend, the less I'm going to make. I'm
trying to pay my bill. So yes, in the short term,
I think we're going to have to feel the pain
this country has flailed in so many areas for so
many years that something has to be done or is
only going to get worse. And that is actually worse
to me than the short term pain we might be feeling.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Now, Scottie, thank you for calling in and bringing me
back to marketplace that was a long time ago.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Chad program.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Just on the issue of getting things done, there are
a lot of Democrats right now and independence too, according
to the Poles who looking and saying, well, I don't
necessarily want these things to be the things that are
getting done, and I'm worried about the pace of what's
getting done. But I'm sure there are a lot of
Republicans in Congress who are very happy that things are
changing at the speed with which they are.
Speaker 8 (24:27):
Well, they're certainly seeing them from the administration standpoint, and
the reason the Republicans in Congress are happy to see
the things happening at the White House throughout the administration
is because Congress for decades now has continually seeded the
legislative authority, the Article one authority in the Constitution, to
the executive branch. In fact, it was Josh Hawley, the
Republican Center from Missouri yesterday who said, you know, the
(24:50):
reason that President Trump has taken the bull by the
horns on tariff and trade is because Congress didn't mess
with this for a while. It was too hot a potato.
He said, guess what President Trump is will to deal
with that. So I think that seating of power is
something that's been going on for a long time. I
think it's something that makes the job easier for Republicans,
which is why this struggle just to get this framework
(25:13):
through you know, the Senate to some degree, the House
is really going to be the problem. And then getting
these two together is just a monster task because that's
actually Congress having to do something, especially in the House.
Speaker 7 (25:24):
With these narrow margins.
Speaker 8 (25:25):
So as long as they can serve mostly on the
Republican side of the isle, as cheerleaders and support for
the administration and let him do the dirty work. The
Republican side of the isle in Congress is okay with that.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Bill is calling from Chicago. Bill, welcome to the middle.
Go ahead with your thoughts about the first one hundred
days of Trump.
Speaker 15 (25:45):
Hi, I would say that I am horrified and afraid.
There is a lot of talk about tariffs this evening,
but I actually that's not the first thing on my mind.
The first concern on my mind is the erosion of
civil rights and the weaponizing of the government against protest,
which is like Banana Republic level stuff, and also the
(26:07):
dismantling of the federal government. So willy nilly. I actually
am someone who believes that the government, even though it
is a clumsy and mysterious machine, does actually keep us
safe and healthy and keep the economy stable. And I
no longer feel like it can do that.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And we saw the news. Bill, you're in Chicago. Northwestern
University one of the latest targets of Trump in terms
of halting funding because of policies that he doesn't like
at the university.
Speaker 15 (26:38):
Yeah, that's Heritage Foundation stuff. Of course, that's the people
around him with the Heritage Foundation has headed out for universities,
and it's not because they're anti Semitic or it's just
because they're liberal. They're viewed as liberal places. So that's
all like a fig leaf. I mean, this has really
(26:59):
been a chance for the Heritage Foundation people around him
to dig their claws into public universities across the country
and private universities as well. It's bad. I mean, it's bad,
and people don't really understand the mechanics of what's going
on there.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, Bill, thank you very much for that call. Zoe Clark.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
You know you're coming to us from the home of
the University of Michigan. Is there concern there about what
he's talking about, the weaponization in Bill's view of the
government of the Trump administration going after institutions, including law
firms and universities.
Speaker 9 (27:32):
Yes, absolutely, and we should say, I mean, this idea
of sort of taking bites out of institutions has gone
back for a decade now with this president, whether it's
the institutions of sort of science and academia, whether it's
the institutions of journalism for example. But to your point, yes,
(27:52):
the University of Michigan is seeing huge cuts, particularly when
we're talking about any NIH grants and dollars that go
to medical research, for example, And so the university and
academics throughout the state and throughout the country, right, whether
you're talking about the University of Michigan or where you're
talking about Columbia, right, are trying to figure out what
(28:15):
you do and how far you are willing to sort
of succumb I can tell you that the University of
Michigan within just the past few weeks, has put out
a statement that they are closing all DEI offices. Folks
are already leaving the university in some higher up positions
who are overseeing those offices because of just pure anger
(28:38):
that they feel like the university is capitulating. And then
you're talking about student life. I can tell you that
here in Michigan there are many universities, not just the
University of Michigan, where students have had their visas revoked.
Speaker 15 (28:51):
Right.
Speaker 9 (28:51):
It made huge news a couple of weeks ago, but
again in this sort of day to day news cycle,
and we're losing sight of the fact that there're dozens
now that have gotten visus revoked and who are basically
being told to you know, go back to the countries
from which they came. So right, we're spending a lot
of time talking about the economy. Certainly, some of that
(29:12):
has to do with the fact that we know that's
what drove voters out to you know, the polling booths
last November, but we are seeing a lot having to
do with the day to day life that the caller
was just talking about that he's concerned about.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Well.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Interesting also that we're talking so much about the economy
because the tariffs have not even started to filter into
the things that we buy yet, but that could happen
very quickly, and then people are really going to start
to see you know, a ten percent or one hundred
and forty percent or whatever we're putting on China right
now in the in the cost of goods Tolliver. There
have been some growing protests around the country, but there
doesn't seem to be a leader to the opposition to
(29:50):
Trump so far.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Although we did have some sharp criticism from former President
Obama in a public event the other day, he's otherwise
been pretty quiet since Trump took office. But take a
listen to this.
Speaker 6 (30:02):
Imagine if I had done any of this. Let me
just I just I just want to be clear about this.
Speaker 7 (30:12):
Imagine that you imagine if I had pulled Fox News's
credentials from the White House Press Court.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
You're laughing, but no, that this is what's happening.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
I don't know, man, That tan suit was pretty gregious.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
I don't think you mentioned that in that but that
would have been a good moment to bring it up.
We'll be right back with more calls on the Middle.
This is the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson, and this hour
we're asking you how you feel about Trump's first one
hundred days. You can call us at eight four four
four Middle. That's eight four four four six four three
three five three. You can also reach out to us
(30:56):
at listen Toothemiddle dot com. My guests are Michigan Public
Political Director Zoe Clark and Fox News Senior congressional correspondent
Chad Program And the phone lines are full. So let's
go to Seth, who is in Barnard, Vermont. Hi, Seth,
what do you think so far of Trump's presidency?
Speaker 16 (31:12):
I cannot hear that name. And for the record, I'm
very concerned that we're looking at a situation where we
have thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of jobs on the
line in this country at the moment, and we're looking
at a situation where the National Endowment for the Humanities,
(31:33):
our museums and libraries have been cut from funding. And
that means quite literally that our publishers, our artists, our writers,
our teachers, our academics, and our children will suffer because
(31:53):
they're not able.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
To learn giving.
Speaker 16 (31:57):
But if we do not support those whom were looking
out for us in our culture, whom will support us
thinking about international allies and our present humanitarian situation, specifically,
our human intelligence for the present and future generations are
at stake if we do not prize back and fund
(32:21):
those whom look out for our culture.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Seth, I'm so glad you brought that up. Thank you
very much for that call and TAD program. It gets
to the issue of our cultural institutions. We haven't talked
about this, but you know, Trump has made himself the
chairman of the board of the Kennedy Center. He's now
going into the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and saying I
want you to focus on this and not that.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
What about that?
Speaker 1 (32:43):
What about the the Trump's role in our cultural institutions?
Speaker 8 (32:47):
Well, that's going to be something very interesting to watch
if they really start to, you know, change some of
the exhibits and displays. You know, Zoe talked about you know,
trails and forests and parks.
Speaker 7 (32:58):
Not being open.
Speaker 8 (32:59):
You know, that's the thing that people you know, come
to Washington, d c. To see and whether or not,
you know, that really starts to evolve. I want to
see what types of shows that they put on at
the Kennedy Center.
Speaker 7 (33:10):
You know.
Speaker 8 (33:10):
He commented the other day that he didn't think much
of Hamilton, he said, he said, but we're going to
have some big hips theater. I thought Hamilton was probably
as big a hit as you could possibly have. In fact,
I saw it at the Kennedy Center several years ago.
But that said, you know the thing I want to
watch and I'll bring it back to Congress.
Speaker 7 (33:26):
Just this evening, the.
Speaker 8 (33:28):
Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Susan Collins of Maine
and Patty Murray of Washington State, the Democrats, he's the
top Democrat on that committee, said they're starting the appropriations
process for fiscal year twenty twenty six, which will be
in in October. I want to see where that money
is cut, whether it goes up or down in those
appropriations bills, as the caller stated, you know, for the
(33:49):
National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities,
and you could see them trying to zero things out
in the House of Representatives.
Speaker 7 (33:57):
That's not new.
Speaker 8 (33:57):
They've done that type of thing, even public casting, you know,
that's something that goes back to the new Gingrich days
in the mid nineteen nineties. But when it comes to that,
that's going to be very challenging in the Senate. Why
because a the Senators generally think about these things a
little bit differently because they represent larger swaths of people.
And number two, just the idea that you need to
(34:18):
get sixty votes to overcome a filibuster and to pass
any one of those bills or a clump of those bills,
you're going to need sixty votes. And John Thune has
talked about I want to move the bills individually throughout
the year. He's criticized Chuck Schumer when he was the
majority leader last year. So guess what they might talk
a good game, but I want to see what that
number figure looks like in those appropriations bills.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
So just to be clear here, Chad and you can
make some news here for our four hundred and thirty
public radio stations listening to this. You think that it
will be harder for Congress to actually zero out funding
for public broadcasting.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
For any of those types of programs. Yeah, because again,
it might be zeroed.
Speaker 8 (34:57):
Out in the House, and they've done that in other
appropriations bills, but again to do it in the Scent
because of the sixty vote threshold to move that bill
or anything that has any sort of a cultural, artistic
or humanities.
Speaker 7 (35:11):
Or something like that, that's going to be talking. That's
gonna be very difficult.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Okay, let's go to Jenny, who's in Mission, Kansas. Hi, Jenny,
what do you think so far of the Trump presidency?
Speaker 17 (35:22):
Well, yes, I'm in the middle in almost every sent word.
I was a Trump voter in twenty sixteen, I was
a Biden voter in twenty twenty, and I was a
non voter in twenty twenty four. And I feel like
I'm just sort of observing from a distance. Honestly, I
(35:42):
feel like these hundred days are as advertised kind of
what he said, I mean, whether you like it or not.
And I certainly have things I like and things I don't,
but none of this should be like a huge surprise.
I mean, I think what's really frustrating me is the
(36:03):
focus of the people losing their jobs from the federal
government when there are people being laid off in the
private sector, which by the way, funds the federal government,
and with very little severance. There's no protections for us.
My company had layoffs the very weak. These started with
(36:26):
the federal government, and we were all looking at each
other like, wait, they're getting how many months of severance?
I mean, I just feel like there's so little recognition
in the media of the private sector, those of us
working not government jobs, and I'm kind of really sick
(36:46):
of seeing just this idea that these jobs are somehow
that they're supposed to be protected, when the rest of
us are the ones footing the bill for them. So
I may not really lie like the ham handed way.
I think somebody used that before. It's very ham handed.
There's a lot to not like. I'm not going to
(37:07):
disagree with that, but I think the level of just
pearl clutching is also very off putting.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Jenny, thank you very much for that call, and with
your voting record, you are most certainly in the middle there,
Zoe Clark, I imagine in the state of Michigan.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
And you know, we haven't talked.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
About this yet, but there are all the Arab American
voters that kind of switched from supporting Biden in twenty
twenty to either supporting Trump or supporting Jill Stein will
Stein because of the situation in Gaza.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, what do you make of that call from Jenny?
Speaker 9 (37:43):
Well, I mean, at first, I want to say something
that Jenny said first, which is that, my goodness, I'm
so sorry to hear about your job, and I empathize
with you. But one of the things that I think
is really fascinating when I've heard folks who sort of
say this line, And Jenny, if you're still maybe you
can tell me a little bit more what you think
when I say this. But I'm so curious about where
we got to this point in the United States where
(38:06):
you hear about someone else sort of losing their job
and then it's well, what about me? Right, that there
was this time sort of in I'd like to think
maybe you know, farther back than I can remember, where
it was sort of we can all be okay, right,
all boats rise, and now it very much feels like
it's well, you know, yeah, they're suffering, but my suffering
(38:28):
is bigger. And I'm not trying to discount that. But
this idea, well, what if everybody had enough, what if
we all were able to be okay? And sort of this,
there's just not enough to go around. And I think
it's something that's really changed in the United States over
the past few decades about how we see each other,
that it feels like we're against each other, that if
(38:50):
you have more than I have, it's not okay. And
the haves and have nots is getting bigger. So that's
not shocking. But when I've talked to a lot of
voters who say this, it's not fair that so and
so gets this. It's not fair that we're giving these
dollars to a different country when we should be giving
them to our cities, for example. So I don't know
(39:11):
if Jenny's still on the line, but I'm.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Not on the line anymore. But yeah, but I'm sure
she heard all of that. Let's get to Christine, who's
in Syracuse, Indiana. Hi, Christine, tell us about your your
thoughts about the Trump presidency so far.
Speaker 18 (39:25):
Well, I'm a Union member, I was a member of
the IBW. I've listened to Sean Fain. We've developed a
global economy, and the global economy has brought in prices down.
My difficulty has always been, and we started in twenty
seventeen because Trump tried to direct his encouragement and get
(39:46):
votes from union members. Well, his twenty seventeen tax bill
blew up our deficit. And within that tax bill, according
to the Taxation and Economic Policy Nonproper nonpartisan Organization, there
is a little something in there that if you invested overseas,
(40:07):
you didn't pay anything in the way of corporate income taxes,
which incentivized the moving of even more jobs. And that
was Donald Trump. And as one of your collars had
said earlier, you know, or one of your speakers said earlier,
because he negotiated these agreements and now he doesn't like
that in the union's business because I did collective bargaining.
(40:28):
That's bargaining in bad faith, It truly is, and that
is difficult. The other part is the young lady that
called previously. I'd like to say she needs to read
Michael Lewis's book where he talks about government employees. I
have a sister who works for the government. You speak
more dedicated people. And if you really want to get
all boats lifted, let's go back to the nineteen fifties
(40:52):
when unionization was everything I had. The man that's in
the White House now wants to gut the NRB. That's
something we want. We want good, strong unions where people
have We need to all be making a living wage.
We need to. I'm telling you, I worked thirty years
(41:12):
every time we talked about daycare. We're still talking about it.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, and christ the wealthy people, we've got it. Yes,
thank you very much. I appreciate your call. And let
me go to Chad program there. You know, she brings
up the issue of the tax cuts, the corporate taxes,
and it is interesting that one thing it seems like
those in power right now in Washington can agree on
(41:38):
is that they want more tax cuts. They want to
extend the Trump tax cuts from twenty seventeen. Do you
think that they'll be able to do that given the
repercussions for the deficit.
Speaker 8 (41:47):
You hear me say this all the time. It's about
the math. One of the things I honed in to
today on that vote that they passed at two sixteen
to two fourteen. So in other words, had they flipped
one vote, they have a tie. The thing goes down
at the end of the vote. We'd heard all this
clamoring of all the House Conservatives, the Freedom Caucus members
old this wasn't going to cut enough money. There was
(42:08):
a caucus on the floor with Mike Johnson and these
moderate New York Republicans Mike Lawler from just outside the city,
Nicole Malley Takas who represents Staten Island and a little
bit of Brooklyn. They are very concerned about these cuts.
They are moderate, and they are interested in what's called salt,
the reduction for state in a high tax state, salt
(42:31):
as it's called, and the idea that if you don't
put salt into the bill here, then you're going to
have more potential for deficits, you see, because you have
that tax revenue coming in, and so they want their assurances.
So this is going to be very hard to cut
all these taxes, cut all this spending, and also, as
they say, balance the budget, I don't know how they
(42:52):
could possibly do that. I mean, as Chip Roy said today,
the math doesn't math. But that's going to be very challenging.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Let's get to Chris, who's in Longmont, Colorado. Hi, Chris,
welcome to the middle. Go ahead with your thoughts.
Speaker 19 (43:07):
Yeah, So, the past underd days have been a lot
As a Canadian dual citizen, I've been really you know,
my family and I have been really anxious watching the news,
seeing everything that's happening.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
You know.
Speaker 19 (43:20):
And I have to say that he's really put off
a lot of people. I know, people who voted for him,
they won't vote for you know, that party ever again.
So I think that he's alienated a lot of people. Also,
you know, Pierre Elliott Trudeau famously said that being next
door to the United States is like being neighbors with
(43:42):
an elephant, you know. And I think that the United
States has a responsibility to the countries around it. The
country's in, you know, not just North America, but Central America,
South America, Guam, all these other areas that we've directly
impacted and affected. We're now saying, Okay, you guys are
(44:02):
hungh out to dry. You guys can figure this out
on your own and then chin us to spilling in
that gap. So I don't know where I don't know
what they want.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
To do here, But as a dual citizen. Yeah, I
can imagine. It's been a troubling, troubling period of time.
We did a live show that was live across the
United States and Canada and heard from a lot of
Canadians who were very upset and a lot of Americans
who were apologizing also for what was happening. So, Chris,
thank you very much for that. Zoe sort of gets
(44:33):
back to what we were talking about earlier and that
you're seeing right there on the ground in Michigan.
Speaker 9 (44:38):
It absolutely does right and it's again, as I said,
a paradigm shift of who we sort of imagined to
be our friends and our allies. And then when you
look at the countries that aren't having any tariffs be
put on, and it's Russia, and some will say, well
that's because of their sanctions, but there were other countries
(44:58):
that had been sanctioned as well where there were tariffs,
and so it's one of these things that I think
on the foreign stage of many folks are bracing themselves for.
And again we still have, you know, three and a
half years left to go, and if this much can
change within less than three months, it's a lot that's
(45:19):
likely to come again. In the next three and a
half years.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
I'm going to sneak in one more caller Andrew in Irwin, Pennsylvania. Hi, Andrew,
go ahead briefly with your thoughts about the first one hundred.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Days of Trump.
Speaker 11 (45:31):
Hello, guys, thank you for taking my call. What I
want to comment on is more about the feelings people
have about him being a little more authoritative than people
are used to, which I think is a feeling that many,
including myself, of feeling the general secure idea that there's
(45:52):
certain things in this country you just can't do that
people usually have. Some people don't quite feel that way anymore,
or you know, news articles saying what's gonna happen people,
you know, things are being challenged that haven't quite the
challenge before. My My greatest comfort is that I think
(46:12):
that more than that, though, your Constitution specifically is a
very in certain areas, a very specific document, and there
are things that, no matter how hard anybody pushes, nobody
in the country, including people in government, people of their republic,
equality are gonna let fly. People aren't just gonna, you know,
(46:37):
throw away certain protections and and things that have not
been allowed in this country. Just because of this, this
one man.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Yeah, yeah, so you've got you've got faith in the Constitution.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Andrew, thank you.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
We'll have to leave it there, but Chad Pergram a
good note to end on. And I just wonder, as
somebody who follows this every single day, is there something
happening differently than what you expected in the first one
hundred days of the Trump presidency or is there something
big that you are expecting will happen that hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 8 (47:10):
Covering it from a congressional standpoint, it seemed like a
lot of his battles last time around were with the Congress.
This battle so far, it's with the markets, it's with
other countries, it's with government itself.
Speaker 7 (47:24):
And because, as I said toward the.
Speaker 8 (47:26):
Top of the show, you know, we seem to have
had that you know, change in the shift of where
the Republican Party is, and I think that's partly why
he's not meeting up on the Congress as much. I mean,
he was at loggerheads with Paul Ryan, certainly Mitch McConnell,
you know, who was the Republican leader in the Senate
all the time. They couldn't undo Obamacare, which is something
he campaigned on and promised, so that is very different.
(47:47):
So far he's getting what he wants from Congress. That
could change if they fail to pass, as he calls it,
the big beautiful bill.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
The big beautiful Bill.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Well, thank you so much to my guest Fox New
Senior Congressional Course by on a Chad program and Michigan
Public Political Director Zoe Clark.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
Thanks to you.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Both, pleasure, Thank you, Thanks Jeremy, and thanks to everyone
who called in. And by the way, you can leave
us a message if you didn't get through at eight
four four four six four three three five three. Don't
Forget the Middle is available as a podcast in partnership
with iHeart Podcasts on the iHeart app wherever you listen
to podcasts, and we're doing this extra episode every week
called One Thing Trump Did, And coming up next week
it's going to be about Trump's designation of drug card
(48:26):
tells as terrorist organizations.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
And next week right back.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Here we are taking your questions on the economy with
former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
Oh wow. You can also as always call in at
eight four four four Middle that's eight four four four
six four three three five three. You can also reach
out and Listen to the Middle dot com. You can
also sign up for our free weekly newsletter, buy a
t shirt, and find a new section called Tolliver's Tidbit.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
So Katie, it's a great section.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
Some of your new music that you're listening to the
Middle is brought to you Briy Longook Media, Distributed by
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(49:15):
to the Middle, I'm Jeremy Hobson, and I'll talk to
you next week.
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