February 17, 2025 • 34 mins
In this episode, Tudor discusses the shifting political landscape in Michigan, particularly the growing support for Donald Trump among Arab-Americans. Mayor Bill Bazzi shares his personal experiences growing up in war-torn Lebanon, highlighting the impact of conflict on childhood and the longing for peace. The conversation also delves into the current state of the Middle East and the potential for peace under Trump's leadership. Finally, they explore the future of Michigan's economy, particularly the auto industry, and the importance of keeping jobs in the state. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network. For more visit TudorDixonPodcast.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I want to talk
about something that happened in the election that you all
heard about. You heard about suddenly Donald Trump in the
election getting Muslim and Arab support, Arab American support in
the state of Michigan. And this is kind of like
a shock to people. They're like, wait a minute, Wait
a minute. This group has historically gone with Democrats, but
(00:22):
it's been slowly changing. So if you weren't paying too
clods of attention, it changed a little bit in twenty sixteen,
more in twenty twenty. Then we saw a bigger switch
over in twenty twenty two, and then in twenty four
it was the largest amount of the Arab American population
in Michigan that went for a Republican ever. And I
(00:43):
think that what we saw in these last few years
was that our values are more aligned than we really knew.
And I think that there's been a push from the
media to keep us apart. But really, if you look
at the Christian and Muslim values very similar, when you
talk about making sure that your family is protected, you know,
(01:05):
when you look at what the schools are teaching, when
you look at boys and girls sports, all these things.
We're very aligned, and so we saw something interesting happen
with a couple of the mayors in our Arab American community.
So we had the mayor of ham Tramick on. You
may remember Mayor glib was on and he talked about
his support of Donald Trump. Well, now I'm pleased to
(01:27):
have Mayor Bill Bosi, he is the mayor of Dearborn
Heights and Mayor Bozzie. You also endorsed Donald Trump during
the campaign, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yes, I did, and I'm proud to have done the
endorsement and I'm really grateful with the results.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Well we are grateful with the results too. But I
know that it wasn't easy, and I know that it
continues to not be easy because there's always going to
be a push for certain communities to go back to
the Democrat Party and anything that happens in Washington, d C.
I know you hear about it on a regular basis.
And we were with you a few days ago talking
about what's going on in the state of Michigan and
(02:07):
what's going on in the Middle East, and you were
telling me some of the stories from your childhood, and
I was thinking, man, I'd really love to have you
tell these stories on the podcast, because I think people
need to hear it from your standpoint. We've heard, we've
had folks on from Israel and talking about what it
was like growing up there, what it's like today with
the I guess we'd call it a civil war that's
(02:28):
going on between Gods and Israel. You lived in Lebanon
as a child, and you told us some stories that
I think American people just don't even recognize, of seeing
kids shot by snipers right in front of you. I
wanted you to share a little bit about what that
was like.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, so you know, I obviously I was born in
Lebanon and I was born in South Lebanons, a bit Dishbael,
just just reborder Israel. You know, that's the village, and
you know the village is is has had some you know,
there's been issues between Israel and the city. You know,
(03:06):
got bombarded, you know, several times, you know, especially when
I was living there. I was so I was born there.
We lived in Bay Route most of the time my
earlier days. Then during the war when the war started,
uh in the seventies, let's mid seventies, we moved to
south to the south which has been to sad and
(03:29):
that town basically was we had to leave Bay Route
because of that. So I was close to ten years
all at the time, and you know, basically if you
need anything, you had to go across this railroad track.
I remember it like it was yesterday, and you have
to basically warm up and just like basically just run
as fast as you can to go across the railroad
(03:52):
track because on the other side there used to be
a bakery so buy bread. And during that time there
was a lot of you know places that closed because
of the Civil War. You know, snipers are everywhere, and
you know the snipers used to take out kids, you know,
because you know a lot of the kids that used
to go play around the railroad track or the ones
that used to run across the railroad track to go
(04:13):
to that buy stuff for the family. So I remember
like one time, you know, just like running across like
so fast, you know, because your heart you're a drone
mis kicking and you know, like you don't know if
you're going to be the next one to go down.
And you know, I've seen I've seen kids, you know
go down. You know, snipers, you know, taking them out
and I remember the one day when they actually some
(04:36):
of the militias they came in and they they they
fired RPGs where the sniper fire was coming from. And
you know, here you're a ten years old watching this stuff,
you know, live, and they took out a sniper that
was actually shooting at kids. And that's you know, that's
you know some of the I mean, it was every
day was like that. You know, there's you know, snipers
(04:57):
that useduld take out you know, people playing in the streets.
You know. I remember this lady, you know, there was
there was shooting in the street and you know we
had to hide behind you know, these the stairwells, and
one of the ladies she just wanted she was curious.
I remember, like, like I said, she was standing next
to me. She picked her on the corner and she
(05:17):
was she was out, she was taking out my sniper
and she was like laying in blood in front of me.
And so again this is stuff that you know I experienced,
you know, as a child. And when that stuff got
out of control, you know, they were like, I mean
there was a slaughter basically, you know in the area.
You know, they were doing between the religions. You know,
(05:39):
the Muslims were being slaughtered at the time in our area.
So we basically left Beirut, went to South Lobanon and
it was good at first, but then you know, I
remember my dad was in the US at the time,
so we wanted My mom said, hey, if you want
your kids alive, you got to get them out of this,
(06:00):
you know, because of my dad was working in the
US at the time in Detroit for Chrysler, and so
basically he started his paperwork to get us into the
United States. You know, there's five kids in our family,
so I have you know, four boys and one girl,
and my dad started the paperwork. So we went to
the South waiting for our visas to clear. And so
(06:24):
when we finally got cleared, the night before we actually
left South Lebanon, the Beirut airport was shut down. You
had to go, I mean, the embassy was shut down.
So we had to go to this area by Cerea,
you know, to get our visas. Then we had to
go to Lebanon to get ready to move back to
(06:45):
the state, to move to the States. And so that night,
I remember, we got bombarded. You know, Israel was bombing
our village at the time. And there was all night.
Remember all night, we were up all night. You know,
they were bombing the village, you know, they were so
all the kids were hiding underneath. There was no bomb shelters,
you know, we were actually hiding underneath, uh, just one
(07:07):
building underneath the stairwell, you know, just making sure that
and thank god, you know, our building. They the building
we were at didn't get head but my grandparents home
got had you know, was demolished. But this is the
kind of stuff I lived. And you know when when.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I was a child, did you lose your grandparents?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
My parents? My parents actually they were hiding with us,
you know, across the street. You know, my my my
grandparents died of natural causes. And but I have a
lot of cousins that were killed, you know, during the war.
And uh, you know, I remember first cousins were killed,
you know, during the war and just recently and they route,
(07:46):
uh three members of like sucking cousins were killed. And
the latest bombing, you know, and they when they started
bombing Lebanon, you know, three of my second cousins were
killed with their families.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
So what youre was it when you came to the
United States, We.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Came close to. It was December nineteen seventy six, Okay, yeah,
it was right before actually after Christmas, we came to
the US. I remember landing in New York and first
time I've ever seen snow in my life. You know, really,
that's the worst year in snow. I think.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Welcome to New York.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, welcome to you. Yeah, welcome to New York. And Michigan.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Yeah, Michigan. Well, nah, And this year I think is
probably similar. We've had a lot of snow this year,
and I think we've got another snowstorm coming right now.
Stay tuned. We have more with Mayor Bill Bosi after this,
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more coming up after this. So you come to the
United States, when you look back and when you've seen
(09:54):
i mean over even the last two years since October seventh,
and what we've seen since then, do you believe that
there is the chance for peace in that region?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Well, you know, before, under the previous administration, there was
no question that there wasn't going to be any peace.
You know, because of that the administration was not doing anything.
You know, the Biden administration or even Harris. I don't
know who's running the administ less less administration.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
No, I don't think any of us now.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
No, maybe one day we'll find out. But I had
no no confidence at all with the previous administration. And
one of the things that President Trump first thing he
went on stage anywhere in the United States, he's talked
(10:46):
about peace. He talked about ending the wars. And you know,
even me, you know, as as a marine veteran, you know,
even myself, I'm like, I don't want to I don't
want our kids to go into war, you know, especially
World War three. You know, that's what a lot of
people's scare was, like, Oh my god, my kid's gonna
be drafted, you know. I mean we were on a
(11:08):
break at World War three, you know, and everybody was
beating the drum beats of war. Everybody's talking about nuclear
war fighting there, whatever nuclear weapons they had, you know,
so it was very serious. You know, this is not
was just about an election. This is about you know,
peace throughout the whole world.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
No, I agree, and I think that we finally have
someone who is a truly skilled negotiator. I mean, even
what we've seen in the past few days with hostages
coming home, and there's talks between Trump and Putin, and
it seems as though there's talks. Well, we've we've been
on and off again on the ceasefire, but it seems
(11:48):
like there's an opportunity to potentially come to a ceasefire
and get the hostages home In the Middle East. I
know you've taken some heat for the recent comments of
about what Trump is thinking in the Middle East. You
talk to me a little bit about the fact that
when you live in an area like Gaza and you
(12:09):
have this war going on, just like you had as
a child, where you're seeing people die in front of you,
and oftentimes we hear one side or the other one.
We're in the United States, and again, people in the
United States have not, for the most part, experienced this.
Most of us who grew up here have not experienced
what it's like to be in a war zone or
(12:29):
being bombed, especially as a child. And we talked about
what the future of Gaza looks like and why do
the people there get behind a government that committed this
attack on October seventh, And you said something interesting to me.
You see, you probably don't know what It's like when
you feel like you're being attacked all the time and
(12:50):
this person is standing up and saying we're going to
protect you. It really is a different viewpoint. I mean,
we don't know what it is to be on the
ground there.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, and you know some of the stuff. You know,
I shared my experience as a kid. You know. Here
you got a ten year old boy, you know, and
it's not just me, you know, you got all all
the people around me, and you know, a lot a
lot of people we immigrated with and later on we
reconnected in the US. You know, had the same feelings,
same sentiments, and you just want anybody to come and
(13:22):
protect you. You don't care who that person is. When
you know, it's just like a bullying school, you know,
when you you know, I was bullied when going through
school because of you know, obviously my accent, you know,
the way we looked, you know, we make We immigrated
to Dearborn and at that time, it was not a
good time in our you know, seventies, and so we
(13:42):
got there was a lot of discrimination. We get bullied
all the time. So you always want somebody to come
and help you. You know, it's just somebody to stand
up for you. And whoever stands up for you, you know,
it doesn't matter who they are. These are the people like,
oh my god, this person or that group you know
stood by me. They're trying to protect me. And that's
that's you know. And you know, even me as a child,
(14:03):
you know, I've always heard about, you know, the United States,
and my grandpa used to talk about the United States
and you know how powerful the United States at the time,
the United States and Russia. And even as a child,
you know, my grandpa was very smart, you know. He
used to say, you know that the United States is
going to become so powerful, you know, nobody's going to
mess with it. And as a child, used to say,
my god, you know, you know, I want the United
(14:25):
States to come and help us, you know, help us kids,
and you know, and we had no idea. We just
want somebody to help us, to just bring peace. And
you know that's one of the reasons that when when
I joined the Marines, you know, I just wanted to,
like anywhere I went, you know, I wanted to make
sure that I say that, like, hey, we're here to
protect you. You know, we're you know, just even kids
(14:47):
like right now, That's why I love kids, you know,
I love our youth. You know, I just I try
to connect with as many as I can, you know,
even the war that was going on, and you know,
and as you know in Lobanon, we have a lot
of people from that region here living in both cities,
dear One and dear One Heights. So you go talk
to them, a lot of them more affected, you know,
(15:09):
you just sit on and talk to them, you know.
And that's why a lot of people voted for President
Trump because they really had a hope for peace, because
he's the only president that actually took peace, and he
was the only president for the last I don't know
how many years that actually came and tooked to our
community and just said that hey, I want peace. Enough
is enough?
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, I think that was something that we had not
heard that. I mean, in the past we've been told, well,
certainly not a Republican, but even Democrat presidential candidates had
not come to Dearborn had not come to Dearborn Heights
or Ham Trammick and sat down and really discussed this.
And I think this year was unique in the fact
that we are dealing with this major conflict that the
(15:51):
entire world news about and even even though there had
been conflict in this region for years, this was really
on the national and international screen where people were constantly
talking about what was exactly happening over in the Middle East,
and there was this feeling of you know, this is
this is a year's long war. We can't get involved.
(16:13):
There's nothing we can do. And I think that was
kind of the message from the Biden administration, if there
was one. I mean, there was really a lack of
messaging there, but for most of what we heard, it
was like, there's not a whole lot that can be done.
We're negotiating to see if we can get these hostages back,
but there's not a whole lot. You said something interesting
interesting to me, and I think Mary Gllibs said the
(16:34):
same thing, was like, we voted for this because partially
we believed this was the best chance at having the
conflict end.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yes, And you know what, like there's misconceptions here in
the area and our people as well. You know, they
think they think that democrats canna bring peace. You know,
we have some powerful democrats here in Michigan, and even them,
they couldn't really do anything. You know, they tried, but
they couldn't really do anything with Biden Harris administration even
(17:05):
before you know, I said, I spent you know, twenty
one years in the Marine Corps, and even other Democrats,
they really haven't really done anything, you know, for peace.
And that's the thing that I was afraid of the most,
is trying to bring another four years of Democrats in
the White House. And you know, under the bi under
even Obama administration, people thought he's going to be you know,
(17:28):
with peace. I think there's more slaughter in the Middle
East that happened during his administration the eight years under Obama.
Uh you know, I mean the Isis and all that
stuff was what became to power under his administration. So
there's stuff that was done before and I didn't you know,
and a lot of us they don't want to relive,
(17:50):
you know, what happened in the past, you know, especially
the chaos in the Middle East that happened in the past,
and you know so far uh you know, I I
know we talked about, you know, our president. You know,
we just have to have you know, good messaging, you know,
to the people in the area to say, hey, you
know what, we still we want peace We're not taking
(18:10):
over you know, any properties or any We're not going
to displace anybody from certain regions, you know, and and
a lot of a lot even countries in the Middle East.
You know, they're saying same messaging and the same the
people here as well, they're saying the same thing. They're like,
oh my god, you know, they're going to take over
the Middle East. You know, they're you know, we all
(18:30):
you know that my cousins might, everybody's going to be
this place. So that's that's stuff. That's the scare.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Now, stay tuned. We've got more coming up with Mayor
Bill Bosi after this, But first I want to talk
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We've got more coming up after this. Some people have
come out and tried to say, you know, sometimes Trump
comes out with these very bombastic statements and there's something
that comes of that, and you just kind of I mean,
we are a few weeks in and that's similar to
(20:07):
what we've seen with the tariffs. I mean, I think
that he understands leveraged. We know that the president understands
leverage better than probably any past president we've had, and
we know that he's working some angle. It's not as
though he's just throwing something out there. And I think
this is important for the people in your community, but
also in the United States in general, to understand that
(20:31):
he's not just making a generalized statement and walking away
and saying this is how this is going to happen.
He really is in there negotiating. He has a special envoice.
He's appointed people immediately, everybody got to work right away.
And the goal is really peace, I mean the ultimate goal.
And that's what I think we have to keep in mind.
And that's why I know you believed in him and
(20:51):
some other folks have believed in him, is that the
goal is peace, and that's coming from him. He has
been consistent in saying the goal is around the world.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, and that's the thing that I share the same
message as you just mentioned. I mentioned the same things like, hey,
let's just wait, you know, because from day one, President
Trump is in advocating for peace. So we have to
see what the end results are. Just wait, you know,
be patient. And he's getting attention from all over the world.
You know, people, you know, they're I mean, when he
(21:23):
makes a statement, everybody's listening, and that's that's that's great.
You know, you need to you know, I mentioned that
before and one of my teachers, you know, one of
the rallies that you know, in this whole not just
our country, the whole world, they need some good, powerful
commander in chief in the United States. So when that
(21:44):
president says something, people are gonna listen. The last administration,
it was a joke. Nobody took any of them seriously.
So now people are listening. You know, Russia's listening. You know,
China's listening, even North Korea's listening. Our president, which this
is is very powerful. And and again you know our
country obviously you us first, and uh and that's what
(22:08):
the president, you know, he's he's got a challenge ahead
of them with everything that was put in this you know,
was put in place, and you know, we have our
economy issues. You know, everybody another topic comes up in
this area is economy. And so we says, just be
patients because a lot of things that president's doing. He's
(22:29):
got a great team and they're trying to put the
best thing, you know, for our country so we can
prosper and make sure that you know, we have a
very peaceful not just us, that world.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Well, so let's talk about that, because the economy in
Michigan is the auto workers for people across the country.
You heard that Donald Trump was talking to the auto workers.
We had auto workers for Trump. You're both of your
parents were auto workers. This actually in the communities of
Dearborn and Hampshram. Obviously a lot of those folks are
working for the automotive makers. And I think that that
(23:06):
is a key demographic in not just just Michigan. I
mean we're talking about folks in Tennessee and Kentucky and Ohio,
a lot of the Midwest. A lot of what we
do focuses around manufacturing and the auto industry. And that
was something that people were getting very nervous about because
they were like, Okay, this is potentially leaving if you
look at I mean, even Germany just recently said we're
(23:29):
closing down three of our Volkswagen plants because we've suddenly
let these Chinese vehicles in and we can't compete. That
was something Donald Trump said, I'm not going to let
this industry go away. What did that mean to you
and what did that mean to Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Well, you know, so as I you know, you mentioned
both my parents. They were both actually part of the UAW.
Both my mom and dad they worked on they worked
on the line, and for me, I was an engineer
at Ford as well, and so I spent years at
(24:06):
Ford as an as an engineer, traveled different plans, talked
to a lot of employees, a lot of UW workers.
I have a lot of friends of mine that actually
still work for the big three, you know, they work
for GM or Stelantis now in for it, and you
know the biggest care for them is to shift everything
overseas and to shut shut plans down. You know, I
(24:28):
mean we've seen it here in Michigan. We have plans
shut down. And the messaging that President Trump put down,
you know, I mean one of the things that was
very powerful. One of the plans was going to be
by the Chinese in Mexico. They pretty much poulted everything
because they weren't sure what President Trump's going to do.
This is good for us, and this is what a
(24:48):
lot of a lot of hourly employees, which like you've
never really seen that before. They lean more towards Republicans,
you know, especially President Trump is because he cared about
the economy, he cared about the jobs going overseas, and
that's something that UW always says. They don't want work
or jobs to go overseas because you know, I mean,
(25:10):
we have a lot of plants here in Michigan, and
that's very critical to make sure that the people here,
you know, they have jobs and to make sure that
the work and the vehicles, you know, stay here in Michigan.
I mean, you don't want to buy a vehicle, you know,
like when I was overseas, you know, you can buy it,
like say a Japanese car. You know, they're tax that
(25:32):
obviously they are the tariffs or there's no tariffs on it.
But any US car is actually less expensive than the
most expensive vehicle over there. Costs a lot more in Japan.
So they put tariffs over there on American car, So
why can't we do it here? Right?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Oh yeah, exactly like Singapore, all of those places, it's
outrageously expensive to buy an American car there. So why
shouldn't we protect our industry? And I do think that
this is a such auation where we you know, he
tells the story about the guy who was telling him
we're building these megafactories, but they're not coming to the
United States. They're going to be built in Mexico. But
(26:09):
as soon as you started to talk about it, everybody
kind of backed off and decided they weren't going to
build these factories in Mexico anymore. I mean, when I
was campaigning in twenty twenty two, that same person sat
down with me and said, look, these factories will be built.
Not a single one of these factories will be built
in the state of Michigan. And I think that's something
that auto workers even have seen. The jobs are depleting.
(26:33):
I mean we from twenty twenty, I think twenty twenty
to today, we've lost one hundred and fifty thousand or
no two, from two thousand to today, we've lost one
hundred and fifty thousand auto jobs in the state of Michigan.
That's a massive amount of auto jobs to lose. And
we've seen the factories closed, We've seen the factories being
built in other states. I think that was a big
(26:54):
It seems like that was a big deal to the
workers to say we want to continue to have these here,
and really that industry makes all of Michigan go. And
I think a lot of people have said, if we
don't have the automotive industry. Have we been able to
diversify well enough? You were talking about, well we can
diversify into the military kind of supply chain, and that
(27:17):
you come. I mean, you are a marine, so you
understand this. You know that we have quite a bit
of opportunity here. What is that? How did that play
into your decision to support President Trump? Because I know
when I was running the governor of Michigan at the time,
her name is Gretchen Whitmer. People probably sadly know it.
(27:38):
She was out there and she was really pushing to
get some I think it was some flights into Selfridge.
She wanted to have some additional an additional military base
in the state of Michigan. Wasn't able to get that,
But there is the opportunity for Michigan to kind of
rise up as this military supply. I mean, it's very
(28:00):
the work is very similar to what we do in automotive.
It's very precise and uses the same type of equipment.
Is that the future? Do you see that as a
future for us?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
So you know, that's that's a good point. When I retired,
actually there was a unit out of Selfridge. That's the
unit I retired out of spent a few years at Selfridge.
It's I don't know, it's a huge base. There's all
services are there, including Department of Homeland Security. They have
they have a site over there as well. There's a
(28:34):
lot of potential at the base right now. During nine
to eleven it played a huge role for the safety
the security of this country, you know, Selfridge, and they
did shutter a couple places military bases in Michigan. And
we you know, obviously we can't keep doing that, you know,
we have to have something here. You know, Selfridge is
(28:58):
a big base, and there's like so much potential. You know,
we have take hom is unwarned and they do a
lot of vehicles military vehicles as well, and uh this
this area, there's so much, so much potential in Michigan,
like we can do you know, so much talent and
a lot of military members, you know, a lot of
(29:19):
like say reserves as well, you know, you have active duty.
You know, when they when they shut the Air Force
moved out of Michigan, out of Selfridge, they want a
beilieve to write Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. They
took a lot of talent from the state and they
took a lot of resources from the state, which is
it's not really good. You know, you have a lot
(29:40):
of you know, if you have reserves. You know, these
these guys, a lot of them, their engineers, their doctors,
their lawyers, you know, so they go in the reserves
because they want to serve their country. So you're taking
a lot of talent. But even Selfridge is so much
potential you can bring in as well. You know, you
can bring in a lot of people to come and workrage.
(30:00):
You know. I remember one time, I believe they had
like over fift ten to twenty thousand people that used
to live on Selfridge, you know, so now it's all gone.
So there's you know, I could share that with you,
you know, history because I've seen it. You know, I've
lived there. But uh, you know, the talent one of
the bigs. The other problem I was going to bring
up is a lot of our youth. You know, I
(30:22):
talked to a lot of residents both my said, like
there when they're one high school so close. You know,
we have it in our clients and a lot of
parents that are really having issues with their kids. They
get an education and they move out of the state. Yes,
because there's nothing here. You know, there's nothing for them,
So why are you shifting jobs to go somewhere else overseas.
(30:42):
Why don't we just do it here in Michigan.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
That to me, that is that's that's been the frustration
for so long in Michigan, is that we are educating
kids and they are leaving the state. And you know,
you bring up an interesting point, and I think this
is something that Elon Musk has been looking at, and
this is driving the left crazy, but it's so important.
Michigan could be the source for all of our military
(31:07):
equip or a significant portion of our military equipment the
Midwest in general. In fact, we used to at our factory,
we used to make the axle housings for MRA vehicles.
But the funny part about that, now that you have
me thinking about this and government waste and what we've
seen with Donald Trump kind of digging back and clawing
back at the government waste, is it for us to
make the axle housing. We would make the axle housing,
(31:30):
and then the piece that fit on the end that
the axle housing would go to, it would go to
France from Michigan, go to France, and then it would
have machining done and some assembly, then it would go
back to Wisconsin, and then our other casting would ship
from Michigan to Wisconsin to be fully assembled. I mean,
(31:51):
think about the waste there that we are shipping military
equipment over just the tiny piece. And that's the thing
that I don't think people realize. Look at your car.
Look at how many pieces every little button, every piece
of glass, every piece of plastic, every piece of trim,
those all have to be manufactured, and they're generally all
manufactured in a different place and then they come together.
(32:13):
Stop allowing all of this to happen all over the
world when it can happen right here in the Midwest,
and it should stay in the Midwest. And this is
something that I think you and I could talk about
for a very long time. And I think it's something
that the American people need to understand because the way
you are talking about it, this should be our top
priority is how do we build the military? And we should.
(32:35):
You know, we'll have to have you back on because
I'd love to talk to you about what you see
with the military and what you see with the president
being able to build the military, but you have to
have the equipment steel is critical for that. We see
what he's doing with the steel tariffs. But the way
to build up a state like Michigan is really we
have to be prepared as a military. We have to
(32:57):
have the equipment has to be built in the United States,
and that can be done here in the state of
Michigan so easily. We have to have somebody looking at us.
We have to have a great partnership with DC and
cut out this incredible waste where we're shipping parts overseas
just to bring them back. I mean, I think that's
a huge opportunity for us.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yes, I totally. I'm one hundred percent with you on
that one. Because when I was I worked as an engineer,
so I traveled all over the state of Michigan. I
used to audit suppliers, you know, both automotive and also aircraft.
You know, when I worked at Bowing, I used to
audit aerospace companies here in Michigan. And some of them
shut down because you know, the work, like you said,
(33:37):
goes overseas, yes, go somewhere else. Like why we can
do so much here in our state, in the Midwest,
here in our state of Michigan. And I can tell you.
This state has so much potential. We have so much
stuff that we can do here in the state of Michigan,
and I have some ideas, but you know, I'm hoping,
you know, we get a chance when President Trump settles down,
(33:58):
you know, with all cutting some of the waste. I
agree with you. There's a lot of waste that and
I agree with all the waste that he's cutting, and
there's obviously there's a lot more. But let's save the
tax player some money and you know, enough waste and
just keep the jobs here in the US.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
There's I think there's so much hope going forward. I
think there's so much opportunity and definitely for our state.
Like I said, I could talk to you for hours
about this, and at some point we probably will, but
we'll definitely have you back. Mayor Bill Bossie, thank you
so much for coming on today.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Thank you, I appreciate you, Thank.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
You absolutely, and thank you all for joining the Tutor
Dixon Podcast. For this episode and others, go to Tutor
dixsonpodcast dot com, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts and join us next time. Have
a blessed day.
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I want to talk
about something that happened in the election that you all
heard about. You heard about suddenly Donald Trump in the
election getting Muslim and Arab support, Arab American support in
the state of Michigan. And this is kind of like
a shock to people. They're like, wait a minute, Wait
a minute. This group has historically gone with Democrats, but
(00:22):
it's been slowly changing. So if you weren't paying too
clods of attention, it changed a little bit in twenty sixteen,
more in twenty twenty. Then we saw a bigger switch
over in twenty twenty two, and then in twenty four
it was the largest amount of the Arab American population
in Michigan that went for a Republican ever. And I
(00:43):
think that what we saw in these last few years
was that our values are more aligned than we really knew.
And I think that there's been a push from the
media to keep us apart. But really, if you look
at the Christian and Muslim values very similar, when you
talk about making sure that your family is protected, you know,
(01:05):
when you look at what the schools are teaching, when
you look at boys and girls sports, all these things.
We're very aligned, and so we saw something interesting happen
with a couple of the mayors in our Arab American community.
So we had the mayor of ham Tramick on. You
may remember Mayor glib was on and he talked about
his support of Donald Trump. Well, now I'm pleased to
(01:27):
have Mayor Bill Bosi, he is the mayor of Dearborn
Heights and Mayor Bozzie. You also endorsed Donald Trump during
the campaign, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yes, I did, and I'm proud to have done the
endorsement and I'm really grateful with the results.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Well we are grateful with the results too. But I
know that it wasn't easy, and I know that it
continues to not be easy because there's always going to
be a push for certain communities to go back to
the Democrat Party and anything that happens in Washington, d C.
I know you hear about it on a regular basis.
And we were with you a few days ago talking
about what's going on in the state of Michigan and
(02:07):
what's going on in the Middle East, and you were
telling me some of the stories from your childhood, and
I was thinking, man, I'd really love to have you
tell these stories on the podcast, because I think people
need to hear it from your standpoint. We've heard, we've
had folks on from Israel and talking about what it
was like growing up there, what it's like today with
the I guess we'd call it a civil war that's
(02:28):
going on between Gods and Israel. You lived in Lebanon
as a child, and you told us some stories that
I think American people just don't even recognize, of seeing
kids shot by snipers right in front of you. I
wanted you to share a little bit about what that
was like.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, so you know, I obviously I was born in
Lebanon and I was born in South Lebanons, a bit Dishbael,
just just reborder Israel. You know, that's the village, and
you know the village is is has had some you know,
there's been issues between Israel and the city. You know,
(03:06):
got bombarded, you know, several times, you know, especially when
I was living there. I was so I was born there.
We lived in Bay Route most of the time my
earlier days. Then during the war when the war started,
uh in the seventies, let's mid seventies, we moved to
south to the south which has been to sad and
(03:29):
that town basically was we had to leave Bay Route
because of that. So I was close to ten years
all at the time, and you know, basically if you
need anything, you had to go across this railroad track.
I remember it like it was yesterday, and you have
to basically warm up and just like basically just run
as fast as you can to go across the railroad
(03:52):
track because on the other side there used to be
a bakery so buy bread. And during that time there
was a lot of you know places that closed because
of the Civil War. You know, snipers are everywhere, and
you know the snipers used to take out kids, you know,
because you know a lot of the kids that used
to go play around the railroad track or the ones
that used to run across the railroad track to go
(04:13):
to that buy stuff for the family. So I remember
like one time, you know, just like running across like
so fast, you know, because your heart you're a drone
mis kicking and you know, like you don't know if
you're going to be the next one to go down.
And you know, I've seen I've seen kids, you know
go down. You know, snipers, you know, taking them out
and I remember the one day when they actually some
(04:36):
of the militias they came in and they they they
fired RPGs where the sniper fire was coming from. And
you know, here you're a ten years old watching this stuff,
you know, live, and they took out a sniper that
was actually shooting at kids. And that's you know, that's
you know some of the I mean, it was every
day was like that. You know, there's you know, snipers
(04:57):
that useduld take out you know, people playing in the streets.
You know. I remember this lady, you know, there was
there was shooting in the street and you know we
had to hide behind you know, these the stairwells, and
one of the ladies she just wanted she was curious.
I remember, like, like I said, she was standing next
to me. She picked her on the corner and she
(05:17):
was she was out, she was taking out my sniper
and she was like laying in blood in front of me.
And so again this is stuff that you know I experienced,
you know, as a child. And when that stuff got
out of control, you know, they were like, I mean
there was a slaughter basically, you know in the area.
You know, they were doing between the religions. You know,
(05:39):
the Muslims were being slaughtered at the time in our area.
So we basically left Beirut, went to South Lobanon and
it was good at first, but then you know, I
remember my dad was in the US at the time,
so we wanted My mom said, hey, if you want
your kids alive, you got to get them out of this,
(06:00):
you know, because of my dad was working in the
US at the time in Detroit for Chrysler, and so
basically he started his paperwork to get us into the
United States. You know, there's five kids in our family,
so I have you know, four boys and one girl,
and my dad started the paperwork. So we went to
the South waiting for our visas to clear. And so
(06:24):
when we finally got cleared, the night before we actually
left South Lebanon, the Beirut airport was shut down. You
had to go, I mean, the embassy was shut down.
So we had to go to this area by Cerea,
you know, to get our visas. Then we had to
go to Lebanon to get ready to move back to
(06:45):
the state, to move to the States. And so that night,
I remember, we got bombarded. You know, Israel was bombing
our village at the time. And there was all night.
Remember all night, we were up all night. You know,
they were bombing the village, you know, they were so
all the kids were hiding underneath. There was no bomb shelters,
you know, we were actually hiding underneath, uh, just one
(07:07):
building underneath the stairwell, you know, just making sure that
and thank god, you know, our building. They the building
we were at didn't get head but my grandparents home
got had you know, was demolished. But this is the
kind of stuff I lived. And you know when when.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I was a child, did you lose your grandparents?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
My parents? My parents actually they were hiding with us,
you know, across the street. You know, my my my
grandparents died of natural causes. And but I have a
lot of cousins that were killed, you know, during the war.
And uh, you know, I remember first cousins were killed,
you know, during the war and just recently and they route,
(07:46):
uh three members of like sucking cousins were killed. And
the latest bombing, you know, and they when they started
bombing Lebanon, you know, three of my second cousins were
killed with their families.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
So what youre was it when you came to the
United States, We.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Came close to. It was December nineteen seventy six, Okay, yeah,
it was right before actually after Christmas, we came to
the US. I remember landing in New York and first
time I've ever seen snow in my life. You know, really,
that's the worst year in snow. I think.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Welcome to New York.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, welcome to you. Yeah, welcome to New York. And Michigan.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Yeah, Michigan. Well, nah, And this year I think is
probably similar. We've had a lot of snow this year,
and I think we've got another snowstorm coming right now.
Stay tuned. We have more with Mayor Bill Bosi after this,
but first I want to talk to you about Preborn.
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That's pound two fifty baby. Or visit preborn dot com
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more coming up after this. So you come to the
United States, when you look back and when you've seen
(09:54):
i mean over even the last two years since October seventh,
and what we've seen since then, do you believe that
there is the chance for peace in that region?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Well, you know, before, under the previous administration, there was
no question that there wasn't going to be any peace.
You know, because of that the administration was not doing anything.
You know, the Biden administration or even Harris. I don't
know who's running the administ less less administration.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
No, I don't think any of us now.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
No, maybe one day we'll find out. But I had
no no confidence at all with the previous administration. And
one of the things that President Trump first thing he
went on stage anywhere in the United States, he's talked
(10:46):
about peace. He talked about ending the wars. And you know,
even me, you know, as as a marine veteran, you know,
even myself, I'm like, I don't want to I don't
want our kids to go into war, you know, especially
World War three. You know, that's what a lot of
people's scare was, like, Oh my god, my kid's gonna
be drafted, you know. I mean we were on a
(11:08):
break at World War three, you know, and everybody was
beating the drum beats of war. Everybody's talking about nuclear
war fighting there, whatever nuclear weapons they had, you know,
so it was very serious. You know, this is not
was just about an election. This is about you know,
peace throughout the whole world.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
No, I agree, and I think that we finally have
someone who is a truly skilled negotiator. I mean, even
what we've seen in the past few days with hostages
coming home, and there's talks between Trump and Putin, and
it seems as though there's talks. Well, we've we've been
on and off again on the ceasefire, but it seems
(11:48):
like there's an opportunity to potentially come to a ceasefire
and get the hostages home In the Middle East. I
know you've taken some heat for the recent comments of
about what Trump is thinking in the Middle East. You
talk to me a little bit about the fact that
when you live in an area like Gaza and you
(12:09):
have this war going on, just like you had as
a child, where you're seeing people die in front of you,
and oftentimes we hear one side or the other one.
We're in the United States, and again, people in the
United States have not, for the most part, experienced this.
Most of us who grew up here have not experienced
what it's like to be in a war zone or
(12:29):
being bombed, especially as a child. And we talked about
what the future of Gaza looks like and why do
the people there get behind a government that committed this
attack on October seventh, And you said something interesting to me.
You see, you probably don't know what It's like when
you feel like you're being attacked all the time and
(12:50):
this person is standing up and saying we're going to
protect you. It really is a different viewpoint. I mean,
we don't know what it is to be on the
ground there.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, and you know some of the stuff. You know,
I shared my experience as a kid. You know. Here
you got a ten year old boy, you know, and
it's not just me, you know, you got all all
the people around me, and you know, a lot a
lot of people we immigrated with and later on we
reconnected in the US. You know, had the same feelings,
same sentiments, and you just want anybody to come and
(13:22):
protect you. You don't care who that person is. When
you know, it's just like a bullying school, you know,
when you you know, I was bullied when going through
school because of you know, obviously my accent, you know,
the way we looked, you know, we make We immigrated
to Dearborn and at that time, it was not a
good time in our you know, seventies, and so we
(13:42):
got there was a lot of discrimination. We get bullied
all the time. So you always want somebody to come
and help you. You know, it's just somebody to stand
up for you. And whoever stands up for you, you know,
it doesn't matter who they are. These are the people like,
oh my god, this person or that group you know
stood by me. They're trying to protect me. And that's
that's you know. And you know, even me as a child,
(14:03):
you know, I've always heard about, you know, the United States,
and my grandpa used to talk about the United States
and you know how powerful the United States at the time,
the United States and Russia. And even as a child,
you know, my grandpa was very smart, you know. He
used to say, you know that the United States is
going to become so powerful, you know, nobody's going to
mess with it. And as a child, used to say,
my god, you know, you know, I want the United
(14:25):
States to come and help us, you know, help us kids,
and you know, and we had no idea. We just
want somebody to help us, to just bring peace. And
you know that's one of the reasons that when when
I joined the Marines, you know, I just wanted to,
like anywhere I went, you know, I wanted to make
sure that I say that, like, hey, we're here to
protect you. You know, we're you know, just even kids
(14:47):
like right now, That's why I love kids, you know,
I love our youth. You know, I just I try
to connect with as many as I can, you know,
even the war that was going on, and you know,
and as you know in Lobanon, we have a lot
of people from that region here living in both cities,
dear One and dear One Heights. So you go talk
to them, a lot of them more affected, you know,
(15:09):
you just sit on and talk to them, you know.
And that's why a lot of people voted for President
Trump because they really had a hope for peace, because
he's the only president that actually took peace, and he
was the only president for the last I don't know
how many years that actually came and tooked to our
community and just said that hey, I want peace. Enough
is enough?
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, I think that was something that we had not
heard that. I mean, in the past we've been told, well,
certainly not a Republican, but even Democrat presidential candidates had
not come to Dearborn had not come to Dearborn Heights
or Ham Trammick and sat down and really discussed this.
And I think this year was unique in the fact
that we are dealing with this major conflict that the
(15:51):
entire world news about and even even though there had
been conflict in this region for years, this was really
on the national and international screen where people were constantly
talking about what was exactly happening over in the Middle East,
and there was this feeling of you know, this is
this is a year's long war. We can't get involved.
(16:13):
There's nothing we can do. And I think that was
kind of the message from the Biden administration, if there
was one. I mean, there was really a lack of
messaging there, but for most of what we heard, it
was like, there's not a whole lot that can be done.
We're negotiating to see if we can get these hostages back,
but there's not a whole lot. You said something interesting
interesting to me, and I think Mary Gllibs said the
(16:34):
same thing, was like, we voted for this because partially
we believed this was the best chance at having the
conflict end.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yes, And you know what, like there's misconceptions here in
the area and our people as well. You know, they
think they think that democrats canna bring peace. You know,
we have some powerful democrats here in Michigan, and even them,
they couldn't really do anything. You know, they tried, but
they couldn't really do anything with Biden Harris administration even
(17:05):
before you know, I said, I spent you know, twenty
one years in the Marine Corps, and even other Democrats,
they really haven't really done anything, you know, for peace.
And that's the thing that I was afraid of the most,
is trying to bring another four years of Democrats in
the White House. And you know, under the bi under
even Obama administration, people thought he's going to be you know,
(17:28):
with peace. I think there's more slaughter in the Middle
East that happened during his administration the eight years under Obama.
Uh you know, I mean the Isis and all that
stuff was what became to power under his administration. So
there's stuff that was done before and I didn't you know,
and a lot of us they don't want to relive,
(17:50):
you know, what happened in the past, you know, especially
the chaos in the Middle East that happened in the past,
and you know so far uh you know, I I
know we talked about, you know, our president. You know,
we just have to have you know, good messaging, you know,
to the people in the area to say, hey, you
know what, we still we want peace We're not taking
(18:10):
over you know, any properties or any We're not going
to displace anybody from certain regions, you know, and and
a lot of a lot even countries in the Middle East.
You know, they're saying same messaging and the same the
people here as well, they're saying the same thing. They're like,
oh my god, you know, they're going to take over
the Middle East. You know, they're you know, we all
(18:30):
you know that my cousins might, everybody's going to be
this place. So that's that's stuff. That's the scare.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Now, stay tuned. We've got more coming up with Mayor
Bill Bosi after this, But first I want to talk
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eight four eight eight four three two five. Now stick around.
We've got more coming up after this. Some people have
come out and tried to say, you know, sometimes Trump
comes out with these very bombastic statements and there's something
that comes of that, and you just kind of I mean,
we are a few weeks in and that's similar to
(20:07):
what we've seen with the tariffs. I mean, I think
that he understands leveraged. We know that the president understands
leverage better than probably any past president we've had, and
we know that he's working some angle. It's not as
though he's just throwing something out there. And I think
this is important for the people in your community, but
also in the United States in general, to understand that
(20:31):
he's not just making a generalized statement and walking away
and saying this is how this is going to happen.
He really is in there negotiating. He has a special envoice.
He's appointed people immediately, everybody got to work right away.
And the goal is really peace, I mean the ultimate goal.
And that's what I think we have to keep in mind.
And that's why I know you believed in him and
(20:51):
some other folks have believed in him, is that the
goal is peace, and that's coming from him. He has
been consistent in saying the goal is around the world.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, and that's the thing that I share the same
message as you just mentioned. I mentioned the same things like, hey,
let's just wait, you know, because from day one, President
Trump is in advocating for peace. So we have to
see what the end results are. Just wait, you know,
be patient. And he's getting attention from all over the world.
You know, people, you know, they're I mean, when he
(21:23):
makes a statement, everybody's listening, and that's that's that's great.
You know, you need to you know, I mentioned that
before and one of my teachers, you know, one of
the rallies that you know, in this whole not just
our country, the whole world, they need some good, powerful
commander in chief in the United States. So when that
(21:44):
president says something, people are gonna listen. The last administration,
it was a joke. Nobody took any of them seriously.
So now people are listening. You know, Russia's listening. You know,
China's listening, even North Korea's listening. Our president, which this
is is very powerful. And and again you know our
country obviously you us first, and uh and that's what
(22:08):
the president, you know, he's he's got a challenge ahead
of them with everything that was put in this you know,
was put in place, and you know, we have our
economy issues. You know, everybody another topic comes up in
this area is economy. And so we says, just be
patients because a lot of things that president's doing. He's
(22:29):
got a great team and they're trying to put the
best thing, you know, for our country so we can
prosper and make sure that you know, we have a
very peaceful not just us, that world.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Well, so let's talk about that, because the economy in
Michigan is the auto workers for people across the country.
You heard that Donald Trump was talking to the auto workers.
We had auto workers for Trump. You're both of your
parents were auto workers. This actually in the communities of
Dearborn and Hampshram. Obviously a lot of those folks are
working for the automotive makers. And I think that that
(23:06):
is a key demographic in not just just Michigan. I
mean we're talking about folks in Tennessee and Kentucky and Ohio,
a lot of the Midwest. A lot of what we
do focuses around manufacturing and the auto industry. And that
was something that people were getting very nervous about because
they were like, Okay, this is potentially leaving if you
look at I mean, even Germany just recently said we're
(23:29):
closing down three of our Volkswagen plants because we've suddenly
let these Chinese vehicles in and we can't compete. That
was something Donald Trump said, I'm not going to let
this industry go away. What did that mean to you
and what did that mean to Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Well, you know, so as I you know, you mentioned
both my parents. They were both actually part of the UAW.
Both my mom and dad they worked on they worked
on the line, and for me, I was an engineer
at Ford as well, and so I spent years at
(24:06):
Ford as an as an engineer, traveled different plans, talked
to a lot of employees, a lot of UW workers.
I have a lot of friends of mine that actually
still work for the big three, you know, they work
for GM or Stelantis now in for it, and you
know the biggest care for them is to shift everything
overseas and to shut shut plans down. You know, I
(24:28):
mean we've seen it here in Michigan. We have plans
shut down. And the messaging that President Trump put down,
you know, I mean one of the things that was
very powerful. One of the plans was going to be
by the Chinese in Mexico. They pretty much poulted everything
because they weren't sure what President Trump's going to do.
This is good for us, and this is what a
(24:48):
lot of a lot of hourly employees, which like you've
never really seen that before. They lean more towards Republicans,
you know, especially President Trump is because he cared about
the economy, he cared about the jobs going overseas, and
that's something that UW always says. They don't want work
or jobs to go overseas because you know, I mean,
(25:10):
we have a lot of plants here in Michigan, and
that's very critical to make sure that the people here,
you know, they have jobs and to make sure that
the work and the vehicles, you know, stay here in Michigan.
I mean, you don't want to buy a vehicle, you know,
like when I was overseas, you know, you can buy it,
like say a Japanese car. You know, they're tax that
(25:32):
obviously they are the tariffs or there's no tariffs on it.
But any US car is actually less expensive than the
most expensive vehicle over there. Costs a lot more in Japan.
So they put tariffs over there on American car, So
why can't we do it here? Right?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Oh yeah, exactly like Singapore, all of those places, it's
outrageously expensive to buy an American car there. So why
shouldn't we protect our industry? And I do think that
this is a such auation where we you know, he
tells the story about the guy who was telling him
we're building these megafactories, but they're not coming to the
United States. They're going to be built in Mexico. But
(26:09):
as soon as you started to talk about it, everybody
kind of backed off and decided they weren't going to
build these factories in Mexico anymore. I mean, when I
was campaigning in twenty twenty two, that same person sat
down with me and said, look, these factories will be built.
Not a single one of these factories will be built
in the state of Michigan. And I think that's something
that auto workers even have seen. The jobs are depleting.
(26:33):
I mean we from twenty twenty, I think twenty twenty
to today, we've lost one hundred and fifty thousand or
no two, from two thousand to today, we've lost one
hundred and fifty thousand auto jobs in the state of Michigan.
That's a massive amount of auto jobs to lose. And
we've seen the factories closed, We've seen the factories being
built in other states. I think that was a big
(26:54):
It seems like that was a big deal to the
workers to say we want to continue to have these here,
and really that industry makes all of Michigan go. And
I think a lot of people have said, if we
don't have the automotive industry. Have we been able to
diversify well enough? You were talking about, well we can
diversify into the military kind of supply chain, and that
(27:17):
you come. I mean, you are a marine, so you
understand this. You know that we have quite a bit
of opportunity here. What is that? How did that play
into your decision to support President Trump? Because I know
when I was running the governor of Michigan at the time,
her name is Gretchen Whitmer. People probably sadly know it.
(27:38):
She was out there and she was really pushing to
get some I think it was some flights into Selfridge.
She wanted to have some additional an additional military base
in the state of Michigan. Wasn't able to get that,
But there is the opportunity for Michigan to kind of
rise up as this military supply. I mean, it's very
(28:00):
the work is very similar to what we do in automotive.
It's very precise and uses the same type of equipment.
Is that the future? Do you see that as a
future for us?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
So you know, that's that's a good point. When I retired,
actually there was a unit out of Selfridge. That's the
unit I retired out of spent a few years at Selfridge.
It's I don't know, it's a huge base. There's all
services are there, including Department of Homeland Security. They have
they have a site over there as well. There's a
(28:34):
lot of potential at the base right now. During nine
to eleven it played a huge role for the safety
the security of this country, you know, Selfridge, and they
did shutter a couple places military bases in Michigan. And
we you know, obviously we can't keep doing that, you know,
we have to have something here. You know, Selfridge is
(28:58):
a big base, and there's like so much potential. You know,
we have take hom is unwarned and they do a
lot of vehicles military vehicles as well, and uh this
this area, there's so much, so much potential in Michigan,
like we can do you know, so much talent and
a lot of military members, you know, a lot of
(29:19):
like say reserves as well, you know, you have active duty.
You know, when they when they shut the Air Force
moved out of Michigan, out of Selfridge, they want a
beilieve to write Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. They
took a lot of talent from the state and they
took a lot of resources from the state, which is
it's not really good. You know, you have a lot
(29:40):
of you know, if you have reserves. You know, these
these guys, a lot of them, their engineers, their doctors,
their lawyers, you know, so they go in the reserves
because they want to serve their country. So you're taking
a lot of talent. But even Selfridge is so much
potential you can bring in as well. You know, you
can bring in a lot of people to come and workrage.
(30:00):
You know. I remember one time, I believe they had
like over fift ten to twenty thousand people that used
to live on Selfridge, you know, so now it's all gone.
So there's you know, I could share that with you,
you know, history because I've seen it. You know, I've
lived there. But uh, you know, the talent one of
the bigs. The other problem I was going to bring
up is a lot of our youth. You know, I
(30:22):
talked to a lot of residents both my said, like
there when they're one high school so close. You know,
we have it in our clients and a lot of
parents that are really having issues with their kids. They
get an education and they move out of the state. Yes,
because there's nothing here. You know, there's nothing for them,
So why are you shifting jobs to go somewhere else overseas.
(30:42):
Why don't we just do it here in Michigan.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
That to me, that is that's that's been the frustration
for so long in Michigan, is that we are educating
kids and they are leaving the state. And you know,
you bring up an interesting point, and I think this
is something that Elon Musk has been looking at, and
this is driving the left crazy, but it's so important.
Michigan could be the source for all of our military
(31:07):
equip or a significant portion of our military equipment the
Midwest in general. In fact, we used to at our factory,
we used to make the axle housings for MRA vehicles.
But the funny part about that, now that you have
me thinking about this and government waste and what we've
seen with Donald Trump kind of digging back and clawing
back at the government waste, is it for us to
make the axle housing. We would make the axle housing,
(31:30):
and then the piece that fit on the end that
the axle housing would go to, it would go to
France from Michigan, go to France, and then it would
have machining done and some assembly, then it would go
back to Wisconsin, and then our other casting would ship
from Michigan to Wisconsin to be fully assembled. I mean,
(31:51):
think about the waste there that we are shipping military
equipment over just the tiny piece. And that's the thing
that I don't think people realize. Look at your car.
Look at how many pieces every little button, every piece
of glass, every piece of plastic, every piece of trim,
those all have to be manufactured, and they're generally all
manufactured in a different place and then they come together.
(32:13):
Stop allowing all of this to happen all over the
world when it can happen right here in the Midwest,
and it should stay in the Midwest. And this is
something that I think you and I could talk about
for a very long time. And I think it's something
that the American people need to understand because the way
you are talking about it, this should be our top
priority is how do we build the military? And we should.
(32:35):
You know, we'll have to have you back on because
I'd love to talk to you about what you see
with the military and what you see with the president
being able to build the military, but you have to
have the equipment steel is critical for that. We see
what he's doing with the steel tariffs. But the way
to build up a state like Michigan is really we
have to be prepared as a military. We have to
(32:57):
have the equipment has to be built in the United States,
and that can be done here in the state of
Michigan so easily. We have to have somebody looking at us.
We have to have a great partnership with DC and
cut out this incredible waste where we're shipping parts overseas
just to bring them back. I mean, I think that's
a huge opportunity for us.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yes, I totally. I'm one hundred percent with you on
that one. Because when I was I worked as an engineer,
so I traveled all over the state of Michigan. I
used to audit suppliers, you know, both automotive and also aircraft.
You know, when I worked at Bowing, I used to
audit aerospace companies here in Michigan. And some of them
shut down because you know, the work, like you said,
(33:37):
goes overseas, yes, go somewhere else. Like why we can
do so much here in our state, in the Midwest,
here in our state of Michigan. And I can tell you.
This state has so much potential. We have so much
stuff that we can do here in the state of Michigan,
and I have some ideas, but you know, I'm hoping,
you know, we get a chance when President Trump settles down,
(33:58):
you know, with all cutting some of the waste. I
agree with you. There's a lot of waste that and
I agree with all the waste that he's cutting, and
there's obviously there's a lot more. But let's save the
tax player some money and you know, enough waste and
just keep the jobs here in the US.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
There's I think there's so much hope going forward. I
think there's so much opportunity and definitely for our state.
Like I said, I could talk to you for hours
about this, and at some point we probably will, but
we'll definitely have you back. Mayor Bill Bossie, thank you
so much for coming on today.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Thank you, I appreciate you, Thank.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
You absolutely, and thank you all for joining the Tutor
Dixon Podcast. For this episode and others, go to Tutor
dixsonpodcast dot com, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts and join us next time. Have
a blessed day.
Host
Tudor Dixon
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