U.S. & Canada relations amid President Trump's trade war

Thanks for joining us on another busy night of all things people, power, and politics. This is The Pulse. I'm Rup Raj. The president's trade war is front and center once again with Canada scrapping the ribbon cutting for the Gordie Howe Bridge. Former auto supply chain executive Jan Griffiths with what the tensions could mean for our economy. And we're also diving into Canada's relationship with our country with Oakland University political science chair Dr. Peter Trombore. You know, it's been frayed since last year when President Trump first slapped tariffs on our neighbors across the Detroit River. But you know what, Dr. Trombore will tell you where things stand now, but how this has happened before. We've seen things like this with tension between the two countries. But he's going to kind of break down what this all means coming up in just a moment. And we're also talking about some powerful money, utilities like DTE and consumers energy spending big bucks in the midterm. State Senator Jim Runstead is the chair of the Michigan GOP. His stance on that and a look at the races for governor and Senate. But we get into war in Iran because President Trump issues a major warning to Tehran tonight. He says the U.S. will destroy one bridge or power plant for every time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz. Now, we should point out international law generally bans those types of attacks unless that infrastructure is used for military purposes. In fact, the U.N. Secretary General now says those attacks would be unacceptable. The threat comes just a day after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared on Capitol Hill for a fiery hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee. Republicans are working on a $95 billion package to fund the military and other White House priorities. Hegseth says it's urgent for U.S. success in Iran. But several senators question the endgame, including Michigan Senator Gary Peters. So what's different? Mr. Hegseth, sorry, Secretary Hegseth. I think your characterization of this incredible effort as a failure is reckless. And I think it's irresponsible. And I think it smears the sacrifice of the troops that are out there making on behalf of the American people to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. Shame on you and others who call this a quagmire and a failure. And then you want to turn around and say you support the warfighter. Either you do or you don't. I will tell you how I use the word failure, because I use the word failure to their leaders. You, sir, are the failure, not the men and women who are on that front line, not the men and women who hold up their honor with distinction. But if there's a lack of a winning strategy, they're in harm's way. Their leaders have failed them. And that's what's happening. We have political leadership, you. You don't have a strategy. You don't have a long-term plan to actually win this war, win the war. The men and women are gonna be able to do it, but they need to have leadership. When will you show leadership? Of course we have leadership. When will you show leadership? Why don't you show some leadership? President Trump and Secretary Hegseth attended the dignified transfer of U.S. soldiers killed in the war. First Lieutenant Tyler Feehan and Private Elizabeth Gonzalez were killed Friday in Jordan. Feehan was 25, Gonzalez just 19. The Pentagon also confirmed a third service member died in the attack there, Sergeant Angel Rampersad. There's no easy way to transition from a story like that, but we do need to run through some of the other big stories making news in the world of politics right now. A lot on your phone. You don't know what's real. What's not. Toss that phone aside. Here we go. The Senate Intelligence Committee advances Jay Clayton's nomination as national intelligence director to the full Senate. Now that follows a contentious hearing last week where Clayton repeatedly refused to say that President Biden won the 2020 election, instead only saying it was certified. Republicans want to quickly confirm Clayton with both parties sharing concerns with interim director Bill Pulte. The Michigan native Pulte has no known intelligence experience and investigated the president's perceived enemies in his previous role as housing regulator. Staying on Capitol Hill where the House passes a bill to fund the government through December 4th. The deadline is two months away, but House Republicans are trying to avoid a shutdown during the midterms. The bill was a mostly partly party line vote. It's not clear tonight if the Senate will go along with the bill. It does require 60 senators to get on board. And we're diving into relations between the U.S. and Canada. Just a day after President Trump announces a 50% tariff on goods from the country, Canada scraps a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Canada will still have its own event, and at this point, the bridge is still scheduled to open on Monday. That's the same day President Trump is set to visit Michigan, rallying for Republicans ahead of the primary election. And we should note, it's the same day we're hosting the two Democratic Senate candidates for a debate that's gotten national attention already, and it's happening right here in Studio C. But back to those tensions with Canada. You know what? Those looming tensions could actually have a large part in the conversation we're going to be having. Oakland University political science chair Dr. Peter Trabor is with us in Studio C with a look at the possible fallout from all this. It's always good to see you. Thanks for joining us here tonight. Thanks for having me. I find it interesting, and I think this show, you know, we make an effort not just to say here are the headlines, but here's some context. Here's some perspective, because people are busy. You, though, spend a lifetime of your wonderful career examining so much of this. The U.S.-Canada relationship, growing up as a kid in Troy, I would tell you if I didn't study anything that it's a great relationship, and perhaps I would be right. But there have been frays in the relationship in the past, haven't there? Well, there have. You know, disagreements over trade policy have been longstanding. There are certain areas that have for decades have been sore spots between the United States and Canada, principally over wood products, lumber, paper products, things like that. There have been some disputes over agricultural tariffs and so on and so forth, but nothing like what we see today. In all honesty, Canada and the United States have been the closest of friends and partners for well on almost 200 years now, right? So the idea that somehow our closest neighbors, our closest friends, countries that share the world's largest, longest undefended border are somehow now in this state is a little mystifying. It's a little mystifying. I do want to ask you to put a crystal ball on the table for a moment, and with your knowledge of context that you have of covering and kind of seeing this stuff, what do you predict will happen on Monday? We know that the ribbon cutting that was supposed to be this kind of joint international ceremony has been scrapped. Does that give you any foreshadowing about whether the bridge will actually open on Monday? I feel like I don't need a crystal ball. I need my magic eight ball. You know, it's more like that. I think the bridge is going to open. I think at this point it's hard to justify the United States not opening up our side of the bridge. They did scrap this joint ceremony that was supposed to happen on Friday. Canada is going to do their own opening ceremony on Friday. I don't know if we're ever going to do anything like that. But I do expect that vehicles will start to roll across that bridge come Monday. Will the president have some choice things to say about that? You know, I think probably so. But I do believe that the bridge is too important economically for both countries, not just Ontario and Michigan, but the United States and Canada. I think it's too important to leave that unutilized. The president is a student of theater and television and understands very well how timing works out. The fact that he's going to be in Metro Detroit in Oakland County on Monday, the day the Gordie Howe International Bridge ribbon cutting was supposed to happen. Does that give you any maybe insight on whether maybe he does a surprise announcement and says he's excited about the bridge or heads to the bridge himself? I don't think he'll go to the bridge. I think if there's any kind of surprise announcement, it would it's frankly, it's more likely to be him saying, no, the whole thing is off. I don't anticipate that. I would be surprised. I think that that would be harmful to the president. I think it'd be harmful to the president's party. And I think that has to factor into some of those considerations as well. I do want to ask you a little bit about what we're seeing here. You know, these are very old 1930s tariffs. If you want to dig in the tariff toolbox, this was probably one of the first tools that was put in the box. And that's what this president is using right now against Canada. What do you make of that? Right. Well, so I was thinking about that this morning and, you know, this goes back to like the Smoot-Hawley era. Right. It's it's literally that same package of tariff bills unpacked that for us. So, yeah, that's one of the things that helped deepen the Great Depression. Right. It's one of the you know, we imposed these sanctions way back in the day. And with this idea that they would be massive revenue generators that would bring us out of the depression. And the reality was that countries turned around and levied the same level of sanctions and same level of tariffs on us. And it helped drive the world, not just the United States, but drive the world deeper into depression. I think that what happened here's my best guess what happens because there's no way that Donald Trump knows the history of tariff law. My hunch is, he said, I want to impose tariffs on Canada. Someone give me a pretext. Someone tell me how I can do it. And somebody dug in and found this never before used set of statutes within that larger tariff bill from 1930. And I think that the president is it feels almost like a temper tantrum. I can't get what I want. I can't get my way on this bridge issue. And so I'm going to punish the Canadians and I'm going to do it this way. And this is going to be the pretext. But we know that Canada very well could and is probably likely going to challenge this. And so it's not a matter of whether he believes this will actually happen. It's a negotiation tool, wouldn't you say? Typically, right. So tariffs often are used as a tools as tools of negotiation. And the president is renegotiating the terms of the US Canada Mexico trade agreement that he negotiated during his first term. But those talks with Canada are not currently underway. They are underway with Mexico, but not with Canada. And so, you know, my hunch is, is that things will sort of take their natural course on Monday. On Monday, at some point, we'll see traffic moving across that bridge. I don't think the president will be happy about it, but I think that's what's going to happen. As a student of history, you're going to go take a drive on the bridge. You know, I've never even been across the Ambassador Bridge. In all honesty, I've taken the train the tunnel when I was somebody who said he woke up thinking about that old, you know, World War Two era bill. I thought perhaps you would be interested in doing so. But Peter Trumbauer, it's always good to see you. Thanks for joining us here tonight. Thank you. We appreciate it. We're turning to some election issues after the break. Utility companies are spending big bucks on some of the races. State Senator Jim Runstead weighs in on that, plus the Senate and gubernatorial races as a whole. Next on The Pulse. The Pulse, looking at all things people, power and politics. Here to dive into a number of election related topics. State Senator Jim Runstead, he's also the chair of the Michigan Republican Party, the GOP here. And we thank you so much for joining us here tonight. Always good to see you here on The Pulse. Thanks for having me. So this is interesting. There's a ballot proposal that's out there that basically says we got to limit campaign donations from companies that hold up to $250,000 or more of state contracts. So you're talking about big utilities, you're talking about other big companies as well. And I find your support, or lack thereof, curious. I want to know where you stand on that. Is this a good idea to have a ballot proposal that does limit that kind of spending? Well, we have to do something because the utilities are basically buying the entire legislature. They have a 90% monopoly, a 10% guaranteed profit. They have the second worst outage repair in the nation. We have one of the highest rates in the nation, the highest in the Midwest. So they have gushing money. They're just pouring money down every rat hole. They're wasting money like crazy. They have a slush fund of $58 million they're using to corrupt the system. They went after me. They spent $300,000 to defeat me in 2018. They're going now after Steve Cara because he didn't play ball. This is as corrupt as it can be. Now with this ballot proposal, I re-read it. I'm a little bit concerned that if you're a union and you get the contract, you can do all the, under this provision, you can do all of the lobbying and get the money as you can. So I'm uncomfortable with this provision I put in a bill that at least requires that we get transparency from these people and the Democrats killed it. Spell that out for us. You're saying the union stipulation here, what is, because at first you seemed supportive of this legislation, this ballot proposal. You seemed like you were on board with it. You're like, yeah, it doesn't make sense for big money to be pushed into one politician's pockets and out the other. But now you're saying there's the union issue. What is that? Very much 100%. There has to be a reform. It is corrupt. We are the most corrupt nation state in the nation with the least transparent. And a big part of that is utilities. Companies fleeing Michigan because how rotten our utility services, but that particular a and you give 250,000, you cannot, you cannot participate in the political process. But if you're the union and the local union gets, you know, $600,000 worth of contracts, you could do whatever you want. So I'm very unhappy that they didn't make it clean and clear. Another thing that I have tried to do is say that the public service commission, there are three members, the three lawyers, social engineering lawyers who are responsible for all of this. So when you see these high rates, I think it was 146,000 increase two years ago, a $250,000 increase. Now they're wanting the $480,000 million. All these are million dollar increase and they just keep pouring these things on. I wanted them elected by the people and staggered terms. So what happens? What happens if a new proposal comes forth that still limits these kind of donations from these, the big companies, uh, but then also takes away that union part of it. Would you then be in support? There's something that's got to be done. If we could tweak this thing, it's too late because the language is approved. I would love to be able to do it legislative. We can fix this thing legislatively if we can get any will in the legislator. The people have got to start rising up and saying, you are ripping us off. You're stealing our money. The rate payers are being raped in this state and it's the political system that's corrupt. But respectfully, it is your job as the, as, as such a prominent Republican in this state to, to figure out a way to work with Democrats to craft the kind of language and legislation to make it happen. Right? I worked with him on a data center moratorium while I tried to, unfortunately the leadership of the Democrats killed that. I would love to get as much Democrat support as I possibly can. This is going to take a bipartisan approach in order to stop this. I want to talk to you a little bit about the races coming up here. I always find it interesting to get a Republican's take on what's going on with the Democrats right now. So you have Abdul El-Sayed and you have Haley Stevens. They're going to be right here coming up on Monday, the 27th for the big debate. What do you want to hear from them? Oh, as a Republican who, you know, may not obviously support them, but what do you want to hear from them? What, what do voters deserve to hear from them? Both of them. I think a little bit more of the contrasting really between the two. I know that they have problems with corporate funding. They have problems with APAC funding. That seems to be the big granddaddy for the Democrats. But there's a whole series of other issues. I would love to see them really start contrasting. That's where you get the rubber to meet the roads with this. Yeah, we all agree. I agree. Well, they probably don't agree on everything. And it would be nice if the moderators cause that to occur. You're talking to the moderator. So you're got the best guy here. If the moderator would do that, the moderator has taken note. I think the same thing of the Republicans, though, when I saw John James, Perry Johnson and Mike Cox on this very stage, I thought, you know, these guys were doing kumbayas and Republican forums for months, and all of a sudden they had to come in to say, OK, now we're going to contrast. And that's an important note. When you feel similarly about things, you've got to figure out how to peel apart your campaign and say, this is what really matters. When the state party did debate debates, I said, don't worry about their feelings. Draw contrast. That's what I wanted the debaters, the the moderators to do. Well, that's what I'm going to do here on Monday, 730 to eight on Fox 2 and then Fox Local, then streaming exclusively on Fox Local from 8 to 830. Bottom line, go to Fox Local, watch the entire debate on Monday. It starts at 730. We're excited to have all of you watching right here in Studio C. We're turning to the Gordie Howe Bridge after the break. Former auto supply chain executive Jan Griffiths with what will mean for our economy amid tensions with Canada. I'll get my mouth to work during the commercial break and we'll be back on the other side of the break. It is people, power and politics. Welcome back to Detroit's only nightly political talk show, The Pulse, here to dive into the Gordie Howe Bridge, as well as President Trump's trade war. Former auto supply chain executive Jan Griffiths, she's also the host of the Automotive Leaders podcast. And Jan, thanks so much for joining us. Always good to see you. Of course. We're going to split this up into three different sections. We've got the Middle East. We got the trade war with Canada, and then we have the Gordie Howe International Bridge. So trickles right down to that very important bridge of ours. Let's begin in the Middle East. Obviously this all hits us because we're talking about the Strait of Hormuz. I think 20 percent of the world's oil moves through that strait. Right now, you ask Iran, they'll say they control it. You ask the U.S., they say we control it. The bottom line is there's problems there. The bottom line is it is now a choke point and freight is not moving through there. So regardless of who's in charge, who thinks they're in charge, there is a threat. And if you own a vessel, a ship, are you going to put it through the strait knowing that all this is happening? Of course you're not. So freight is not moving. So when oil doesn't move through the strait, then it impacts supply, and that of course in turn impacts the global oil price, which then impacts the price of oil, the price of gas at the pump. So that's one aspect of it. But now the Saudis said, okay, so the Strait of Hormuz is a problem. We'll use a pipeline and we'll move oil over to the Red Sea Gateway. You might have heard the term Bab al-Mandeb. We hear that on the news recently. Now that's a problem. And we hear the Houthi rebels are stopping, again, they're creating a threat. They've already turned vessels around from going through that gateway. Now there's about 15% of global trade that goes through that gateway. So essentially, you've got two doors from the Middle East that are slammed shut right now. So you've got choke points in the Red Sea because of the Saudi issue with the Houthis, then you also have the Strait of Hormuz that's a choke point as well. Yes, exactly. And so at the end of the day, when it comes to our gas prices as we head into the later part of the summer, what are you expecting if this isn't resolved anytime soon? Well they're going to continue to rise. It's a supply issue. Yes, yes. And global oil is priced as a global commodity. So I know we hear a lot of people talking about, well, we don't need it, you know, we don't need that. We have our own oil. Yeah, but oil is priced on the global market. And that's how the commodity works. And that's not going to change anytime soon. Let's move on to Canada here for a moment. Section 338 is something we've heard you talk about before, but that's basically what's being used in this tariff law from the 1930s, right? Yes, yes. Let me ask you this first of all, before we get into that, do you believe that the Gordie Howe International Bridge will open on Monday? In your heart of hearts. In my heart, my gut tells me yes, but I also believe that there's a very real threat that President Trump will use it as another posturing move and block it from opening to move along the USMCA negotiations. Now, I also believe that the Section 338 move, so 50 percent on goods ranging from cement to hockey sticks. So I believe that that is also more of a negotiation posturing move. I mean, time will tell. You cover business so much. You've covered this president so much. You talk to politicians. You just talked to Hilly Stephens on your podcast. What do you what is your take on the fact that the president's in town? And I'm, again, asking for your gut here. The president comes to town. He literally is at the doorstep of Canada. Is that where he makes some kind of an announcement to essentially say, hey, not so fast, the bridge ain't open on Monday? I think it's a prime opportunity. I mean, all the cameras are going to be on him. It's a perfect place to do it. My gut tells me no, that it's a bridge too far, if you will. Good analogy. Yeah, I know, for sure. So the bridge. Talk for a moment about the bridge itself and and and what happens here. So the bridge, you know, it opens up. What does that do for competition? We had Maddie Maroon's ambassador bridge over here. So much traffic has been going through there. Of course, big freight doesn't go through the tunnel so that that bridge is primarily the way to get things go. What happens with the Gordie Howe bridge opens? How does that help? Well, let's let's look at the ambassador bridge to start off with. We talked about choke points with the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab Al-Mandab, right? So the ambassador bridge is essentially a choke point waiting to happen. It's almost 100 years old. There's hundreds of millions of dollars of product that go across that bridge every single day. It's there are delays already. We all know this frustration and delays. That's going to become a major, major choke point. If that comes comes to the point that you can no longer use it. That's a major, major issue for all businesses, either side and for people, people that come to work across the bridge. So it will have a major impact on the economy of both countries if something happens to that bridge. But OK, we're a step ahead of it because now we've got the Gordie Howe bridge. We just need to open it. So are you saying because of the age and the infrastructure of the older bridge, it's critically important to have this new bridge in case something happens to the old bridge, right? It's already problematic. There are already delays. We need trade. We need product. We need people to move freely across the border. That's what we need. We only have like 20 seconds left. $90 a barrel right now for a gas is the barrel price. Does that go up significantly in the next month? I believe that it does. Jan Griffiths, always good to see you. We thank you for your time. Come back again and talk to us again. That is The Pulse for tonight. Thank you so much for joining us. We hope you come back and talk to us again. We'll be back tomorrow night. As always, it was great to be with you.