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- [00:03]
Michelle Hussein
Bloomberg Audio studios, podcasts, radio news.
- [00:10]
Steve Hilton
Sometimes people have asked me, well, how did you end up supporting President Trump? In many ways, I think the campaign I'm running is not particularly partisan. However, there are realities about running for office in the U.S. but look, he's not on the ballot and this is a point of choice for California.
- [00:27]
Michelle Hussein
Steve Hilton, once a British political strategist, now the Trump backed Republican running for governor of California. Do you agree with his decision to go to war in Iran?
- [00:38]
Steve Hilton
Well, look, I'm just focused on this race.
- [00:40]
Michelle Hussein
You really don't think you need to or the voters of California deserve to hear you express a view on that you're trying to be a leader of the state.
- [00:49]
Steve Hilton
No, I understand, but there's plenty to fix and focus on in California.
- [00:55]
Michelle Hussein
From Bloomberg Weekend, this is the Michelle Welshin Show. I'm Michelle Hussein. Over the next few months, the US Political climate is going to get even more intense as we get closer to the midterms. This November's set of elections will mark the halfway point between one presidential vote and the next. And while most of the attention will be on Congress, whether the Democrats can seize control of one or both houses, there are some fascinating contests elsewhere. And one of them is the race to be the next governor of California. Now, California is a notable Democratic leaning state, but it has had Republican governors, Ronald Reagan, more recently Arnold Schwarzenegger. And this time a Republican is through to the final stage. One of two candidates on the ballot in November. His name is Steve Hilton. And he is unusual, not least because he only became a US citizen five years ago. He's someone whose name I've known for about 20 years because he used to be embedded in UK politics. He worked for the Conservative leader David Cameron before and after he became prime minister. So when I saw Steve Hilton's advance through the California governor primary, I knew I wanted to understand it and I reached out to him. His rival in November is Democrat Javier Becerra, someone who used to work for Joe Biden. And California is such an important place economically in global as well as US terms that this conversation does go beyond state matters. Above all, I hope that through it you get a much better sense of a man who wants to be California's next leader.
- [02:59]
Steve Hilton
How are you doing? Great to see you.
- [03:01]
Michelle Hussein
Thank you for saying yes to my email. Out of the blue, how are you? Most importantly, good, thanks.
- [03:08]
Steve Hilton
On to the next round.
- [03:09]
Michelle Hussein
Well, yeah, I know absolutely doesn't stop next round of interviews or next round of the campaign.
- [03:15]
Steve Hilton
The campaign, the next fight. You know, like there's no break. We got to keep going. There's not much time now.
- [03:19]
Michelle Hussein
Well, look, we'll talk about all of that. And it's clearly it's been a remarkable few few weeks for you. You've obviously been involved in politics for a long time. You've been a strategist, you've been a political aide, you've been a commentator on Fox News. I'm still curious about the moment when you decided to run for office yourself, because that's a.
- [03:42]
Steve Hilton
I don't think there was one specific moment, but there was a period of time that I can recall. As you mentioned, I'd been a host on television. A most unexpected turn in my career in media. I greatly enjoyed that. But as the years went on, I felt that I wanted to get back into actually doing things rather than just talking about things. I love California. Been living here since 2012. Raised my family here, started a business here. I could see that things were going off the rails pretty badly from a policy point of view. So I started a policy organization, Golden Together, started working on some of our big problems in California. I then started engaging with Sacramento, trying to advance those policy ideas through the legislature. And that was the point where I realized just how dysfunctional and broken California's system of government is. Because every single meeting I had with legislators, Democrats, Republicans, it was the same story. Yes, you're right. These policies you're advocating would make a huge difference. We'd get more housing built, we'd lower the cost. All those things are true. However, it can never happen because the unions won't allow it, the climate activists won't allow it to. The system just can't make it happen. And I just realized then that something has to change.
- [05:05]
Michelle Hussein
Otherwise the state that I love is
- [05:07]
Steve Hilton
just going to go continue to decline.
- [05:09]
Michelle Hussein
Yeah, it's the state you've made your home in the country that you've made your home having, having left the UK and we're going to dig into all of this and the nuts and bolts of your campaign in a moment. But I just want to understand you more broadly. To start with, would you say that being on Fox, having that kind of prominence on tv, that's got to have played an important role in rising in the Republican Party, Right? It's Donald Trump. It helped his rise because he was known from television and he was a fan of your show on Fox.
- [05:36]
Steve Hilton
I think that's right. That it gives you a platform. But I think it's that combination actually of media experience, policy and government experience, and business experience that actually is a good fit for this role, not only of running for governor, but as I plan to be being the next governor.
- [05:53]
Michelle Hussein
But when did you actually become a Republican? Because 2017, you were very clearly saying you weren't partisan and you were neither Democrat nor Republican.
- [06:04]
Steve Hilton
Well, it's interesting in many ways, I think the campaign I'm running is not particularly partisan. It's based on some broad common sense principles that I think most people can get behind. So I've never thought of myself as a particularly partisan person. However, there are realities about running for office in the us. It's basically a two party system and of course I identify very much with the principles that underlie the Republican Party, just as I do the Conservative Party where I worked for some years and was part of a coalition government led by Conservative Prime Minister. The basic ideas that you would associate with the centre right are ideas that I share in terms of limiting the role of government, enhancing individual freedom. Those sorts of things have always been part of my political philosophy and therefore connect very much with the Republican Party here in America.
- [07:01]
Michelle Hussein
I of course remember you from your time in the UK working for David Cameron before he got elected, after he became Prime Minister, you were part of that effort to detoxify the Conservative Party, to make it more electable, bring it into more of the center ground, more socially liberal, more climate conscious. Are you still the same guy who did that?
- [07:24]
Steve Hilton
Oh, very much, very much. I understand that some people who haven't been following the intervening years may look at that and say, well, that's very different. David Cameron's a very different personality to the President who's the leader of the Republican Party in America today. I can see that very clearly. But everyone has their own personal style. But the ideas that really drove that process of change for the Conservative Party in particular, focusing on people who've been left behind, on dealing with poverty and inequality, on helping working people. That was a really big part of the work that we did 20 years or so ago with the Conservative Party. And that's a big driver of what I'm really arguing for here. And there's many other similarities as well. I think the, perhaps the broadest one is a sense of that I've always had, which is a sense that we need to put power in people's hands and enable them to fight back against establishments or systems or centralized power that benefits a small group rather than the majority of people. That's always been a really important driving force.
- [08:33]
Michelle Hussein
Yeah, but what you did for David Cameron, the person who you still say you Are. That is very, very far from not only Donald Trump himself, but maga. And I just wonder how you reconcile that, because you are endorsed by President Trump himself. What you're representing yourself as is, I think, more the Arnold Schwarzenegger wing of the Republican Party in California. And he's someone who endorsed Kamala Harris in the last presidential election.
- [08:59]
Steve Hilton
I don't think the boxes are quite as neat and defined as that. I'm endorsed by many different kinds of Republicans, of course, political parties, coalitions. And as I say, I think this campaign, everything I'm arguing for is not particularly partisan. The fact that we've got Democrats supporting the campaign is an example of that. And I think that what I've always tried to focus on is really the substance, the ideas, specific things. I'm a pragmatic candidate in this race, not an ideologue. The arguments I'm making about how we need to turn California around. We've got the highest cost of living by far. I'm not sure it's appreciated around the world, because you look at the headline for California with the fourth biggest economy, and there's a sense of complacency there on the part of the current leadership. They keep saying that as if that answers all questions. Underneath that, this is a state that's in real trouble, especially from an economic point of view. And the solutions there actually go across party lines. They're just practical things to make life easier for families and businesses. So I think this whole conversation around labels and whatever doesn't really get to the point about what is needed in order to help California get back on track.
- [10:19]
Michelle Hussein
Okay. But I don't think you can bat away being the fourth largest economy in the world quite so lightly. This happened last year. It was the fifth largest. Then California overtook Japan under Gavin Newsom. It doesn't feel like a failure to many people in the state, I would suspect, and certainly to people outside.
- [10:38]
Steve Hilton
Well, I think it does to many people inside, because they're struggling to even live. That's why during Gavin Newsom's tenure as governor, nearly 2 million Californians have actually moved out. Because they can't live here anymore. Cause it's so expensive. Let's just look at that number. The fourth biggest economy in the world. That's driven by two things that don't actually tell a story of health in terms of our economy. Partly it's driven by a very small number of tech companies. Fantastic success stories, which I strongly support. I'm very proud of the fact that we're leading the AI revolution. In California, they generate enormous amounts of revenue, but not very many jobs. The second part of the story in terms of the size of our economy is that it includes the size of government. They've doubled the budget of the state of California in the last 10 years or so. Meanwhile, the results on every measure, education standards, the quality of our infrastructure, the highest unemployment rate of all 50 states, the highest poverty rate of all 50 states tied with Louisiana. I think if we don't change direction this year, California really is heading for economic disaster. I've heard from so many business leaders that they're waiting to see what happens in November. And if we don't vote for change in California, they're out. And the exodus of businesses from California that you've seen in the last few years could turn into a stampede.
- [12:05]
Michelle Hussein
So if California is doing that badly, I want to put two other points to you. One is whether you think there is something longer term going on that is affecting the poorest in California and elsewhere, and that is a long term decline in living standards that's happened over the course of the last 50 years. So it's not about the Democrats ruling California now. It is about something more systemic that reflects poorly on American leadership for decades.
- [12:32]
Steve Hilton
Well, I agree with you, actually sometimes people have asked me, well, how did, going back to your earlier conversation, how did you end up supporting President Trump? I do Remember back in 2015 for the first time saw this chart based on US data. This is going back 10 years now, 11 years showing the earnings of the majority of workers in California. I think the technical term was non managerial, non supervisory workers, roughly 80% of the workforce after inflation. And it's basically a straight line, just flat. So through Republican and Democrat governance in 50 years, since 1974, I think it was, yeah, basically the economic position of
- [13:15]
Michelle Hussein
Madison, Nobel Prize winning economist has done the seminal work on that. And I don't know if that, if those are the figures you're referring to, but he's absolutely laid this out for the last 50 years. But that's exactly why I think the challenge is much broader than the political points you're making. It is one about choices that America's leaders have made.
- [13:33]
Steve Hilton
Right, I agree with that. And I think that there needs to be a much bigger emphasis on the gap between the very top and the super rich and so on. Of course that's been in the news with the SpaceX IPO and so on. I think the real issue is the fact that you've got so many people in the lower end of the income scale who just feel stuck and that social mobility has gone. I think that's absolutely a broad point. However, within that, one of the great things about America and our system here is that you've got this experiment in policymaking through the federal system. The fact you've got 50 states that do things a different way, and even within that overall framework, which I agree needs serious reform, some states are doing better than others. And you can see it in the fact that people and businesses are leaving California and moving to states with more welcoming policies to business and where the cost of living is much lower. Texas, Florida, Tennessee, even our neighboring states, Nevada. You've got a lot of evidence now that the high tax, high spending, progressive model of governance that you see in the blue states, as they're known, like California, like New York, is not working. We've had 16 years of one party rule in California where one party's controlled every everything. There's really been no barrier to the Democratic philosophy being implemented fully in California. The results are among the worst in the country.
- [14:59]
Michelle Hussein
But you know, on people leaving, there's an aspect of this on which you could agree with Gavin Newsom, which is that he is trying to stop the wealth tax on billionaires that's been proposed by one of the labor unions. He's determined to try and stop it because he thinks it will drive more people away. So area of agreement? Yes. Between you and Governor Nissan?
- [15:19]
Steve Hilton
Very much. Although I have to say, given his close relationship with the unions, I would have hoped he would have acted sooner to stop that even becoming a consideration. For example, right now there's a process going on in Sacramento, very typical. It's going to horse trading process where it's possible that the union itself will take it off the ballot now because they're negotiating some other kind of agreements that could have been done a year ago.
- [15:47]
Michelle Hussein
He's working on this. That's the point.
- [15:49]
Steve Hilton
No, I agree with that. But as often with Gavin Newsom, a little bit more attention and focus earlier would have worked wonders.
- [15:56]
Michelle Hussein
Okay. The other point I wanted to put to you about your economic critique of California is a question really about whether the policies of the federal government are playing a role in making life more unaffordable for Californians.
- [16:11]
Steve Hilton
Well, it's certainly true that the. Which examples are you thinking of particularly, I'm wondering.
- [16:17]
Michelle Hussein
Well, let's take tariffs for starters, and their impact on the cost of some goods.
- [16:22]
Steve Hilton
Well, I think that if you look at the detail on that, it's nothing like as significant. We have the highest grocery prices for Example in the country, the main drivers of that are policies made in California. Energy costs the highest in the country, the labor and environmental regulations that make operating here so expensive.
- [16:45]
Michelle Hussein
Can I give you others? This is Bloomberg analysis from earlier in the year that the jumps in the prices of children's clothing, tools, outdoor equipment, furniture, bedding, motor vehicle parts, all of this is linked to tariff policy and trade policy that the administration brought in last year.
- [17:03]
Steve Hilton
Yeah, but if you basically look at where we've settled on tariffs in terms of the percentage rates, and you look at the way that the international trading system has worked for a long time before the tariffs, it is a leveling of the system. And I think that the impulse that drove that policy is absolutely correct, which is that there hasn't been fairness. Most other countries, most of America's trading partners, for example, have a value added tax which distorts the picture in terms of imports and exports. It favors.
- [17:36]
Michelle Hussein
Okay, so you support the imposition of tariffs.
- [17:40]
Steve Hilton
Well, it's not a California state policy. So I try and avoid weighing in on policies where they aren't really the subject of this campaign. I mean, I can give you a general observation that I think it was important to try and do something to, to bring manufacturing back to the US and that's happening. Unfortunately, it's not happening for California.
- [18:01]
Michelle Hussein
Okay, you. I remember, I remember. I mean, I've read you talking about global and supporting globalization. So has your view completely changed on that because that was the thing that you used to say you believed in? Well, I think that globalization was a force for good and a force that created wealth rather than lifted.
- [18:21]
Steve Hilton
Yeah, right. But you've got to. Nothing is all good or all bad. I mean, I think the, the point about policy generally in all sorts of areas, it's about trade offs. And of course it's true that over the years that we've seen the globalization of trade and so on, we've seen tremendous advances in economic opportunity in some parts of the world. And that's a good thing. Obviously, I think anyone would support that. But at the same time, partly because of sometimes the speed of transition, partly, sometimes because of the concentrated effects of a transition, places have really lost out and suffered. And so the policy goal is to try and keep as much of the positive while alleviating the negative. And I always bring it back because I am running now for governor of California. What does it mean in California, going back to the AI companies? You look at Nvidia, Anthropic, these big companies making major investments in the US none of Them in California. The job creation that's coming from the AI boom in America is happening outside of the home state of those companies. That's something I want to change. So we get the full stack, as I describe it, of AI jobs in California.
- [19:35]
Michelle Hussein
So I do want to ask you about your attitude to Big Tech because I remember you being really critical of these companies, Facebook as it was then, Amazon and Google, talking about their dominant position, how you'd like the kind of framework where if they became too dominant in the market, then you'd want them to be treated as a monopoly, that you'd want maximum pay rates for senior executives. Have you changed your mind? And at that time you were talking about regulation of Big Tech being really important to you. And now I've changed my kind of thing in your set of policies.
- [20:12]
Steve Hilton
I've changed my job, which is now running for governor. And so I plan to be governor. My job, my responsibility.
- [20:19]
Michelle Hussein
Does that mean you can't afford to take on Big Tech?
- [20:22]
Steve Hilton
If I just finish the point, which is that it's my responsibility will be to support every business in California to help them grow so we create jobs and wealth and opportunity in our state. So regardless of my personal opinions about this or that company, I see it as the responsibility of the governor of any state to stand up for the people and the businesses. Small business, medium sized, big global corporations, whatever it is, that is my responsibility.
- [20:54]
Michelle Hussein
So what is your personal opinion of Big Tech?
- [20:57]
Steve Hilton
Well, I think that like we were just talking about in other areas, brought tremendous advances and changed people's lives in a positive way. I'm hugely proud of the tech sector and the fact that we're leading and dominating once again in this new wave of innovation, that's fantastic and I'm proud of that. But as with everything, there's positives and downsides and the goal of policymakers should be to be really careful about not leaping into trying to fix things. There really is a danger of overcorrecting and having unintended consequences. I think that's the skill of governance. And I think that when you look at tech, of course it's had positive transformational effects. Remember, people are choosing to use this technology. No one's forcing it on anyone. People are using it because they find it helpful and businesses are using it because they find it helpful. I don't want to stand in the way of that.
- [21:57]
Michelle Hussein
Yeah, and I do understand, of course, that you're doing a different job now and running for office is different to being a commentator and having much more freedom when you can say. But there is also a question of belief and core principles. And you clearly felt strongly and thought a lot about tech, not least because you've spent so many years, you know, seeing it up close and living in California. So do you not have any concerns today about the dominance of these companies in our lives? They're a key part of the stock market. A lot of American wealth is wrapped up in them. They're at the forefront of AI, which is will change, if not destroy many jobs. Like have those turns gone away or you just can't talk about them anymore?
- [22:42]
Steve Hilton
No, no, I think that. Well, first of all, not just observed. I started and ran a tech company. I taught at Stanford University. So I absolutely agree with you that you're seeing companies with a huge transformational effect. But that's new and it's what innovation is. We've got to be careful about what happens. That's my attitude to the whole question of the impact of technology on society, is to just be very open about what's going on, but not necessarily think that we. And speaking now, as someone who's running for office, has the ability to really drive a change without causing unintended consequences. Right now, for example, on AI, you've got major disagreement about what's happening even within the leaders of the sector. No one really knows.
- [23:46]
Michelle Hussein
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- [24:15]
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- [26:09]
Michelle Hussein
What do you think is going to be your biggest hurdle in this race in the next few months?
- [26:15]
Steve Hilton
Well, I think it's actually a belief that we can turn the desire for change. There's no question that California wants change. Every single piece of data you look at shows that there's a clear majority of people who think that we're on the wrong track and that we need to change direction. Now what you've got to do is close that gap between the desire of people for change and actually voting for it by doing something that they haven't done in sufficient numbers in recent years, which is actually voting Republican. And so my job is to say, look, I'm running as someone with a positive, pragmatic plan for very specific benefits that will help you in your life. $3 gas, cut your electric bills in half, your first 150 grand, tax free starter homes for young people so they can afford to buy a home in California. These are positive, practical things. And my job is to get out there and show people how it can be done. And then I think we'll win. I'm very confident of that.
- [27:19]
Michelle Hussein
You're gonna need to have Democrats vote for you essentially.
- [27:24]
Steve Hilton
Absolutely. I mean, it's a clear requirement that given the numbers that you've seen in recent years, of course it's true that Democrats and independents, as it's called in California, no party preference voters need to join our movement for change. They already are. I mean, we've been doing events up and down the state for a year now, town halls, hundreds of events. Thousands and thousands of people now have come out. Many times people come along, they're open to everybody. And many times someone would stand up and say, I'm a Democrat, I've never been a Republican event before I voted for Kamala Harris. But something's gotta change in California. You're already seeing that happen.
- [28:07]
Michelle Hussein
I Just wonder if that gets more difficult from this point onwards, because President Trump's popularity has declined. He's endorsed your ticket. You've thanked him for that. You are asking people who often will not like him at all and will feel harmed by some of his economic policies or who are angry at the war in Iran to vote for you.
- [28:28]
Steve Hilton
No, I understand that, but look, he's not on the ballot, and this is a point of choice for California. Do we keep going in the same direction we've had for the last 16 years, or do we want to make a choice to go in a new direction? You mentioned the war, the Iran war. Of course, that's lifted up gas prices right across the country, but they are $2 a gallon higher in California than anywhere else today. Do you agree with the Iran around the country that people are complaining about as being incredibly high? We would have welcomed that in California before the war because they're way lower than we had imposed here. President Trump is president in all these other states that have far lower cost of living, gas prices, electric bills, housing costs, you name it. And so it's clearly not his policies, it's California policies that are the problem here.
- [29:22]
Michelle Hussein
Do you agree with the Iran war, his decision to go to war in Iran?
- [29:25]
Steve Hilton
Well, look, I'm just focused on this race. I'm really not a commentator on every political issue right now. There's plenty to fix in California. That's my focus, 100%.
- [29:38]
Michelle Hussein
You really don't think you need to, or the voters of California deserve to hear you express a view on that? That's not the point. It's just to know where you, where you stand on it. You're going to be. You're trying to be a leader of the state.
- [29:54]
Steve Hilton
No, I understand. I understand. But there's plenty to fix and focus on in California. And as I said, I'm not a political commentator. I can give you my. My very strong view that it's completely dangerous for the whole world for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I think the basis for that is something that's broadly shared across all political parties. That's why leaders of all kinds have been trying to deal with this situation for many, many years. I've also expressed a strong belief that, you know, remember, my parents are Hungarian. They fled communism in Hungary. I've always believed that the way in which the Iranian people have stood up to this brutal, authoritarian regime, something that we should support. So just as, you know, you take the side of people trying to overthrow oppression generally, that's something, of course, I believe in. Now, that doesn't mean that I've spent any time looking at the specific details of the implementation of this or that policy. I'm 100% focused on California.
- [31:04]
Michelle Hussein
You know how President Trump is talking about the regime members now, who the US Is dealing with. Rational, smart, strong, not radicalized. It's the same regime. And that's the way he's referring to them.
- [31:18]
Steve Hilton
Now, look, as I said, I'm just not. I actually hadn't even heard those comments. Truly, it's a big state. I'm on the road from morning till night, up and down the state, making our case, and I'm just not focused on anything other than California right now.
- [31:36]
Michelle Hussein
Okay, well, then you mentioned your parents and then fleeing communism. And I can imagine that, that experience, you know, clearly formative for them, formative for you as well, growing up, I guess. Is it part of why you became a conservative because you were not going to grow up to be someone on the left of the political spectrum ever?
- [31:59]
Steve Hilton
I think that's probably part of it. One of my earliest political memories is in the uk. I was born in the uk. Both my parents are Hungarian also. My stepfather's Hungarian. My parents split it up when I was young. My dad went back to Hungary. My stepfather's Hungarian also. Someone who actually fled, ran across the border with Austria and ended up in a refugee camp. And like so many working class immigrants, he had a. A massive appreciation for the opportunities of being in a free country. I grew up in a regular working class immigrant home. He worked construction. He was a builder, as you'd say, in England. And I really remember very strongly around the early 80s, when Margaret Thatcher had been elected, this sense that she was for the workers, she was for working people and people who wanted to. And the word that became very commonly associated with that, strive and make progress and get on in life. And that sense of pursuing opportunity, climbing the ladder of opportunity, upward mobility through hard work and effort, that was something that I found that was very formative as I was growing up. And I think that's part of it too.
- [33:19]
Michelle Hussein
And so that family experience in, you know, making a different life, fleeing communism. How. How does it make you view Cubans today who, unlike in the past, are being deported, some of them with criminal records, but not always. These are also people who fled communism.
- [33:38]
Steve Hilton
Well, I think that you. But I understand deeply, as you just noted, the desire for freedom, but you can't. All of these migration patterns, immigration and migration across borders, everything falls apart if it's not done in a way that is legal and controlled. Everyone must accept that, that you can't just have an open borders system. It just causes chaos. And so support for immigration, for welcoming people who are fleeing persecution, all those things. I've always actually, David Cameron used to talk about it the same way. Support for all of that depends on the government controlling that. And when the government fails to control it, support declines. You can actually see that change in public opinion. You saw a drop in support for immigration and welcoming asylum seekers and so on in the US during the open border years of Joe Biden's administration. So I think that you've got to combine the desire to offer people that opportunity with a sense of orderly management of that process.
- [34:52]
Michelle Hussein
Isn't the example of Cuba a bit different in the context of the United States?
- [34:58]
Steve Hilton
I'm not sure what you're referring to
- [34:59]
Michelle Hussein
specifically because of fleeing communism, that the U.S. i don't suppose you're arguing who
- [35:07]
Steve Hilton
wants to flee communism should be automatically accepted anyway. You know, there's Cuban.
- [35:14]
Michelle Hussein
There are many Cuban Americans today who feel very upset with the deportation of Cubans for precisely that reason. I guess. You're telling me you think they're wrong?
- [35:24]
Steve Hilton
Well, I actually don't know specifically. The cases you're talking. Are these illegal immigrants? I don't know exactly what you're describing.
- [35:32]
Michelle Hussein
I mean, they are people who've entered the United States from Cuba and now they are being deported.
- [35:38]
Steve Hilton
Well, did they enter legally or illegally?
- [35:41]
Michelle Hussein
They would have entered and now been undocumented. But that has been the case. That has been the case for a long time. But previous administrations didn't deport them because there was a certain protection for Cuban Americans that was different for others. And that has changed now. Because of your family history. I'm just wondering what you think of it.
- [35:59]
Steve Hilton
No, I don't think my family history means that I support illegal immigration. I don't see how that follows at all. I think it's very important that we try and approach it in a calm and reasonable way. Lower the temperature. I think there's been far too much divisive, performative rhetoric on the Democrat side demonizing all of this. I think most people agree that immigration is a positive thing, but should be managed and controlled by the government. That's a common sense position that I think the vast majority of people support.
- [36:31]
Michelle Hussein
Yeah, and of course, you're an immigrant yourself to the U.S. you became a U.S. citizen a few years ago. You've renounced your British citizenship, which you didn't have to. Was it just awkward to be running for Office being a dual national, or did you really feel that you just didn't want that passport anymore?
- [36:49]
Steve Hilton
No, I feel very strongly that. I feel very strongly that you're asking for people to put their faith in you, their trust in you, and to make a commitment to you. And I think you're obliged to make a commitment to them and say, I am 100% all in for this country and this state, which I am. But I wanted to have absolutely no doubt about that. In anyone's mind.
- [37:14]
Michelle Hussein
Is there anything you miss about the uk?
- [37:18]
Steve Hilton
Well, I've noticed particularly, I mean, obviously friends and family, but we get back usually at Christmas time and see people. And so I love California deeply. I feel at home here in a way that I haven't ever before. And I'm so proud to be an American, proud to be a Californian, and really honored to be in the position I'm in, which is to actually do something, you could say, in a way to repay the incredible opportunities that I've had here and to restore that idea of the California dream, which is a very particular thing about our state, that other states really don't have, to really try and bring that to as many people as possible.
- [38:03]
Michelle Hussein
There's really nothing. You miss the pint in the pub, tea and biscuits.
- [38:07]
Steve Hilton
That's a fair point. That's right. When we go back to London, one of my first moves is, is calling a friend or meeting up with a friend, said, yeah, we gotta go to a pub. That's a fair one.
- [38:20]
Michelle Hussein
How do you think the next few months are going to be? Are you. I mean, they're going to be grueling, right? You're going to be on the road.
- [38:24]
Steve Hilton
Yes, but it's an honor to do it, truly. It's an honour to do it. It's such a struggle for people in California, and I feel this tremendous sense of responsibility to not let them down. And that's why on election night, when we got the first results and it seemed that we were going to be okay, my feeling was overwhelmingly just relief, truly, that, okay, this is good. We haven't, you know, we haven't let people down. The people who place their real faith in you being able to help lead a change. And now it's a very clear choice, actually very helpfully clear, because you've got my plan for change. And on the other side, Javier Becerra, who's the living embodiment of more of the same. And so it's a really clear choice for California. And I'm excited about being on the road and putting it out there for people.
- [39:11]
Michelle Hussein
Would you like President Trump to come on the road with you?
- [39:14]
Steve Hilton
Look, I haven't thought about that, honestly. He's got a lot he's focused on, so I don't suppose that's something that he's thought about either.
- [39:25]
Michelle Hussein
I feel he might not be an asset to you on the campaign trail in California.
- [39:29]
Steve Hilton
Well, a lot of people voted for him. More people voted for him in California than in any other state in 2024. Of course, that's a function of being a big state, but I would just say that California is actually more of a Republican state than people think. And I get a very strong sense that there's a groundswell of people who've felt that it's just not possible in these years of one party dominance that actually change isn't possible. And part of the reason I'm running a campaign in such a high energy way, which people say they haven't seen for a long time, is to try and get that sense of belief back that we really can do this.
- [40:11]
Michelle Hussein
Steve Hilton, thank you very much.
- [40:13]
Steve Hilton
Great to be with you. Thank you.
- [40:19]
Michelle Hussein
And that's where we left the conversation. Bloomberg subscribers can read my notes on this and see pictures of how Steve Hilton has evolved since his UK politics days. That's@Bloomberg.com Michelle. And so to the team. The producers are Jessica Beck and Chris Martlew. The video producer is Andy Hayward. Social media is by Alex Morgan. Our music is by Bart Warshaw and the executive producer is Louisa Lewis. At Bloomberg Weekend, our thanks as ever to Brendan, Frances Newnham and our executive editor, Catherine Bell. Until next time, goodbye.
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