← The MeidasTouch Podcast
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- [00:01]
Adrian
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- [00:12]
Ben
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- [00:14]
Adrian
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- [00:23]
Dr. Abdul El Sayed
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- [00:53]
Ben
Donald Trump and Elon Musk have unleashed their wrecking ball in the United States of America, Michigan has been impacted significantly, and it's notable because Michigan flipped back in the 2024 election to vote for Trump. There were obviously red flags during the election, like when Trump would go to Michigan and have fake union workers at fake union shops pretend to be union workers. I don't know. That may have been a red flag, but now you have real Michigan auto workers and union workers who are saying, look, you're playing poker with people's lives. This from a recent Guardian piece. Residents in the auto industry's heartland are responding to the chaotic start to Trump's signature economic policy. I think we've seen Donald Trump's polling when it comes to his handling of the economy right now lower than it even was during COVID That's supposed to be the strong issue, I guess, for the Republicans, although I never knew why that was viewed as a strong issue for Republicans. There's other issues in Michigan, in Michigan, that need to be highlighted as well, like this 70 international students facing deportation in Michigan and the Trump regime refuses to say why. The ACLU is challenging the Trump regime's decision to revoke international students legal status. Representatives from the various universities are saying they're not given any reasons why and it's harming their universities cohesiveness and ability to function. Stories like this A lab that helps forecast severe weather in Michigan is crippled by Trump staffing cuts. Essential functions at the federal Great Lakes Research Lab that monitors toxic algae blooms and helps forecast Michigan weather have been crippled by the Trump regime's wave of federal firings, the 30,000 federal workers in Michigan, we're seeing resistance as well. MSU faculty joining calls for a Big Ten mutual defense compact with other universities to stand up. And we're just hearing tragic individual stories, you know, like this, I mean, and this story is repeated over and over again. A Michigan car repair shop owner detailing how the Trump tariffs are impacting his business. Let's play it.
- [03:13]
Dr. Abdul El Sayed
These tariffs affect your day to day operations. I mean, is charging more the only solution?
- [03:19]
Adrian
That's the problem. You know, you can only pass so much onto a customer. You know, as a mechanic, our, our labor rates are a little bit high because cars are more complicated to work on, to diagnose. So we try to help a customer by getting parts at a discount. Now with these 25% going up, it's not much we can help and we're scared that customers will put off their repairs. Hopefully not too long. But we just don't know what's going to happen.
- [03:49]
Ben
You have the tariff threat to business and then you have the fact that the Trump regime is disappearing people off the streets and sending them to essentially extermination camps in El Salvador. Here on WWMT tv, a West Michigan business owner talks about the impact on his various businesses and how the Trump immigration attacks are devastating to Michigan.
- [04:11]
Adrian
Vladimir Judy owns a few different businesses here in Coldwater. He tells me many of his workers came to the US Legally under programs created by former President Joe Biden's administration. He says that many of these workers are deported under Trump administration policies. It would be a disaster for his businesses.
- [04:30]
Vladimir Judy
I think it's a big mistake and there is a lot of mistake together that he's doing right now. And I think it's going to be catastrophic.
- [04:40]
Adrian
Vladimir Judy says he believes migrants are a big force driving America's economy. He tells me like so many others, he came to the US from Haiti for a better life with more opportunities.
- [04:52]
Vladimir Judy
At first he was going to deport the criminals, but it seems like he didn't find enough criminals to stay busy, so now he's going after the good ones.
- [04:59]
Adrian
Judy says so far none of his workers have been deported, but it's a major concern because of recent attempts to deport some migrants legally in the US that includes the deportation of a Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to El Salvador. The Trump administration claims Garcia is a member of the MS.13 gang despite providing no evidence.
- [05:19]
Dr. Abdul El Sayed
Based on the sensationalism of many of.
- [05:21]
Ben
The people in this room, you would think we deported a candidate for father of the year.
- [05:25]
Adrian
President Trump is also trying to undo some immigration programs which allow migrants to work in the U.S. as for Judy, he has a message for migrant workers in West Michigan.
- [05:37]
Vladimir Judy
I think it's a privilege that we have in the United States that we have people coming from all over the world to come here and work and contribute to the American dream. Be proud of yourself. Know your worth. Stay strong.
- [05:52]
Ben
Know your worth. Stay strong. Let's bring in Dr. Abdul El Sayed. Doctor, you're running as the Democratic candidate, one of the Democratic candidates for the Senate race there. Senator Bernie Sanders just endorsed you. Big endorsement right there. You just recently announced your candidacy. When you see those videos, you're on the ground in Michigan. You previously were the director of the largest health department in the state of Michigan, where you were focusing on doing things like giving kids free eyeglasses and helping people. So what do you make of the situation right now in the state?
- [06:28]
Dr. Abdul El Sayed
You know, Ben, I'll tell you, there is so much pain. And I trained as a doctor, and the thing you're trained to do is to walk in and see pain and ask two foundational questions. What's wrong? And how can I help? And the thing about it is that oftentimes when people see you when they're in pain, it's already set into a kind of cynicism. What Trump's one neat trick is, is he's able to take that pain and then really, really drive the cynicism so that he puts people like him and Elon Musk in power, and then they just make it worse because, of course, they never really had any solutions. And you think about that message from that business owner, my neighbor, in here in Michigan, and we all have to know our worth. We all have sources of pain. In fact, I would argue that the reason Trump ever got elected is because there is so much of it. But the question of pain is, can we actually work together and turn it into hope? Can we believe that things can actually get better? What Trump did on immigration, if I may for a second, because my parents immigrated to this country, what he did was he made us think that it was somebody else who was causing us all this pain. And then he demagogued the whole idea of immigration itself to destroy people's lives. I don't think anybody wants their lives destroyed or the lives of their neighbors destroyed. What they really want is to know that the economy works for people like them, not Musk and Trump. They really want to know that they can go see a doctor without taking on crippling medical debt. They really want to know that their kid goes to a school that's going to train them for the future that they hope will be better than the, the one that they had. And so it's just failing to see the challenge in front of folks and turning it into, or turning ourselves against one another.
- [08:07]
Ben
I saw Senator Sanders rally in Michigan, and then he was in Wisconsin, and then he went to lots of ruby red states. He went to Utah, he was in Idaho. Then red areas in blue states. Lots of people showing up. And he's talking about issues that hit home to people. Education, health care, you know, things that are. Are at the center of their life. So. So do you see hope, though, right now? Do you see change? Because Michigan went in the opposite direction in the 2024 election?
- [08:42]
Dr. Abdul El Sayed
Yeah, I. I happen to be one of the speakers at that rally in Warren. I mean, when I tell you what 10,000 people in a high school looks like, it's. It's kind of wild. But the reason that they came out to listen to Senator Sanders is because he's been talking about these issues for a very long time. And anybody who knows anything about the senator is that he is unafraid to say what's wrong, to call it out clearly and to propose real solutions. And you think about the kind of enthusiasm that that's generating, it should remind us that the bar is not really so high. Even though I think a lot of politicians get themselves wound around the axle. And the reason why is because we're told that the way to win an election in a place like Michigan is to triangulate to the least common denominator position on an issue and then make sure it's fundamentally inoffensive to anybody. But that then means that if you're thinking about the corporation whose pack check you want, you end up saying nothing at all. But then you say it with enthusiasm because some consultant told you that you've got to really say it. But when you say nothing at all with enthusiasm, you'll look ridiculous. And so what Bernie is showing us is that if you were actually willing to surface the conversations people are having with their loved ones across the dinner table or the anxieties that they have when they look their kids in the eye and speak directly to those that folks want to come out for that. So I'm so grateful for his endorsement, for what he's been doing in our politics, and I'm hoping that here in Michigan, we can take that, take that pain and surface it into real solutions that we can actually turn into public policy and start making people's lives better. That, to me, is where the hope is.
- [10:12]
Ben
You know, you said something earlier in the interview about how Trump almost tries to normalize the suffering and make people feel they're not worth anything. And when people feel so beaten down with no hope, that's when authoritarianism can really fester and prey on people's just lack of rising up and caring about these issues. So as, as you look forward forward though, to your campaign, what's your message right now to, to, to Michigan? What, what's going to set you apart from the other Democratic candidates to restore that sense of hope? And why ultimately, do you think you're the right person to go against the Republican candidate who seems to be Mike Rogers, MAGA Republican?
- [10:58]
Dr. Abdul El Sayed
Yeah. Well, number one, it just shouldn't be this hard to get by in the richest, most powerful country in the world. And the people who have exploited that pain, they're just making it worse. So we need somebody who's going to do two things. Number one, you've got to step up and fight back. I got receipts on my role as a fighter, and I don't back down. But it's not just about fighting back. You've got to know what you're going to fight for. And the thing about me is I'm not afraid to tell you what I think the world ought to look like, to give you a vision for what my leadership would mean in hard public policy. I wrote the book on Medicare for all. I know that corporations, the Fortune 500, have literally corrupted our politics for their profits against the kinds of opportunities that we need and deserve. I'm fighting for an economy where one job is enough to feed a family, where it's the best possible place to start a small business and then take care of your workers and spend your money in your local community. And I know that I can take on Mike Rogers for a couple reasons. Number one, Mike Rogers has served, and when he served, he served himself. And number two, dudes from Florida, he's not even from here. And the thing about it is, it's fascinating watching all these MAGA Republicans who used to be the kind of country club Republicans who signed on to things like the war in Iraq. And the reality of it is we know who Mike Rogers is, and people voted against him for Senate last time for a reason. So here's what we gotta do. We gotta remember we can't beat something with nothing. And so we've got to remember something, which is when you center the people who you're trying to serve. When you're able to speak truth to their pain and turn it into answers and you're willing to speak those answers all over your state, you can win a race. And if that's something that resonates with folks out there, I hope that they'll check us out at abdul4senate.com be a part of this campaign. I don't take corporate pact checks, so I rely on good folks like you.
- [12:49]
Ben
Well, everybody, check it out. Dr. Abdul El Sayed, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate you.
- [12:54]
Dr. Abdul El Sayed
I so appreciate you all having me and thank you for fighting the good fight.
- [12:56]
Ben
We appreciate you everybody. Hit subscribe let's get to 5 million subscribers. Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas substack for ad free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski and more. Sign up for free now@midasplus.com.