Trump visits Michigan as FEUD INTENSIFIES over Canadian tariffs and bridge

President Trump is headed to that battleground state today, where early voting is already underway ahead of the state's primary election next month.Trump's expected to highlight manufacturing and auto industry jobs during a visit to a General Motors facility this afternoon.He's also scheduled to hold campaign events for some Republican candidates, including his pick for governor of Michigan, Republican Congressman John James.Trump has done very few of these domestic political trips this year, but he heads to Michigan today.Elsewhere in that state today, the Gordie Howe International Bridge will open for traffic.Now, the bridge was designed to move billions of dollars in goods more efficiently between Detroit and Ontario, Canada, but instead debuts as President Trump's tariffs drive up the cost of doing business.

And Canada is holding its own ribbon cutting ceremony without U .S.officials.And businesses on both sides of the border question whether the economic promise can survive the political reality.Let's bring in MSNOW reporter Laura Hafley, who joins us live from the American side of the Gordie Howe Bridge there in Detroit.Laura, good to see you.

President Trump has played politics with this bridge for months now, and it has boiled over today with the opening.Give us a sense of the mood there as this long -anticipated project opens, but amidst the turmoil.

Yeah, Jonathan, look, obviously this bridge was meant to act as an additional trade route between us and our biggest trade partners.It was meant to make trade faster and easier, and it should do that.But today was supposed to be this unifying moment between the two countries.But instead, it's sort of dripping with a stain.And that's because at the 11th hour, Trump imposed this 50 percent tariff, making goods between the two countries now, at least in the immediate future, more expensive for both customers and businesses.And you just mentioned it, Jonathan, the most frustrating part...

what I just told you in Canada taking it so personally that they were actually supposed to have a joint ribbon -cutting between the two countries instead Canada hosted their own without a single US elected official in sight Yesterday, I spent much of my day talking to both Canadians and Americans about this situation, both sides frustrated with President Trump's role.Take a listen.

Especially with our closest trading partner and friend, the U .S.We love our American friends.It's unfortunate that your president is not as, you know, kind and considerate to his Canadian friends as his closest trading partner.

I know that there's been delays because of political threats from our side.and a lot of tit -for -tat going on.I know Canada held their big grand opening of the bridge last week and it's really a shame that all this political grandstanding kept us from having a really nice joint ribbon -cutting grand opening.

Look, these delays actually go back about a decade between construction delays, the pandemic, but most recently, President Trump didn't like what he read in the original 2012 agreement, which said that Canada would pay for the whole thing, they would collect their money from tolls until they made up for that bill, and Michigan would later receive a share of the profits.The revised agreement, Canada still funds construction, they'll collect tolls, but Trump says the U .S.federal government receives 50 % of eligible profits for 15 years and Michigan will have to wait.So there's a lot of drama surrounding this bill or this bridge.I'm sorry, but look, neighbors are

excited that this is happening.They do know that it will help.And it's not just for trade.It's for the community, a place like Detroit that really needs to support their small businesses.So hopefully in the long run, this will be good for neighbors.Jonathan.

MSNOW reporter, Laura Hathley, live for us in Detroit.Thank you so much.Let's now bring in co -founder and CEO of All In Together, Lauren Leder, Pablo Torre, and Jen Palmieri back with us as well.And Jen, let's talk Michigan, because a lot of things happening there at once, and you also love Michigan.We have the Democratic primary next week in their Senate race, highly anticipated.There's a debate tonight, I believe, in that race.

We have Trump making a rare domestic political trip to that state, showing its importance.And the backdrop, of course, is this.That bridge is now a visible reminder.It's physical.We can see it.A reminder of his trade war and why it's not working for most Americans.

Yeah.And when you go to Michigan, you still see even the furniture stores will advertise about tariffs, right?It's a very present thing.He's not very popular there.People are really frustrated there.I don't really understand.

Maybe he considers Michigan to be a better option than other options, but it's not a great option for him to - And Pablo, this is also - They're not going to help the Republican candidates there.

It would seem not.

Unless in the primary, that's it.

Right.And the president heading there to tout gains in manufacturing that just aren't borne out by the numbers.

I get a certain point.The question is whether he has And this is a political term of art and you're familiar with whether he has the juice anymore when it comes to persuading everyday struggling Americans that what you are feeling and seeing in your pocketbook is actually an illusion, right?Don't pay attention to the bridge that's making nobody money.That is actually this metaphor made real.

And it's just like people are just I just feel like I've just been I've been in Georgia, Texas, North Carolina.the last three weeks, he's just like not a factor, right?He's just not a factor in these races.You know, he's not a factor in the Senate races.

He's just like people are just maybe that's why he's going is because he can't stand it.Yes.I mean, especially in a race like with Mike Rogers, you know, I mean, he this is a guy who has not a session.I mean, look, all Republicans embrace the president.But Mike has his kind of his own identity in the state of Michigan.And he's got two very, very different primary challengers.

This story has about Michigan has been completely about these rifts between the sort of, you know, DSA backed left leaning candidates and Haley Stevens, who's endorsed by the governor.And, you know, he can't stand not being part of the story.And so there he goes inserting himself.But I think you're right.The question is, does it make any difference at all, especially when the focus is really the Democratic primary.

Yeah, significant, though not surprising, endorsement for Governor Whitmer in that race.But you're right.It's certainly, that is a state that a lot of Democrats have looked at.They feel so bullish elsewhere on the map.And they could here, too.But there's just an uncertainty, though, because this primary is so close, because there are so deep divides between these two candidates in a race that's frankly gotten kind of a little bit nasty.

So we'll see how that plays out.But again, that's still a couple of weeks away.Meanwhile, though, there's new reporting on the dire finance situation for the Democratic National Committee.now with less than 100 days until the midterm elections.The New York Times reports that the Democratic Party is so short on cash that leaders are asking vendors to not send bills until actually after the midterm elections.The newspaper spoke to three people briefed on the move who call it a bookkeeping maneuver.

The paper also highlights the cash disparity between the two parties, noting that President Trump controls a $400 million super PAC, that the RNC committee is sitting on nearly $130 million, while the DNC is $2 million in debt.The News Outlet Notice also has new reporting on the DNC putting its fiscalheadquarters up for collateral last year in order to obtain a $15 million line of credit to help invest in off -year elections.The Times also details the chaos inside the DNC centered around Chairman Ken Martin.According to interviews with more than two dozen Democrats, Martin, the paper finds, has found himself increasingly isolated.gripped by the fear that he will lose his job and relying on a vanishingly small circle of people he trusts.

Also reporting from a couple of outlets that there's an incident where he probably threw a phone at a desk.It's unclear how hard he threw it, but still threw a phone at a desk.Not the kind of thing you do.Not a good look.Exactly.Not a good look.

I mean, listen, the DNC has had issues for a very long time.Like, let's be honest about it.And there's a lot of reasons for it.Do I think that Ken Martin has been the visionary transformational leader?No, I don't think anyone would say that.He was a elected to that post by insiders and by his peers.

It's a very complicated process when you don't have a president, a Democratic president in office who then appoints somebody.So it's a very different time.But look, what's different on the Democratic side is that you have all this, this whole other universe of Democratic organizations that do a lot of the work that people think the DNC should do.That's the Center for American Progress.That's groups like Emily's List.That's all these other groups which don't exist in the same way on the Republican side.

So it's a lot easier for them to channel all their resources.into the president's super PAC and into the RNC.The Democrats have a very different landscape.All of that being said, it's not great and it's a terrible look.It's exactly the wrong press that Democrats want to have.And he is in trouble.

He should be worried about this.I mean, this is not this is nobody wants to see these headlines right now.Yes.

I mean, the thing, you know, to to to defend his theory, his theory was I'm going to invest in state races and state infrastructure.

And that is why.

And that is why that is why he was elected.And that is why he's in office.The truth is, truth is, is that the DNC, as we call it,does not matter that much in midterm elections.What matters are the candidates themselves, and then the DCCC, the DSCC, what the DNC is doing in this cycle is raising money to give to other people.

in 2027 like you can't have this in 2027 you can't you know that so like that's the time they gotta turn it around yeah that's that's for sure i was just gonna say like there does feel like there's an inflection point though um for the dnc right now in which it embodies the sort of like sclerotic establishmentness the incumbency that a lot of like Whether it's Al Sayed in Michigan, or whether it's just the DSA movement in general, there is a way, I think an opportunity, to respond to what is actually animating Americans.And Ken Martin, both in the aesthetics of the phone stuff as well as the story, it's very, very much the same is how it feels.