For "Forbes Newsroom", Mike Levin condemned Trump's first 100 days in office.
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00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes.
00:06Joining me now is Congressman Mike Levin. Congressman, thank you so much for joining me.
00:10Thanks, Brittany.
00:11We have just surpassed President Trump's second first 100-day milestone in the White House,
00:18and we have seen a lot. He has signed dozens of executive orders. He has started, stopped,
00:23paused trade wars with allies and adversaries alike. And in this milestone,
00:29I'm curious, how exactly would you characterize his performance so far?
00:34Well, Brittany, I would characterize it as chaos, dysfunction and extremism. And the president
00:40ran successfully last year on a couple big issues. One was getting costs under control and improving
00:48the economy. Another was on immigration. And on the economy, we see the tariffs and the really
00:57reckless nature of trade policies around the world. The arbitrary tariffs that were announced
01:06and walked back and paused. The business community doesn't know which way to turn. And consumers are
01:12already seeing higher prices as a result. I'm worried about empty shelves this summer. And I'm
01:19worried about higher prices for the average American for some time to come. It's very easy
01:24to break things when it comes to the economy. It's sometimes much harder to fix them. And there's
01:29just a recklessness and a chaos around the economic choices the president has made that I think will
01:35cause not only the short-term pain, but long-term pain as well. And then on immigration, I think the
01:40president really had a huge opportunity to work with Democrats and Republicans alike interested in
01:47securing our border and coming up with a bipartisan solution on having a path to citizenship for our
01:54agricultural workers, for others who are seeking to contribute positively to our society and our
02:00economy. But instead of that, we've seen mass deportation and really lack of due process and an
02:09extremism that I didn't fully anticipate, given the, you know, maybe that was naive, maybe given some of
02:17the rhetoric I should have anticipated just how bad it's been. But I think a chaos, dysfunction and
02:22extremism for the first hundred days, which means that given a historic opportunity at a second chance,
02:29only Grover Cleveland has gotten a second chance as president of the United States. And the hope and
02:36and the belief that the president would actually focus on lowering costs and trying to come up with
02:41a fix on immigration, quite the opposite. And that's why he's upside down overall. That's why he's upside
02:47down on the economy and why he's upside down on immigration, which really were his superpowers to
02:53become elected both the first and the second time. I want to talk more about the economy and tariffs in
02:59a moment. But the CBP said in March that they saw the lowest southwest border crossings in history.
03:04President Trump ran on, as you said, securing the border. His deportation policies have been very
03:10controversial in these first 100 days. Do you think the the downturn in border crossings, do you think
03:16that is a bright spot in this administration? Well, I think it's important to understand how we
03:22got those numbers. And a lot of it was fear. A lot of it was trying to create a, you know, really
03:32tenuous position for anybody in the country who, for example, our farm workforce, our service industry
03:40where I represent in Southern California, roughly one in five service workers are undocumented. And I
03:47think the fear of threat, you know, to be deported, intimidation. I think we all support deporting
03:55criminals, deporting gang gang members, drug dealers, people who are here who are not contributing
04:01positively. They should go. But if you're playing by the rules, if you're paying taxes, if you are
04:08trying to make a better life for your family, just as my grandparents did when they came to the United
04:14States, then in my view, I want you to stay and keep paying taxes and keep working hard on the path to
04:21citizenship. When my grandfather became a U.S. citizen at age 50, it was the proudest day of his
04:27life. He came to the United States when he was a teenager. And I worry that somebody like him might
04:32not even come to the United States today for fear that they would not be treated with dignity and
04:38respect. So, look, I'm all for securing the border, but I'm not for treating people with cruelty and a lack
04:45of humanity. I know that you think that President Trump fumbled this comeback opportunity, especially in
04:52these past first 100 days. A new CNN poll about these 100 days found that more than half of voters think
04:59Congress is doing too little to check President Trump's power. And also Democrats are those who lean
05:05Democrats. This poll found have more negative feelings toward their party's leadership than the right. 61%
05:12disapprove and just 38% approve, whereas the broad majority of Republicans approve of Republican
05:17leadership. What do you think, as a Democrat in Congress, about these numbers? What's stunning to
05:23me, Brittany, is that the Republicans in Congress have really just handed their constitutional responsibility
05:30under Article I of the Constitution over to the president. It is up to the Congress to pass the laws,
05:38to appropriate the funds, to authorize the programs, and then it's up to the president of the United States
05:43to faithfully execute those laws and to apportion the funds, to distribute the funds that Congress has already
05:50appropriated and authorized. And that's not what is happening today. What's happening today is that the House and
05:58Senate under Republican control have given that power over to President Trump. Another example is on tariffs.
06:05It's Congress, not the president, that has power on tariffs. But Mike Johnson and John Thune decided, as part of the
06:13continuing resolution that passed a while back, to explicitly prohibit Congress from standing against this
06:21president on tariffs, as one of many examples. Oversight is another very important function of the Congress. Look, when
06:29Mike Johnson was speaker and Republicans like Jim Jordan had the gavels, they were not bashful about
06:35conducting oversight of the Biden administration. But now that President Trump is there, there's no oversight
06:41at all of the Trump administration or any of the things that may be unethical or illegal going on
06:48in the Trump administration. So I think that there is a lack of a co-equal branch of government,
06:56unlike we've seen in the history of certainly of our lifetimes. But my knowledge is in American
07:03history. Madison in Federalist 51 said it would be the ambition of the legislators that would check
07:10the ambition of the executive. And clearly that's not happening. I don't think the founders anticipated
07:15that the Congress of the United States would roll over the way it has for Donald Trump.
07:20To that point, then, what are rank and file Republicans in Congress saying about President
07:27Trump's broad sweeping tariffs? Because I had Senator Mark Kelly on the program just a couple
07:32of weeks ago, and he told me even Republicans touting these tariffs publicly, privately, it's a
07:38different story. Privately, no one he's talked to, Republican or Democrat, is pro-tariff, pro-President
07:44Trump imposing these, using his emergency powers. What do you say to that? And what are you hearing
07:51from Republican colleagues? My friend Mark Kelly is spot on about this. You cannot find a Republican
07:58behind closed doors that agrees with the chaos and the destructive nature of the president's trade
08:06policies in these first hundred days. They will tell you that they know the president is not doing
08:12things in a coherent manner that's consistent with good public policy and that it's harming the
08:18economy. You had one of the GOP megadonors the other day, Ken Griffin, say that 20 percent of our
08:26worth as a country has been destroyed by these, you know, very capricious, arbitrary, and extreme
08:36tariff policies. I think there also is an acknowledgement that the way the president initially
08:41calculated the tariffs on other countries made no sense. It wasn't anything more than taking the
08:49trade deficit divided by exports, coming up with that number, and then cutting it in half. It wasn't
08:55actually a reflection of the tariffs being imposed by any other nation on the United States. Rather,
09:03it was this, you know, made-up number that somehow was the basis for our tariffs on others. And the
09:10president now has said there are 200 deals in place, or that he's working on 200 deals. I don't know
09:16whether that's true or false, but I can tell you that when he first got to be president before,
09:22the Trump administration and those of us in Congress at the time negotiated the U.S.-Mexico-Canada
09:27trade agreement, which at the time was said by the Trump administration to be, you know, the greatest
09:34trade deal ever. That's what they said. And part of that incentivized companies like General Motors
09:40and Ford and others to make investments not only in the United States, but also to our, with our
09:46friends to the north in Canada or to the south in Mexico. And now those very companies like GM are
09:52being punished for the decisions they made, which they were encouraged to make by the first Trump
09:58administration. In fact, GM under these tariff policies are paying more than foreign auto
10:05manufacturers like Toyota, Honda, or Kia. It makes absolutely no sense to punish American companies
10:12like GM to punish American workers. And I have entrepreneurs in my district, Republicans and
10:18Democrats alike, Brittany, who own businesses who are furious. They have shipments at the port and they
10:26have huge bills, tariff bills. One company told me $920,000 was the first bill that they have to pay
10:33to Homeland Security. In many cases, these purchase orders were made before a full understanding of
10:40what the tariffs, what the tariffs on China and other countries would be. And what we're already
10:46seeing is an impact on toys, games, you know, other household goods. And Americans will either be paying
10:53more for these goods, workers will be let go, or there just won't be any goods at all. And the last
10:59thing I'll say, the president yesterday, when asked about toys, he said, well, you know, if somebody is,
11:06you know, some kid only has two dolls instead of 30, and those two dolls cost a little bit more,
11:11no big deal. Well, this president having enough, you know, domestic goods at reasonable prices
11:18for American families, whether it be toys, games, electronics, you name it. That's the least that we
11:26we can expect. We all want to see American manufacturing thrive. But we also want to
11:31see American families be able to afford the goods that are here. You have some other concerns about
11:37these tariffs, too. And you voiced them to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in a bicameral letter
11:43with Senator Adam Schiff. And I want to read part of the letter. The letter asks the White House Chief
11:47of Staff This for a, quote, full accounting of the periodic transaction reports for all senior
11:52White House and executive branch employees since the start of the administration. Can you talk to
11:57us specifically about why you're asking for this information? Well, Brittany, since I started in
12:03Congress, I believe that members of Congress should not be trading individual shares of stock.
12:08We should never be putting money in our own pockets on the basis of non-public information that we get
12:16as members of Congress. The same should be true, in my view, for the administration. They get access
12:22to non-public information all the time about what the president may or may not be planning to do.
12:27And, you know, I'm going to keep working very hard on a member stock trading ban, and I'm going to
12:32keep working on accountability and transparency. And so the days of April 8 and April 9 were very
12:40concerning to me. You may remember April 9 at 9.37 in the morning, the president posted on True Social
12:46that today is a great time to buy. Offering stock advice is not what the president of the United
12:51States should be doing in any event. Then about four hours later, 1.18 p.m., that's when the
12:57announcement was made of a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs. And what I want to know is what did
13:04members of Congress do? What did members of the administration do leading up to that tweet at 9.37
13:11a.m. and then between 9.37 a.m. and 1.18 p.m.? In other words, did members of Congress have access
13:18to non-public information, whether it be from their conversations with the president or others?
13:23Did members of the administration have non-public information and then use it to trade stock? And if so,
13:31I think it's a violation of the public trust and Americans have a right to know about it.
13:36And I think it would be a gross disservice to keep all that information from the public.
13:42To that point, pre-9.37 post where President Trump said essentially it is a good time to buy,
13:48is there any evidence of congressional insider trading or anyone in the Trump administration
13:53involved in insider trading? Is there anything like that that you know of so far?
13:57Well, it's circumstantial. We know that the president did have a dinner the prior evening
14:02with members of Congress. And I'd love to know which, if any, members of Congress traded
14:09pre-market before the announcement at 9.37 a.m. I'd like to know what members of the administration
14:16did as well during that couple days. And I really think between April 2nd and April 9th is the operative
14:24time because you saw the markets really negatively impacted on the Thursday and Friday before.
14:32And then, of course, a lot of middle class people, a lot of seniors, a lot of retirees
14:37that did not have the risk tolerance they may have sold. I remember speaking to my own dad
14:42and telling him, you know, do not panic. And I encouraged him to hang in there. But he was very
14:46concerned that Thursday and Friday before when the markets were down, you know, around 3,000 points,
14:52as I recall. Then, of course, the day on April the 9th, when the president did make his announcement
14:58of the pause, I think the markets went back up, you know, and made up maybe two-thirds of what it had
15:04lost the prior week. So seeing what happened that entire week from the 2nd to the 9th is really
15:09important. But on a go-forward basis, one thing that does give me great hope is that in the wake of
15:15all this, there's been a renewed push on a bipartisan basis for a stock trading ban for members of
15:21Congress. And we've got Republicans from Chip Roy to Josh Hawley who have talked about it. You've got
15:27Democrats now like Hakeem Jeffries that are for it. And you've got President Trump who was for it back
15:35in 2022 and then said again that he would sign a stock trading ban if it got to his desk.
15:41So the only thing holding it up at this point, in my view, is Speaker Mike Johnson. And I hope
15:47that he will recognize it's important we move this forward. And I'm going to be continuing. I just
15:52wrote him as well. And I'll continue to be writing him and asking him to hold a vote on the stock trading
15:58ban. You're not the first member of Congress to tell me that leadership in Congress is the one
16:04holding this up. I've spoken with Congressman Tim Burchett, who is a huge proponent of banning
16:10stock trading within Congress. So there is bipartisan appetite. And this is what he told
16:15me in March. Quote, I've been told to quit talking about stuff like this by some of our leadership.
16:19And I said, well, you know, it's the truth, though, right? And they said, well, yeah,
16:23but some members of leadership aren't real happy about when I talk about things like this.
16:28So I don't think it'll go anywhere. Why do you think members of leadership and you're calling out
16:32Speaker Mike Johnson by name? Why do you think that they don't have this type of appetite?
16:37You know, I think that there are a lot of people in Washington, D.C. who do very well
16:42with things just as they are. That's why it's very tough to change things like a stock trading
16:46scheme where, you know, you're able to report 30 days later. It's very weak in terms of what
16:54you actually have to report. And a lot of members, I think we know, have used nonpublic information
17:01in a way to enrich themselves. I think that's, you know, part of the record now for a number of
17:06years. I look at it also in terms of things like campaign finance reform. Why is it so hard to
17:11reform a broken campaign finance system? It's because members of Congress are doing just fine
17:16the way things are. But I think that the public will demand large changes, particularly if they see
17:23that there were members of Congress who used that nonpublic information to enrich themselves.
17:29I see it as corruption. I see it as something that has to be exposed. And ultimately, I think
17:37sunlight will hopefully be the best antiseptic. There are a couple of big differences. One is that
17:42the leader of House Democrats now, Hakeem Jeffries, has come out in support of a ban. And the other is
17:48President Trump has said he would sign a ban into law. So I think if the vote did come up, I think it
17:55would pass both the House and the Senate. And I hope that Mike Johnson will understand the importance
18:01of this and will proceed.
18:02Congressman, I know I've kept you far too long. I do just want to ask you one question,
18:07though, about the budget bill. President Trump said very recently that entitlements like Medicaid
18:12and Social Security won't be touched. Do you believe him?
18:15I don't. And I don't always like hearing the word entitlement because I think it's an earned
18:23benefit. I think that it's a contract that was made between seniors and the government, particularly
18:29Social Security. What I will say is that there's no mathematical way that Republicans can have the
18:37kind of cuts that they're contemplating. One and a half trillion dollars is the amount that the House
18:43has been instructed to cut by the budget instructions. And you can't get there without
18:52a dramatic cut to Medicaid, without either dramatically reducing the percentage that the states will receive
18:59from the federal government or by capping the amount on a per-person basis that the federal
19:06government will fund. Either of those would be incredibly detrimental to my constituents and to
19:12those most vulnerable in our country, whether it's the senior who relies on Medicaid for nursing home
19:18care, whether it's the child that needs Medicaid or the veteran. One in 10 veterans also is on Medicaid.
19:29So it's really cynical, in my view, to go after the most vulnerable in our society, take that money
19:35and use it to fund tax cuts for rich people. It's really wrong. And at the end of the day,
19:42I think the American people will reject it. Congressman, I would love to keep the conversation
19:47going. Perhaps you can join me again soon. Congressman Mike Levin, thank you so much.
19:51You are welcome back anytime. Thank you. Happy to join you again when you can do it.