Morning Joe - Trump heads to Michigan ahead of state's Aug. 4 primary

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

July 27, 2026: 8am — Trump heads to Michigan ahead of state's Aug. 4 primary To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You can't have somebody like a J.B. Pritzker, who I understand is not present, sadly. But, you know, some people say, never use the fat word. And I don't. I would never call anybody fed. I have my own problems. You know, it's not like I'm perfect. Sir, in the back, don't call him a fat pig, okay? I'm sticking up for him. Don't call him. You. You can't do that, sir. You can't call J.B. Pritzker, a fat pig. So, Mika, we have a lot of stories, but we start with three stories that have one thread. We've got a country that can't stop fighting, got a country that can't afford to eat, and we've got a president that can't stop talking about people's weight.

Let's start with a war. Actually, two wars. Russia's grinding fight in Ukraine continues to squeeze fertilizer and energy markets, and it's been doing that for years. That means higher prices for you. The president could help end the Ukraine war. In fact, he could have done it his first day in office, but he won't. Refuses to push Vladimir Putin and you and your family pay for it in their pocketbooks.

Try explaining that to our Democratic allies across Europe. Try explaining that to working Americans that can't even afford hamburger anymore. And the Iran war, it keeps grinding. on and on and on, a war of choice. And as it grinds on, Americans' approval of it collapses by the day. So Friday night, at an event that should have never been held, the president tells the rumor of reporters not to believe, quote, fake news about how that war is going. Well, that fake news actually comes from calls inside the house, from the administration, from people who know.

was a mistake to go in, and there's no good way to get out. So you be the judge of that. But you don't have to judge. Higher costs. Affordability. The president mocking affordability. Like with your grocery bill, food prices are now rising at their sharpest pace in 50 years. You can read that in the Associated Press. You can read that in a variety of news reports this weekend, but you don't have to. All you have to do is look at your bill. Food at home costs up 33% since 2019, against just 6.4% growth in the seven years before that. And ground beef is now $6.82 a pound, up 79%. Gas prices, they just keep spiraling up. The price of all. oil spiraling up. And war, it drives up fuel and fertilizer prices. And those prices drive up food, and it is food that's eating more of your paycheck than at any time since Gerald Ford was president of the United States. So, against this backdrop, how do the president spend that same Friday night?

not reassuring Americans on the war, not reassuring Americans on the cost of beef or on the cost of gas. No, he spent an hour on the physical appearance of the press corps infronting him, even telling CNN's Caitlin Collins on camera that she's attractive but never smiles and seem to compare her to a trans influencer.

He also joked that guests would, rather die than look 20 pounds heavier wearing a bulletproof vest. And then he staged a bit attacking J.D. Pritzker as a fat pig, while later pretending to defend him. So I guess when the war is endless and Americans can't afford groceries, make this story about a reporter's smile instead. I guess that's easier than governing and actually admiss. the cost of living in America is way too high. Something he still hasn't done. John Meacham, this is about as tone deaf, not only have a speech, it was tone deaf for the White House Correspondents Association to actually hold that speech. I hope that we consider that in the future

while the president's going out subpoenaing members of the New York Times for doing their job. But the speech was so tone deaf. And yet Republicans, there will not be a Goldwater moment. They do not have the courage to send somebody over and talk to the president and say, enough is enough. Start governing, start governing not only overseas, but right. right here at home where Americans can't afford food, they can't afford groceries, they can't afford rent.

Yeah, I mean, so many Republicans, as we've talked about, sold their soul to Trump and the check bounced, right? I mean, they rode this particular vehicle to power. They live in absolute fear of being primaried. I used to resist using that as a verb. but now that it's so central to our political life, we should. One of the things that is the governing factor in American politics, always there, but rarely so prevalent, is the fear of a single person.

And I think the president revels in that. Certainly that performance Friday night was that of a reveler, someone who enjoys inflicting pain, I think, is the best way to put it. And we'll see if there's an electoral check. I mean, because of gerrymandering, because there are so few swing seats, I'm a skeptic on this blue wave that's coming just because there's so few places for the wave to deform and crash to torture that metaphor a bit. But you mentioned Goldwater and the Goldwater moment in the summer of 74. I don't think. there is going to be that because, you know, the party structure is just so different. In those days, there was a party structure that was separate from the president himself. This is a cult of personality. And those who have decided to rise with it may have to fall with it.

And that's the question, John Hammond, before we get to Iran, how do Republicans, as we are in 99 days to the midterms sort of navigate this, is it fair to say, unpopular president or at least issues that he's terribly unpopular on as they get ready to run? I mean, I think it's fair to say unpopular and it's fair to say there are a lot of particular issues that are super problematic for Republicans. And we have some reporting on this today that I think we're going to get into, which is that, you know, what would have been unthinkable in the past two years, the past year and a half since Trump 2.0 started, but would have been totally thinkable in any past administration,

would have come potentially even earlier. We're now seeing signs that the White House itself recognizes that the only course for Republicans who are in tough districts need to run away, need to run away from the president. And that's what is the heart of some of Von Hilliards reporting. We'll talk to Vaughn about that right now. But that's the answer, Mika, I think that the only thing left for a lot of Republicans to do is to try in the months remaining to start putting themselves, getting some distance between themselves and the president.

And they're now, according to Vaughn's reporting, which we can talk about right now, Vaughn. They're now being given sanctioned to do that. As I said, you know, for the last 15, 16 months, you would have never imagined that that was possible. But reality is finally starting to dawn, even at the White House, about how much of an albatross the president is around Republican candidates next. Right. I appreciate that, John, along with our colleague over the White House, Jake Traylor, we just put up a new report here this morning that, frankly, after covering Trump for 10-plus years in the Republican Party, that is saddled up to everything that Donald Trump says and desires from them, them going along with, this is a weird moment where Jake and I talk to an array of sources close to Trump world.

And the national GOP, as 99 days out, it figures out where it's going. And I want to be very clear. This is a moment for the first time that I've seen in the last 10 years where those around Donald Trump are very implicitly giving Senate and House candidates on the GOP side room to distance themselves from Donald Trump. And as one GOP strategist told me that they feel like they can, for example, Tom Barrett, Congressman in Michigan, whose district is literally being visited today by, Donald Trump, he voted just last week on that war powers resolution to rein in the president's ability to conduct this offensive campaign in Iran. But people aren't turning in these members to Donald Trump. That Donald Trump's tops associates, they're not sitting around the Oval Office and saying, hey, this is what this member, Republican member said. They're falling out

a line. Go send out a true social lashing out at them. That's not what it's happening at this time. This is a moment where effectively Donald Trump is mostly isolated. and the Senate and House candidates are able to separate themselves. And when it comes to the Iran War, we were told by multiple sources at the highest levels that Donald Trump, effectively his messaging around the economy and the Iran War, it doesn't need to be echoed by down-valid candidates because they understand that it's not a winning message and that instead that they should follow a playbook that has been laid out for them, focusing on things like the increase of child care tax credit,

tax cuts, salt, and yet the President of the United States isn't even following the own playbook that the national folks around him have set up for them in order to maintain control in the Senate. And it's quite damning to watch 99 days out the President of the United States, the head of the party essentially being separated from what the rest of his team and candidates on his side of the aisle are trying to do in order to actually pull off wins. Well, and, you know, Meek, we saw this just maybe a month or so ago, you had the White House telling members of Congress, don't use the term mass deportation. Because you look, even in the latest Fox poll, I think you have Democrats ahead of Republicans

on immigration. It's just absolutely staggering. But that was the instruction. And then what happened? The administration, continued policies that ended up killing two people in the streets of America, in Maine, in Texas. And the nightmare goes on for Republican candidates. who have to deal with these extraordinarily unpopular policies, but have always been too cowardly to stand up to it now. They've been given, yeah, we'll see how long this lasts. I'm sure by this afternoon, he'll see one person diverting,

and then he'll change the policy back. But for now, they have the ability to do that. Yeah, and the head of ICE or border czar, Tom Homan, is slightly conceding that the latest shooting in Maine may have actually been, you know, too aggressive. and they're still looking into it. Coming up, the Gordy Howe International Bridge, connecting the U.S. to Canada, is open to traffic this morning.

I'm very excited about this. Gordy Howe, man. A hero, man. And everybody's excited about this. We'll go live to Detroit, where the multi-billion dollar project billed as the future of North American trade now stands as a symbol of the most strained relationship

between the two countries in decades. Well, let's just correct that. The two countries love each other, people from both countries love each other. This is Donald Trump and Canada. Yeah, it's a problem he has. We love Canada. We'll be right back. You have a Buffalo Sabres game where they finished, oh, Canada?

We'll be right back. Welcome back. The United States and Iran have paused attacks as mediators work to bring both sides back to the negotiating table and try to revive that interim ceasefire deal. At this point, no U.S. strikes on Iran have been reported since Friday. and Tehran has similarly halted any attacks against U.S. assets in the region. Iran's foreign ministry this morning says the U.S. is, quote, stuck and struggling in this five-month war. The New York Times is reporting that plans to escalate the fighting in Iran were put off, in part due to dwindling stockpiles of interceptors to shoot down Iranian missiles.

That's according to U.S. officials who spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, President Trump spent a lot of time on his truth social site yesterday, posting 44 times over a six-hour period. Instead of his usual rants, this time around, the president's post consisted almost entirely of AI-generated images. Slop. More than a quarter of the posts were Iran-related and so disinformation, including a poorly generated photo of fighter jets striking Karg Island, which, of course, handles 90% of Iran's oil. sports. Trump posted six different versions of an AI image of him holding an American flag on a ship with the caption, it's our oil tanker now. The president also shared a graphic, once again, downplaying the number of deaths for U.S. service members so far in the Iran War. And then he wrapped up his social media spree with a fake movie poster of him wearing a cape and saving

George Washington from falling off the edge of a cliff near Mount Rushmore that is oddly missing the face of Abraham Lincoln. So that's how the president spent his weekend. I hope you had a better one. Still ahead here on Morning Joe, we're going to get back to the new reporting on the turmoil inside the Democratic National Committee, which is millions of dollars in debt, and it's sparking intense criticism of DNC chair Ken Martin. Warning Joe is back in just a minute. Beautiful live shot there of Grant Haven, Michigan. Pretty sure it's the first time we've ever featured a shot from Grand Haven, Michigan. But it looks lovely just west of Grand Rapids.

And the reason why we're talking Michigan is because, well, for a couple of reasons. First, 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 Gordy 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 MS now reporter Laura Hathley, who joins us live from the American side of the Gordy Howe Bridge there in Detroit. Laura, good to see you. You know, President Trump has played politics with this bridge, you know, for months now, and it has boiled over today with the opening. Give us a sense of the mood there. Is this long-adicipated project opens, but amidst a 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% 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 is 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 U.S. 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. It is 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 kind. and consider it to his Canadian friends as his local 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. 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. MS now reporter, Laura Hathley, live for us in Detroit. Thank you so much. Let's now bring in co-founder and CEO of All And Together, Lauren Leader, Pablo Tori, and Jen Palmeri, back with us as well. And Jen, let's talk Michigan, you know, because a lot of things happening there at once, and you also love Michigan. You know, we have the Democratic primary next week in the Senate race, so highly anticipated. There's a debate tonight, I believe, in that race. We have Trump making a rare domestic political trip. that state showing its importance. And the backdrop, of course, is this. The that bridge is now a visible reminder. It's visible. 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 know, you still see even the furniture stores will advertise about tariffs, right? Like, it is a very, it's a very present thing. It's not very popular there. People are really frustrated there. I don't really understand. Like, maybe he thinks, 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. And 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 would just have been in Georgia,

Texas, North Carolina 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 a obvious factor. 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, 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. is does it make any difference at all, especially when your, then the focus is really the Democratic point. Yeah, significant, though not surprising endorsement for Governor Whitner 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 hear too, but there's just an uncertainty that one 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 up. But again, that's still a couple of weeks away. Meanwhile, though, there's new reporting on the dire financial 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 called it a bookkeeping maneuver. 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 physical headquarters 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 different 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 and a desk,

not the kind of thing you do. 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? I don't think anyone would say that. He was elected to that post by insiders and, you know, by his peers.

It's a very complicated process when you don't have a president in a Democratic president in office who then appoint 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, like, channel all their resources into, like, 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. This is 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. Yeah. So, I mean, the thing, you know, to defend his theory, his theory was, I'm going to invest in state resources and state infrastructure.

Which is correct. And that is why he's. that is why he was elected, and that is why he's in office. The truth is, the truth is that the DNC, it does not matter that much in midterm elections. What matters are the candidates themselves, and then the D-T-T-C, the DSCC, the DSC is doing this time, in this time of,

in the cycle is raising money to give to other people. But in 2020, like, you can't have this in 2020-7. You can't, you know, that's the time line. They've got to turn it around. Yeah, that's, that's, that's. That's for sure. I was just going to say, like, there does feel like there's an inflection point, though, 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 this story, it's very, very much the same is how it feels. Yeah, we'll be following this storyline in the weeks ahead. Co-founder and CEO of all-out together, Lauren Leader. Lauren, thank you for joining us this morning.

We appreciate it. Coming up here on Morning Joe, we're going to bring you the story of the first Western pop group to perform in China. One half of the musical duo, Wham, Andrew Ridgely will join us, along with director Mike Christie with a look at a new film about the band's groundbreaking visit to China in 1985. That's straight ahead here. I'm Morning Joe.

That was a look at the new documentary titled Wham, Ten Days in China. The film premieres tomorrow in theaters for one day only, and it chronicles the award-winning English duo's groundbreaking 1985 tour as the first Western pop group to perform in China, a landmark moment that introduced live pop music to new audiences, and captured a country beginning to open up to Western culture during a period of transformation. Joining us now, a member of one of the most successful pop acts of the 80s, selling more than 30 million certified records worldwide just from 1982, 1986, Wang musician, Andrew Ridgely, and the director of the feature documentary, Mike Christie. Good morning to you both. Thank you so much for being here. Andrew, first question to you. I mean, just talk to us if you can.

Put yourself back in that mindset of what it was like then. It's just established. You're one of the biggest stars of the 80s. But this is a new frontier. You're doing something here, going to China, that no one had really done before. for. Put us back in how you were feeling as you embarked upon that adventure. Well, it was an adventure. It was an endeavor, a bold endeavor that no one had in our position done before. And it was an exciting time. We were going to Communist China, knew very little about it, only what we'd seen from newsreels, et cetera. And we were there to perform to an audience who had never seen Western pop music before. So, Mike, why is now the time to revisit this?

And just remind audiences, if you will, why this matter, why this was so important. I mean, the key thing, to answer your second question, first was no pop group had ever toured China. No Western pop group had been there. It was an absolute first. And that in itself was going to be the subject of a huge amount of fascination there. and for the British music contingent. And the reason now, well, this story had kind of legendary status.

And there was always this kind of myth of this footage that was sort of lost in storage somewhere. And we approached Andrew with a slightly different take on how to tell the story. And fortunately, it chimed with Andrew and George's family. So the timing was right. Andrew, we're watching some of that footage as you guys speak. And as I watch, of course, the late grade George Michael on stage, I'm wondering what it must have been like to be in diplomatic geopolitical settings with Chinese officials. What was George like in that sort of a scene?

Yeah, it wasn't an ordinary tour. And there was a lot of things that we were doing that we wouldn't have normally had to do, meet with the ambassador at the British ambassador's residence, banquets with our Chinese hosts. So we were on our best behavior and there was quite a lot of pressure on us to give a good account of ourselves, both, you know, on and off stage. So yeah, an unusual environment for us to find ourselves in. Mike, if I remember this because I remember the fact that I think the audience was told not to sit, not to stay in their seeds. And it was like, it was not the normal response that WAN would get when it, when it walked out into a stage.

And you could see having to really work it to get the audience into it, along with all of the political pressures. What do you think that this story is fundamentally about? Well, as I put on the fact that it's an amazing music story, I think it's about two things. It's about pressure, which, you know, Andrew alluded to there. It was an incredible building pressure throughout the whole trip, which takes quite a few surreal turns. And it was also, I think, about perspectives, and that's one of the things that the film really focuses on.

There are a huge number of kind of different interests and agendas within the kind of tour group from the band, the press, a documentary crew, the Chinese perspective, and of course, George and Andrews' perspective. So some of those agendas and perspectives sometimes kind of rubbed up against each other and creates different tensions in their own right. It's a absolutely fascinating story. to see it play out.

And you can see it play out in theaters globally for just one day, just tomorrow. The new documentary, Wham, 10 Days in China. Tickets are available at Wham, 10 Days in China.com. Award-winning musician Andrew Ridgely and director Mike Christie, our thanks to you both, congrats on this. And we'll be right back with more, Morning Joe. All the things like we've been we've seen-down. at one time.

We're doing and we're doing. I don't know how to go to move. At one point, George, wants everybody to clap. And the Chinese were like, well, when do we clap?

Because they're used to classical music. In our final moments this morning, we want to, yet again, mention Jen's Nulu Limited Series, Long Play, Winning the South, which premieres today on YouTube. It's a must watch.

Jen, tell us some other things you learned. So we dropped two episodes today. By the way, you can watch it. YouTube.com slash long play series. It's free. We also have a partnership with crooked media. They're also distributing that, which is great. We did today's dropping Georgia and Texas.

And one thing I want to say, we talked about John Ossoff and his Epstein voting opponent. But one thing we learned in Texas, fascinating you all. It really, things feel more fluid there than I expected for Tala Rica. I talked to three Republican women, PTA moms. One was the number trumber. The other two evangelical Christian women who were voting for James Talarico and Gina Inahosa for governor because they're upset about the MAGA takeover of their school boards. They feel lied to. They believed when they said critical race theories being taught in schools.

And they're like, you know what? It's not. And they're tired of that nonsense. It really feels like things are breaking down there. And speaking of indoctrination, I want to applaud John Lemire for not mentioning the Red Sox once on this entire show. I have been on my very best behavior, considering they're the hottest team in baseball have been for weeks. But hey, more of that tomorrow. Maybe.

Do we have to? Let's see how they do tonight. That does it for us this morning. Thank you, Jen. Thank you, Pablo. Thanks to all of you for watching. Money, power, politics with Stephanie Rule, is up next. After a short break, we'll see you again tomorrow morning.