Rahm on The David Frum Show
“treating friends like Enemies”
Today Rahm appeared on the Atlantic’s “The David Frum Show” podcast, showing his command of geopolitical issues, clarity of thought, and the fearlessness of his opinions.
His supporters (and detractors) would agree - very few other national political figures today can speak so directly and specifically about important issues without resorting to platitudes and equivocations. We’ve taken the liberty to highlight a few sections of the podcasts where Rahm has staked out a position or offered a unique take on issues.
Rahm on Trump’s tariffs
Rahm discussed the damage inflicted by the haphazard Trump tariff policies both in terms of the current economic downdraft but also the lasting effect it has on America’s standing in the word, making enemies of our international allies while we battle China for economic supremacy.
“Five months ago, the United States was outpacing everybody's economy. We had low unemployment, we had growth, it levels everybody else was envious of. And in five months, we're already talking about a 60% chance of a recession, all because one man has decided a new economic theory that was totally reputed. So in 80 days, he's undone 80 years worth of work.”
“But there is a lot of animosity. And I can't get back, not only trust in America, the devastation to America is a safe harbor that's built up. And so much of our hard power, economic power is built on what people view of America.”
Rahm on China & tariffs
Rahm is not opposed to tariffs or even specifically tariffs on our geopolitical rival, China. Tariffs are one of levers to accomplish our economic goals, but not to be used indiscriminately.
“China, in my view, you can't raise tariffs high enough on them. China was becoming the center of focus of energy in the world economy.”
“So the problem with the tariffs is it treats everything as a nail to its hammer. China and Columbia are not the same. One's a potential ally, the other one's an adversary, one's a potential market, and the other one isn't. Columbia doesn't involve itself in economic espionage. It doesn't involve itself in intellectual property theft. China does.”
“China sees an opening and is basically isolating the United States and taking advantage of it. We just hurt ourselves.”
“We spent the lion's share of my time in Japan, building a coherent alliance between the United States, Japan and Korea, isolating China. China is seeing the opening, just created an economic and discussion of partnership between Japan, Korea and China. Isolating America, very bad for America. Two, forget the countries. Samsung, which was critical to America's export controls against China on semiconductors, just cut a deal with the Chinese company. So that we already have a company crack in the united front against China. You don't trust America. You think America is going to treat you worse than it [China], they treat its own worst adversary, then you make your own deals. And now it's going to come where, which is what I said, they just gave Beijing a get out of jail card.”
rahm on education, covid
On the effect of the COVID lockdowns on children in schools:
“I was against what we were doing [the lockdowns] during COVID because it became clear within six months, kids, mortality rates, et cetera, that they're locking kids out of schools for two years. And the impact of what COVID did to, especially if you're like a former mayor like me in Chicago, where 84% of your kids are from poverty, absolutely stupidest thing you could do. And I'm not going to clean it up. It was stupid”
Rahm advocates for more time in the classroom - a classroom that no longer contains smartphones. (Editor remark: as a kid in the 70s and 80s they banned calculators in my school!)
“You need more time on topic, so you got to add time in the day to reading, math, and writing. Two, testing so you can find early data on intervention and then apply one-on-one, whether that's in person or by using technology. One of the things that comes out of COVID, that was the one thing that was valuable, and you can start to do one-on-one through technology and tutoring kids so they get more time.”
“We have to reimpose a minimum of a five-day. It was up to me. I had to reorganize the school year, year round, so you don't have the summer slide that everybody in the educational fields talk about.”
“Any child absent more than 7% and absolute, you won't be able to matriculate to the next grade.”
“Yeah, get rid of them [phones]. Not in the classroom, not allowed. All the time should be on the teacher and the blackboard, not on your phones, get rid of them. I've been a long- In fact, I don't want to say, the campaign knows this. I try to get Kamala Harris' campaign in the summer to adopt a national standard of no phones in classrooms.”
rahm on the angry electorate
American’s of both parties have good reason to be angry with our leadership and the state of our institutions. But rage is not the answer.
Rahm talks about the how the Iraq war, the 2008 financial crisis, and COVID fractured America’s confidence in government and institutions.
“First, the war in Iraq. You have a trillion dollars, thousands of men and women lose their lives, and their lives are maimed, and it's built on deception, and nobody who was there is held accountable. Six years later you have the financial meltdown that we were talking about, and the bankers and people lose their homes, and the bankers are demanding their bonuses, having destroyed Americans' livelihood and their savings. And again, and this gets back to an argument we had in the Obama White House, because I wanted to do Old Testament justice before we did healthcare.”
“I thought we should do financial reform. Lost that debate, legitimate discussion about the equities of going healthcare before financial reform. But I was the principal advocate for, I thought the system needed, put bankers on the other side and beat the living hell out of them for what they did.”
“I talked about Old Testament justice, and I said the public needed to see us wrestling with people that they were not only at the top of the economic ladder, but we're literally pissing down on everybody else and telling them it was raining. And third, after all that anger at the establishment comes COVID.”
Rahm declares that Democrats reflexive role as defender of the Establishment is misguided:
“And we, as Democrats, domed the code of the establishment. And I think those moments broke trust, confidence in the establishment in America. And we're still living with that, as we can see, by the reelection of Donald Trump.”
“What happened in 2024 is informative about understanding not just the anger, legitimate parts of why people are angry. They have a right to be angry. Rather than being given a shot, they were given the shaft. And Washington and the people that make it up, let them down.”