Pence tells Detroit the economy is riding high as Trump tweets about interest rates

Vice President Mike Pence gave one of those “you’ve-never-had-it-so-good” speeches to the Detroit Economic Club on Monday just after his boss went on a tweet storm about interest rates.

Minutes before Pence took the stage at Motor City Casino, President Donald Trump  tweeted a call for massive interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, the overseer of the nation’s money supply. He also bashed his own appointed Fed chair, Jerome Powell, in some of his harshest language to date, deploring Powell’s “horrendous lack of vision.”

In the tweets Trump called for the Fed to slash interest rates by “at least 100 basis points” or 1 percentage point, a far bigger cut than the Fed is likely to approve.

But when the tweets cleared, Pence,  as expected,  delivered upbeat economic bromides of the kind that will form the elixir of the Trump reelection effort in 2020.

Pence's message to  300 Detroit Economic Club members and guests, in short, was that the economy was in dire straits before Trump became president but now is riding high, and will continue to do so as long as voters don't turn to what he termed Democratic socialists.

A practiced speech maker, Pence's delivery was strong but every one of his lines will be contested by the other side.

"President Donald Trump delivered, and the American economy is booming," Pence said. He peppered his 25-minute speech with variations on that theme.

Among those: “The American dream is working again for every American. The forgotten men and women of America are forgotten no more." And "We're gonna keep doing what we're doing 'cause it's working for Americans." And, "It's about trade and jobs and tax cuts ... and the results have been nothing short of remarkable."

Along the way, Pence offered a lot of the most reliable conservative chestnuts about his Democratic opponents: “socialized medicine,” "open borders" and “siren song of socialism.”

Summing it up, he said, "I leave here today with confidence that we will continue to strengthen the greatest economy in the world."

Pence’s audience was a friendly crowd but not a campaign-rally crowd. The applause was frequent but polite, and lots of people headed for the exits even as Pence was still shaking hands with front-row audience members.

In a break with Economic Club tradition, Pence neither held a news conference nor took questions from the audience.

And the Economic Club took precautions to ensure no repeat of protests from the audience that marked candidate Trump's appearance in 2016, when several anti-Trump protesters, including now-Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, were yanked kicking and screaming from the room. The club did not allow public ticket sales and took no last-minute new member sales.

Previous coverage: 

Pence delays Detroit visit after El Paso, Dayton shootings

Contact John Gallagher:313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com.Follow him on Twitter@jgallagherfreep. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.