Episode 892: Mitchell Silk on “A Seat at the Table”
Newt's World
Gingrich 360
4.7 • 6.3K Ratings
🗓️ 19 September 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Newt talks with Mitchell A. Silk, about his new book, “A Seat at the Table: An Inside Account of Trump’s Global Economic Revolution,” which details his perspective on Trump's global economic policies and highlights the strategic approach taken by the administration in reshaping global trade dynamics. Silk shares his journey from a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant to becoming the first Hasidic Jew confirmed by the Senate for a position in the U.S. federal government. He discusses his role as assistant secretary in the Treasury under the first Trump administration, where he was instrumental in trade negotiations with China and infrastructure initiatives in Latin America. Fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, Silk offers insights into China's economic strategies and the challenges faced by the U.S. in trade negotiations. He emphasizes the importance of perseverance, strategic diplomacy, and the need for the U.S. to assert its economic interests.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:08.6 | On this episode of Nudes World, from his earliest beginnings as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant, |
| 0:16.4 | to his work in international law and finance, Mitchell's silk story illustrates how perseverance |
| 0:23.1 | and divine providence led him to become the first Hasidic Jew ever confirmed by the Senate |
| 0:29.3 | for a position of the U.S. federal government and a consequential leader in Trump's treasury. |
| 0:35.1 | In his new book, A Seat at the Table, |
| 0:38.7 | an inside account of Trump's global economic revolution, |
| 0:42.6 | he describes his role as the assistant secretary in the Treasury, |
| 0:46.1 | in which he played a senior role in the trade negotiations with China, |
| 0:50.8 | designed and implemented both the landmark America-Cecise Initiative and the first Trump administration's |
| 0:57.8 | signature program in the Western Hemisphere that spurred infrastructure growth through private capital |
| 1:03.4 | solutions in Latin America and beyond. I'm really pleased to welcome my guest, Mitchell Silk. |
| 1:09.5 | He's a graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Maryland Law School. |
| 1:14.3 | He is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese and actively engages in pro bono work within the Jewish community. |
| 1:20.1 | He currently serves as Group General Counsel of Waterton Global Resources and the Cedarfield Group. |
| 1:41.5 | Mitchell, welcome and thank you for joining me. |
| 1:45.8 | Thank you so much for having me, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for all you've done for our great country. You know, you've had a remarkable career. |
| 1:50.8 | Tell me for a couple of months, just how did you evolve to the person you became? |
| 1:56.7 | I'll give you two angles. One of them is my maternal grandfather, somebody who came to this country from Europe in 1920 from a small village in what is now Western Ukraine. |
| 2:08.3 | In my view, he was the greatest man in the world. I write about him extensively in the book, and he was a person who stood five foot two in physical stature, but in my view, |
| 2:20.0 | he was the tallest person in the world. So to frame my first part of my response, I would say |
| 2:26.3 | that I am where I am because of his great influence on me. But the rest of the story is really |
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