Dan Gilbert on Trump: 'Stop the Twitter thing'

DETROIT – Billionaire and Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert did a one-on-one with Bloomberg News' Betty Liu at the North American International Auto Show to discuss economic repairs, politics and urban cores in Detroit.

Liu also pressed Gilbert on his thought of President-elect Donald Trump and his potential impact on Detroit.

“Given his election and the favoritism he was given from many voters; that’s actually a very fortunate thing now for those very  same cities because once he becomes president officially, he’ll want to pay back to those voters and pay attention to those cities, which Detroit is one." Lui said. "Do you share that view?

Gilbert said he's met Trump more than once and discussed urban cores with him, but never dabbled into social issues.

“I’ve met him twice” Gilbert said “Both here in Detroit and before the election,” Gilbert said.

“The fact that he’s a real-estate developer, whether you love him or hate him the fact that he is a real estate developer is probably a good thing for urban cores because he developed real estate so he understands the challenges business companies and developers would have in urban cores.”

“We talked about how does he view urban cores, how does he view the car business, how does he view entrepreneurial startup, eco-system types of things, jobs, that kind of thing. I didn’t get too much into social issues and stuff"

When Gilbert was asked how he thinks Trump could do as president, and what he could do to make the environment more friendly for business, he had a simple solution:

First thing…stop the Titter thing” Gilbert said, chuckling.

“People don’t know day to day, if you’re not running a business and  sometimes you’re running a bigger business of the incredible cost and burden of silliness coming out of the federal government. Now there’s some stuff that makes sense, right? So I don’t like to broad-brush either way but there’s reasonability"

Gilbert also hinted at plans for a new building on the Hudson's site downtown, and a new major tenant coming downtown.

Within 12 months I think you'll see a few cranes up in the sky here," Gilbert said. "There's been two buildings over 25 stories that have been constructed in Downtown Detroit since the 1980s. Two. I think you'll see 10 or 15 of those in the next 5 to 7 years. We want to get that going." 

The North American International Auto Show runs until Jan 22.