Telegraph photo by GEORGE PELLETIER Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang addresses the crowd during his town hall-style event in Milford on Wednesday.

MILFORD – The curious turned out to hear entrepreneur and Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang of New York speak at the Milford Town Hall on Wednesday afternoon.

This we know about Andrew Yang: He enjoys math; he said he is “better at the internet than (President Donald) Trump;” and his signature plan is to give every American $1,000 per month.

Yang discussed attending Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, and going on to become an Ivy-league educated lawyer — which he did not enjoy.

He was honored by President Barack Obama as he created numerous jobs through a nonprofit organization he created.

“How did you react when Donald Trump won?” Yang asked the Milford crowd.

Anger, disbelief, sadness.

“Someone at one event said ‘bourbon,'” Yang said.

Yang called it a “major red flag that tens of millions of Americans decided to take a bet on the narcissistic reality TV star as our president. And even if we reacted with anger or shock or dismay, we all have family members, or friends, or neighbors that celebrated his victory.”

The 45-year-old Yang worked to explain Trump’s election to the crowd.

“There is some kind of strange cocktail,” Yang said of Trump’s winning. “But I’m a numbers guy, Milford. And when you look through the numbers for an explanation, you find one that is clear and compelling.”

His answer was that U.S. industries eliminated about 4 million jobs during the last few decades in swing states that Trump needed to win – and did win – in the 2016 election.

Yang pointed to northern New Hampshire, which has seen thousands of manufacturing jobs leave through the years.

“What happens after the manufacturing plant closes?” Yang asked. “The shopping district closes, people leave, the school shrinks, and that town has never recovered.”

It’s Yang contention that there is a direct line from the adoption of industrial automation to the loss of manufacturing jobs in a voting area, and the movement to Trump in that area.

“Unfortunately, what we did to those manufacturing jobs is shifting to other parts of our economy,” he said.

Yang cited Amazon for hurting retail jobs, all while paying no federal income taxes.

“That is the math, Milford,” he said. “Twenty billion out, 30% of stores close, and the most common job, (retail clerk) disappears and our communities get zero back.”

He also listed call center jobs, 2.5 million of them, potentially being lost to automation, along with the jobs of 3 million truck drivers, who are being replaced by self-driving trucks that drive themselves.

“We are in the midst of the greatest economic transformation in the history of our country,” Yang said. “What experts are calling the fourth industrial revolution. When is the last time you heard a politician say that?”

Yang said for many workers, it’s like pouring water into a tub that has a giant hole in the bottom.

The next step, said Yang, was the government retraining program for people who lost their jobs to automation.

“I’m a numbers guy,” he reminded the audience. “I looked at the studies. Do you want to guess how effective the government-funded retraining programs were for the manufacturing workers who lost their jobs in the Midwest? You know it’s low because these workers don’t march outside and say, ‘I’m here for my coding retraining program. That’s not how we are.”

With technology getting faster, stronger and more capable, Yang said that if Americans can still find their keys, they’re ahead of the game.

“We know these retraining programs do not work,” he said. “They are a total dud.”

Yang said the country needs to work for Americans and not big business.

“Why do we employ hundreds of thousands of government workers in the most expensive city in our country?” he asked in reference to Washington, D.C. “Why wouldn’t we move some of those jobs to Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire. We would save billions of dollars immediately and I would argue these government agencies would make better decisions because they live someplace normal and not in the D.C. bubble.”

Ultimately, Yang said he is running for president because is a parent and a patriot.

“I have seen the future that lies ahead for our kids, and it is not something that I am willing to accept,” he added.