WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Steve Daines today joined Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street to discuss inflation, Trump RX, Iran nuclear talks, President Trump’s trade deal with India, and DHS funding.
Watch the full interview HERE.
Daines on U.S.-Iran nuclear talks:
Let’s not forget that Iran distinctly calls us the great Satan, and they call Israel the little Satan. They seek to destroy the United States. They seek to destroy Israel. They are the number one state-sponsored supplier of terror in the world. Of course, they prop up Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis. That is all Iran. And that’s why I’m a little skeptical, frankly, of these talks. There’s one thing that the Iranian regime understands, and that’s power. It is truly more peace through strength. They understand B-2 bombers when they went across Iran and took out their nuclear capabilities. I’m thankful for President Trump. He’s in these talks from a position of strength as he’s demonstrated before. I’m very thankful for the U.S. military. By the way, that’s something we’re doing as Republicans back in Washington, rebuilding the U.S. military after the Biden administration undercut it.
Daines on the trade deal between the U.S. and India:
I think it’s important. Why is India important? They’re the fourth largest economy in the world. Number one, the United States, two, China, three, Germany. Four is India. If you look at the top 20 economies in the world, India is the fastest growing economy in the world. They grew at 7 percent, and their projections are bullish going into the future. They are the largest democracy in the world. Of course, the largest populated country now, surpassing China in the world, a massive market for U.S. producers, U.S. goods, also a great technology partner with a great workforce and building out an innovative ecosystem. So very strategically important. Congratulations to President Trump, to Ambassador Gore, and to U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer, for staying the course working with India to get them weaned off of Russian oil, which, of course, is contributing to allowing Russia to fuel their war there in Ukraine…I think of India as a country that has a long ways to go in terms of its upside potential. It’s an amazing country. The people of India share common values with America of freedom, of democracy, and there’s some of the best and brightest. You look at our medical institutions across the United States, and our very best and brightest doctors are from India, so we’re thankful for what they are doing, but they are very strategically important as you’re seeing more capital now moving into places like India to partner with the United States. And by the way, part of that trade deal is they are going to buy $80 billion of Boeing aircraft. I mean, so this is really good for the American economy and investments India will make in our economy to allow us to increase and grow our economy as well.
Daines on DHS funding:
I hope that cooler minds will prevail here. I don’t think there’ll be a deal crafted this coming week. I think we’re going to have to extend another short-term CR, probably for the Department of Homeland Security. Let’s step back and remember something. There’s 22,000 ICE agents that to go to work every day in our country. They have now taken off the streets over 150,000 violent, illegal aliens. Let’s not forget Laken Riley. What happened in Minneapolis was a tragedy. But as the president has said, he’s working to de-escalate and cool things off. Whenever there’s use of deadly force, what do you do? You put the member of law enforcement who had to use deadly force, tragically, on administrative leave with pay, and you have an independent third party investigate and come to conclusions. The Democrats have wildly overreacted. They’ve painted themselves in a political corner because of their liberal base, and now they’re trying to extract, almost extort right now, these changes in DHS that many of them are not even reasonable proposals.
Daines on how President Trump is increasing affordability:
I’m thankful that Scott Bessent goes to work every day on our team. Scott’s doing a tremendous job, one of the true A-players there in the West Wing. Secretary Bessent reminds the American people why we had this inflation problem in the first place, when they dumped trillions of dollars into the economy. Remember we had that fight when Biden was president. The former Democrat Treasury Secretary says, “You can’t do this, it’ll be inflationary.” And certainly it was, and the American people now are paying the price for that. Thank God for President Trump and Republicans now who are working to put in place policies that are going to reduce inflation and bring affordability back…I felt like we were Paul Revere back when Biden was president, we knew that if you had this massive cash cannons of these multi -trillion dollar stimulus bills, it was going to be inflationary. And it was. And that’s why it’s so important now with President Trump’s leadership that we are working hard to reduce prices in many areas here. So the American people have been harmed by inflation. It’s the ultimate tax. Inflation is a tax on the American people. And thank God for President Trump and his leadership.
Daines on Trump RX:
I spent 28 years in the private sector. I worked for Procter & Gamble for 13 years. Anytime you can cut the middleman out so that businesses can sell directly to the consumer, you’re cutting unneeded costs out of that supply chain. That’s exactly what Trump RX.Gov does. It allows the consumer. Think of it kind of like Amazon, to go online and literally purchase prescription drugs directly from the supplier.
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Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins