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00:00We are approaching 100 days of the second Trump administration.
00:03My next guest is a Trump surrogate and working on his own run for governor.
00:07Joining me now, Republican Congressman from Florida, Byron Donalds.
00:10Byron, good to see you and thanks a lot for being with us. We appreciate it.
00:13Good to be with you. Thanks for having me on.
00:14All right, Congressman, our new poll with Washington Post and Ipsos finds
00:17Trump has the lowest 100-day approval rating of any president in 80 years.
00:22That's since approval polling began, and I imagine you disagree with that sentiment.
00:25So why aren't the president's policies connecting with voters so far?
00:30Well, look, first and foremost, let's look back on the first 100 days
00:33and compare it to the previous administration.
00:35The border is now closed. We're sending home criminal illegal aliens.
00:40The president campaigned on both, and he's doing it.
00:43You have now a three-day ceasefire in Ukraine.
00:46You have the hostilities in Gaza coming to an end.
00:49Those hostages are going home. Gas prices are down. Egg prices are down.
00:54So a lot of the things that the American people were furious with the previous administration with
00:59the president is now executing on.
01:02So I think when you look at polling, that's just a snapshot in time.
01:05Look at the last 100 days, all that President Trump has accomplished.
01:08It's been the same policies he campaigned on.
01:11He received a mandate on.
01:12And the changes are happening at warp speed here in America.
01:16You talk about egg prices and gas prices.
01:18Let's talk about the economy.
01:19The president ran on Turn It Around the economy,
01:21but now a majority of Americans think the economy has gotten worse since Trump took office.
01:25Is that a lot of that disapproval is coming from people who voted for Trump in the last election?
01:30What's your response to Americans who are worried about the economy and a potential recession?
01:35Well, I think people were looking at the stock market from a couple of weeks ago,
01:37but let's be very clear.
01:39American businesses and America's economy has been taken advantage of for a very long time
01:44by China and other countries around the globe.
01:46The president is trying to reset global trade for the future of our country.
01:52That is a good thing.
01:53But none of this stuff is going to come easy.
01:55It's a work in process.
01:56Last thing I will say to the voters of America, Donald Trump's not an ideologue.
02:00He's a realist.
02:00He's going to look at the data as it's coming in and make the right decisions on behalf of the
02:05American people, which is different from previous presidents who saw our trade deals being taken
02:10advantage of, who would not enforce our trade deals to the betterment of American business,
02:15American workers, and American families.
02:17So you cannot just judge everything by what happened two weeks ago or so in the stock market.
02:22Take the totality of the entire agenda, and that's still knowing that the big, beautiful bill
02:27is going to get passed on Capitol Hill in the next month or two.
02:30We are going to get the job done.
02:32The American economy is going to be stronger than ever.
02:34All right, Congressman, we've seen growing backlash to some of these policies across the
02:38country, especially at town halls.
02:40Republicans, including yourself, have gotten an earful from voters over the past couple of
02:43months, and they've been very contentious.
02:45But it's not just these town halls.
02:46Our polls found 57 percent of Americans disapprove of the work Elon Musk is doing in the government.
02:52Does Elon Musk have too much power, and why do you think Americans disagree with the changes
02:56that he's making?
02:57Well, first and foremost, let's just say in these town halls, this is not indicative of
03:01the American people.
03:03These are Democrats.
03:04They're very organized.
03:05They're coming into town halls, and they're screaming and yelling and carrying on, but they
03:09have no real solutions.
03:10Specific to the Doge effort in Elon Musk, we need to get federal spending under control,
03:16and it is not going to be an easy proposition.
03:19I guess we could do it the old school way, where you have a blue panel commission that
03:24never gets anywhere for two and a half years, puts out a report that nobody ever sees, or
03:29you can go in and assess these agencies on the fly.
03:32At the end of the day, Congress has a responsibility to put into actual appropriations the cuts that
03:39Doge has identified.
03:41But if you ask the American people, away from all the hyperbole, they want to see our
03:45government be more efficient.
03:47President Trump hired Elon Musk to lead that effort.
03:50He has been leading that effort.
03:52Elon made the announcement he's going to be going back to his businesses very soon.
03:55But the mission of making sure our federal government is efficient is here to stay.
03:59We have to clean up the waste here in Washington, D.C.
04:02But Congressman, it's not just Democrats at these town hall meetings.
04:05It's also Republican voters who are pushing back.
04:07Look, like I will tell you, I held this town hall meeting.
04:11I've held them for years in my congressional district.
04:14I knew who came in.
04:15A lot of Democrats.
04:17Those are the people that were coming in, yelling and screaming, upset with everything,
04:21but have no solutions.
04:22I even brought up the fact that Joe Biden, during his administration, gave similar access
04:26to the access that Elon Musk has.
04:28They didn't care.
04:30They were just mad about Elon Musk.
04:31If you want to actually have our government become more efficient, wouldn't you want somebody
04:36that's actually run businesses very successfully in the United States to help with that effort?
04:41Or do you want it just to be the same bureaucrats who come up with the same political solutions
04:46that never get anywhere for the American people?
04:49I would rather have people come in from the private sector to help us do the right thing.
04:53All right, Congressman, let's move on.
04:54Another issue where Americans have big concerns is immigration.
04:57The president gets some of his highest marks on this issue right here, but still 53% disapproved
05:02of Trump's recent immigration crackdown.
05:04Now, borders are Tom Homan was asked about that by our Diane Macedo today.
05:08Here's what he had to say.
05:10I'm not running a popularity contest.
05:12I'm enforcing the laws.
05:13And by securing a border, like I said this morning, we have the most secure border in
05:17the history of the nation today.
05:19President Trump's policies are saving lives by the thousands.
05:22And that's something the American people don't hear enough about.
05:25And I think I'll turn those polls around.
05:29All right, Congressman, so why do you think this is the right approach, given what we are
05:32hearing from Americans, a lot of whom voted to put Trump back in office?
05:36It's the right approach, because look at the signs behind me.
05:39Illegal criminal aliens led into this country by Joe Biden.
05:43What are we supposed to do?
05:44Let them stay?
05:45Victimize the American people?
05:47Do we need more young girls like Jocelyn Nungere and Rachel Morin who are killed or are
05:52brutalized?
05:53Is that what we need?
05:54No, Donald Trump campaigned on securing our nation and sending home criminal illegal aliens.
06:01If the Democrats and the media want to now make a Kilmar Garcia, the cause celeb, be my
06:07guest.
06:07But that does not make the American people safer.
06:10It does not make our country safer.
06:12We are following the law, doing it the right way.
06:15And if there are judges who want to disagree with that, that's fine.
06:18But we are going to follow the law and we are going to execute the law on behalf of the
06:22American people.
06:23That is what they want.
06:24That is what they voted for.
06:25And that is what they deserve.
06:27All right.
06:27Finally, Congressman, there is some tension in Florida ahead of the upcoming governor's
06:31race.
06:31Governor DeSantis, who cannot run again, is being investigated by the state legislature over
06:35whether he illegally used federal money to defeat a ballot measure legalizing marijuana
06:40there in that state.
06:41Do you think Ron DeSantis has been a good governor for the state of Florida?
06:44And what would you do differently if you get elected?
06:48Well, first, specific to the allegations around Hope Florida, my hope is that the governor
06:53answers those questions fully that the legislature has brought.
06:57Overall, Ron DeSantis has done a great job for our state from COVID-19 and ever since that
07:02point forward.
07:04But what I bring to the state is being focused more on business opportunities, diversifying our
07:08economy, finishing the job on Everglades restoration, which the governor started, and making sure
07:13that Florida remains the number one state in America to live and to do business.
07:18And I also want to make sure our kids are getting a world-class education, not just the best in
07:22America, the best in the world.
07:24That's going to be the focus of my administration.
07:26All right, Congressman, we'll have to leave with a representative Byron Donalds.
07:29Again, thank you.
07:30And good to see you as always.
07:33You bet.