At a Senate Republican press briefing on Tuesday, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) was asked about the economy under President Trump.
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00:00Good afternoon, thank you.
00:02Can you characterize the difference in the response from Congressional Republicans to President Trump this time around compared to 2017?
00:11They seemed a little skeptical of him in 2017. That's not the case now.
00:15Well, I mean, I think we all watched what happened in November and the mandate he got from the American people.
00:21It was clear, it was decisive, and he had a clear message that he campaigned on,
00:27and he has been following through and delivering on that.
00:30And I think a lot of us who served with him in the last term also saw the effects and the results of a lot of the decisions that he made with respect to policy.
00:38And they were the right ones.
00:39And in the end, he was proven right when it came to the economy, comes to the border, comes to national security.
00:45This is a president who has a clear vision of what he wants to accomplish on behalf of the American people,
00:50and I think he implemented that clearly in his first term.
00:53And as we begin the first 100 days of this term, I think all of us believe that we want to be good partners
00:59in making sure that the agenda that he campaigned on, in which the American people voted for, is accomplished and delivered on.
01:05Senator, Senator, Senator, this poll has shown that Trump's numbers are under water,
01:12that he is the least popular president in seven decades of his presidency.
01:17Is it time for the administration to change force, particularly when it comes to the economy?
01:21Well, I think the numbers on the economy, as you point out, may be related in some respects to the policy discussion that's being held about tariffs.
01:32But, you know, if you look at overall the things that this president and we are going to work with him to achieve,
01:39whether it's lessening the regulatory burden, creating energy dominance,
01:42preventing the $4 trillion tax increase coming at the end of the year that Senator Barrasso talked about,
01:49or reducing federal spending and making the government more efficient, more economical,
01:55and a better return to the American taxpayer, those are things that the American people supported.
02:01And I think when you're doing, when you're going through all this, you've got to take the long view.
02:04And I think his policy decisions are the right ones, and I think over time that will bear fruit.
02:11You will see the results of that, and he will, like he did in his first term,
02:15do some things for the economy that created economic conditions we haven't seen in decades.