Senate Republican leaders hold their weekly press briefing.
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00:00One hundredth day of the Trump presidency, and I think it has been a very historic 100 days.
00:07And in my view, you could be described as promises made and promises kept.
00:12And if you look right across the board, all the things the president campaigned on, said he was going to do, he was following through on those.
00:19And chief among those is what's happening at our southern border.
00:22The open borders policy that had been pursued by the Biden administration had led to all kinds of chaos at our southern border.
00:30Lots of dangerous elements coming into the United States.
00:34And about, if you can believe this, 12,000 or so people per day coming across our southern border illegally.
00:4212,000.
00:43We have a change of administration.
00:45President Trump takes office.
00:46That number plummets from 12,000 down to 230 a day.
00:52That's what we're looking at right now.
00:54And if you look at a year ago where we were, January, February, March, April, and those numbers, it's just as I described it.
01:00It's about a 94-95% drop in one year, thanks to the leadership of President Trump.
01:07And so as we think about what we need to do to support those efforts, obviously we are involved, as you all know, in a process up here.
01:14The first step was budget resolution, which passed the House and the Senate before the Easter break.
01:20And now we're in the midst of the reconciliation bill, which is where we make law.
01:24And we intend in doing that to ensure that the president and his team have the resources they need to continue keeping our southern border secure.
01:32I think the American people made it very clear what they voted for last November.
01:37And obviously they are interested in making sure that we have good, strong military security, that we have good, strong border security, and that we have good, strong economic security in this country.
01:48And those are the things that this Republican Congress, this Republican Senate, are committed to getting done.
01:54And we're going to continue in the next 100 days to do what we've been doing in the last 100 days, and that is delivering on the commitments and on the agenda that the American people want to see happen.
02:06And to work with the president and his team and our colleagues and counterparts in the House of Representatives to see those things be made a reality.
02:15Senator Brasso.
02:16Well, for the last 100 days, Republicans in Congress and the president of the United States have been working together, fighting for the American people.
02:27We all ran for office promising safety and prosperity for the folks of this great country.
02:33And we have a lot of work to do to fix the failures of the last four years of the Biden administration to get our country back on track.
02:40Start with the border.
02:42You can see dramatic increases in the efforts to stem the flow of illegal immigrants from over 7,000 a day under Biden to now 7,000 a month under Trump.
02:55Making the border secure means we are making our communities safe.
02:59In terms of prices, you're seeing 50 different actions by Republicans on energy to make energy more affordable, specifically American energy.
03:08We're making it easier to produce energy right here.
03:12That's the record of 100 days of the Trump Republican administration.
03:17There's still more work to be done.
03:18We still need to do the good work of blocking the $4 trillion tax increase that the Democrats want upon the American people.
03:27We're going to do everything we can to stop it.
03:30There's more work to be done in another 100 days coming to get that work done.
03:35Senator Capri.
03:36Well, we're all talking about the 100 days of the Trump administration, as you all are all writing about that as well.
03:44And I think Senator Thune actually brought this, but I brought a little chart that shows you the blue lines are the numbers of encounters under the Biden administration.
03:55The red lines in the first three months are a number of encounters under the Trump administration.
04:03I mean, I think nothing spells success more than one of the biggest issues during the campaign, which was border security, which also leads to security in our communities and security not just within the country, but around the world.
04:21And so I say congratulations to President Trump.
04:24He said all along that he could do this, he would do this, and he would be effective.
04:31President Biden, on the other hand, said, I can't do anything.
04:35I can't do anything if the Congress doesn't act.
04:37It's beyond my responsibilities.
04:40This chart shows you that those were empty words.
04:43And so as we move to the next 200 days, I think it's important to note, too, these are, you know, you have different types of, these are ones that are coming through the checkpoints.
04:54The states, the ones that are the gotaways, which never get caught, are down 99%.
04:59There's deterrence that the president has put forward through his policies, and that's what's causing these numbers to come dramatically down with the support of us as the Senate and over in the House as well.
05:12Senator Lincoln.
05:13So we're 100 days into the presidency, but that also has included 100 days of work for this Senate.
05:20We actually started before the president was sworn in, obviously, as we were sworn in on the 3rd of January, but passing the Lake and Riley Act, doing a record number of nominations.
05:29We've done more nominations than under the first Trump administration, the Biden administration, or you go all the way back to the Bush administration.
05:36It's been 25 years since we've moved as many nominations as fast as we've been able to move.
05:41So we've been here weekends, as this group knows extremely well.
05:44We've been here very late at night multiple times to be able to work through the process because we are determined to be able to get things done for the American people.
05:51So that's involved dealing with energy permitting issues, which we've done over and over again to open up American energy.
05:57That is working through the process with the president on trying to be able to limit illegal immigration coming across our border to secure our border and to be able to deal with criminal aliens.
06:06We are a Senate determined to be able to get things done for the people in my state, in Oklahoma, and for our nation.
06:14And we've got a lot to get done, as this group knows extremely well because you've watched it.
06:19We are very determined on the budget aspects to dramatically reduce federal spending, to start knocking down $2 trillion worth of overspending that is still left over from the COVID time period,
06:29to be able to get that spending down and to be able to make sure that we have a predictable low tax rate for the American people
06:36so we can continue to have a growing economy.
06:38That's the task for the several months, but that was set up in the first 100 days to be able to be successful,
06:43starting immediately in these times now as the House and the Senate work together with the president to be able to get this done.
06:50Good afternoon. Thank you.
06:53Can you characterize the difference in the response from congressional Republicans to President Trump this time around compared to 2017?
07:01They seemed a little skeptical of him in 2017. That's not the case now.
07:06Well, I mean, I think we all watched what happened in November and the mandate he got from the American people.
07:12It was clear, it was decisive, and he had a clear message that he campaigned on, and he has been following through and delivering on that.
07:20And 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.
07:29And they were the right ones.
07:30And in the end, he was proven right when it came to the economy, comes to the border, comes to national security.
07:36This is a president who has a clear vision of what he wants to accomplish on behalf of the American people,
07:41and I think he implemented that clearly in his first term.
07:44And as we began the first hundred days of this term, I think all of us believe that we want to be good partners
07:50in making sure that the agenda that he campaigned on, in which the American people voted for, is accomplished and delivered on.
07:56Senator, Senator, Senator.
07:58All of the polls have shown that Trump's numbers are underwater, that he is the least popular president in seven decades in his point of his presidency.
08:07Is it time for the administration to change force, particularly when it comes to the economy?
08:12Well, I think the numbers on the economy, as you point out, may be related with some respects to the policy discussion that's being held about tariffs.
08:23But, you know, if you look at overall the things that this president and we are going to work with him to achieve,
08:29whether it's lessening the regulatory burden, creating energy dominance, preventing the $4 trillion tax increase coming at the end of the year
08:38that Senator Barrasso talked about, or reducing federal spending and making the government more efficient, more economical,
08:46and a better return to the American taxpayer, those are things that the American people supported.
08:52And I think when you're doing, when you're going through all this, you've got to take the long view.
08:55And I think his policy decisions are the right ones, and I think over time that will bear fruit.
09:02You will see the results of that, and he will, like he did in his first term, do some things for the economy that created economic conditions we hadn't seen in decades.
09:10The Press Secretary called it a hostile and political act for companies like Amazon to display the cost of tariffs that they're having on consumers.
09:19Do you think consumers should know how much more they're going to be required to pay because of these tariffs?
09:24Well, I mean, I think that's a conversation that the folks at Amazon will have to have with the White House, with the President.
09:32You know, I think at the end of the day, again, this administration is going to be judged by the results that they get.
09:38And if, in fact, they get better trade deals that change the way that other countries have mistreated us,
09:46or treated us unfairly through the years, people will view it as a success.
09:50And ultimately, you will see the economic conditions reflect that.
09:54And I think in the end, you're going to have inflation.
09:57It will be under control.
09:59But I understand, you know, the short-term conclusions of people drawing or even some of the polling data that's out there.
10:07That is what it is.
10:08But the fact of the matter is that when you make policy decisions with a long-term outcome in mind, you've got to have some patience to get there.
10:16And I think that the discussion that they're having with Amazon is something that will be a discussion between the administration and the company and the company leadership.
10:27But I don't for a minute believe that this administration isn't making the right decisions that lead us to the policy outcomes.
10:35They're going to make the American people more safe, more secure, and more economically prosperous.
10:41We saw that in the first term, and I think they're doing the right things right now.
10:46But we've got to await, obviously, the outcome of what this tariff debate ultimately looks like.
10:50Leader, do you want to hear from it on reconciliation?
10:54Several of your Republican colleagues have asked you to take a very cautious approach when it comes to reconciliation and clean energy, IRA, clean energy tax cuts,
11:06and specifically some of those affecting your constituents, your farmers, sustainable aviation fuel, biofuels, biodiesel.
11:14Can you support a more surgical, cautious approach to reconciliation cuts in this area?
11:21Well, I mean, we're going to ultimately what gets included in a reconciliation bill will be determined by what there are 218 votes for in the House and 51 or 50 votes in the United States Senate.
11:34And obviously, there are differences of opinion about some of the various provisions in previous legislation and the one that you noted.
11:45And my guess is, as we get further into these discussions, we will come up with a plan that gets us 218 in the House, 50 votes in the Senate.
11:55Ultimately, 51, if the vice president has to be involved.
11:59But to preserve the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and make sure that we have the right incentives in place for American energy production.
12:09And whether that's in the renewable space, the conventional space, I think most of us up here agree that an all-of-the-above energy strategy when it comes to American energy is the right one.
12:18And as we work through reconciliation, there will be some give and take and obviously conversations around some of the energy policies and provisions that are in place today.
12:28But at the end of the day, it's about making America energy, not only energy independent, but energy dominant.
12:34So, thanks, guys.