U.S. SENATE – U.S. Senator Steve Daines today joined Fox Business’ The Bottom Line where he reacted to President Trump’s Address to Congress last night and highlighted the return of American optimism under his leadership. He also applauded President Trump’s historic actions to secure the border, increase American investments and solidify America’s position as a leader on the world stage.
Watch the full interview HERE.
Daines reacted to President Trump’s State of the Union Address last night:
Well, it’s just remarkable how fast this administration is moving. It feels like every hour here is a new day in the Trump world, with how quickly they’re getting results- dramatic results in terms of shutting down that southern border, going from 21 million illegals crossing under Biden’s watch to the lowest level ever last February under Donald Trump’s watch. It’s just fantastic to see the recruiting numbers in the military- record highs that we’re seeing already. It’s literally optimism returning to America. You can sense it. You can see it. And I’ll tell you, it was demonstrated last night. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times I had to get up and down to cheer from what President Trump was saying, but to look over at those Democrats sitting on their hands scowling, even when they’re touting the joy of a child who had brain cancer, talking about what’s going on with that young man who went to West Point, could not get a single Democrat to stand up and cheer. I’ve never seen that in all of my time here in Washington.
Daines on Trump’s actions to stop the deadly flow of fentanyl:
First and foremost, you ask, “What is the goal of the President in these tariffs with Mexico and with Canada?” It’s to protect our country. He’s addressing the fentanyl crisis. When he walked into office, he saw the numbers. We’re losing 100,000 Americans a year to fentanyl poisoning. If you look at what’s going on in the southern border, of course you see the Mexican cartels, the flood of fentanyl, but don’t forget, on the northern border, which Montana is a northern border state, there was enough fentanyl seized last year coming across the Canadian border in the United States that it could have killed 10 million Americans. And by the way, that was up 50 percent from the year before. So I think that’s the under-told story of what’s happening with the cartels and fentanyl production in Canada coming into the U.S. And that’s President Trump’s goal: Use these tariffs as important leverage to get the Canadians and the Mexican governments working with us to stop this scourge of fentanyl.
Daines on the historic investments Trump has secured so far:
I think an important metric that has not been talked about enough is the amount of investment that’s already started to occur, commitments to investment, some $2 trillion of investment announced in America- America manufacturing, American jobs, just since President Trump took over. And so this massive investment is giving investors confidence that the president is going to protect America. This is an America-first agenda. That’s going to be an incredible stimulus for this economy, creating more jobs on top of reducing spending, which of course can be very inflationary when you spend too much money in the government. We’ve seen that certainly in the Biden administration. So that the bottom line is, you’re seeing a President looking out for America-first interests. And I’ll say this as well. He’s got great businessmen leading: Howard Lutnick, Scott Bessent, Doug Burgum, Chris Wright. These guys all have extensive business backgrounds. And that’s why you saw Howard Lutnick talking to our automakers here in the last 48 hours, making some adjustments to make sure that we’re at the same time protecting American jobs, encouraging investment as they’re looking at this tariff deployment.
Daines on how Trump is leading with peace through strength:
President Trump did not stutter with those remarks. He was very, very clear. There’s one thing that is respected, and one thing that moves action in the Middle East, and that is strength. That is what President Trump just projected with American strength. We think about Hamas and Hezbollah. I have been in those Hamas terror tunnels before with an IDF soldier, seeing what they did there in the Gaza border. I have been in the Hezbollah terror tunnels on the border with Lebanon. I was the last senator to be in those tunnels before the terror attack of October 7. There’s one purpose of these terrorists and that’s to destroy Israel. There’s one way that you protect Israel- by being strong, making sure Hamas knows that we mean business. That’s how you protect Israel, not by being mushy or cloudy thinking. President Trump is very clear and direct. This is how you keep Israel safe and America safe.
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Contact: Matt Lloyd, Rachel Dumke