“Well, the president is doing exactly what he said he would do and I think it's mixed,” Zinke said. “I think where he's done exceptionally is on immigration. We have solved that problem to a degree. Now we're attending to removing the gangs. et cetera. et cetera. et cetera. Tariffs? Tariffs brought uncertainty to the market.”
Blitzer interjected, “If you take a look at these numbers on specific issues on immigration, he's only got a 45% approval rating right now. So he's got to work harder.”
“He's got to work harder, but also, are our streets safer?” Zinke, a former interior secretary, asked.
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“And the answer is yes. Remember, there's a reason why 10,000 Mexicans are patrolling the southern border and why the Royal Mounties are patrolling the northern border is because it was President Trump's policy. We're making this straight, the streets safer by removing, you know, the villainous individuals that are involved in crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, et cetera. So I think on immigration, he is doing exactly what he said he would do. The economy is fickle. The economy, you know, people are hurting, and people are hurting in Montana. and tariffs, you know—"
Blitzer interjected again. “The tariffs, the trade war that he's launched against so many countries around the world is a disaster.”
“I wouldn't say it's a disaster. President Trump has a tendency to do the shotgun, but he also looks for the deal. You know, I'm more of a surgical former SEAL Team Six. I like the surgical hit, rather than a broad shotgun. But we do—”
Blitzer interjected, “Farmers. The agricultural field in your state of Montana is suffering big time.”
“But if the end result is this, we can't be vulnerable to fickle allies or adversaries for key components of the economy,” the Congressman deflected. “We're talking about, you know, solar cells. We're talking about critical minerals, things that drive the technology part and we found ourselves to become vulnerable.”
Zinke then noted the environmental effects China is having on the global environment and critical components he believes America should be engineering for ourselves.
“On this issue, congressman, on the economy. His approval numbers on the economy. They used to say ‘it's the economy, stupid’ going into an election, as you know, on the economy, has his numbers hit an all-time CNN low at this point, just 39% support the way he's handling the economy,” Blitzer hammered.
“[This] largely stems from his decision to impose all these tariffs, and you said and you've just said, you're willing to give the president more time to execute his tariff strategy, but his time running out? You know, a lot of your fellow republicans in the House, they're very nervous looking ahead to the election that's coming up.”
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“Well, because America is not doing well economically,” the congressman replied. “You look at the bond market, for instance, and there's two big decisions coming up. One is, can we control the spending? We don't have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem, and the bond market doesn't lie. When we're borrowing so much money, when we're facing the debt, we are now in the mid $30 trillion range. It's a concern to us all, and if the bond market goes up for Americans, what does that mean? It means home mortgages are more expensive. It means interest rates are more expensive. Access to capital becomes tighter. That's a big, big issue.”
Zinke added, “So I think the headwinds on this, we need to make sure the tariffs are effective and short-lived, and secondly, we have to show that we can control our spending. If we do those two things, I think the economy will start to pick up.”
The pair then turned to the war in Russia and Ukraine. The congressman noted his belief is “The Crimean Peninsula is a part of Russia right now.”
“Really!?" Blitzer asked, shocked.
"In order to have peace, this is what I'd probably do," the Congressman said. "I'd probably have a land bridge in the Crimean Peninsula, and I’d make it demilitarized.”
Watch the full interaction below:
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