WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.400 Mr. Speaker, what could go wrong at this point? 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:05.980 What are the potential cautionary pitfalls you've been and seen a lot of 00:00:05.980 --> 00:00:10.300 presidencies that this administration needs to be cautious of and aware of? 00:00:11.500 --> 00:00:16.360 Well, look, I think first of all, you have to have a certain level of humility. 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:21.680 President Kennedy had a sign on his desk that said, 00:00:26.380 --> 00:00:31.040 And even if you're as big as President Donald Trump, the world is much, much bigger. 00:00:31.560 --> 00:00:35.300 So you have to be cautious. You have to worry about not starting a nuclear war with Russia. 00:00:35.760 --> 00:00:38.960 You have to worry about what North Korea is going to do. You have to make sure that 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:43.960 the Chinese communists don't think they can cross the Taiwan Straits. You've got to worry 00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:49.100 about the Iranians who are religious fanatics and try to help the Iranian people who are not 00:00:49.100 --> 00:00:53.120 religious fanatics. I mean, there are a lot of things out there to make the world complicated. 00:00:53.710 --> 00:00:59.550 We're undertaking a brand-new struggle where we have defined criminal organizations like 00:00:59.550 --> 00:01:02.170 the cartels as terrorist groups. 00:01:02.790 --> 00:01:08.310 That involves a whole series of decisions, and Mexico is a big country, and it's a country 00:01:08.310 --> 00:01:11.590 that has large sections of it being run by criminal gangs. 00:01:12.130 --> 00:01:14.390 So that's going to be a major concern. 00:01:15.090 --> 00:01:20.250 The biggest concern, I think, for the president, the thing he has to focus on is the economy. 00:01:22.490 --> 00:01:29.270 it's vital to him to keep the house in 2026 and it's going to be a real fight. If the economy 00:01:29.270 --> 00:01:33.890 is growing, if there's a sense of a Trump boom, then I think he's got a good chance of keeping 00:01:33.890 --> 00:01:38.810 the house. If the economy is still floundering, then I think there's a real likelihood we'll lose 00:01:38.810 --> 00:01:44.210 the house and you'll end up with a Nancy Pelosi environment of Democrats obstructing, blocking, 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:53.360 This is the central decision point, and that requires in my judgment, passing a very, very 00:01:53.360 --> 00:01:54.100 strong bill. 00:01:55.200 --> 00:02:01.140 I think by Memorial Day, as Speaker Johnson said, or certainly no later than July 4, because 00:02:01.140 --> 00:02:02.740 it's got to go into effect. 00:02:02.960 --> 00:02:08.680 Now, the early reports, $500 billion committed for artificial intelligence, the Saudis committing 00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:11.020 $600 billion, these are great things. 00:02:11.630 --> 00:02:17.010 but to get the average American on board, they've got to see the taxes changed, the regulations 00:02:17.010 --> 00:02:23.350 changed, the economy growing. If that happens with people like you, and I have to say you were 00:02:23.350 --> 00:02:28.390 extraordinarily helpful and important in the last presidential campaign, and I think you made a 00:02:28.390 --> 00:02:29.310 significant difference. 00:02:29.710 --> 00:02:31.550 particularly in reaching out to younger Americans. 00:02:32.030 --> 00:02:34.950 So with the help of the entire team that elected in president, 00:02:34.950 --> 00:02:38.110 we have a chance to make sure it only has keep the house, 00:02:38.370 --> 00:02:39.790 but we actually increase our margin. 00:02:40.030 --> 00:02:44.130 There are 13 Democrats in seats that Donald Trump carried. 00:02:44.650 --> 00:02:46.970 There are another 21 Democrats that are in seats 00:02:46.970 --> 00:02:48.150 he got within 5%. 00:02:48.672 --> 00:02:50.290 They're going to vote very strangely, 00:02:50.710 --> 00:02:52.290 very much against the American people. 00:02:52.730 --> 00:02:54.350 And we have a real chance to beat them 00:02:54.350 --> 00:02:57.710 and to substantially increase the majority that Speaker 00:03:00.750 --> 00:03:03.390 Well, thank you for those kind words, Mr. Speaker. 00:03:03.870 --> 00:03:08.890 My inclination has been for two bills, but can you convince our audience otherwise? 00:03:09.070 --> 00:03:09.930 I'm not against one. 00:03:10.050 --> 00:03:11.970 I mean, I'm far from a legislative expert. 00:03:12.530 --> 00:03:15.210 Why do you think one bill would be the best solution? 00:03:15.690 --> 00:03:21.190 Well, let me just say, as part of the background that I've engineered this before, we were 00:03:21.190 --> 00:03:26.770 the only Congress in a hundred years to pass four consecutive balanced budgets, pass welfare 00:03:26.770 --> 00:03:32.490 reform, pass tax cuts, pass Food and Drug Administration reform, invent Medicare Advantage. 00:03:32.790 --> 00:03:34.250 We did all that with the Democratic president. 00:03:34.510 --> 00:03:34.750 Why? 00:03:35.250 --> 00:03:39.070 Because we followed Ronald Reagan's principle, Abraham Lincoln's principle, which is you 00:03:39.070 --> 00:03:40.530 start with the American people. 00:03:41.440 --> 00:03:51.120 President Trump, if he will campaign for about ten weeks and go into the districts I just mentioned, the 34 that are vulnerable Democrats, he will pass a big bill. 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:54.940 I don't think you can do that twice in the first six months of the year. 00:03:55.450 --> 00:04:02.670 And I think it's desperately important that that be the tax cuts, deregulation, energy affordability bill. 00:04:03.590 --> 00:04:05.690 I think you can throw in things for immigration. 00:04:06.310 --> 00:04:09.150 He's frankly going to do a lot on immigration without a bill. 00:04:09.750 --> 00:04:12.690 And I think people say, oh, we want a quick early victory. 00:04:12.890 --> 00:04:19.370 No, I want a decisive victory that shapes the economy for next year to give us a chance to keep the House. 00:04:19.790 --> 00:04:22.070 Anything less than that is a failure. 00:04:24.780 --> 00:04:29.280 and so difficult to work just structurally, that even though John Thune is going to be a very good 00:04:29.280 --> 00:04:35.460 majority leader and very cooperative with Trump, frankly, he would have a very hard time getting 00:04:35.460 --> 00:04:41.540 two big bills through the Senate in six months. So if I have to choose, I want one really big bill, 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:46.820 as Trump describes it, one big, beautiful bill. And I think that's the safest if you want to keep 00:04:46.820 --> 00:04:51.580 a majority in the House, and it's the safest if you want the Trump presidency to be successful.