[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 103 (Monday, June 16, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3402-S3403]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Trump Administration

  Mr. BANKS. Mr. President, 10 years feels like a lifetime ago. In May 
of 2015, I had just returned from serving a tour in Afghanistan and had 
just started my campaign--my very first campaign--for Congress. But not 
even a few weeks later, on this day, June 16--10 years ago today--
Donald Trump came down that golden escalator in Trump Tower in New York 
City and changed American politics forever. He took the Republican 
Party and the country by storm, and our country is better off for it.
  No one in the history of this country has dominated American politics 
for an entire decade like Donald Trump has, and it has been a wild 
ride. The Republican Party is better off because of that. Our country 
is better off today because of that too.
  Remember, when President Trump came down that golden escalator, we 
were in the political wilderness. Republicans hadn't won a national 
election in 12 years, and Republican experts, you might recall, 
gathered in 2013 to do an autopsy report.
  And what did they say? They said the best way to win a national 
election was to embrace amnesty. Boy, were they wrong.
  It may seem like a lifetime ago, but it wasn't too long ago when 
Republicans and Democrats in this Chamber were working together to pass 
so-called comprehensive immigration reform, or also known as amnesty--
remember the Gang of 8.
  But President Trump shifted us away from that ideology and that 
mindset. He changed the Republican Party from one that wanted to pass 
amnesty to one that would fight to save jobs from illegal labor.
  Donald Trump was the first Republican in my lifetime to say that 
immigration should put the interests of the American workers first and 
foremost. It is one of the reasons that he was so different from other 
Republicans back in 2015 and 2016, when he came down that escalator 
talking about putting American workers first.
  It turns out that all working-class voters--whether they were Black 
or White, Latino or Asian--all they wanted was a shot at the American 
dream for themselves and their kids, just like every other generation 
of Americans had before them.
  And, today, the new Republican Party is that multiracial, working-
class coalition, thanks to Donald

[[Page S3403]]

Trump. Working-class Americans are now the backbone of the GOP, and 
those are the men and women that President Trump stands up for every 
day and fights for, and I am proud to stand up with him.
  It wasn't that long ago, as well, that leaders in both the Republican 
Party and the Democratic Party ignored the fact that China was ripping 
off our country and stealing jobs from American workers. Those same 
experts assured us that allowing China into the World Trade 
Organization and establishing permanent normal trading relations with 
China would gradually turn the communist China into a liberal 
democracy. Once again, they couldn't have been any more wrong than what 
they were.
  The political class completely ignored communist China's ambition to 
destroy our manufacturing base. For decades, they stood by and watched 
as China stole our American technology, copied our products, broke 
trade rules, and built entire industries on the backs of slave labor. 
They supported a trade system that made our country poor and more 
dependent on our enemies abroad.
  President Trump, from the moment he came down that golden escalator, 
recognized that this was a bad deal for American families, workers, and 
for our national security. In fact, at one of his very first campaign 
stops in Fort Wayne, IN, where I am from, he used stronger language 
about China than any other political leader before him.
  In his first term, President Trump rewrote the national security 
strategy and named China a national security threat for the very first 
time.
  And this time around, President Trump's trade agenda is working. His 
tariffs are already bringing back manufacturing jobs to the United 
States and encouraging companies to invest trillions in American 
manufacturing and get out of China instead.
  In the last few months, thanks to this President's ``America First'' 
agenda, we have seen Honda announcing that they are going to build 
their next-generation Civic in Greensburg, IN. General Motors announced 
it would increase truck production in Fort Wayne. Eli Lilly plans to 
invest $27 billion in American manufacturing. Novartis also just 
announced a $23 billion investment in their American facilities, 
creating more good-paying jobs for Hoosiers.
  President Trump's policies are strengthening America's economy and 
bringing critical manufacturing back home, while weakening China's 
economy. Imports from China have already dropped 35 percent, and 
China's economy is struggling because of it. And President Trump has 
got their attention. The Chinese are begging him to make a deal.
  He is the first President, you see, in my lifetime to understand 
China's economic and military threat. Every President before President 
Trump played footsie with China, but President Trump is the only person 
tough enough to be in that negotiating room with communist China.
  We finally have a President who is putting American workers and their 
families that they provide for first. Our country is stronger and more 
secure because of it. No other President since Reagan has done more to 
protect our national security.
  President Trump projects peace through strength and puts the American 
people's interests first in our foreign policy as well. He is 
rebuilding our national defense and our industrial base after his 
predecessors depleted it. He got our NATO allies to step up to the 
plate and invest more in their collective defense when other Presidents 
tried and failed to do the same thing.
  And President Trump is the greatest peacemaker of my lifetime. He is 
the only President not to get our country into a new war in the last 
four decades. Our enemies respect us again. They fear us. Our allies 
respect us. The ``America First'' foreign policy is working because 
President Trump rejected the failed thinking of the past.
  I thank God that President Trump came down that escalator 10 years 
ago today. It is a date that we should all mark on our calendar and 
never forget. American politics hasn't been the same since; I don't 
think it ever will be again--and for the better. For all the reasons 
that I have already mentioned, our country is stronger and more united 
today. Our workers and families are better off. Our streets are safer, 
and opportunity and the American dream are within reach.
  The American people are charting our country's future again--not 
China, not the elites, not multinational corporations--the American 
people. It is a new direction, and it never would have happened without 
President Trump's leadership and coming down that escalator 10 years 
ago today. I am proud to stand with President Trump.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.

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