CNN
—
Senate Majority Leader John Thune expressed wariness Tuesday over some of President Donald Trump’s recent policies, including new tariffs from the administration that threaten to raise the prices Americans pay for a wide array of goods.
Thune, who represents South Dakota – a state that relies heavily on trade with Canada, said while he thinks the president is attempting to secure “an outcome that addresses a concern that the American people have” with his recently imposed tariffs on the country along with Mexico and China, the economic impacts are an issue.
“That’s an issue in my view. I mean, I think you have to think about the economic impacts through inflation,” Thune told CNN’s Dana Bash when pressed on whether the tariffs, and potential cost to every day Americans, are good policy.
“I think you have to look at growth in the economy and how that’s impacted by all this. Those are, those are real issues. And so the administration is going to have to take, in my view, as they, as they evaluate some of these policy decisions the macro-economic impacts of these,” he continued on “Inside Politics.”
The comments from the top Senate Republican come ahead of the president’s first address to a joint session of Congress in his second term. Trump will deliver his “The Renewal of the American Dream”-themed remarks just hours after the 25% tariffs against Mexico and Canada took effect, causing a volatile morning on the markets and raising alarm among some red-state senators about the impact.
But the Republican leader did not go so far as to write off Trump’s move entirely, saying, “I think this is a president who has used that authority in ways that have gotten outcomes and results,” and adding that he thinks “the markets, in time, will stabilize.”
Stresses need for US leadership on world stage
In the wake of the administration’s pause on shipments of US military aid to Ukraine following Trump’s heated Oval Office argument with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, Thune cautioned against American isolationism and stressed the need for continued US leadership on the world stage.
“You don’t want America to become isolationist,” Thune told Bash. “Now again, what form America’s involvement and support takes is a matter of debate. And, you know, we can talk about whether soft power, hard power, what components that ultimately entails. But I think in the end, people look to us to be a leader, and we have to provide that leadership.”
Calling last week’s heated Oval Office meeting “unfortunate,” Thune suggested the pause was “designed to get the players to the table.”
The Republican leader, who has historically supported Ukraine in its war against Russia, said the pause was the president’s attempt to get European nations more engaged in providing security for the country, while acknowledging America’s global leadership role.
“I think we have very extensively invested heavily in Ukraine. I don’t think there’s probably the political support for continued financial investment there, but if the European nations can step up and with American support in terms of training and intelligence sharing and all the things that we can provide and offer, we still have to be the deterrent to bad behavior,” he said.
Warns federal workers must be treated as ‘real people’
During his remarks, the president is expected to point to Elon Musk’s reshaping of the federal government as evidence of the administration’s change in Washington.
Musk, who has spearheaded the Trump administration’s swift reduction of the federal workforce through his Department of Government Efficiency, is expected to be in the House chamber for the president’s speech, a White House official told CNN.
Asked about the appearance and how the world’s richest man is “going about business,” Thune said: “I think that he’s kind of going about business as you would in a private business. And obviously there are nuances in dealing with the federal government that are probably different than what he’s accustomed to in the private world.”
Thune said he thought Musk was addressing some Americans’ concern that the federal government is a “bloated bureaucracy” but, he told Bash, “how they go about it matters.”
“But there are, any time you do this, it’s, you know, you also have to pay attention to the aftermath of that and how it impacts people. I mean, these are real people. They need to be treated that way,” he said of the impacted federal workers.
Thune said “the overall goals and objectives are the right ones. And I think he brings an eye to this that probably, you know, we you couldn’t have gotten just by having, sort of the Congress or somebody else do it,” but argued that “probably better-attuned” Cabinet officials and agency heads will be in place to make decisions.
CNN’s Melissa DePalo contributed to this report.