Click here to watch the video.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today joined The Brian Kilmeade Show on Fox Radio.

 

On confirming President Trump’s nominees at a record pace:

“[T]he Democrats aren’t playing ball on any of this. I mean, they are blocking, delaying, using every dilatory tactic that they can to try and prevent President Trump from getting his people in place. So we’re having to work around that. And I think we have effectively done that, to the point that we are ahead of pace relative to anything we’ve seen going back to about 2001. But you just have to grind them down. And you know, it’s unfortunate that that’s what it takes, but that’s the kind of political environment we’re in right now. And these Democrats have so much ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ that they can’t see straight. And, you know, you hear that rhetoric on the floor every day. And anyway… it is a process, but we’re going to keep at it and there’s a… lot more we have to get done and a lot more nominees we need to get through.”

 

On providing immediate resources to secure the border:

“[W]e had Tom Homan and Russ Vought come up and speak to the Republican senators last week and say, ‘We have got to have, if we’re going to do the job of securing the border, we have got to have what you’ve included in this bill.’ So we think that it addresses an immediate need. The other pieces of this are going to come and will come later, whether that comes in the version of a House-passed Resolution sometime next week, or in the weeks subsequent to that, one way or the other.

“In the end, we’ll get these merged up and put something on the president’s desk that hopefully gets things done. But we’ve said this all along, Brian, and I think it makes all the sense in the world: The most immediate needs are national security, border security, and energy development – and I think those are addressed in this bill. So if the president wants to move forward with this, he’s got an option to do it.”

 

On Senate-confirmed positions:

“I think maybe a lot of people don’t realize this, but the Senate, by virtue of the Constitution, Article I, with advice and consent, we literally spend two-thirds of our time on personnel. I mean, we have to do not only all the judges – all the judiciary comes through the Senate for confirmation, the federal judiciary – but you also have 1,100 executive branch nominees, positions that are subject to Senate confirmation, meaning that we have to do 1,100 of these. And unfortunately, what happens too often… an administration gets to office and some of their people don’t get in place until the third year of their four-year term, which is ridiculous.

“So I’m a big believer that we’ve got to figure out how to streamline and expedite that process, but in the meantime, we’re going to do everything we can the old fashioned way to just keep putting them through and getting them in their positions so they can implement the president’s agenda.”

 

On budget reconciliation:

“[I]f the House can execute on getting one [bill] done, more power to them. I think at the moment, what we’re trying to do is preserve optionality for the president. The president has… campaigned on and said his number one priority is securing the border, and this bill that we’re doing today is heavily focused on giving the president the resources he needs to secure the border. It also helps rebuild our military, which is something that, you know, desperately we have fallen farther and farther behind in terms of making sure that, in a dangerous world, our men and women in uniform have the weaponry, the technology, the training to do the job that we ask them to do. And then it’s focused on energy and restoring energy dominance for this country.

“So there are three priorities addressed in this bill. We know the tax piece has to be done, but we also have ‘til the end of the year to do that. The current tax law doesn’t expire until December 31 of this year, and that’s going to take a little while longer, but we’re on the same track. And I tell people, you know, we have a bicameral system in this country. We have a House and a Senate. They’re structured differently procedurally. They operate and function very differently. But we’re headed to the same goal, and so we’ll get there, and I’m hopeful.

“I’m encouraging and supportive of everything the House is able to do, but we want to, in the Senate, do our part too and make sure that we’re prepared to address what I think are the really urgent needs right now, starting with border security, which again, was the president’s number one campaign promise.”

[…]

“[T]he Senate, we’re able to, and we’re here today, and we’re prepared to execute on addressing those three immediate needs that I mentioned earlier, and I believe that preserves optionality for the president, and it also encourages the House to move. I think it creates forward momentum. And so we want to do our part and be good partners and getting, as I said, all of this across the finish line, so the president has what he needs to get the job done for the American people.”

 

On making President Trump’s tax cuts permanent:

“[W]e coordinate closely with [President Trump] and his team. And, you know, JD Vance, the vice president, was up here at our lunch yesterday, took a bunch of questions on this subject. And… I believe the president, although he’s always said he favors one big, beautiful bill – which is fine, if we can get that done… but I think that the one thing that doesn’t include… in the House bill, obviously, and that’s permanency for the tax pieces, and that’s one of the things the president wants.”

 

On DOGE:

“[Democrats are] grasping right now – let’s put it that way. This is a sort of… an act of desperation on the part of the Democrats, who have never been willing to cut a penny out of any government program – and in every budget fight, are always trying to spend more and more and more.

“[T]he Democrats seem unwilling to allow any review or scrutiny of government programs that could be run a lot more efficiently, and I think that’s what DOGE is all about.”

[…]

“I think you need people from the outside who have expertise in this field. Because the, you know, the government is, in many ways, just incredibly antiquated. The systems that are used, the bureaucracy built upon bureaucracy, the red tape, the silos in which things are done, instead of creating, you know, an integrated, efficient, taxpayer-friendly, and technology-driven, you know, government instead of this, this old paper-driven bureaucracy that’s existed for years and years and decades and decades.

“[I]n a lot of ways, it’d be great if… you could fix it from within. But I think, frankly, you need some eyes that bring fresh perspective and are willing to take on some of the stereotypes that, you know, have existed for way too long.”