WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Appropriations, Banking, and Foreign Relations Committees and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, today joined The Inauguration of Donald J. Trump on CNBC to discuss President Donald Trump’s policies for his first day in office, along with confirmation of his cabinet nominees.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on Trump’s first actions in office: “I think speed and urgency may even be an understatement. If you think about it, President Trump’s success has already begun before he’s even taken office. I mean, look at the ceasefire agreement that took place in Israel. Thanks Steve Witkoff for flying over and conveying President Trump’s messages and making that speed up and happen, finally. If you think about what’s happening around the world today, you see CEOs making commitments to capital investment here in America, well before President Trump has taken office. But after the election, in fact, our GDP growth has been adjusted significantly upward for 2025, and we’ve already begun to see the impetus taking place right now. For our economy, I think what you’re going to see, starting today, a tremendous number of executive orders coming out that will deal with very pressing issues. I think immigration and the border obviously are going to be a key concern; that was a big issue on the campaign trail. President Trump has made a commitment to re-secure our nation, again, starting with our southern border and empower [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to do their job. Again, that is a critical issue for Americans, and that’s something I expect to see a lot of action on today. Getting back our energy industry to the growth trajectory that we were on, that’s going to be great for our national security. It’s going to be great for our economy, in terms of lowering inflation. And I think you’re also going to see a big thrust in deregulation, the estimated cost of the Biden-era regulations, $1.4 trillion burden on the American economy. There’s a lot of work to be done here, but I think the deregulatory thrust is going to be significant, and I think you’ll see a lot of that starting on day one.”
Hagerty on working with allies on tariffs: “I’ve spoken with a number of our allies, and if you think about our trading relationships—and Becky, this is an historic issue—it goes back to World War II, where many economies were devastated after the war. We put in place very favorable trade terms, European economies, Japan, etc, because we didn’t want them turning toward communism. We wanted them dealing with us. We should have time limited that. We should have put a GDP-per-capita limit. We did not. Today, we have very non-reciprocal relationships, and the result of that is we’re not looking at a level playing field. President Trump wants to see that addressed. I think our trading partners understand that. I’ve been working very closely with Canada the past several days, really trying to block some actions that the Biden Administration was trying to do at the 11th hour to harm U.S. companies to allow Mexico to appropriate U.S. company property. Thankfully, Canada decided to work with me, to work with the new Trump Administration, coming in and to block this from happening so the Biden Administration could not inflict this sort of damage and allow this sort of expropriation to take place in Mexico with impunity. These types of arrangements and engagements, I think, are all positive, moving in the right direction. Our allies realize we’ve got to change the terms of trade. We’ve got to start working together, and we need to see reciprocity occur at every turn.”
Hagerty on confirmation of Trump’s cabinet nominees: “I’m optimistic, Becky. I mean, President Trump definitely has opened the tent. He’s really focused on the working man and woman here in America. Many of them felt forgotten for years. So, I really do think there’s a great opportunity. I think one of the first tests, Becky, will be this evening. We’re going to move Senator Marco Rubio out of our Foreign Relations Committee this evening, and I hope be able to bring him to the floor and get consent from all of our colleagues, both Republican and Democrat, to move him into the Secretary of State slot. I’d like to see the same thing happen with John Ratcliffe coming out of the Intelligence Committee. As we begin to move on to these appointees, critical appointees from a national security standpoint, I have a great optimism that we have the opportunity to see bipartisan cooperation here. Let’s get these appointees put into office. Let’s get President Trump the team he needs, particularly on critical national security areas, to get this thing moving, to make our nation as safe as possible.”
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