INTERVIEW: Indiana’s Son: GOP Powerhouse Jim Banks Brings the MAGA Heat to the Senate

“While the Biden administration disregarded growing concerns from House Republicans about the buildup of China and Russia in our backyard, the Trump administration has immediately taken action.”

President Trump’s roster of friends in the Senate continues to expand, with Indiana Senator Jim Banks — a staunch ally of the president — joining the upper chamber after several years as a leader in the House of Representatives.

And he is already in the thick of it. Banks said his tenure in the Senate is “off to a great start” in a Monday phone interview with the Washington Reporter and that he is “learning the new rules and processes” that come with the territory — a vastly different land from the much more populous House.

Joining the Senate during a presidential transition means that one of Banks’ first tasks in his new job is confirming the president’s Cabinet and other confirmed nominees. The Indiana Republican said the confirmation process is “going great” so far and that it is his “sense that we will and we should confirm all of President Trump’s nominees.”

“And we’re off to a good start of doing that. The pace so far has only been slowed down by the Democrats trying to block or slow the process of confirming Hegseth and Tulsi and even some of the nominees nobody talks about — Scott Turner at [the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)],” Banks said. “The Democrats, they slowed that process and it’s what we’ve come to expect from the Democrats.”

“They hate President Trump. They want to block his agenda,” Banks continued. “But, when it comes to slowing down these nominees, they’re only hurting America in the process. So Republicans have to do everything that we can to back up President Trump and confirm his nominees as fast as we can, and that’s what I’ve been trying to push for.”

Banks told the Reporter that Trump “learned a lot from those first four years” and praised the rapid-fire actions taken by the president, noting that the commander-in-chief “is not going to slow down.”

“From today until four years from now, he’s going to be pushing as fast as he can to save the country and leave it in a better place than where we found it,” Banks said.

Turning to healthcare policy, Banks told the Reporter that, while he did not know “what those specific policies look like,” the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee he serves on will have “a large focus on reducing the cost of healthcare on American families.” Banks noted the points raised during Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s confirmation hearing regarding the amount of money spent on U.S. healthcare juxtaposed to the “over 70%” childhood obesity rates in America.

On foreign policy, Banks said that “so far,” Steve Witkoff “has been very effective” in hostage release negotiations with Hamas and noted that foreign adversaries “don’t want to mess around with President Trump.” Banks, a veteran, noted the recent “precision strike on ISIS” shows how serious Trump is when it comes to Americans’ safety.

“I wish there was a more tactful way to say this…” Banks said, alluding to a popular phrase best known by its acronym: FAFO.

“It’s very true. If you make a deal with President Trump and back off of that deal, there will be Hell to pay,” “And President Trump, he’s not going to mess around. That’s what ‘peace through strength’ is all about. President Reagan was the ‘peace through strength’ president — President Trump is the next Reagan when it comes to that.”

“President Trump has the attention of the rest of the world,” Banks said. “In two weeks, look what he’s done to secure the border: the tariffs with Canada and Mexico had immediate results from both of those countries, concessions to attempt to try and avoid those tariffs.”

“It’s only been two weeks. We have three years, eleven months, and two weeks left to go,” Banks added.