A lot has been said about President Trump's first 100 days in office and in Montana, a first-term congressman also reached 100 days more than two weeks ago.
Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont., recently discussed his experience in Washington, D.C., and how the president is doing as he begins his second term in office.
Watch the full story below:
“There's some folks that are just unhappy with the administration,” Downing said. “They're looking for somebody to complain about.”
Downing talked about the reciprocal tariffs that could be put on some countries' goods.
“Really, where I think it comes down to is the art of the deal,” Downing said.
He agrees with the president's use of tariffs to try to level the playing field on trade imbalances, and he says despite the response and the up and down of the stock market, he's not worried about the economy.
“These are always long-term investments,” Downing said. “And in terms of equities markets, time cures all. And short-term volatility, I don't think it’s indicative of a problem because we have a strong and resilient market and always have.”
Downing praised the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the $160 billion of cuts that Elon Musk has recommended.
“Take the political emotional part out of it,” Downing said. “I think that they would all agree that we can't be spending money on fraudulent activity, that we can't be wasting it.”
Downing is a former state auditor in Montana, and he has been assigned to two committees, financial services and small businesses, along with four sub-committees.
He says Congress needs to ask two questions when allocating money.
“The first question, is it in the interest of the United States of America and the second thing is, is, are we being stewards of taxpayer money?” Downing asked. “And if you can't answer both of those in the positive, why are we spending the money?”
Downing recently visited the Phillips 66 refinery in Billings and says Congress needs to put some of the president's executive orders into statute, including energy.
“If you don't have affordable and you don't have reliable energy, that affects everybody,” Downing said. “I see energy policy being energy dominant. I see that as a national security issue.”
Downing was criticized for not attending a town hall hosted by Indivisible last month, but he says he has hosted two tele-town halls with a total of about 13,000 people. And he's been out in public visiting with businesses.
“We've been a very, very responsive office,” he said.
Downing believes the big issues for America deal with national security, which he says includes immigration, taxes, energy production, and agriculture.
“What the president is doing, he's moving very quickly,” Downing said. “I personally like that because I think as a nation we were on the precipice.”
And he believes President Trump is going about it the right way.
“We needed to have some bold movement because we've got, all these issues that really affect that bottom line, that ability to build that American dream,” Downing said.
