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Floor Speech

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Mr. BANKS. Mr. President, 10 years feels like a lifetime ago. In May of 2015, I had just returned from serving a tour in Afghanistan and had just started my campaign--my very first campaign--for Congress. But not even a few weeks later, on this day, June 16--10 years ago today-- Donald Trump came down that golden escalator in Trump Tower in New York City and changed American politics forever. He took the Republican Party and the country by storm, and our country is better off for it.

No one in the history of this country has dominated American politics for an entire decade like Donald Trump has, and it has been a wild ride. The Republican Party is better off because of that. Our country is better off today because of that too.

Remember, when President Trump came down that golden escalator, we were in the political wilderness. Republicans hadn't won a national election in 12 years, and Republican experts, you might recall, gathered in 2013 to do an autopsy report.

And what did they say? They said the best way to win a national election was to embrace amnesty. Boy, were they wrong.

It may seem like a lifetime ago, but it wasn't too long ago when Republicans and Democrats in this Chamber were working together to pass so-called comprehensive immigration reform, or also known as amnesty-- remember the Gang of 8.

But President Trump shifted us away from that ideology and that mindset. He changed the Republican Party from one that wanted to pass amnesty to one that would fight to save jobs from illegal labor.

Donald Trump was the first Republican in my lifetime to say that immigration should put the interests of the American workers first and foremost. It is one of the reasons that he was so different from other Republicans back in 2015 and 2016, when he came down that escalator talking about putting American workers first.

It turns out that all working-class voters--whether they were Black or White, Latino or Asian--all they wanted was a shot at the American dream for themselves and their kids, just like every other generation of Americans had before them.

And, today, the new Republican Party is that multiracial, working- class coalition, thanks to Donald Trump. Working-class Americans are now the backbone of the GOP, and those are the men and women that President Trump stands up for every day and fights for, and I am proud to stand up with him.

It wasn't that long ago, as well, that leaders in both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party ignored the fact that China was ripping off our country and stealing jobs from American workers. Those same experts assured us that allowing China into the World Trade Organization and establishing permanent normal trading relations with China would gradually turn the communist China into a liberal democracy. Once again, they couldn't have been any more wrong than what they were.

The political class completely ignored communist China's ambition to destroy our manufacturing base. For decades, they stood by and watched as China stole our American technology, copied our products, broke trade rules, and built entire industries on the backs of slave labor. They supported a trade system that made our country poor and more dependent on our enemies abroad.

President Trump, from the moment he came down that golden escalator, recognized that this was a bad deal for American families, workers, and for our national security. In fact, at one of his very first campaign stops in Fort Wayne, IN, where I am from, he used stronger language about China than any other political leader before him.

In his first term, President Trump rewrote the national security strategy and named China a national security threat for the very first time.

And this time around, President Trump's trade agenda is working. His tariffs are already bringing back manufacturing jobs to the United States and encouraging companies to invest trillions in American manufacturing and get out of China instead.

In the last few months, thanks to this President's ``America First'' agenda, we have seen Honda announcing that they are going to build their next-generation Civic in Greensburg, IN. General Motors announced it would increase truck production in Fort Wayne. Eli Lilly plans to invest $27 billion in American manufacturing. Novartis also just announced a $23 billion investment in their American facilities, creating more good-paying jobs for Hoosiers.

President Trump's policies are strengthening America's economy and bringing critical manufacturing back home, while weakening China's economy. Imports from China have already dropped 35 percent, and China's economy is struggling because of it. And President Trump has got their attention. The Chinese are begging him to make a deal.

He is the first President, you see, in my lifetime to understand China's economic and military threat. Every President before President Trump played footsie with China, but President Trump is the only person tough enough to be in that negotiating room with communist China.

We finally have a President who is putting American workers and their families that they provide for first. Our country is stronger and more secure because of it. No other President since Reagan has done more to protect our national security.

President Trump projects peace through strength and puts the American people's interests first in our foreign policy as well. He is rebuilding our national defense and our industrial base after his predecessors depleted it. He got our NATO allies to step up to the plate and invest more in their collective defense when other Presidents tried and failed to do the same thing.

And President Trump is the greatest peacemaker of my lifetime. He is the only President not to get our country into a new war in the last four decades. Our enemies respect us again. They fear us. Our allies respect us. The ``America First'' foreign policy is working because President Trump rejected the failed thinking of the past.

I thank God that President Trump came down that escalator 10 years ago today. It is a date that we should all mark on our calendar and never forget. American politics hasn't been the same since; I don't think it ever will be again--and for the better. For all the reasons that I have already mentioned, our country is stronger and more united today. Our workers and families are better off. Our streets are safer, and opportunity and the American dream are within reach.

The American people are charting our country's future again--not China, not the elites, not multinational corporations--the American people. It is a new direction, and it never would have happened without President Trump's leadership and coming down that escalator 10 years ago today. I am proud to stand with President Trump.

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