Newou can listen to Fox News articles!
First on FOX: Last month, Senate Republicans were able to advance President Donald Trump’s desire to claw back billions of people back on federal spending.
Efforts to cut funding for NPR, PBS and foreign aid came into being in the White House, but were executed primarily thanks to Senator R-MO.
First elected to the Senate in 2022, Schmidt has become a kind of envoy on Trump’s agenda in the Upper Chamber. He has a strong relationship with the president, dating back to his first campaign. This evolved into a regular invitation to join Trump for a round of golf.
“Long Deferral”: Senate Republicans cut foreign aid through Trump’s clawback package, NPR
Sen. Eric Schmidt, a Republican from Missouri, said he was in the campaign event with former President Donald Trump at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on November 1, 2024 (Jim Bondruska).
He has launched a probe against former President Joe Biden’s alleged mental decline, smoothing out concerns during the passage of Trump’s “big beautiful bill” and claiming he understands the president’s first American message.
And his role in bridging the gap between the White House and the Senate has negotiated to acquire a $9 billion package across the line between his meetings, and has seen his inventory rise significantly within the Senate GOP.
But in an interview with Fox News Digital, he said his whole goal is just helpful.
“I think I’ll get closer to it with that kind of humility,” Schmidt said. “But I want to succeed too, and I want to move forward with the agenda. I think that’s really important. It’s a huge honor to be on the golf course with President Trump and we’re so much fun. He’s a very good golfer.”
Schmidt, who previously served as Missouri’s attorney general before launching a Senate bid, said he had regular clashes with the Biden administration, and his role in lockdowns, vaccine orders, censorship and mass migration informed him how he currently views legislation.
Senate discusses Trump’s $900 million clawback bill after a dramatic late-night vote
President Donald Trump tees off at the opening ceremony of Trump International Golf Links Golf Course near Aberdeen, Scotland on July 29, 2025 (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“My job was to stand in the gaps and fight back, hoping for President Trump to come back,” he said.
Trump approved Schmidt in 2022, and in return, lawmakers became one of the first senators to support his reelection campaign the following year. It was when Schmidt became the mainstay of the campaign trail, with Trump Force 1’s “Big Mac, Double Cheeseburger, and Cheese Quarter Pounder,” which is spurting the nation.
And when Trump won, Schmidt had the opportunity to leave the Senate and join the administration as Attorney General, but he chose to stay in the Senate.
If he jumped over the ship, Trump’s rebate package might not have been able to hand over the convocation at the Senate GOP. There, they raised concerns about the impact of already counterattacked spending on the government’s fundraising process, and others raised the issue of targeted fundraising.
“This wouldn’t have happened without Eric Schmidt,” R-Ala said. Sen. Katie Britt, of the group, told Fox News Digital.
Britt was part of the same 2022 freshman senator as Schmidt, and included other prominent Republicans, including Sen. Mark Wayne Mullin, R. Okra and Vice President J.D. Vance.
She said Schmidt’s leadership on the retirement package, including hearing concerns from lawmakers and listening to negotiations with R Maine, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, has led to a final product that can actually be passed in a diverse Senate GOP in order to lead the package.
“It should have been prepared”: GOP Senator fights for a unified message on Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”
Sen. Katie Britt will speak with reporters following the weekly Senate Republican Caucus Policy Luncheon held at the U.S. Capitol on January 14, 2025 in Washington. (Chip Somode Villa)
In fact, Schmidt agreed to allow as many bills as lawmakers wanted, including his own changes to clawback, which saves funds for global AIDS and HIV prevention.
“When Eric speaks, people listen,” Britt said. “And he definitely has an impact when he uses his voice and when he does it.”
But Schmidt is more humbled about how he sees his part in the process.
“People can label them,” Schmidt said. “I’m not too obsessed with it. For me, honestly, I feel lucky to be in a position where I am. There’s not much sunlight between the president’s agenda and what I support.”
Still, he describes it as a “good movement for us” in the hopes of another rebate package coming, but noted that the timing of the remaining fiscal year is difficult given that the GOP will explode through the Democrat lockdown on candidates and through the government’s funding deadline looming after Labor Day.
But getting the first one was the key to opening the door for more.
“I think that was part of what was on the line too,” he said. “When we tried to ensure that we vote in the middle of the night, when you know, we had to prove that we have the ability to do it, and once we do it, there is the muscle memory associated with it.
Click here to get the Fox News app
However, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., demanded that Republicans be committed to a bipartisan spending process and avoid further rescue packages.
If another person comes from the White House on a decline in this fiscal year, they could potentially spell out trouble by September 30th with a Congressional bid to avoid government shutdowns.
“I think it’s a bad idea for Republicans to change our course of action based on what the Democratic threat is,” Schmidt said. “After all, they’re messageless occlusionists and no messengers.”
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital, which covers the US Senate.
Source link
