JUST IN: Lankford on Fox Business — ‘We Need Basic Law And Order… Gavin Newsom Has Led California To Be A Sanctuary State… President Trump Has Been Very Clear: “We Are Not Going To Have Illegal Immigration.”’

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WASHINGTON, DC — Senator James Lankford (R-OK) joined Mornings with Maria on Fox Business today to discuss the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), border security, tax policy, and the ongoing riots in Los Angeles. 

Excerpts:

On Finalizing The One Big Beautiful Bill:

“We want to make sure when the House receives the bill back—hopefully by the last week in June—they recognize that it is the House bill that they formatted and sent to us. But just like 215 House members all put their fingerprints on it, we’ve got to have 51-plus Senators put their fingerprints on it as well.”

“One of the most obvious examples is we want to have permanent full expensing. The House had five years of full expensing. That is a very…tax feature long-term for every small business, every manufacturer. We want to make that permanent.”

“I want to reduce as much spending as we can actually get 51 votes for in the Senate and 218 in the House…You can’t do everything, so you shouldn’t do just nothing. Do as much as you possibly can and get it done.”

On The State And Local Tax Deduction (SALT):

“The Senate is not really excited about the SALT deduction pieces. $353 billion of additional cost on the federal taxpayers. Taxpayers in Oklahoma, on their federal tax, will literally pay a higher tax amount than taxpayers in New York.”

“Move out of a high-tax state, not punish low-tax states like my state in Oklahoma.”

On The Timeline To Getting It Done:

“If we don’t act right now, literally January 1st of next year, we’ll have a giant tax increase on every small business, every manufacturer, every individual. [We] can’t have that.”

“We can get it done by the end of June — obviously all the pieces have to fall together. We’ve got to finish committee work this week, put it on the floor at the end of June, then let the House pick it up as soon as we finish it up and they would pass it… This is President Trump’s bill, the House bill, and the Senate bill all merged together.”

On The LA Riots And Law Enforcement:

“What needs to be done is we need to have basic law and order on it. Governor Newsom who is actually celebrating people protesting for illegal activity… President Trump is just speaking out and saying: ‘Hey, we want law and order…You can’t throw bricks at police officers and smash federal buildings and smash cars and set them on fire, and block traffic. All of that’s illegal—and what they’re protesting is illegal activity [illegal immigration].”

“So Gavin Newsom has led California to be able to be a …sanctuary state. He has focused on trying to encourage more illegal immigration into the United States. And President Trump has been very, very clear, ‘We are not going to have illegal immigration.’ We’ll have legal immigration, but not illegal immigration. And we’ve got to have law and order everywhere.”

On Preparing For Major Events Like The World Cup And Olympics:

“[On threats to the homeland] it’s been frightening to be able to see some of these things. So we met a lot with the Biden administration when they were trying to prepare for the Olympics. They were very behind on schedule. This is the Olympics in 2028, in Los Angeles that President Trump had actually engaged in his first term to be able to get them to come. Now it’s a matter of getting ready three years from now for the Olympics, two years from now for the FIFA World Cup, or for some of the finals just next year. [You] know the 250th birthday of the United States. So there’s a lot of things that are happening that are very large scale global events. We want to make sure that we are ready for that.” 

“We want to make sure our airports are ready, our travel is ready, our visa process is ready. We’ll have 15 million visitors from around the world just for the Olympics in three years. There’s a lot to do, and we want to make sure we’re ready.”

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