Trump’s Iran Plan Will Change Everything | Sen. Rick Scott
Sen. Rick Scott warns Iran’s nuclear ambitions hinge on the Ayatollah, despite U.S. efforts, while Florida’s 2010–2018 growth—1.7M private-sector jobs and 300K+ annual residents—stemmed from his tax cuts and deregulation. His Save America Act (83% public support) demands voter ID and citizenship checks, betting Democrats won’t back it, but ties passage to must-pass bills like the budget. Criticizing Biden’s policies, Scott urges Republicans to focus on jobs, education, and affordability, contrasting Florida’s ICE cooperation with Minnesota’s leniency. He also pushes for Clare Act drug labeling reforms after Chinese garlic contamination scandals and exposes Fed accounting flaws under Powell, including $2.5B spent on a building without audits. Tariffs, he argues, are necessary to counter China’s WTO-era trade deception, framing them as a last resort for addressing deficits and economic strain. [Automatically generated summary]
We never know as clearly as much as what the president's doing unless you're working directly with him.
But I think it's pretty clear what's going to happen.
We cannot allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon when they want to destroy us and destroy our ally, Israel.
So if one of two things is going to happen, either we're going to continue to stop their ability to have nuclear weapons, or they're going to come to a deal that they're not going to create nuclear weapons.
Well, not only am I here, but you're happy to know I brought two companies, about a dozen employees, all escaped out of Cali, all functional people with jobs who are good humans in their community and all that good stuff.
But actually, since you brought up that you were governor and that Florida was not always the way it is now, why don't we talk about that for a little bit?
Are you just amazed how strong Florida is right now?
I don't want to jinx it, but this state has really come a long way.
Is there anything that you see glaringly right now that we're not doing here in Florida?
You know, I run the numbers all the time on the show about, you know, we're number one in higher ed now.
We are number one in tourism.
Obviously, low taxes.
Now we're going to do the property tax thing that was just passed by the state legislature.
It'll go to referendum and need 60%, which I think it'll get.
We're doing great things on infrastructure.
We're getting this influx of people.
Is there any, what are the spaces that you see that we could be doing better that you'd like to maybe do something different than we're currently doing?
You know, if we're running $1.9 trillion deficits, and now with the tariff decision by the Supreme Court, that means we'll have less revenue.
So that's going to cause interest rates to continue to stay high.
I don't think they're coming down anytime soon because somebody's got to buy it.
I mean, let me tell you how bad it is.
We've got to refinance, I think, about $10 trillion worth of Treasuries in the last year, next year, year and a half.
So he's got to buy that.
We're borrowing, have to borrow another couple trillion dollars a year.
Somebody's got to buy that.
We only have about a $30 trillion economy.
So I think it's going to make it hard to see interest rates coming down.
But at the state level, do more economic development.
We've got to focus on more affordable housing.
We've got to focus on, we've got to continue to focus on making sure our universities and our state colleges and our technical schools graduate people where there's a job at the end.
So I think we have to work on that.
You know, Florida, when I was governor, we went from 80 million tourists a year to 126 million tourists.
So we had a 50% increase.
It's actually slowed down quite a bit.
And part of the reason why is the state cut back on marketing tourism.
Actually, the last 12 months, we've actually lost jobs in Florida, and that's a variety of things.
Housing, we do a lot in construction.
But part of it is we've got to do more economic development.
So, I mean, we're going to get there.
And, you know, property taxes are high.
What I did was when I was governor, I reduced the millage rate to try to keep it low as property values went up.
Now we've got a pretty big property tax crisis.
Property insurance, we've got to get the cost of that down.
The legislature did some things a couple of years ago.
We've got to do more there.
The way I think about it is you've got to think about it from a company standpoint and from an individual standpoint.
You've got to say, how can we make the company more competitive?
And how can we make sure the individual can afford to live here?
And it's good for them.
Their kids get a great education, things like that.
One of your aides who was sitting in before you jumped in there said that you were a moment late because you were at the White House, which was the only excuse I was going to accept.
What's going on over at the White House these days?
So where are we at with these Republicans who seem to be hedging on save?
I guess most notably Mitch McConnell.
I mean, I just simply do not understand how you could be a Republican and be against this, especially with the radical nature of the Democrats right now.
We're putting, you know, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, and I put a lot of effort into this to try to make sure we get this passed and explain to the public.
The key is going to be for both the Republicans that to date have not supported and the Democrats that are not supporting it, which is all of them to date, is to have the public call them because it's like 83% of Americans want it.
Except like almost 100% of Republicans, 71% of Democrats, 80-some percent of Independents.
So this is popular.
So what I tell people, call every Republican, call every Democrat senator.
We even have one Independent who votes with the Democrats, Angus King.
Call them.
Tell them what you believe.
This is representing government.
And I think if we all do that, we'll get this passed.
I think the public, if the public goes after this, like think about it.
How does it look to Democrats when you have to have an ID for a snow shoveler?
Or John Ofsoff down in Georgia, he said that to come to one of his campaign events, you had to have an ID.
To go to the DNC, you have to show an ID.
So I think it's not, I don't think it's going to be something that if we stay after this, one of the mistakes up here is people don't stay after something and just constantly push to get it done.
I think if we do that, I think we have every reason to believe that we're going to get this done.
If you want high taxes, if you want a worse job market, if you want a worse economy, if you don't care about school choice, then you should vote for my opponent because that's what they believe in.
We've got to be very clear what Republicans stand for.
What Republicans stand for is we're going to create the best economy ever.
Trump did it before.
If you give us the opportunity, we will do it again.
We will have the best economy this country has ever had.
So that's number one.
Number two is we are going to continue to focus on fixing the cost of living that was destroyed under Biden.
That means what Trump's already done, we need to say, look at what he's already done on gas prices.
And I think there's more opportunities there.
But then what are we doing for housing?
What are we doing for groceries?
What are we doing for all the other costs, insurance, all these things?
Now, some of them are state impacted, but we've got to be very clear.
We're going to focus on how to get your cost of living down.
The biggest thing that we can do is balance the budget because that'll drive down interest rates.
So I think we've got to do that.
We've also got to talk about public safety.
Now, part of it is what they do at the state and local level with sheriffs and police departments.
But talk about the border.
Talk about how we are making your life safer by making sure criminals are not coming into this country.
So we've got to do all those.
I think it always comes down to these things.
Are you going to give me a better job or give me a job?
Are you going to make sure my kids get a great education?
And are you going to make sure I can live in a safe community and I can afford to live in this community?
And then we've got to be singularly focused on those four things and then talk about every day what we did, what we did.
When I became governor in January 2011, I met a governor who just had finished, and he said, you can't solve a problem people don't believe is a problem.
Those four are always a problem.
That's number one.
Number two, you needed to go tell people what you did, and you need to tell them today, tomorrow, every day going forward.
So speaking of telling people what you did or what you might do since you just walked out of the White House, I mean, it sounds like the Iran situation could pop off at any moment.
Are you guys getting briefings on that in the Senate?
Or is this just what's going on at the White House?
We never know clearly as much as what the president's doing unless you're working directly with him.
But I think it's pretty clear what's going to happen.
Iran, we cannot allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon when they want to destroy us and destroy our ally Israel.
So if one of two things is going to happen, either we're going to continue to stop their ability to have nuclear weapons, or they're going to come to a deal that they're not going to create nuclear weapons.
One of those two things is going to happen.
It's actually completely under the control of the Ayatollah.
So one of those two things is going to happen.
It's just like I talk a lot to the White House about Latin America.
And I get a lot of briefs about what's happening in Venezuela, what's happening in Cuba, what's happening because it impacts Florida.
Not just impacts Florida, but it actually impacts the country.
But on Iran, I couldn't tell you what's going to happen because it's completely up to the Ayatollah.
Well, first off, if you knew my daughters, you know that I tell them all the time, don't ever take a trip to Mexico because of the cartels, it's dangerous.
So I think every American needs to understand that if you go to Mexico, it's dangerous.
I mean, there's cartels that have a lot of control over what happens in that country.
It doesn't mean the Mexican government doesn't want to stop it.
It doesn't mean they don't have a strong military, but they have pretty strong cartels.
So I think we need to cooperate with the Mexican government and have expectations that if they want our dollar from our consumers, our purchasing dollars, they've got to make their country safe.
That means they've got to deal with their own cartels.
They've got to make sure our southern border is not unsafe from their side of the border.
So I think we should, I don't think we can support them with intelligence and things like that, but I think we should have expectations that if you want to have a relationship with America, you've got to do your part.
Speaking of the border, can you talk a little bit about how Florida has coordinated with the federal government when it's come to ICE and deportations and alligator Alcatraz and all of that stuff?
Because, you know, we focus so much on why it doesn't work in places like Minnesota.
But there are places like Florida right here.
I mean, not too far from my house.
They took 20 of these guys that they found in a U-Haul a few months ago, and it was found by local police, and then they coordinated with ICE, and they're all gone.
And the reason is our sheriffs, we have sheriffs in our 67 counties.
They work with ICE.
The reason is our police chiefs, they work with ICE.
So in contrast, where in Minneapolis, if you're illegal and you're a criminal, they're going to let you out.
You're going to be turned over to ICE, and you're going to be deported.
You're going to be out of this country if you're a criminal.
You're not going to be staying here.
So the big thing is that we work with ICE.
The frustrating thing, I think, for our country is under the Biden administration in particular, they just allowed our southern border to be completely wide open.
And what we've all found is our immigration laws don't work.
We need to have an immigration program where we know who's going to come into our country.
We decide who's going to come into our country.
You don't come into our country to become dependent on our country.
You come help if you're going to, if we're going to allow you to come into our country, it is our country.
It's not your country.
We have our own borders.
We get to pick who comes in here.
If you're going to come in here, you're not going to be a dependent, and we're not going to pay for your way of life.
You're going to go get a job.
If you want to live our dream, you're going to work our dream.
So, so Senator Gillibrand has been actually great to work with on that issue.
So this will shock you, but with regard to trying to hold the Federal Reserve accountable, who would you think the Democrat would work with me on that?
So she, she, on the Federal Reserve stuff, um, I mean, she, we don't, you know, the Federal Reserve has, you know, when you watch all this extra money they spent on the building, two and a half billion dollars.
Billion, I mean, think about it.
So, but there's no, they don't have an independent inspector general.
Well, I think the fight should not be about tariffs.
The fight should be how do we get jobs back in this country?
We have allowed countries all over the world to take advantage of us.
They have restrictive trade policies.
They have tariffs.
They have permits you can't get, all sorts of things to prevent us from selling our products in their country.
I was over in Denmark, Estonia, and Finland right after Trump got re-elected, I think in March or April.
And all the governments say, well, tell us about Trump because he was talking about the tariff stuff.
I said, well, here's the deal.
Here's what I would do.
Number one, I would build a military to defend your own freedom and stop relying on us.
We might support you, but we're not your front line.
And stop acting like we should be your frontline for defense.
Number two, I said you need to reduce all your trade barriers and allow us to sell our products in your country just like we allow you to sell in our country.
If not, something should happen.
Whether we stop you from selling our country, whether we have tariffs, whether we change our permitting, whatever it is, we should not have restrictive, if you want to have, don't let us sell in your country, you can't sell in ours.
Now, the approach Trump has taken is through tariffs, but the reality is he's doing it because Congress has not done its job.
Congress is, we don't, you know, we put China go into the World Trade Organization.
They've completely lied.
Any trade deal with China, they've completely lied.
Nobody ever holds them accountable.
Now, part of that is the executive branch.
Part of it's Congress.
I mean, if you look at most of the problems, maybe you think about a lot of the problems Trump's dealing with, take immigration.
So then my last question to you is, since we have this bet now, so if you get more than 50, you get, you know, if you get one Democrat, that's the bet.
You get one Democrat, key lime pie on me.
If you get none, key lime pie on you.
If you win, where are you getting your key lime pie from?
So if I have to get you the key lime pie, where are we going?
So there's, I buy my key lime pie from some friends that have a restaurant down in Goodland, but the pie is actually made in marathon, and I can't think of the name of it.
I've also had bets.
So what was the one?
I've had a lot of bets with the one down in Key West.
Well, but the property insurance is, you know, it's a state issue.
But what has to happen is you've got to, one, crack down all the fraud.
Here's the problem with property insurance.
The trial bar, which is just doing their job, they're trying to always come up with how they can take care of their client when they have damages, and they try to expand what insurance product covers through the courts.
What that means is that it's going to cause your insurance product to go up.
So what we have to do, and it's really the legislature in Florida and the governor, what they have to do is almost every year, when I was governor, pretty much every year, we had to figure out what do we do to fix something that was getting screwed up to the courts.
And so while I was governor, we didn't see significant increase in property insurance rates, but that's what we did.
And you just have to do it every year.
The Florida legislature passed a good bill, I think, two years ago, but it's going to take a while.