Oklahoma’s senior U.S. senator addressed area business executives at a luncheon in Pryor on Thursday, answering questions about the country’s change in leadership while appealing for feedback on tax policy.
“Give us your input,” Sen. James Lankford told the MidAmerica Business Leaders Association as about 50 attendees ate salad and pasta in a conference room across from Mayes County’s Google data center.
Lankford is a member of the Senate Committee on Finance and said early next year he’ll lead certain negotiations on tax reform, including around bonus depreciation.
“Please don’t wait until you see something in print. When I’m fighting a piece of paper, it’s very different than we’re actually fighting orally behind the scenes in a smoke-filled room.”
With the robust victory of President-elect Donald Trump this week, Republican leaders are saying”‘everything is in play” when it comes to tax cuts. Trump said on the campaign trail he hopes to lower the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 15 percent, having already slashed it from 35 percent with his 2017 law.
Lankford estimated negotiations around taxation would come in about March after 1,200 Trump staffers are confirmed by the Senate. Trump, who served an initial term as president in 2016, is beginning to build out a team that will reportedly be different from his first pool because he’ll “value loyalty.”
Trump’s first stint as president was marked by staffers speaking out against him and later warning against his return to power.
Both Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. have been floated as potential Trump cabinet picks. Musk, who offered to impregnate global pop star Taylor Swift after she endorsed Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris, is the richest man in the world. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, has Trump’s permission to “go wild” on health as part of his cabinet.
About 140 former Trump staffers were also involved in building out plans for Project 2025, a blueprint published by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, for his second term. The 900-page plan aims to infuse Christian nationalism into government policies.
Lankford said Trump’s high-level picks will have to be confirmed by the Senate, and while rejection has been rare because there’s a belief that “the president should be able to hire who he wants to hire,” sometimes lawmakers will withhold support.
On Trump’s promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants using the military if necessary, Lankford took a wait and see approach while noting Oklahoma’s National Guard has been used at the border in the past.
“Let’s see what actually happens rather than try to preemptively say, ‘You have no power to do anything.’ The president does have the power to call up the National Guard. Now, you can’t make them into law enforcement,” Lankford said. “President Trump steps in and says, ‘I’m gonna stop the flow across the border.’ That’s a good thing for the country. He’s not afraid of immigration, he just wants it to be legal. And quite frankly, I think most Americans would rather have legal immigration.”
