Daines Reacts to Trump’s Historic China Visit: A Great Moment for America

• May 15, 2026

Joins Fox News, Fox Business, and Bloomberg

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Steve Daines joined Fox News, Fox Business, and Bloomberg TV to react to President Trump's historic trip to China as well as latest updates in Iran. Read highlights below.

Daines on Fox and Friends

I could not be prouder of President Trump. And what I just heard, I'm watching this live feed that you're watching as well. I never thought I'd live to see the day when President Xi Jinping said, Make America Great Again. This is a great moment. I was just in that great hall literally a week ago today. In fact, if you look at the seating with President Trump, the gentleman to his right is Premier Li Qiang. That's the number two leader in China. And then around [the table] you see Marco Rubio then Foreign Minister Wang Yi. I met with both the Premier and Wang Yi last week in Beijing with a bipartisan delegation of five U.S. senators. And it was just the fourth visit to China in six years by U.S. senators. It's so important that we not decouple. We need to engage. We need to, as was just described, promote strategic stability at this moment. It's the two largest economies in the world, the two largest militaries in the world. There's so much at stake. And I'm so proud of President Trump, who now has been to China twice. President Biden never went to China. President Trump's been there twice. A credit to the president, his team, and those great leaders of America who are there working to get better access for U.S. businesses.

Watch the full interview on Fox News HERE.

Daines on Varney & Co.

[Trump's] not decoupling. He's engaging. He's stabilizing this most important relationship. I think you're going to see a Boeing deal, a beef deal, a beans deal. We call it Boeing, beef and beans….another one of the things we're looking at is cooperating on reducing the fentanyl precursors that are shipped from China into Mexico, converted to fentanyl by cartels, and then poisoning and killing the American people. That's something I was working on a year ago in Beijing with the premier. And the good news, Stuart, is I've been chatting with our drug enforcement folks, both on the ground working for the United States in China as well as here in the United States. We are making progress seeing the Chinese stopping some of these precursors that are killing Americans. So one of the things the Chinese could get out of this is reducing one of the tariffs we have in place resulting from these fentanyl precursors. So it's always give and take in these negotiations. But here's the good news, Stuart, is that President Trump is engaged. He's working diplomatically. He's saying the right things. He's engaging the right people up and down from the top to mid-level to the bottom so we can improve this relationship. The world's counting on us to strengthen this relationship between the United States and China.

Watch the full interview on Fox Business HERE.

Daines on Bloomberg TV

The day before I met with Wang Yi the Iranian foreign minister was sitting in the same chair I was sitting in a day later talking about the issues in Iran and the conflict. And the readout from that meeting was that the Chinese want to help stabilize the situation, to de-escalate it and get the Strait of Hormuz open, get the flow of oil moving forward, getting the price of oil down, getting the price of gasoline down. That'll serve not only the United States and China, but the global economy. So they were being helpful. And I'm glad to see that President Trump and Xi Jinping continued that discussion. And from everything I'm hearing, it was constructive. And we need China to help us. They do have a unique role to play as an interlocutor with the Iranian government. And we need them to be leading and helping us to stop the conflict in Iran and helping us bring this to an end.

Watch the full interview on Bloomberg HERE.

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