What does Minnesota’s congressional delegation think about Trump’s first weeks in office? We asked.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Donald Trump’s sweeping changes in the first weeks of his presidency have sent Democrats scrambling to push back as Republicans have largely welcomed and cheered on his plans.

He’s signed dozens of executive orders that follow through on his campaign promises on everything from declaring a national emergency at the southern border, to dismantling federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and restoring “biological truth” by recognizing there are “two sexes, male and female.“

He’s threatened tariffs on Mexico and Canada, attempted to freeze federal funding, and working in partnership with tech billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting initiative dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency, has taken steps to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Education.

Minnesota Republicans, including the No. 3 GOP member in Congress, Rep. Tom Emmer, say Trump is carrying out the mandate American voters sent him to Washington to execute.

But his swift actions have Minnesota Democrats concerned and bracing for the worst. They have been speaking out against nearly all of his actions, and some have expressed disappointment in their Republican colleagues for not pushing back on his changes.

Here’s what the Minnesota delegation thinks about Trump’s first weeks in office and how they view their role over the course of his presidency.

“They have the budget next year. They control both houses of Congress and the presidency,” the senior senator said of Republicans. “They have this great opportunity to try to shape the future budgets and make things more efficient within the agencies. But instead, they’ve somehow twisted this into this unconstitutional power grab of just basically turning everything upside down. And so, we are constantly having people come that have had their things frozen from HeadStart to a farmer planting crops and suddenly can’t access things, and this is very difficult for the economy.”

“My focus then, knowing all of this, is how do you bring back that certainty? And how do you kind of get things to the point where you can then move on and work on things?”

“I think that tens of thousands of Minnesotans feel less safe and less secure because of what Trump is doing. We looked back over the last two and a half weeks, and we have received over 81,000 messages for Minnesotans. The issue that dominates is the concerns that they have about Donald Trump and Elon Musk going in and hurting people’s veterans care, hurting people’s health care, hurting farmers' ability, ability to sell their products, hurting access to special education.”

“More and more people are asking themselves, why is he doing this? What are they trying to achieve? And the answer to that is they are trying to figure out how to vacuum up as much money from all of us, so that they can pay for big huge tax cuts for wealthy people, billionaires and big corporations.”

“Donald Trump has done more in the first three weeks of his administration than his predecessor did in his entire 50-year career. You’ve got to keep in mind that 77 million people voted for Donald Trump, demanding that he do exactly what he’s doing. ... I expect him to continue to do more.”

“My job is to make sure that whatever we get on the floor gets passed.”

“No matter what administration, the first 100 days are always real busy with changes, and the Trump administration is doing exactly what he promised the American people when he was on the campaign trail.”

“He promised the American people that he would shut down the border, because that fentanyl is coming through killing members of our community, even Minnesota on a weekly basis, daily basis. He’s shutting down the border.”

Stauber recently led the Minnesota Republican congressional delegation in urging Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On the federal funding freeze: [Looking at transportation projects specifically] “What it is, it’s a pause on the discretionary spending to look at is the return on the investment good for the American taxpayer? And those projects that are worthy and good, like the Blatnik Bridge, that funding is not in jeopardy, that’s a good, solid infrastructure project.”

On Trump’s pardons of 1,500 people charged or convicted in the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol: “I don’t have any input on pardons. He pardoned them. What I’m going to do is look toward the future.” Stauber, a former police officer, said he wants to focus on ensuring law enforcement get the support and funding they need.

“The Republicans say, well, we got to give the president a chance to implement his policies. He has a mandate. It’s just a bunch of poppycock. It’s bullshit. He doesn’t have a mandate. He won the popular vote by 49.8%. That’s not a mandate. He didn’t get 50% in Minnesota. And I represent Minnesota. He had 46%, that’s not a mandate. Did he win the election? Do I honor and recognize that, yes. But President Trump does not have a mandate. And then to have Elon Musk, who’s unelected, who has conflicts in many of the agencies he’s now investigating, to do oversight and tell us how to reform government.”

“I start out very much with an open mind to supporting the policies that I agree with and standing up to an administration when I don’t agree. And by the way, that’s what I did with President Biden. I voted against the Biden administration about 30% of the time during that last term, but by any definition of someone who really wants to be bipartisan, the first three weeks of this administration have been incredibly concerning.”

On Musk: “I don’t think any American clearly understood that Elon Musk and his [cost-cutting effort] was going to be bringing in 19- and 20-year-olds to look at Americans’ most sensitive financial data. You know, this is a breach of our privacy rights.”

“Trump has plunged our country into a constitutional crisis, and he’s created chaos and confusion. He’s pardoned and emboldened insurrectionist and dangerous criminals. We are constantly hearing from people who are frightened for their lives, who are trying to understand how damaging some of the impact of all that he is doing would mean for them. We’re hearing from folks in Mexico and Canada and Minnesota corporations who are severely going to be impacted, not just by the implementation of any of the tariffs he’s talking about, but just the market uncertainty.”

“My role as a member of Congress is to hold him accountable, to use every leverage that we have, to push back and to stand with our constituents.”

Omar also took a swipe at Republicans, saying “they’re being complete cowards” amid Trump’s policy changes.

On Musk: “Elon has bought himself the presidency, and he has been successful in puppeteering the man that the American people thought they elected.”

“I’m disappointed in some of his nominations for his cabinet. I would hope that he would have chosen people with experience in leading large organizations and expertise in their subject areas. I am very concerned about all of the executive orders. It’s just a flood of executive orders, some of which flout the law. So, there’s a lot to be really concerned about. Very concerned about Elon Musk having access to our personal data and financial information and signed on to the taxpayer Data Protection Act. So, there’s a lot of work to do. There’s a lot of explaining to the American people about what’s happening, translating what’s happening, but I’m determined to represent my district well and stand up for the American people.”

The two Republican lawmakers did not respond to multiple requests for comment.