Downing backs Trump on Venezuela, ICE, but committed to NATO
Darrell Ehrlick
(Daily Montanan) In a telephone town hall last week, Montana Congressman Troy Downing told constituents he supported President Donald Trump’s toppling of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, blamed the domestic unrest over ICE raids on social media and biased reporting, and said Republicans want to fix a broken health care system.
However, Downing said he would not support any action that threatened the NATO alliance, while detailing Greenland’s importance to the United States.
The first-term Republican from Montana’s central-and-eastern Congressional District defended the Trump administration and claimed that wages were increasing faster than inflation, saying that was a sign that Republican policies were taking hold. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation grew at 2.7% during 2025, while wage growth outpaced it at 3.8%.
Venezuela
Downing said that he supported Trump’s use of force to remove Maduro, calling him “a narco-terrorist.” He also told listeners that Maduro’s regime in Venezuela was supporting Cuba, China and Russia and was a threat to the “Monroe Doctrine,” which he referenced several times.
The Monroe Doctrine is a policy established by the Presidency of James Monroe that asserted that the United States of America should be in control of what happens in the western hemisphere.
“I personally believe the President had Article Two (of the U.S. Constitution) authority because there were exigent circumstances that were harming Americans and totally support that,” Downing said. “I don’t believe this was anything more than protecting American authority.”
Downing said what Americans have missed is that previously even the Biden administration had put a bounty for Maduro.
“I don’t see this as being an act of war. I see this as a Department of Justice action to bring a criminal to trial,” he said.
Downing also claimed by taking out Maduro, America had freed the Venezuela people who were grateful.
“I think we need to be more diligent about what happens in the Western Hemisphere. We need to start looking at other adversaries, starting to do this. I do believe that this has greatly increased the security in the Western Hemisphere,” Downing said.
ICE, Renee Good and Minneapolis
Downing said that he supports Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the work the department is doing in U.S. cities. He also said that he believes the conflict in U.S. cities is happening for a number of reasons including social media and biased news reporting.
The Congressman vacillated between calling the shooting of resident Renee Good “tragic” and asserting protestors are interfering with federal law enforcement.
“Calmer heads should prevail,” Downing said. “Interfering with federal law enforcement is a crime. It appears there were big attempts at interfering with federal law enforcement and when that happens, you put everybody at risk — law enforcement, the people that they’re trying to interact with, the folks that are doing the interfering. And while we all understand that Americans have a First Amendment right to protest, we need to be really careful when that protest crosses the line with interference in law enforcement operations.”
No evidence has substantiated that Good was trying to interfere with law enforcement herself.
Several callers had questions about ICE and the possibility of government overreach. A caller identified as Caitlin from Billings asked, “My question specifically refers to the authoritarian federal overreach that seems to be existing in the organization of ICE and the way they are impacting citizen life.”
While she admitted that there are serious criminal problems, she questioned the cost, especially because of civil unrest in places like Minneapolis and Portland.
“First of all, I don’t subscribe to authoritarian overreach. I don’t agree with that at all,” Downing said. “Immigration, immigration enforcement and federal law enforcement is a tool that’s been around for a long time, used by presidents of both parties. This is not anything new. You look at the news cycles, you look at social media and you look at how they try to make you angry.”
The Congressman leveled the blame at both media and social media, saying that the combination is “blowing it out of proportion.”
“Because they’re angry, because they’re watching social media, they’re starting to say, ‘I’m going to take this beyond doing a demonstration, and I going to start block them from doing their job. And that’s a federal crime to keep them from doing their job,” he said. “This is not a partisan issue. I think that it has gotten as frosty as it has again because a lot of people have been angered because they’re getting one side of the story.”
Federal reserve
Last week, news broke of the U.S. Department of Justice investigating Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for allegedly making false claims to Congress about the renovation of the Washington, D.C., office.
The Federal Reserve system was established more than a century ago to maintain independent federal fiscal policy and make apolitical decisions in the best interests of the economy and U.S. monetary policy.
Downing, who serves on the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, said he believes Powell is “an honorable person.” He also said he supports the Fed remaining independent.
“So, first of all, nobody — nobody’s above the law,” Downing said. “It is of paramount importance that we maintain an independent Fed. Without having an independent Fed, a lot of things that make this country great, that make the dollar the global trading currency that has really fostered innovation and growth and the American dream — a lot of that depends on an independent Fed.”
Healthcare troubles
Downing also heard from a number of constituents about the expiration of healthcare subsidies that were begun during the COVID-19 pandemic. While Downing said he sympathized with some of the callers and their lack of insurance, he told listeners he couldn’t support a broken system. Downing voted against renewing the subsidies and they expired at the end of 2025.
He blamed sky-rocketing costs of pharmaceuticals and a shrinking pool of healthy citizens contributing to the rising rates.
“What we’ve seen now is more than a decade of adverse selection, meaning healthy young people keep coming off the plan, and it’s concentrating that risk, which pushes the expenses up, which then gets repriced the following year, and causes the whole thing to circle again,” Downing explained.
He said the answer is reforming the law to by expanding Health Savings Accounts, increasing tax credits, and focusing on drug prices.
“It’s going to be completely unaffordable and collapse under its own weight if we don’t do something,” Downing said.
He said that concerns about healthcare and prices are among the highest volume of calls to his office.
“The subsidies only affected about 7% of the population,” Downing said. “What me and my colleagues want to do is start addressing the things that are causing healthcare to go up.”
He cited that 25% of all insurance costs related to prescription drug costs and he sees that as a way to bring the cost down.
“I don’t not believe if you have a broken system, the response should ever be write a bigger check to hide it. I think we need to actually roll up our sleeves and start dealing with some of the things that we’ve actually identified as contributing to the costs,” Downing said.