Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., on Thursday joined a small group of Senate Republicans who have held in-person town halls in their states -- bucking directives from GOP leadership that they hold these events virtually where there is more control.
In small-town Kearney, Nebraska, Ricketts fielded questions from fiery constituents about topics such as cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency to the state's federal workforce, tariffs and congressional budget plans, among other issues.
Ricketts was often interrupted during the roughly hourlong event, similar to what his fellow GOP senators who have held town halls have experienced, including Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas.
"Tax the rich!" was one notable chant.
"So you're anti-veteran?" another audience member cut in after the senator repeated that he was focused on "controlling spending" when asked about cuts to veterans programs.
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Republicans have largely avoided holding in-person town halls during the current, two-week congressional recess, but Ricketts is planning on holding two more on Friday in addition to the Thursday town hall: one in Valentine and one in Scottsbluff.
He largely took a defensive tone during his event on Thursday, highlighting how he's put up defenses for his constituents against the Trump administration while also maintaining his support for most of the White House's current policies.
"I know some of the decisions being made are going to be tough. We've got to get our spending on control as we talk about some of those issues," Ricketts said. "So if somebody has an issue, contact our office and we'll review those. We do that all the time. As I mentioned before, we are having conversations with administration behind the scenes."
Sen. Pete Ricketts speaks at a town hall meeting in Kearney, Neb., April 24, 2025.
Josh Funk/AP
On standing up to the White House
Ricketts was asked if he will "step up" to the president and say that some of the spending cuts are "too much."
He responded that he is having conversations with the White House behind the scenes in objection to some of its moves, such as sweeping tariffs and cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, though he was interrupted by boos.
"I've already done that on things like tariffs. When he first announced his tariffs, I had conversations with a number of Cabinet members about, hey, here's how it's going to impact [Nebraska]," he said. "It's an $100 million impact. Lay off people -- that's a problem. You're hurting Americans, and specifically Nebraskans, if you don't fix this.
"Or on the stuff with USAID, I said there's obviously things that we don't want to spend money on," he added. "There's also good things we do do that help promote U.S. interests around the world. So I talk specifically about those. So those conversations are ongoing with regard to different issues about what they're doing and how we're, you know, what the right way forward."
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Ricketts was also asked if he is scared of retaliating against Trump.
He repeated that he has stood up to the president by reaching out to Cabinet members in the White House.
"I used a couple of examples how when I was concerned about his policy, I reached out to the appropriate Cabinet members say, hey, here's what's going to happen, the consequences of what your decisions are. To say, you guys need to be thinking about these things as you're going through decision-making process," Ricketts said.
"So the answer is, I will continue to be who I've always been," he said. "You've seen me eight years as governor. You see me for two years as a senator. That's what I'm running on as I look forward to [the next election]."
On tariffs
Ricketts said a number of times that Trump wants to "level the playing field" with his implementation of tariffs.
"It's going to be a process. It's going to create some disruption. The idea is to get this done so we can get beyond it and end up on the playing field," Ricketts said.
"And one of the things the president wants to do is level the playing field on tariffs. The world charges us four times the level of tariffs on an average weighted value basis that we charge the rest of the world."
Sen. Pete Ricketts speaks with Kearney, Neb., Mayor Jonathan Nikkila before holding a town hall meeting in Kearney, Neb., April 24, 2025.
Josh Funk/AP
On Social Security, Medicare and spending cuts
When asked about the Senate's plan for protecting entitlements, Ricketts said Congress is engaging in conversations about the subject.
"Protecting Social Security is one of the priorities President Trump has already talked about," he said, to big rounds of boos. "Figuring out a solution to protect Social Security is not going to be an easy thing.
"One thing I do want to say, though, is there's been a lot of talk about, you know, cutting Social Security through the reconciliation process. By law, you actually can't touch Social Security through the reconciliation process," he added.
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Ricketts claimed the Senate will probably go "beyond" the House's goals for cutting spending.
"That's just make sure we hit that target, we will be going far above that. In fact, I expect that, you know, if you look familiar with the House's goals for cutting spending, we'll probably go beyond what the House does," he said.
On the timeline for reconciliation, Ricketts said he expects the process to "take a while"-- maybe getting worked out in the fall.
"The tax cuts expire at the end of December, so we've got a hard deadline there, but this is going to be a lot of work between now, over the next several months, to get this all kind of place," he said.