Senator Kim on Senate Floor: Trump is a Mob Boss Extorting and Exploiting the American People
October 6, 2025
WASHINGTON D.C. – On day six of the Trump and Congressional Republican-led government shutdown, Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) delivered remarks on the Senate floor denouncing the Trump administration’s lawlessness as they weaponize government to extort the American people to bend to their will.
Denouncing the Trump administration’s illegal freezing of funding from the Hudson Tunnel Project in the name of political retribution and sending weapons of war, including Blackhawk helicopters, into American cities, Senator Kim raised the voices of New Jerseyans sick of this “mob boss” politics.
Senator Kim made clear: “We’re seeing this Administration use intimidation and violence as tools not to make us safer – as if that was ever acceptable – but to make us submit.”
Senator Kim spoke directly to the American people: “Like every mob boss, they want you to kiss the ring. They want your loyalty and fealty. But the thing they don’t understand is that Americans don’t bend the knee. We don’t kiss the ring. We don’t pledge loyalty to a boss. This is the people’s government…It is a tool for everyone, not just the bosses…When we reopen the government, we need to fight to make sure it’s working for you. You deserve better than to live under the thumb of mob bosses.”
Additional key quotes from Senator Kim’s remarks as prepared:
“The problem that we face – and that I want to talk about with you today – is that we have a government that has been hijacked at the highest levels by people who think they’re mob bosses.”
“This Administration and its puppets like Speaker Johnson have shutdown this government so they can focus on the things they want – To use government to further corruption so they can funnel money to their billionaire donors. To use government as a tool to extort the American people to bend to their will.”
“Donald Trump plays the role of the mob boss, but it is his henchmen who are really running the show. Russ Vought and Stephen Miller are not public servants. Public servants…work to serve the public. They work towards the public good. Russ Vought and Stephen Miller are straight out of Scorsese.”
“Russ Vought acts like a mob boss because he thinks he can use his levers of government to funnel money to his friends and take away your services when you’ve gotten out of line. Last week, I went up to New Jersey to hear from my constituents about how they’re thinking about this shutdown. One woman said something that really stuck with me; she said, “it’s our money”. She’s absolutely right. This isn’t Russ Vought’s money to take away whenever he pleases.”
“Right now, the Trump Administration isn’t working for you. It’s working to grow and consolidate its own power.”
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