The First 100 Days of a John Barrasso Presidency: What the Record Suggests

01 The scenario

John Barrasso of Wyoming is a fourth-term Republican senator and, since January 3, 2025, the Senate Majority Whip — the second-ranking Senate Republican leadership post. This article asks a hypothetical question: if he were ever sworn in as president, what would the first 100 days look like based on his documented record? This is a scenario analysis, not a prediction that the person will become president and not an endorsement or criticism of the person.

The record is dominated by one theme: energy. Barrasso frames Wyoming as “the energy capital of America,” and his 2025-2026 output — an EV tax-credit repeal bill, enacted uranium-security laws, a permitting-reform statute, and a leadership role in confirming an Energy Secretary — is almost entirely energy and tax. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a Barrasso White House would open with an “energy dominance” push, most of whose machinery (leasing, permitting guidance, licensing support, uranium programs) is executable by executive action — with the tax-credit repeal as the notable exception that would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action.

02 The record: who John Barrasso is

Barrasso is an orthopedic surgeon (M.D., Georgetown) who practiced as a Casper, Wyoming physician before his political career. He served in the Wyoming state senate from 2003 to 2007, was first appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2007, and was elected in 2008, 2012, 2018, and 2024 — now in his fourth full term. He sits on Energy and Natural Resources (Chairman of the Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining), Finance (Chairman of the Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight), and Foreign Relations (including its Europe and State Department/USAID management subcommittees).

The committee portfolio — energy, tax, foreign relations — maps directly onto his documented agenda, and the Whip post matters for the scenario in a specific way: he is the Senate's vote-counter for whatever a president sends up. In a first-100-days scenario he would be the mechanism, not just an advocate.

03 Energy dominance and all-of-the-above

Barrasso's stated priorities at the start of the 119th Congress were “lower costs, secure our border, and unleash American energy” (swearing-in statement, January 3, 2025). On February 3, 2025 he voted to confirm Chris Wright as Energy Secretary (59-38) and spoke on the floor for the nomination: “Secretary Chris Wright will help usher in the golden age of American energy dominance… we will use all of our nation's vast energy resources to lower prices for families and grow our economy.”

He frames this as all-of-the-above, emphasizing Wyoming's coal, oil, gas, uranium, and nuclear diversification. The unilateral angle is unusually strong: LNG export permits, federal leasing pace, NEPA/CEQ guidance, and Endangered Species Act consultations are all executive levers. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a Barrasso first 100 days would lean heavily on executive-branch energy machinery rather than waiting on statutes.

04 EV tax credits and the China supply chain

On February 12, 2025 Barrasso led the introduction of the Eliminating Lavish Incentives to Electric (ELITE) Vehicles Act (S. 541) with Majority Leader Thune and 13 others. The bill would repeal the $7,500 new-EV credit, the used-EV credit, and the EV-charging investment tax credit, and close the “leasing loophole” that lets foreign entities — China-linked, in his framing — capture the credits. His office: “The hard-earned money of taxpaying Americans should not cover the cost for the luxuries of the nation's elite. Nor should we be allowing China to infiltrate our markets and undermine our supply chain.” The bill drew support from American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.

The lever here is the reverse of his energy agenda: tax law requires Congress, so the EV-credit repeal is one item a President Barrasso could not deliver by directive. As Chairman of the Finance Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight, the tax code is his home terrain — but it is statutory terrain.

05 Nuclear power and uranium fuel security

Barrasso authored two nuclear-fuel laws already on the books: the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act, which banned Russian unirradiated low-enriched uranium imports and was signed into law in May 2024, and the Nuclear Fuel Security Act, signed into law in the FY2024 NDAA, which directs DOE to expand domestic LEU production and accelerate HALEU availability for advanced reactors.

On March 4, 2026, after the NRC approved TerraPower's construction permit for a sodium-cooled advanced reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming — the first commercial reactor approval in a decade — he said: “Wyoming is the energy capital of America. We are also the number one producer of uranium in the country… Wyoming is the right place to build modern nuclear energy infrastructure.” A reasonable inference from these positions is that a Barrasso first 100 days would push reactor licensing and DOE uranium-program execution hard, and both are largely executive: his Nuclear Fuel Security Act already directs DOE, so an aligned administration controls execution.

06 Permitting reform: letting America build

On June 11, 2026 Barrasso and Sen. Lummis introduced the Let America Build Act of 2026 (S. 4765), an energy-development and permitting-reform bill. His floor speech (Congressional Record, Vol. 172): “It takes far too long to build something in America. It has to do with permitting. Americans want to build. We are ready to build.”

The evidence on this bill is thinner than the rest of the record: only its title and sponsorship were confirmed via the congress.gov text page — its detailed provisions were not read in full. The lever split is nonetheless clear from the digest: statutory permitting codification needs Congress, while NEPA/CEQ guidance moves by executive action on day one. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a Barrasso administration would pair executive permitting guidance with the statute, the same play his nuclear record suggests.

07 Foreign relations and the Whip factor

Barrasso serves on Foreign Relations as part of the leadership team confirming Trump-2 foreign-policy nominees. Beyond that role, his documented foreign-policy footprint runs through energy and China supply chains: tariff and trade levers against Chinese supply chains are executive, and his anti-China posture on EV credits is documented above. There is not enough public evidence to determine a broader, independent foreign-policy doctrine from this record.

The Whip post deserves the last word in any Barrasso scenario. His leverage is primarily legislative floor management — he is the Senate's vote-counter for whatever a president sends up. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a President Barrasso would know exactly which of his own agenda items could pass and would sequence the first 100 days accordingly: executive energy action first, the ELITE Act and permitting statutes second.

08 What the record cannot tell us

The evidence runs out quickly outside energy, tax, and permitting. There is not enough public evidence to determine Barrasso's specific positions on immigration details or healthcare policy in 2025-26 — no directly documented position was found in the sources consulted for this analysis, and none should be inferred. His broader tax posture is inferred from the ELITE Act and his Finance taxation chairmanship, and should be treated as inferred rather than documented.

Two more gaps travel with the record: S. 4765's detailed provisions were not read in full, and no documented position was found on AI policy specifically — his tech positions run through China supply-chain work, not technology regulation.

Disclaimer: this article is a scenario analysis based on the documented public record as of September 21, 2026. It is not a prediction that John Barrasso will become president, nor an endorsement or criticism of him or his positions. Where evidence is incomplete, that is stated rather than filled in.