Wisconsin candidate for governor Tom Tiffany breaks from President Trump on Iran, immigration and Jan. 6

Republican candidate for Wisconsin governor Tom Tiffany has largely avoided intraparty politics, running on a unification ticket since he’s the only viable candidate in the race. But the U.S. congressman is largely out of step with President Donald Trump on major issues, including the war in Iran, immigration and Jan. 6. 

Tiffany appeared on Fox Business on May 28 and discussed these issues and more before the U.S. Congress. 

Trump said over the weekend that he wasn’t in a “hurry” to negotiate a deal with Iran and that he doesn’t care if there is a deal. 

While voting in the House to let Trump continue the war, Tiffany, on the other hand, is making public statements about finding peace and ending the war. 

“The president, especially in the last month, has shown great restraint in regard to Iran. I mean, he’s spent– there’s been some tough talk, and it’s been going back and forth between conciliation and this tough talk, but the president has shown real restraint,” he said. “I think he’s hoping someone who’s reasonable in Iran will come forward in leadership and say it’s time to negotiate a deal. 

“Let’s be among the peace, uh, the peaceful nations of the world, let’s bring peace to the Middle East.”  

Tiffany said he wants to see the Iranian people “take their country back,” but they must never have a nuclear weapon. 

Tiffany says southern border ‘still can be breached,’ of ‘great concern’ 

On Capitol Hill, Republicans worked to get their party-line immigration funding bill back on track after it was sidetracked by Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. 

The fund was designed to create a formal process for Americans who claim they were targeted by politically motivated actions during previous administrations. 

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said the setback stemmed from communication and information issues and expressed confidence that the reconciliation bill funding immigration efforts would reach the president’s desk by June.

Trump touts there supposedly being zero illegal crossings in a year at the southern border, but Tiffany was asked for his thoughts on immigration during the Fox Business interview and poked some holes in a full-proof southern border. 

“We saw the Chinese nationals that are coming across the border in military garb,” he said. “Our border is still … it still can be breached. It is of great concern . We need permanent border control, and that’s going to require funding by bills like this reconciliation bill to make sure that happens.” 

Tiffany compares Jan. 6 defendants to Catholics wrongfully identified as terrorists

The conversation then switched back to the anti-weaponization fund with the focus being on how Jan. 6 participants can take advantage financially. 

Nearly 1,600 people were charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. More than 1,200 were convicted and sentenced before Trump issued broad pardons and ordered the dismissal of all remaining Jan. 6 cases. 

Trump also granted clemency to members of far-right extremist groups who had been imprisoned for conspiring to attack the Capitol in an effort to keep him in office after his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Since returning to office, Trump has argued that those who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6 have had their lives ruined and should receive federal compensation. However, many senators appeared to seek stricter guardrails on the proposed fund before allowing it to move forward, citing concerns that Jan. 6 rioters could otherwise become eligible for compensation.

And Axios reported June 1 that Trump is likely going to drop pursuing the fund.

However, during a 2024 interview, when asked whether he would pardon rioters who assaulted police officers, Trump responded: “Oh, absolutely, I would… If they’re innocent, I would pardon them.”

After returning to the White House, Trump signed sweeping clemency measures for those involved in the Jan. 6 attack. He later defended the action, saying: “Most of the people were absolutely innocent. OK. But forgetting all about that, these people have served, horribly, a long time.”

Tiffany, however, said he does not support compensating people who assaulted law enforcement officers. 

“Yeah, and I think that’s the important word in there, is having the appropriate guardrails, because I think the same position, if you assaulted a law enforcement officer, I don’t think that you should be compensated,” Tiffany told Fox Business. 

“And so let’s make sure we have the appropriate guardrails…I would like to see for those that deliberately brought … that broke the law.”

Tiffany also drew a comparison between Jan. 6 defendants and Catholics who were wrongly identified as potential domestic terrorists in an FBI memo in 2023.

“I mean, you think about having an FBI that went after Catholics at the Richmond diocese with examples like that,” he said. “What I want to see is some prosecutions of those who served in the past and violated the duty that they had to represent the people of the United States of America, not weaponized law enforcement.”

Trump is set to visit Wisconsin on June 5 in Chippewa County aimed at farmers.