DOGE in the eye of the storm, democrats say "dismantling" democracy

From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead. Hi everyone, so glad you're here. Brian Kilmicho coming your way. President of the United States is going to be in Miami today, then flying to the White House.

He's got kind of an event going on. This new summit, they're talking about dipping business opportunities. Head of Oracle, TikTok, Dobbins owner Steve Ross, Serena Williams will all be there. It's their second big F11 summit. And we know that Elon Musk is going to be busy because he's shooting another rocket into space.

He's doing it with the, let me see, what do I have? The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. We'll launch another batch of Starlink V2 mini satellites into lower orbit. And we're going to get the booster. He's even saving the second booster after it drops off.

It's going to land back at Vanderburg Air Base. Pretty amazing. Why do I say that? Because both men were together and aired yes last night to talk about how they're teaming up to reform the government, much to the chagrin of many Democrats who don't know what to make of it. Brett Baer is standing by Steph Kite of Axios at the bottom of the arrow.

Let's get to the big three. Number three. I'm very concerned that Mr. Holman came in here and acted like he could make Adams do what he wants, or he'd be up his butt. I can't believe someone would say that on national television.

I'm very concerned. Yeah, well, he's going to pressure the mayor to do the right thing when it comes to illegal immigrants. What are you concerned about, Al? Don't do it. Governor Hoko considering removing Mayor Adams?

Not because of wrongdoing, but because. She's work he's working with Trump. Number two. This Russian-American meeting in Saudi Arabia. was a surprise for us.

Just like to many others. Yes, we saw all this information from the media. US and Russia thaw relations and Europe panics don't. It's just phase one. In my view, the US is not selling out Ukraine, but trying to make sure war ends and they survive and eventually thrive in Ukraine.

Number We have breaking news. Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk. President Musk will be attending a cabinet meeting tonight at 8 o'clock. And I say, it's just so obvious. They're so bad at it.

I used to think they were good at it. They're actually bad at it. Donald Trump, a doge in the eye of the storm. Elon and Trump push back, and we should all be cheering.

However, the speed in which things are happening is perhaps why some good people and loyal supporters are losing their jobs.

So I think a lot of Trump supporters are a little chagrined by that, but they are moving in the right direction. Why? We got a $6.7 trillion budget and about $4.5 trillion worth of revenue. That's a little bit off. Brett Baer joins us now, who's not off.

He was working hard with the Treasury Secretary yesterday in that ornate building, if I use your term, Brett. Welcome back. Thanks, Brad. First off, here is Scott Besson defending Doge with you, cut 14. The American taxpayers don't have to be concerned about any of this.

Here at Treasury, two people. They had read-only access to the systems, and they've remodeled the system. They have no ability to touch anything. They have no ability to make any changes. There are very strict guardrails around them.

Right. And that is the problem. A lot of people aren't comfortable with some of the Elon Musk people working in various operations. They're going to the Pentagon now.

So they're with transportation and they're with education. Can you describe, Brett, why everyone's so uncomfortable with Doge?

Well, I think that there's this sense that there are these teens and l young twenty year olds. who are Screwing with systems and seeing private social security numbers and information, and potentially taking that or using it. I'm guessing that that's the broad concern. But to hear the Treasury Secretary talk about it, there are strict gu guardrails. And they're finding a lot of stuff Uh, you know, they're gonna go into energy soon.

That's gonna be a big one. Defense will be massive. Um you know just the cursory look at Social Security has 12 million people above the age of 130. oldest person ever was 122.

So Listen. you know, you add all this stuff up. and it becomes a serious, serious number. The Treasury Secretary put it at fifty billion so far. Elon Musk says you're looking at maybe one trillion.

Um That's You know, that's points on a GDP. I hear ya. Here's Elen Musk last night cut eight. I guess we must be over the target or doing something right. They wouldn't be complaining so much if we weren't doing something useful, I think.

Um Look, what what all we're really trying to do here is restore the will of the people through the president. Um And what we're finding is that there's an unelected bureaucracy, speaking of unelected, there's a vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the president and the cabinet. And you look at say DC voting, it's 92% Kamala.

Okay, so we're in 92% how that's a lot.

So it's the first time we've seen these two really sit down and do an interview together while you're talking to the Treasury Secretary. Man, this is pretty intense, even from what you've experienced, Brett, wouldn't you say? Yeah, definitely. It's just fast and furious. It's there's so much happening all at once.

So you want to cover all elements of it. We decided on special report that I was just going to Take viewers to these places to meet these new. You know, cabinet officers. Tonight we'll be at Interior and interview Secretary Bergham at Interior, who is heading up this. this energy commission with Secretary Wright of Energy.

And that's a massive thing that is big transformational change.

So we're going to bounce around Washington and give you a little behind the scenes. Um, in each one of these places.

So, today is Doug Bergham, former governor of North Dakota.

So, you're going to give us the interior of the interior. Interior of the interior, yeah. It's a pretty building, believe it or not. Nobody goes in there. Um, I did an interview there uh uh a few years ago, and um I tell you what, you see some of these buildings and you realize, wow, there's amazing stuff in Washington that nobody really ever sees.

So that's kind of what our thought process was. All right, I want to tap into your international relations knowledge, and into Saudi Arabia we go. MBS is refereeing and the beginning of a thaw relations with Russia and the U.S. And Donald Trump sees all positives and was kind of upset that President Zelensky of Ukraine didn't see as many positives and kind of lashed out. Listen, CUT 19.

And I think I have the power to end this war. And I think it's going very well. But today I heard, oh, well, we weren't invited.

Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine.

But he never started it. It was the Russians that started it. Your thoughts. That statement really stuck with a lot of people. And realize There's a real split on Capitol Hill of Republicans who are you know, very much supportive of Ukraine and pushing back on Russia.

Clearly, Russia invaded Ukraine. I mean, it's cut and dry. We remember the the long convoy of Russian vehicles, you know, coming down trying to get Close to Kyiv. And the fact that the Ukrainians pushed them back, the fact that they've been three years fighting, is a large part because one, our support and Europe's support. but also the the guts and grit of the Ukrainians.

So that statement kind of hit people some people the wrong way. I think he's just trying to get everybody to the table and thinks he can get a deal with MBS at the center of it. Yeah. Uh We don't know the devil of the the the details, you know. The devil's in there.

Uh I will say this. If I didn't th if I didn't know Trump after four years of seeing him as president, He does not like when people don't show respect or don't understand what he sees as a success. And when he comes back at him and they say Zelensky's not happy, he's like, well, what was he doing? It reminds me of, well, I like people that don't get captured. You know, we know that McCain is a war hero, but when he said that, he was ticked off because McCain was criticizing him.

My sense is they get on the phone and they work this out, although Zelensky said that there's this morning that there's a lot of misinformation coming from the White House. That's not going to cool things down. Yeah. Yeah, and so If he wants a peace deal, you've got to get everybody together, singing from the same sheet of music. The question is whether Putin you know, what is it what is he giving up?

We're invading Ukraine. What is the downside? You know, let's say you get. back Crimea, but Are you giving back all of the other Donbas? Are you.

what's happening to you as a result of this action? Uh and I think that's where Europe is Is wondering. Here's the thing that you can appreciate, I think, is that over the last, since Obama, Bush 43, his dad called up Vladimir Putin and says, Let's go to Kenny Bunkport. There's starting to be a fracture between Russia and the U.S., we can heal this. Obama tried to reset it.

He blamed Bush for it. They laughed at him. The famous reset button was misspelled. And then he pulled that missile defense out of Europe. That didn't work.

We see Joe Biden, they have a summit and he invades anyway. And then with Trump and all the Russia stuff, the Russia hoax things that poisoned the well, even if they were going to have good relations. This is the first time I remember Russia in a long time wanting to un-ice relations with the U.S., which shows me how desperate things must be inside their country. Yeah, I think that there is a real economic pinch going on and Yeah. I think Putin has always been a guy who's played the cards.

He's been dealt very well, almost like a bluffing, how good he is. Um but inside there's economic pain. And there's uh a pinch from the central banks And, you know, one of the interesting things about MBS, the Crown Prince, being center stage is because the price of oil factors into how Russia does. If Saudi stepped on the gas to Use a term, and you know, worked with OPEC to bring oil prices down, that would really hurt Russia. And maybe that's another part of this negotiation.

Yeah. So Brad, you have that tonight.

So the whole show is going to be from Interior? It is.

So we'll have. much like the format last night. We'll do headlines and reporters, but I'll have a long interview with the Secretary. We'll do a little behind the scenes and we'll cover the news of the day.

So the I think is, is it next week or the week after the President's going to do his mini State of the Union? It's March 4th. March 4th.

So it's two weeks. Yeah, two weeks.

So I don't want to put you on the spot, but I'm going to be there for two weeks. Do I have to stay in a hotel? Could I stay with you and we could just kind of hang out all day? And you come to work with me in the morning, I come to work with you. Could we kinda and we could tape that and give it to Fox Nation.

I mean are you is this a little bit more of a mm-hmm?

So the answer is no. Fantastic.

Okay. Right. But I'll get you on the panel. I'd like to have you on the panel.

Okay. How does that pay? Yeah, the same as all of your other jobs that you do. I would love to be on the panel if you just tell me a little bit about yourself and your show, how long it's been on. If you'd give me a quick one-page here, Brett, thanks so much, man.

I look forward to it. By the way, great job last night at Treasury. I didn't see, I've never seen any of that before. And before I let you go, that was the first time you met? Treasury Secretary Besant, and I wonder if you're not.

No, I met him. I'd met him before on the campaign trail. Your thoughts about him. I listen, I think he is really, really intelligent. I think he really, really knows the business of of the economy.

Uh and you know, he's obviously loyal to the President. He's an interesting, interesting guy. I thought it was you know interesting interview I have to say that we probably had him on more than anybody else, at least. Eric, how many times? Like six times?

But we had like six to eight times in here. And everyone's like, who is he? I go, guys, this is going to be your Treasury Secretary.

So. I think we're in good stead. Yeah. All right. There you go.

All right, Brett, go get him. See you, Brad. 1866-408-7669. It's pretty clear I am not staying with Brett. More on that story as it develops.

Giving you everything you need to know. You're with Brian Kilmead. Hey, I'm Trey Gaddy, host of the Trey Gaddy Podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcast.com.

From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmead. Inflation's back and they said, Oh, Trump inflation to do with it. These people have run the country. They spent money like nobody's ever spent. They were given $9 trillion to throw out the window.

Nine trillion. And they spent it on the Green News scam, I call it the greatest scam in the history of the country, one of 'em. We have a lot of 'em.

Well, the thing is, he's not lying because if you take the infrastructure deal, the Inflation Reduction Act, the rescue package, it adds up to nine trillion. And they never tightened their budget tightened their belt after the pandemic was over. It made no sense. But other Republican administrations can do it too. And I'll tell you what, if I'm Trump, I would even bring up hey, listen.

When I came in, I was more excited about getting I was more focused on getting over this ridiculous scandal that was tarring me. I was trying to get an economy going. I could have. been more fiscally responsible in the long run. But Whatever the reason, this is what we're doing now.

When I'm done. We're going to get ourselves on the right track to not running trillion dollar, multi-trillion-dollar deficits. I think people can appreciate that personally.

So I love that he's doing this Doge thing. I would look to communicate it more effectively and just say, look, we're cutting back programs that Republicans like too. Big story in the Washington Post today saying Republicans are asking for the administration to loosen up their purse strings on some other projects and programs, and they're saying no. And that's a hard thing to do. If anyone's been on a budget when you start cutting back, maybe we all are, you know what that's like.

It's definitely painful. Here's Elon Musk talking about what his approach is and how He's helping President Trump cut nine. I think the way you think of me is like I'm a technologist and I try to make technologies that improve the world and make sure that's why I like my t-shirt says tech support because I'm here to provide the president with technology support. Um and now that that may seem like Well, is that a silly thing? But actually it's a very important thing because the President will make these executive orders which are very sensible and good for the country, but then they don't get implemented.

And that's it. He said, I'm pretty much the enforcer on this.

So they go in and make the systems leaner and better.

So here's more from Elon Musk. And then I want you to hear some of the blowback cut ten. The overall goal is to try to get a trillion dollars out of the deficit. And if the deficit is not brought under control, America will go bankrupt. This is a very important thing for people to understand.

A country is no different from an individual in that if an individual overspends, an individual can go bankrupt, and so can a country. And the massive wastewater abuse that has been going on. which is leading to a $2 trillion a year deficit. That's what the President was handed on Jan 20th, a $2 trillion deficit. It's insane.

It's insane plus the interest rates are going up.

So listen, if you want to cut pro-life programs, I'm just trying to think of a typical conservative program. that would show how balanced I want to be. I mean, I guess if there are oil and gas subsidies that we can pull back because oil and gas are associated with the President. Also, how about on defense? They're going into the Pentagon.

You're going to be hearing about the seven hundred thousand civil man and woman, seven hundred thousand personnel, civilians at the Pentagon. People keep talking about it. It's way too big. It's way too unwieldy. No one can get their arms around it.

It can't pass an audit.

So let's bring that back. Traditionally, Republicans are more pro defense than Democrats.

So, Shaw, look, I'm cutting for the country. Cut eleven. If it's an emperor, Republicans want this president's day, maybe it's about time they just say that and drop any and all pretense because Donald Trump sure has. Doge, I call the Department of Government Inefficiencies, is causing a reign of terror, chaos across the federal government. DOGE and Elon Musk and his army of hackers pose a grave risk.

There's such a difference, though, between perhaps. Trimming government, reshaping government, and dismantling government. Nothing is secure right now. And the government is not being remade to be efficient. This is an effort to destroy it.

Really? You really think this is an effort to destroy a government that he's going to be running for the next three and three-quarter years? Stepkaid's coming up next. She'll bring us inside Axios and talk more about what would go from here. Also, major progress on the Senate side.

I'll tell you that in a moment. A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. You talk about a hill they should not die on. The hill of government waste is not the hill for the Democrats to die on.

But they want to pretend as if every federal program is meaningful, that every federal program Serves its altruistic name and in the cause it's supposed to be dedicated to. Instead of being laced, With waste, fraud, abuse, and just the constant year after year after year pile on that the bureaucrats do.

So that is Auri Fleischer weighing in on what uh What we're getting from Doesch. He has no problem with it, and he's surprised Democrats are pushing back. But as Axios writes today, there's Republicans pushing back too, because these are programs that many people affect a lot of the people that maybe voted for Trump or are in their districts, and they're hearing it. They also want money freed up for their various projects. Steph Kite joins us now from Axios.

Hey, Steph, this is the number one story in Washington, isn't it? I mean it is a Big story when you're hearing some pushback from Republicans to some of these Doge cuts. And I would say most Republicans have been supportive overall about the idea of cutting waste, fraud, and abuse, right? And Hill leaders expect to try to move forward with spending cuts at the federal government and taking some of these Doge actions as sort of a blueprint. But there is concern among Republicans about how Elon Musk and his team is going about this and concerns that maybe they're moving too fast, that they are cutting spending and cutting personnel before even Trump's cabinet officials are in place.

They're concerned about some of the actions that have already had to be walked back, whether it was workers who were focused on the bird flu, for example, or there were also nuclear weapons workers who were also accidentally fired and then tried to be brought back on.

So Republicans are concerned about kind of that element of it. They agree. That there should be spending cuts, but they're worried that things are moving too fast, that the team is being too aggressive, and they're not taking the time needed to make sure these are done in the best way possible. And of course, some of the things that emails saying they could resign, too, correct? Yes, some people have been offered opportunities to resign, and some have taken that, others have been more forced out.

And so there is some confusion among some agency workers about how this is going down. Senator Susan Collins, in your column, says before making cuts rationally, the administration should be studying and staffing to see what the consequences are, measure twice before cutting. They have to be backtracked a couple of times.

So they've asked for more people to come back to nuclear energy. We know that. And he said, look, when I make a mistake, I look to fix it. But do you think that speed matters with this? There's too much analysis, there becomes intense lobbying, and then all of a sudden things get gummed up again and deals start being cut?

For sure, there's a balance, right? And Elon Musk doesn't want to waste time. He doesn't want to get caught up in the bureaucratic system of the federal government. And that's kind of been his MO in all of this. He wants to move fast, to make decisions, to go quickly, and set the pace so that, you know, especially so Congress has time to see whether they want to make some of these cuts more permanent.

Because there's also a bigger question being asked. asked beyond even just the practicalities of some of these decisions. And that's how much authority does Elon Musk, does the executive branch have when it comes to especially closing down agencies and cutting off spending when Congress has been constitutionally given the power of the purse? And there's some concerns brewing there as well that Congress still has a role to play in making some of these spending decisions more permanent and legal. Yeah, I want you to hear what he said last night.

Something else caught me by surprise. I think it's probably a legal thing. Donald Trump says he's not running Doge. Listen, cut five. In a court filing, the White House said that Elon Musk is not a Doge employee and has no authority to make decisions.

Can you clarify for us?

Well, Elon Musk. Yeah, yeah. Elon is To me, a patriot.

So, you know, you could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant, you could call him whatever you want. But he's a patriot. I mean, look at the kind of things. I just said, just write it down, just in case that question got asked, right? And which I'm surprised it took so long, actually.

But you know what? Ukraine's a bigger deal. Because people are dying by the thousands a week, thousands.

So I assume that, you know, I'm not, I think that's probably a legal move for some reason because it's not that he's being demoted. If anything else, his profile has gone up. Yeah, it's certainly an interesting response to the question, and it's clear Trump didn't really want to dive into what Elon Musk's actual role is. And yeah, there could be a lot of different reasons for why they're kind of keeping it a mystery as to who is really in charge of Doge and those actions. Of course, you know, Elon Musk on X seems to be very involved in some of these decisions, just based on his public communication about the Doge cuts.

But there have been concerns raised about potential conflicts of interest between Elon Musk and his work at federal agencies, given his companies have extensive contracts with the federal government. It could be trying to prevent any lawsuits in that area. But it does go to show that there is a lot of mystery around who is actually calling the shots when it comes to these job cuts and spending cuts at the biggest levels. Who is actually in charge here? And Elon Musk has often said that he wants to be transparent, that his whole thing is about being transparent.

About where money is going, how decisions are being made, but there is still a lot of questions. There are still a lot of questions that we don't really have answered.

So, here is: I'm one of those people, obviously, Vermont Senator Peter Welch, cut 12. I mean, we have folks at the Department of Agriculture who got, don't show up to work notices. We have farmers who have contracts where they put up the money. and gotten loans with the guarantee that the federal government would repay them, and now they're getting stiffed. It's really cruel.

A lot of suffering.

So we got to get to the details on that. Have you heard some of those stories, anecdotal stories? I have. And even talking with Senator Murkowski yesterday, she also expressed concern that the way people have been treated who are being let go or losing contracts. Has been really awful.

And she also expressed concerns. Again, she supports that there be spending cuts. She supports the idea of more efficient federal government. But she is worried about how this is being handled and the impact it has on hardworking Americans. There's a lot of assumption that when you think of federal workers, you think of the D.C.

metro area. You think of Arlington, Virginia, you think of the suburbs in Maryland. But according to data I've looked at, roughly 80% of federal workers are outside of D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. There are federal workers across the country, including in red states. And there are key elements of the federal government and federal contracting that are huge parts of economies in red areas.

And so this is going to impact beyond the D.C. area. And I think that's the area where you're going to continue to see Democrats and Republicans raising concerns because their constituents are being impacted. All right, I want to talk about the budget. Senator John Thule has done an incredible job, I think, a very fast pace on getting.

Getting presidents, cabinet secretaries confirmed. Right now, if they get Kelly Loeffler today, won't they tie what Barack Obama did, which is considered the speed record? Yeah, they will actually surpass Obama if once they confirm Leffler when you're counting when you're counting cabinet-level members who are in place.

So they soon tied with the Obama record last night when they confirmed Luttnick to commerce. And so they are on pace to surpass Obama's 2009 record, which is very significant. It's something Soon said from the beginning he wanted to focus on. He promised to keep senators in through weekends, keep them voting on Fridays to make sure that they can get Trump's Cabinet officials in place quickly, and he has followed through on that. That's pretty good.

So Thune is also moving forward and defying Mike Johnson and warning that he said, I need one bill. I can't pass two bills out of the House. He's saying, I got to move. And he's looking to move ahead with a $300 billion budget bill. Where are we at with that?

And do you, but what is how would you define what a voter major is? Yeah, that process officially kicked off last night when the Senate vote to move forward with the $300 billion budget reconciliation package. There will be some days for senators to look at the bill, to take some time to consider it.

So there's a 50-hour window. And then potentially as early as Thursday, we would kick off the Votorama, which essentially allows senators to bring an unlimited number of amendments. That bill to introduce them, discuss them, and then there are votes on them.

So, this can be quite a lengthy process.

So, you know, Democrats and Republicans can raise ways that they would like to change how this budget bill is written, whether they want to add things, take things away. We expect all of them probably to fail. There could be some changes made through amendments, but usually, this is more of a political process where people get to bring issues to the floor that they care about and try to change the legislation that's moving forward.

So, that could last through the weekend, potentially. We're not exactly clear on timeline, but the Senate is ready to move. But, of course, I don't know if you saw, but very recently, President Trump posted on X that he is back to thinking there should be one big, beautiful bill.

So, he has kind of been back and forth on this issue, open to one bill versus two bills. But now he seems to be leaning more in Speaker Johnson's direction, where Speaker Johnson thinks that everything should be done. In one bill, including tax reforms, which could take even more time.

So, this is again just another difference between the House and the Senate, and they are really not on the same page with this. They're really not. And the thing is, if the House could definitely get one bill across, I think they would be, but the Senate doesn't want to wait. They said we only have a finite amount of time, so let's do it. And then we saw Senator Lindsey Graham put out that OMB director vote and Borders R.

Holman told Senate Republicans that ICE is running out of money, and we've got to put our foot on the gas.

So I'm not sure if that's a made-up situation in order to push, give a reason why they have to go one bill or not. You always know the inside game there. I mean, there is certainly, ICE certainly needs money to continue at the pace that Trump wants them to be at when it comes to arresting and deporting immigrants here in the U.S. unlawfully. ICE has been chronically underfunded for a very long time.

They have, over the past several years, on multiple occasions, had to make kind of drastic maneuvers to move money around to get the money they need for border and immigration enforcement.

So there's no question that they will need funds, and even the involvement of the Defense Department and other agencies, they will also run out of money when it comes to immigration enforcement actions. Deporting immigrants is a very expensive process.

So there is a reality there that they will run out of funds eventually. The question is: you know, how quickly? How much time do they really have? But to your point, the Senate thinks: let's just move on what we know we can get done quickly. The tax discussion, no tax on tips, dealing with the SALT cap, that is going to be a complicated and controversial conversation.

Border defense and Energy is not. They know they can get Republicans on board for those priorities.

So the Senate is saying, let's get done what we know we can get done and take the time we need on the tax proposals because we have till the end of the year. But Speaker Johnson is saying, I can't pass multiple big bills through my chamber with no wiggle room. He can't afford to lose even a single Republican right now on any piece of legislation that gets through the House. Right. And you're about to get hopefully, for the Republicans' perspective, Stefanic seat filled.

We're going to get Walt's seat filled as well as Gates' seat filled.

So he'll have a little bit more of a cushion to make up for Thomas Massey, who marches to his own drummer. But I understood, too, didn't something, didn't this one bill emerge out of the budget committee already? There has been one single bill that has been discussed in the House, but there have also been discussion. It's not clear that that bill could even get through the House as it is. There's been a lot of haggling over the details, especially when it comes to these tax proposals, such as raising the salt caps and some other issues, especially how much in spending cuts they would need to offset some of the spending, where you have some of the Freedom Caucus Conservatives demanding even higher levels of spending cuts.

Than initially agreed on. There's also a difference in how the Senate and the House would like to calculate extending the tax cuts. The Senate wants to make sure those are permanent, and the House package did not provide enough money to actually make the tax cuts permanent.

So there are still big differences, even when you zoom into the details between the one bill versus the two bills. Staff Kite here, Axios, has put a good report. The last thing, Staff, as they cut. From the budget, and you see all this money being saved and personnel being told we're buying you out, that's like 70,000 people, and other departments being leaned out, they're about to hit the Pentagon, the IRS, and education. Can that factor into the budget process?

Can you say, wow, now I do have spending cuts, even though they didn't do it, it was the executive that did it, and that now suddenly I can be fiscally responsible and be Senator Rand Paul and vote for this or Chip Roy. There has been discussion about that idea, about kind of looking at the savings that Doge is already making and kind of counting that towards some of the money that they want to spend on things like border and the military, et cetera. But it's not clear that it's going to be enough for everyone. I actually talked to Rand Paul about this just last week, I believe it was, and he is not comfortable with just taking the Doge cuts. He wants to make sure those cuts are in law, that Congress votes on them.

He doesn't really count it as real spending savings until Congress acts because he just questions the ability of the executive branch to make those decisions unilaterally. Wow, Sip, there's a lot on your plate. I mean, how are you dealing with this? I mean, drinking lots of coffee and asking lots of questions. Is it as busy as it seems?

I mean, from my desk, it is. What about you? I mean, it certainly is. And, you know, even just being on the Hill every day when they're in session, you know, it's a new question every single day. And, you know, some senators have even said, you know, we're not joking when we tell you we haven't seen something because there is news breaking all the time.

And even senators, they have hearings, they have meetings to take. And while they're in those, news can break. Trump can say something and then they're being asked about it.

So it's a lot to keep up with, even for lawmakers whose jobs it is to stay on top of new policy and new actions. But there's always something new. It's always exciting in some ways. We're in this business to cover the news, and there's plenty of it. Go get him.

Steph Kite, thanks so much. Thank you. Back in a moment. It's Brian Killmade. A radio show like no other.

It's Brian Killmead. I enjoyed every moment of being a police officer. It prepared me for where I am right now. Just the mayor of the greatest city on the globe. Everybody should want to take it.

And they're going to have to take it because I'm going nowhere. I'm going to be the mayor. Happy Black History Month. Right, so the mayor's having a good time. I don't know why he lost all his deputy mayors, he's lost a lot of his support among the Democratic Party.

He has got Trump's basically Trump's Justice Department has given him a new lease on life, but it's caused a lot of consternation among Democrats who hate Donald Trump. And remember, his Justice Department didn't say that Mayor Adams. Didn't do anything wrong. They just say, I think he's being politically targeted and it's going to affect the election.

So now, today, this afternoon, they're going to have to justify that at 2 p.m. Eastern Time, the Justice Department is in front of a judge who's not likely to overturn the federal government and the Justice Department there, but it's worth a hearing, and we'll see what emerges. Yesterday, the governor, who's got the ability, I guess, technically, to remove a mayor, met with different officials, including the Speaker, and at which time, and Al Sharpton, because I guess an MSNBC host has to be present. Marty in Orlando, WDBO. Hey, Marty.

Hey, Brian, good morning. Hey, Southwest Airlines just announced they're laying off thousands of people. Joanne's Fabric just announced they're closing five hundred stores, obviously laying off hundreds of people. We hear about private sector layoffs every single day. But we don't hear much from the government, Washington, establishment, Washington, new media.

But you lay out some federal employees, and then they sound like the world is coming to an end. Why is there a difference? There isn't. There isn't. They're just used to security guarantees.

That's what they're used to. And they weren't expecting it.

Now, could they give it a little bit more severance? I think so, a little bit more notice. I don't know. They say that a lot of these people are on probation. They're being let go because of money and budget issues.

So, different contracts that are being canceled. You just heard the one in Vermont. If that indeed is the case, maybe it can be amended. But that's the way it is. If you go to the federal government, you expect to keep your job until you decide not to have it.

Not with the button, not with the Trump team in charge. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead. Appreciate you being there, everybody. It's Brian Killmee Chow coming your way.

Bottom of the hour, there we've got Congressman from Colorado, Jason Crowe, will be here. And Senator Tom Cotton is standing by. He's got a great book out. Got through it. As soon as I picked it up, I did not stop until I was done.

It's great, informative, and necessary. It's called Seven Things You Can't Say about China. It also goes back in history to tell us how we got to where we're at. Also, why we gotta ban TikTok, and President Trump is actually doing an event today in Miami with the CEO of TikTok. Mr.

President, you gotta drop that place. You got to drop TikTok big time. Let's get to the big three. Number three. I'm very concerned that Mr.

Holman came in here and acted like he could make Adams do what he wants or he'd be up his butt. I can't believe someone would say that on national television. I'm very concerned. He actually did say that on the Fox and Friends. Don't do it.

Governor Hokul considering removing Mayor Adams, not because of wrongdoing, but because he's cooperating when it comes to illegal limiting criminals with Donald Trump. Number two. This Russian-American meeting in Saudi Arabia. was a surprise for us. Just like to many others, yes, we saw all this information from the media.

That is the translation of President Zelensky. U.S. and Russia thaw relations in Europe. Panics don't. It's just phase one.

In my view, the U.S. is not selling out Ukraine, but just trying to make sure the war ends and they survive and eventually thrive. Number one. We have breaking news. Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk.

President Musk will be attending a cabinet meeting tonight at 8 o'clock. And I say, it's just so obvious. They're so bad at it. I used to think they were good at it. They're actually bad at it.

In terms of dividing, yep. Doge in the eye of the storm. Musk and Trump push back. And we should be cheering.

However, the speed in which things are happening perhaps is allowing them to make some mistakes and ticking some people and some of their own supporters off. Is that indeed avoidable? Senator Tom Cotton joins us now. Offer of seven things you can't say about China as of sale this week. Senator, welcome back.

Okay, we just dropped off. I guess that can happen in any situation, but I just want to give you an idea. Um Yeah, Senator Tom Cotton, you there? Hey, Brian.

Sorry about that. It's good to be on with you. No problem. I know you're a multifaceted, multitasker.

Sometimes you're doing other radio shows at the same time you're doing mine, but just keep in mind, mine's most important, Center. Yeah. Always. All right. So, first off, with Doge, where do you stand on it?

How do you give me a grade on how it's done so far? I I think Uh that it's doing well. identifying a lot of wasteful spending. in some cases, fraud that needs to be explored more carefully. Also, inefficiencies in the government.

Look, no one should be surprised this is happening. President Trump campaigns. on going in and carefully scrutinizing federal government spending Overreach by the administrative state, and he specifically said that he was going to ask Elon Musk to do this during the campaign.

So the President is doing exactly what he campaigned on. All right, here's what he said. Elon Musk found out that when you give an executive order, he said, Mr. President, you got a problem with execution. You give out the executive order, but people aren't doing anything.

Cut seven. What we're doing here is is One of the biggest functions of the Does team is just making sure that the presidential executive orders are actually carried out. And this is, I just want to point out, this is a very important thing because Uh the President is the elected representative of the people.

So it's representing the will of the people. And if the bureaucracy is fighting the will of the people, and preventing the president from implementing what the people want. Then what we live in is a bureaucracy and not a democracy.

So, your thoughts about that, I mean, I had no idea the execution of executive order. I know they're not permanent, that's the problem. But I know the execution was the other problem. Oh, yeah, Brian. That's one of the oldest stories in Washington.

You know, Harry Truman famously. said that uh after President Eisenhower, Dwight Eisenhower. Then General Eisenhower was elected to president. He said, he kind of chuckled and said, you know, poor old Ike, he's going to come and sit in this oval office. tell everyone to do this and do that like he did in the military and no one's gonna do a damn thing.

And I suspect that Elon Musk is astonished at the difference between a business and the government as well. Elon Musk at Tesla or SpaceX or Neuralink or what have you tells people that they need to do something and they do it. But too often that's not the case. In the federal government. And he's right that that is an affront to democracy.

No one elected. bureaucrats to make policy. We have civil servants who are supposed to carry out the law that Congress passes. and help the President execute it.

Now you're right that executive orders are not permanent and they can't change the law, they can't change the requirements of private conduct of American citizens. Most executive orders, though, don't. Aim to do that, they're giving guidance and direction to the executive branch, which answers to the president. But as Elon Musk said, too often they don't answer. And it's very critical that we get the administrative state back under control and impose some democratic accountability on it.

It does not surprise me that you write a book about China. And the name of the book is Seven Things You Can't Say About China. Because people might have forgotten, Senator, when we got hit by COVID, the coronavirus, you said, this came from a lab. And they said you were some crazy right-winger and you're being irresponsible and saying that. And it turns out now almost the whole world outside China believes that it came from a lab.

I think I was your first interview after you said it. And did that spur you writing this book to really investigate what kind of country they are and what their main objectives are? Is that right? And it was five years ago, this month, I think, maybe this week, that I first pointed out that, you know, this coronavirus may not have come from a food market where they didn't even sell bats. In a place in China where bats don't natively live, why don't we look at the lab down the street, which has a notoriously uh bad safety record.

and they researched bat-based coronaviruses, and the director is literally nicknamed the bat lady.

Now it's not surprising that Chinese Communist mouthpieces Landed on me like a ton of bricks. But I think many Americans were probably surprised that so many American elites manned the ramparts on behalf of China as well. You know, the Washington Post, CNN, the New York Times. And that's one of the reasons I called the book Seven Things You Can't Say About China. It's not just the threat that China poses by waging an economic world war or by preparing for war against us.

It's that the influence That they have within our society actually tries to muzzle and silence criticism of China. And that's what I wanted to ring the alarm bell on for the American people. Right. And you did just that, but you got specific.

So you brought up the history of China. And remember what happened in World War II? Japan went in and they punished that country. They did. There was a civil war raging before World War two that Mao had launched after they founded the Communist Party.

Now Mao and his apparatchics You know, developed this mythology that he was responsible for fighting Japan. In reality, it was Qing Kai-shek. The nationalists that did most of the fighting against Japan while the communists healed and got stronger. And then, unfortunately, after the war, the communists won in 1949, and we've been dealing with the consequences ever since. If the Japanese didn't do such damage to Shanghai-shek, they probably would have just knocked out the communists who were just in the rural section of the country.

Instead, they end up emerge weaker. Mao ends up prevailing. They get pushed to Taiwan. And what changes? Yes, and Brian, that's not uncommon in history.

The same thing happened in Russia as Russia was weakened by the end of World War I. You had the Bolshevik revolution and Lenin took over. Once Mao took over mainland China though, First off, you had horrible atrocities.

Now it's the worst mass murder in history, worse even than Stalin. And then Hitler. He's also incredibly, they were also incredibly aggressive. China has invaded or attacked its neighbors more than any other nation in modern times. That's at the heart of Chinese communism.

And that's why the first thing that you can't say about China is that it's an evil empire. You have to understand that China is still a communist dictatorship. that Xi Jinping still upholds Marxist Leninist, Maoist thought and practice to understand how they treat their own people and why they're waging this undeclared war against the United States. And which would Senator Tom Kahn is as smart as anyone in Congress, and you have a real passion for history. And you go back in time and you say, remember, the Korean War, we're about to rid the communists off that island.

And the Chinese just invade and they kill a lot of our guys. We push them all the way back. They endured heavy casualties. The peninsula is still divided. And in Vietnam, without China's support, Vietnam doesn't stop, probably does not withstand American pressure.

Don't you agree? Oh, no question. Without China's support for Kim in North Korea and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, we probably would have decisively won both wars. And we certainly wouldn't have lost Nearly as many soldiers as we did.

So it's also very fair to say that Communist China. has the blood and lives of tens of thousands of Americans on its hands.

So they end up getting the bomb in the 1960s, and then they get welcomed to the nuclear age. But we always looked at that as divide China from Russia and the Soviet Union, and we'll be okay. But China has an objective to pay back the West for poisoning them during the opium wars, and they're doing it with fentanyl right now. And they do want to supplant America with the dominant currency as the dominant power. And they have a plan.

How's that plan going? Unfortunately, the plan has been going pretty well for China. If you take the long view, going back thirty or forty years, there was a bipartisan delusion in Washington that if we would simply open up with China, trade with them, invest in China, outsource our jobs, our factories, even whole companies and industries, then China would get wealthy and therefore China would moderate its behavior. It would become more like the West. It would stop oppressing and murdering its own people.

It would no longer threaten the United States and our allies. The exact opposite has happened. In one of the worst strategic blunders in American history, we have underwritten the rise of probably our most dangerous adversary. I think more dangerous than communist Russia was during the Cold War because Russia was never integrated with our economy the way China is today. We were not dependent on Russia.

the way we are dependent on China for so many goods or products. And obviously, China is eight times bigger, ten times bigger than Russia ever was during the Cold War.

So I think this may be the single biggest challenge America ever faces from a rival nation. And we finance it by letting them make our stuff.

So we finance them, give them money.

So our middle class gets hollowed out. They make our products and they make a ton of profit, but they do it with a command economy.

So they're able to keep prices low. And if we were to fight China right now, General Jack Keen, I asked him about that. Here's what he said would happen: Cut 39. We don't fit right in terms of the kind of war that we're going to experience there. A high-tech war, our surface fleet is very vulnerable.

If it moves, In where it can be effective, where it's missiles. And airplanes can range China's capability, those surface ships are going to be destroyed. as higher capital assets on a scale we have never even seen or experienced during World War II. the Chinese will swarm Anti-ship missiles and hypersonic missiles at those ships. If we stand them off, where they're out of range, then our fighters cannot reach the coast.

And our missiles cannot range China eat us, so they're not making any contribution. The tabletop fights don't work out well for us. Yeah, I've seen a lot of war games over the years, Brian, both conducted by the government and conducted by private academic or research institutions. None of them have a happy ending, even if China fails in its objective to blockade, invade, and annex Taiwan to the mainland. Even if they're beat back, they don't get a foothold, it's kind of fought to a stalemate.

We would still see probably an instant global depression because of the damage to the semiconductor industry on Taiwan, which is a global bottleneck for one of the most important products in a modern economy. The severing of tie, the total severing of economic ties between our two nations.

So you'd see a stock market crash, you'd see job losses, shelves going empty in American stores. And we'd probably lose thousands, if not tens of thousands, of our troops and hundreds of aircraft and ships. General Keene is right. No one living today has seen any kind of war like that. And that's why the only Way to win in a fight over Taiwan is to be strong enough to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Right. Because as Churchill said about warfare in the early 20th century, we could say it today about a battle over Taiwan. The victors will be nearly as destroyed as the vanquished. Absolutely.

So the actual war, but part of the war is TikTok. And they want to be able to manipulate America's thought, especially next generation, by manipulating the feed in which they're there with algorithms.

So they're only going to see pro-China, subtle, pro-China information. We have a trade war with China. Don't expect to see anything pro-American. Also, don't expect to see anything pro-Taiwan.

So for people at home, and I brought this up on TV. For people at home who say Taiwan, who cares, not our problem. Simply put, why do we care about Taiwan? Yes, and I get that question too in Arkansas, Brian. I mean, well, it's a small island, it's so far away.

There's some kind of vague disputed historical ties. Plus when Communist China took over Tibet and took over Hong Kong, there was not a global depression or major war. The reason is that Taiwan is simply different. It's different from an economic standpoint, from a geographic standpoint. Douglas MacArthur said at the outset of the Korean War that Taiwan is the unsinkable aircraft carrier and battleship off the coast, or I'm sorry, submarine tender off the coast of mainland China.

He said it would be a disaster of utmost importance. the United States if it ever fell into high. Hostile hands. Today, that's even more so again because of the semiconductor manufacturing there. 60%.

Of all the world's semiconductors, more than 90% of all the advanced semiconductors, without those semiconductors, Modern life. basically grinds to a halt. Automobiles, smartphones, computers, appliances, tractors, industrial equipment, everything.

So, if you had a conflict over Taiwan, the most likely outcome, and you had the destruction of that manufacturing capacity, no matter who won or lost. Maybe as bad if China was just allowed to take Taiwan, they would then control all that manufacturing and they would be able to leverage it. against the United States. And if China did succeed in taking Taiwan, you'd also see the fraying of American alliances. This country looks like Japan and South Korea and Australia start to cut their own side deals with China.

China demands that they start cutting off the United States as a trading partner. And ultimately, what China wants to do is kind of isolate America over here in the New World, make us, as Kissinger said, an island on the edge of the world, and basically turn us into a small colony that produces oil and gas and farm products for them. The senator Tom Cotton, his book is now out, Seven Things You Can't Say About China is a must-read, and we all need to have a get a competency on this. Senator, congratulations. I'll talk to you on Sunday on One Nation.

Thank you, Brian. You got it. Bottom of the hour, Congressman Jason Crowe, your call is next. Brian Kilmicho. We will accept nothing less than full victory.

Total victory incoming. We cannot be defeated by force of arms. It's Brian Killmead. We will bring freedom to others and all who defend her. The more you listen, the more you'll know.

It's Brian Killmead. Hey, welcome back, everybody. Just a quick note: KTFK listeners, especially in St. Louis, coming up on March. 22nd Saturday night.

I'll be at the factory in St. Louis, History, Liberty, and Laps. Have a chance to go over our great history, be motivational, inspirational, and we'll get set to celebrate 250 years of America. And I know St. Louis is extremely patriotic.

And also, you got this other thing that I like about St. Louis. Not just Mark Reardon. But you got the soccer team that's doing exceedingly well. It is the birthplace of American soccer in many respects.

And now you got an MLS team. And to make up for the football team that picked up and left and paid a price for, they lied to you when the Rams picked up and left 3,000 miles away. You also have a UFL team that's great.

So, I can't wait to go to St. Louis. Coming up in a month. I hope it's a lot warmer than it is right now.

Now, here in New York, nine. I imagine a little colder where you guys are. And by the way, I had people driving from Ohio go over to Jacksonville, Florida.

So, hopefully, people will come from out of state, and we're close to selling it out.

So, get one, come one, come off. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. This Russian-American meeting in Saudi Arabia. I think it's a good idea.

Just like to many others. Yes, we saw all this information from the media. I don't know who will stay there who will leave. Who was going where? To be honest, I don't care.

What I care about is for the partners to overthink something about us. Right, and that is President Zelensky, who was not involved in the Saudi Arabia talks and stopped his visit, which was unrelated to any type of peace talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia, to send the right message, he thought. With me right now is Congressman Jason Crowe. He's on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Armed Services Committee, ranking member on the Subcommittee on Intels, former and special operations, former Army Ranger and Bronze Star recipient. Do I have that right, Congressman?

You covered it well. Thanks, Brian. And can I also add unbelievable fitness? Are you like a triathlete? I never did a triathlon, but I do like working out.

I'm currently in training mode to take the Army physical fitness test.

So I'm going to do that this summer. I'm going to try to set a high standard, apply the special operations standard, which is what I used to do in the military as a special operator for our. Is this just personal or you? Just personal. Just personal.

Yeah. Well, I sit on the Armed Services Committee.

So I have this thing where I like to go rogue sometimes and just do things.

So, you know, I did two Normandy jumps, bipartisan Normandy jumps. Mike Walters. It was Mike Walsh. Yeah, Mike and I actually started that in 2019. We were the first two who did it.

We set the whole thing up, did it together, jumped together over Normandy same day, kind of went rogue from the congressional delegation in Paris.

So we took a train and did that. And then it's since grown. We had, I think, almost 10 members join us this last June. Didn't you do one of them in a retro plane? One of the World War II original.

We did both of these in the original, the over 80 years old planes, the C-17s. And I tell you, man, it's like those planes are like lawnmowers with wings. If there's any trepidation whatsoever about jumping out of that plane, you're like, get me the heck out of this plane. In other words, you happen to be jumping. That's crazy.

Can you imagine doing that while they were shooting at you? It uh it is unbelievable. Just the, you know, being in one of those old planes as it's as it's shaking and and you know, very different from I was a paratrooper, so you know, jumped out of C 130s, C, you know, C 17s, all this stuff. And, you know, it's just unbelievable. being over that drop zone.

You know, St. Mary Glease is where we jumped. And just thinking. yourself. you know, in the in the dark of night.

Just tons of incoming, tons of pain. I mean, it just gives you a whole new appreciation for that generation. Absolutely.

So, you've been to the Munich conference, you said six times.

So, out of the municipal, somewhere along the line, it became announced that MBS would be hosting some type of Russia-U.S. talks. Your thought about that, that we held them. Is that a good move? I think there need to be talks.

I mean, listen, this has got to end, right? Everybody knows this has to end. And, like, every war. It's going to end, not every war, but most wars, it will end at a negotiating table. Right, so I agree with that.

Now but process and the chronology that you Conduct those talks matter a lot.

So I would have had the talks first with the Ukrainians. The fact that you went and talked to the Russians first sends a really negative message, right? The Ukrainians are our partners. They're our allies. It's in our interest to support them.

So we should have talked to them first. And then we go to the Russians. See, a couple of things. I think they think that since it's an ongoing conversation for the last three and a half years with Ukraine, besides saying, hey, I'm going to have a Russia talk to you, in other words, you wanted a framework to come out of formal Zelensky talks? Because that's like an intramural game for us.

We are always talking to them. I don't think it's true that there's a framework from the last three years that carries over. Like we have a new administration. President Trump clearly has a different view of this war. He has new personnel negotiating this.

It's a fresh start right now.

So let's have a framework that prioritizes America's interests and Ukraine's interests, because those are more convergent. Let's send a very strong message that we are going to stand by Ukraine and maximize the deal there. What does it tell you that the Russians want to reset relations with the U.S.?

Well, what it tells me, first of all, I think it remains to be obviously everything the Russians say, there's a method that's not to be taken at face value. But for the last 12 years, since Bush 43, remember his dad said, come on over to Kenny Bunkport, Vladimir Putin, you guys are starting to. U.S. and Russia relations are worrying me. Obama came in and said, let's reset, misspelled the word.

They clearly didn't want to reset. And then with Joe Biden, they meet, they invade anyway. There didn't seem to be any sense of. over like with the Trump thing and the Russia investigation, they never got on track.

So The fact that they wanted to meet shows me that they are hurting.

Well, they absolutely are hurting, right? The Ukrainians have destroyed over 50% of the I'm sorry, the of the Russian military, over 50% of it. The sanctions have bit hard.

Now, I think there are more sanctions that should have been applied. I actually have been a proponent of energy sanctions and making sure we do more and do harder. And I pushed the Biden administration on that because I didn't think we went far enough. We do energy and we just look the other way when India and China bought them anyway. Yeah, well, that's enforcement, right?

You have to do them and you have to enforce it, which is a problem. And I was critical of the last administration on that.

So what it tells me is that Putin's hurting, and he feels like with this administration, there's a way to maximize his benefit. Because make no mistake, he's not interested in fairness. He's not interested in a reciprocal deal. Vladimir Putin is looking out for his own interests, and he wants to maximize what he believes to be the historic Russian Empire. That is his legacy.

Everything that Vladimir Putin does is focused on reconstituting the Russian Empire. No question. Here's Mike Waltz yesterday, a guy you know, National Security Advisor from Riyadh, COD 22. This needs to be a permanent Into the war and not a temporary end as we've seen in the past. We know just the practical reality is that there is going to be some discussion of territory and there's going to be discussion of security guarantees.

Those are just Fundamental basics that will undergird and underlie any type of discussion.

So I think it was a three-hour meeting with translation.

So, your thoughts about you know, Mike? I do know, Mike. Edison probably agrees with you on foreign policy. I know, Mike. I've known, we came into Congress together, uh, we legislated together, we overlapped in the Armed Services Committee.

We actually have done a lot of work on Afghanistan, on national security.

So, he does understand this. Um, Marco Rubio, I believe, understands this. General Kellogg, I believe, understands this. I agree that there has to be security guarantees because without security guarantees, Russia will do this again. Right.

Right? He always thinks he can just wait us out. In his mind, this is about time. That his greatest asset and their most powerful thing is they always think they can outlast the West.

So, what is a security guarantee with a non-NATO nation?

Well, there's different models, right? And that's what needs to be discussed. It could be the EU. It could be Europe. I think Europe needs to play an increasingly larger role here.

There's no doubt that Europe needs to come to the table, and they need to be brought to the table, actually not just come to the table, but we need to bring them to the table and make room there. Because I believe you think they should have been there yesterday or whenever these talks were yesterday. Not necessarily yesterday, right? I think it is okay. First of all, again, I'm going to make it really clear, we should have started with the Ukrainians.

And then gone to the Russians. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: And just so, from my view, I believe we did start with the Ukrainians because they're our allies, because they've been non-stop informed. And I wouldn't be surprised if they said, listen, we're going to see what they have. We're going to see what the cards are. But go ahead.

But when you start a formal process, that's different. I think you shouldn't say, hey, just because they're our ally, we're going to start this new formal process.

So we're just going to skip over you.

So much of this is about signaling. Like, what is the message we are sending to Putin and others? The signal and the message clearly. was that the Ukrainians were skipped over. And that's not the type of message to start a deal.

So, from what you know, and from what Mike Waltz said, and what Marco Rubio said. Where do we go from here?

Well, we have to engage the Ukrainians.

Okay. They have not been included so far.

So let's meet with the Ukrainians. Let's meet with them very, very quickly. Let's talk to the Europeans about what they're willing to do, security guarantees. They have to do more. I was in Munich, and that was a big part of the discussion.

I mean, they can't refuel planes in the air. They're going under 2% with their GDP. You must like that element of the scare tactic that the Trump team is doing, saying, guys, you've got to watch your own back. We can't do it. We're not like the way trade's going, and I'm still providing your defense.

Most of the Europeans admit that, actually. Not all of them, but most of them.

So to be clear about the numbers, let's not cast a wide net and include all Europe in one bucket.

So who do you say is good? Poland's on the good list? The Baltics. There are 15 countries, Brian, that have provided more support to Ukraine as a percentage of GDP than the United States has. Right now, there's actually a really great analogy.

About holding a log over your head, which is something you do in PT in the military, right? Not everybody. is the same height. Not everybody is the same strength. But you do what you're supposed to do.

Right. Everybody is supposed to lift. As much as they possibly can, given their height and their strength, carry their own weight. Right. So these smaller sometimes these smaller countries are actually doing more.

Because they know what it's like to be able to do Soviet grip. They know. They understand that.

So listen, there's a lot of countries in Europe that are doing a lot. There are some that do need to do more. And all of their equipment is Soviet-era equipment, which blows me away. For 25 years, there was no push to westernize their arsenal. Right.

They can't be fully dependent on the United States as they have been in the past. When you have just a handful of NATO countries that are capable of conducting independent military operations without United States support, a very small number, That's not okay for them, that's not okay for us.

So that era has to end. And there is broad agreement that they need to invest more in Germany, Spain. Leading the charge. All right, so having said that, the first round is done. President Zelensky didn't like it.

He came out. We don't have that soundbite, right? Do we? We don't. But I want you to hear what Trump said when he heard that Zelensky was not happy.

Cut nineteen. And I think it's going very well. But today I heard, oh, well, we weren't invited.

Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine.

Your thoughts. Well, that's so painful to hear, is my thought. Yeah, they didn't start it. They didn't start it. Russia started this in 2014.

Let's not forget, this war didn't start in 2022. Right. This war started in twenty fourteen. There were thousands of casualties. The Ukrainians have been fighting and defending their territory since that time.

You agree that saying blankets and MREs was the wrong message to give to Zelensky, not Zelensky. Prushenko, who was head of Ukraine at that time. That's what President Obama gave him. Yes. No shit.

We should I've been a proponent of giving more and having more support from Ukraine since the beginning. Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Because listen, this is a country that's democratizing, that wants to move to the West. Like they desperately want, I've spent a lot of time in Ukraine, they want to be a part of the U.S. orbit. They want us to be their largest trading. They fight like us, right?

They fight like hell. They're courageous. They are the MacGyvers of war. I've rarely seen as much innovation, as much prowess as I've seen with the Ukrainians. If we play this right, And if this ends properly.

And by properly, I mean securing Ukraine and their sovereignty and their independence and pulling them west. We will have one of the finest and largest militaries in Europe. That's one of our closest allies that can help us not just in Europe but throughout the world. A huge trading partner, a young nation with innovation and technology that wants to partner with us on innovation and technology. It'll be good for our security.

It'll be good for our economy. I agree with you 100%.

So the next step we hope would get Zelensky in there one-on-one, and then somebody will meet face to face. What kind of time frame do you think is legitimate for a next phase where a delegation of the Ukrainians and Russians and us are together? It's tough to say. I I don't like the idea of setting timelines because I think about it like this. If you're starting a negotiation, you don't go into that negotiation saying how it's going to end, right?

Like, I don't walk into a car dealership. And say, hi, you know, my name is Jason Crowe. And just so you know, I'm walking out of here with a car. But if I say that... Where do I go?

You don't want to give up a land. Right, right.

So let's set metrics and goals, and we'll see whether or not the Russian government. You can't even say that giving up the land that Russia has right now should be a given. Why would we say any of those things at the outset? We need to define what Ukraine's willing to do. Gotcha.

And then we need to work back from there. All right. I want to come back and I want to talk about Aurora and all this other stuff that's going on with illegal immigration. Congressman Jason Crowe is here. Back in a moment.

Both sides, all opinions. It's Brian Killmead. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Hey, welcome back everybody.

With me right now is Congressman Jason Crowe, and we know we've talked a lot, Congressman, about what was going on with illegal immigration and Aurora and the apartment complexes. I want you to just hear this exchange with Martha Radditch and J.D. Vance. I'm going to stop you. The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes, and the mayor said our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns.

A handful of problems. Only, Martha, do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris's open border. Americans are so fed up with what's going on, and they have every right to be.

So, Congressman, where do you stand with this? Who is right in your view?

Well, first of all, Brian, Aurora is in my district. Uh it's my home. You know, I live very close to those apartments in question, right? And I don't know of anybody. Who doesn't say, you know, yeah, we should target violent criminals and offenders.

We should go after them. We should keep our community safe. And if people are here illegally and committing violent crime, go after them and get them out of the country, right? Absolutely true. My problem becomes when we distort the nature of an issue.

This idea that first of all went from Aurora is taken over. That was what was said. The city of Aurora, the city of Aurora is a a city of 400,000. There are some issues with violent Criminal gangs, both domestic, US and some transnational, and we are supporting folks going after those and the menu. Doesn't it work to your advantage when a president or a candidate says what the hell is going on with the Rory lost two minimum two apartment complexes to this vicious prison gang from Venezuela?

No, first of all, I don't believe that apartment complexes were taken over. I have spoken to the residents of those apartment complexes, and there was crime. And it should be enforced. And I have pushed and promoted Aurora Police Department, the FBI, federal law enforcement. And by the way, it's federal law enforcement that has primary jurisdiction over transnational gangs.

And I speak regularly with the special agent in charge that is dealing with that. And what they tell me. But doesn't it hurt you that local does not cooperate with federal because of the sanctuary city policies? Not on those issues, but on violent crime, there is cooperation. In fact, there is a metro gang task force in metropolitan Denver that is led by the FBI that looks at transnational gang issues.

There's nothing that prohibits transnational gang cooperation. In fact, NYPD doesn't cooperate with ICE in New York City.

So I can't speak to NYPD, but I'm talking about what happens in Colorado. There is cooperation and there should be cooperation on violent transnational gang and narco-trafficking and other issues. How is it now? We only have a minute left. How is it now in Aurora?

Those complexes are empty, right?

Well, they continue to enforce the law, right? The FBI I spoke just a couple of weeks ago with the head of the FBI in Colorado again, the special agent in charge, and what he tells me is these gangs have no command and control, right?

So they actually operate so this is the way TDA, and I'll talk about TDA because that's been the focus of so much discussion. They operate in a three-phase model, right? Phase one is this, you know, them doing low-level crime, trying to probe, trying to assess the environment. Phase two is organizing themselves around command and control, and phase three is full operations. What they said is they're in those preliminary phases, there's no command and control.

So, what we need to do is stop it. Congressman Jason Crow, yeah, I want them all out, right? Get the criminals out. We know that. Thanks so much, Congressman.

Great to see you. Thank you. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian In Kill Mead. Hi everyone from 40th and 6th in Midtown Manhattan, heard around the country, around the world, Brian Killmee Show.

A lot going on, a lot of moving parts. Martha McCallum, the outstanding anchor from The Story, will be joining me at 3 o'clock. And she was on last night with Brett, reflecting on the Secretary, the Treasury Secretary taking over Scott Bessett, where he thinks the country's heading, and I understand it. And we got a lot of breaking news to go over, too. Keep in mind, too, you got SpaceX launching a rocket into space.

The President's got a summit over in Miami. We'll see how that goes.

So, before we go any further, and we'll take some calls with you, I guess, right away, because when Martha comes in, we'll probably be digging into everything going on. Let's get to the big three. Number three. I'm very concerned that Mr. Holman came in here and acted like he could make Adams do what he wants, or he'd be up his butt.

I can't believe someone would say that on national television. I'm very concerned. I didn't know that Al Shafton was a viewer of Fox and Friend. That's truly an honor. Does Morning Joe know?

He did say that, but just like he said too, to the mayor of Chicago and Philadelphia and Denver, Colorado. That's what he does, Al. Tom Holman's looking to get illegal immigrants out of the country. Don't do it, Governor Hoku. Considering removing Mayor Adams, not because of wrongdoing, but because you don't like that he's allied to a degree with Trump, please.

Number two. This Russian-American meeting in Saudi Arabia was a surprise for us. Just like to many others, yes, we saw all this information from the media. Yes, U.S. and Russia thaw relations and Europe panics.

Don't. It's just phase one, although Trump just opened up on Zelensky in a Truth Social post. Number one. We have breaking news. Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk.

President Musk will be attending a cabinet meeting tonight at 8 o'clock. And I say, it's just so obvious. They're so bad at it. I used to think they were good at it. They're actually bad at it.

Doge in the eye of the storm. Elon Musk and Trump push back, and we should all be cheering because they're trying to cut a budget, a budget that's $2 trillion over budget, overdrawn. That's not a little amount. Even $200 billion would be a lot. But you can imagine $2 trillion.

So they're going to do some tough cuts in order to get our fiscal house in order.

So far, $55 billion has been found.

Okay, got it. But now they're going to go into The Pentagon.

Now they're going into the IRS and eventually going to examine, not taking away payouts, but examine the efficiency of Medicare, the fraud with Social Security.

Well, what about veterans' benefits? $1.5 trillion budget there. This is what we got. We got $6.75 trillion. I can't get your head around it.

Neither can I. $2.9 trillion of that, so 43% is Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Then you put in the Veterans Affairs, it's about 50%, 1.15. What do we earn? About 4.7 trillion, which is a record revenue.

It shows how hardworking American people are. But right now, that's not enough.

So, what do we do? We got to push the economy, get it go even faster, even more innovative. You're doing a lot of that with Bitcoin and a lot of the AI, get it. But now they want to use some of that technology to root out. fraud and abuse, make things more efficient rapidly, and hopefully, that'll work out.

I'll give you an example. In Social Security, there are three hundred thirty four million Americans. You know three hundred ninety four million people are getting Social Security? 65 million are eligible. Doesn't that bother you?

Did I ask you if you were a Democrat or Republican? The other story that just got handed to me, and I wish it didn't, but I kind of thought it was inevitable. Donald Trump, his delegation of Mike Waltz and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, met in Saudi Arabia. With their Russian counterparts, which included their Foreign Secretary Lavrov, who was about 110 years old, at which time he says, both sides listened, and I think we're listening to each other for the first time.

Now, why would Russia meet with the U.S.? It's their only hope. They're thoroughly isolated. Number two, they do say they want to restore relations with the U.S. Interesting, correct?

For a while, we were the Antichrist. And we probably still are. And I don't believe anything on its surface. I'm not naive. We've been watching Vladimir Putin lie to us for now 40 years, 35 years.

So now who took over for Yeltin? It was just basically alcohol addled. Donald Trump got some blowback from President Zelensky, and he did not Zelensky can't get his head around the fact that they met. It doesn't really bother me that we met with Russia because I know we're going to meet with Ukraine. They're our allies.

Here's what he said yesterday: cut twenty. This Russian-American meeting in Saudi Arabia was a surprise for us. Just like to many others, yes, we saw all this information from the media. I don't know who will stay there who will leave. Who is going where?

To be honest, I don't care. What I care about is for the partners to overthink something about us. Hmm, I don't know if overthink was the right translator word.

So, Donald Trump put this out. Think of it. A modestly successful comedian. Vladimir Zelensky talked the United States into spending $350 billion to go into a war that couldn't be won, that never had to start, but a war that he, without the U.S. and Trump, would never have been able to settle.

The United States has spent $200 billion more than Europe, and Europe's money is guaranteed, while the United States will get nothing back. Why didn't Sleepy Joe demand equalization in that his war is far more important to Europe than it is to us? We have a big ocean between us. One of the Zelensky admits that half of the money he said that we sent is missing. He refuses to have elections.

By the way, he can't have elections by Constitution. He's very low-rated in polls. He's about 44% approval. The only thing he was good at was playing Biden like a fiddle, a dictator without elections. Zelensky's better move fast or not going to have a country left.

Keep in mind, Joe Biden left him out to dry. Remember, no F-16s, he got F-16s, no highmars, got high Mars, no Patriots, got Patriots, no tanks, he got tanks, but he slow walked all of it. And yet the Ukrainians fought like us. Like warriors, unlike the Russians, who reluctantly are out there, they lost a million people from their country who said, I'd rather leave than fight. They lost billions of dollars out of their economy.

Everyone is pulled out. The Russians are trying to they can't get a fast food place as well as getting one to pump oil.

So the president's angry right now? Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Rubio do not feel that way. I know that for a fact. Hugh Senator Roger Wicker cut twenty-one. Do you think that Putin can be trusted in these negotiations?

Putin is a war criminal and should be in jail for the rest of his life. if not executed. Vladimir Putin has violated every tenet of International law. Yeah, he's a terrible person.

Now, I don't think that we could always do a deal with a terrible person. We don't pick the world leaders that we deal with. What we got to do is just trust him, have zero trust in him, and build up NATO and understand that he's going to try to go back into Ukraine no matter when the fighting ends. Probably 18 months or away, Trump out he's going to do it as long as he's on this planet. My hope is he's not.

So, about Ukraine, they got natural resources. Mark Thiessen talked about that. General Keene wrote about that. And they have some natural resources that they're looking to possibly exchange in terms for getting weapons. Scott Besson says, I think I have a deal for him.

He's a Treasury Secretary. It was brought up last night in Special Report, Cut 24. There is concern about China already there, operating some Chinese companies. What was the reception from Zelensky? I mean, he didn't sign anything with us yet, right?

Brett, I think he will. I think that once the Ukrainians understand that this is a long-term agreement that's very beneficial to their security, it does several things. It pulls Ukrainian and the American interests closer together. It's a very strong signal to the Russians that we take our interest in Ukraine very seriously. All right, and we'll see what works out.

Evidently, it wasn't the most detailed deal that was offered to them. We'll see. The other thing's happening in New York City, and I know you say to yourself, well, Brian, it's just New York where you're located, but it's a national story. He's one of the few Blue City mayors that said, I will work with ICE, even though I'm in a sanctuary city, in order to get the criminals out of here. And by the way, yesterday, on February 5th, two TDA guys committed a brutal assault.

And they got jailed. And they were they were caught up. They were dealing drugs too. They they found him at an auto dealership in a big setup and with the dealership they went and captured these guys. Do you know they were out on uh they were out on a misdemeanor, was knocked down by this prosecutor?

So, those types of things that will allow ICE to scoop these guys up, Mayor Adams is going along with it.

So he is not resigning. But the fact that he was on Fox and Friends couch, saying he's going to work with Holman, that puts him on the outs with Democrats in the city, all of which are left wingers, more left winger than him. And because the prosecution would not be pursued, now today at two o'clock, a judge is going to examine what the federal government did and the Justice Department did to allow The prosecution to stop. of Eric Adams, who doesn't seem to be do some major violations. I mean, fly being upgraded on a fly to Turkey, pushing.

Pushing permits to allow them to move into their embassy early when it comes to the fire department. I didn't see any big. Violations. But he's not going anywhere, but the Governor can remove him. Use Eric Adams yesterday, cut twenty-nine.

I enjoyed every moment of being a police officer. They prepared me for where I am right now. She's the mayor of the greatest city on the globe. Everybody should want to take it. And they're going to have to take it.

Because I'm going nowhere. I'm going to be the mayor. Happy Black History Month. Right. And so he laughed and he stayed.

And now Governor Hoku could remove him, but then she's going to be able to he's going to give him out to defense to stay.

So the whole thing's going to be dragged out. I don't see why the governor would even consider removing the mayor. Because you didn't consider removing him when he was indicted.

Now that the charges are gone.

Now you gotta remove them.

Now I know under deputy mayors have resigned. Fine. Here's Al Sharpton, cut thirty two. Again, this is not about a friendship. This is about, you know, I I'm going to stand up for what I believe.

I've had friends that I campaigned against in office. This is about what is right and what's going to be a precedent. All right, it's not about a friend. Wood is right. You're an MSNBC host.

Why are you even in these meetings? It's not about a friendship.

So, this is about cooperating with Tom Holman. That's what bothers Al Sharpton and all the Democrats. He's going to cooperate with the Republican president. This is an opportunity, by the way, to get a legitimate Republican to run for governor. And thou I would love to see a real candidate.

So, this has become a major story now. And I'm going to be very interested to see what this judge says when. The Trump Justice Department goes down to talk about why they stopped indict they stopped their the prosecution. of Mayor Adams. Cod 34, James Carville.

We've had four deputy mayors resign. We've had four people, many of them dedicated conservatives, resign from the Southern District of New York. I'm sorry, the governor of New York is a dope. Why she doesn't get that guy out of there pronto, I have no idea. Please leave in that guy who has the power to remove from all appearances is a major criminal.

So we'll see. But you can't it's a lot harder than you think it's ever been done in 230 years. When we come back, Martha McCallum joins us in studio. Her show starts at three o'clock today. We're also trying to squeeze in some of your calls.

We're following a lot of breaking stories, including the President's blistering truth social post. Don't move. Illuminating, intriguing, inculcating. I know some of these words. It's Brian Kilmead.

Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. Hi everyone, welcome back. Mark McCallum is here. Our conversations off mic are as interesting as on mic, usually.

And there's a lot of moving parts today, and especially after that big interview that Sean Hannerty had last night with Elon Musk. And Donald Trump, and the president's in Miami today, appearing at a summit with Selena. Selena Williams, which is interesting too, as well as the CEO of TikTok, who I cannot believe TikTok is still available. It's back in the app stores, which is crazy. Martha McCallum with us.

The story starts at 3 p.m., but this is the day you come in early and do your rounds. It is.

Tell everybody Wednesday. Wednesdays are busy. Yep. I was on America Reports earlier and just talking to Stuart Varney at the business channel, and it gets me warmed up so that I can come in here and talk to Brian Kilmate, who's been downloading all of this into your brand since probably two in the morning.

So I agree with you as always. If you notice in Martha, when she goes on those shows, she'll answer no comment a lot because I'm saving it for Brian. And I, you know, it makes me blush, but I appreciate it. I really don't want to go over that now. This is not the time.

Exactly.

So, first off, I just was reading the Truth Social Post: the president eviscerating. Modestly successful comedian Vladimir Zelensky. Yes. So this is not good. It's good for Russia, but this is one of those things with President Trump.

Big up, big down. And I think that one phone call, they could calm things down. Let's see if Zelensky reaches out or if Marco Rubio reaches out. to his counterpart over with Ukraine. I'm not sure where you go from here.

Bueno Rubio is now in Qatar, I think. Yeah, I mean the question is obviously Zelensky has said that he said, let's get it done, right? They understand the immense losses that Ukraine has suffered, but I keep going back to the images in my head of the invasion. From Russia. Almost three years ago, at the end of this week, the tanks rolling in, the people with their roller suitcases trying to race to the train, getting shot in the street and killed.

This didn't have to happen. President Trump is saying that it could have been avoided with a deal prior, and that may be. That may be true. If he was president, it may be. that this would not have happened because Putin was amassing his troops all around three sides of Ukraine, and Biden said a minor incursion might be acceptable.

He also was pushing Ukraine in NATO, which we know is going to tick Russia off.

So All of that is how we got here. What matters now is that all sides do want to end this war, and it should end. The loss of life is unfathomable, more than World War II, okay, between these two countries. It's an unbelievable, and it's a classic historic Russian bloodbath, by the way. I mean, Russians.

Have taken incredible losses throughout the course of history in order to get what they want. And what Putin wants, and the Institute for the Study of War talks about it this morning, has not changed. What Putin wants has not changed. He wants the empire back and he wants all of Ukraine. Right, and he wants all the Baltics eventually.

He got two provinces from Georgia, and we know that he's moving into infiltrated Moldova. Which is not a part of NATO right now.

So then with the West, they have to get the they have to answer this call. I love that Trump is pushing all these guys from Germany. I know their treaty, they have a constitution now that limits them because they can't be trusted after the first two world wars they started. But now that we would allow for them to start building up their military, at least start training people, get some respect, and build some, you know, get your industrial complex going, France, England. Proportionally.

Spain has almost no military at all.

So, can we please? England has almost no military at all. They have spent all their money on. The essentially, you know, equivalent of the Green New Deal. They have backed off all of their defense.

I had a really interesting interview with the NATO general secretary two days ago, and his take was that this emergency meeting in Paris of these leaders was a huge wake-up call. They're like, okay, we're getting left out of everything. No one cares what we think about the end of this war. We got to get our act together. We have to invest more in defense, which Hagseth had called for clearly on their part.

And I think that Trump's play on this was really. Smart. Because when you turn your back on our allies in this way and say, you know what, you got to ramp up your defense or we can't really. you know, talk on parody. It drew them together.

And they do have to defend themselves against Russia. And that may become an even more stark reality in the wake of this deal. Right. So it bother me. We had Jason Crow in the congressman, Democratic congressman, and he just said, it bothers me that we talk to Russia first.

That doesn't bother me. I mean, because we're constantly in contact with Ukraine.

So it doesn't bother me. Know what I was curious at, Martha? How open the Russians were to saying we want US relations. They haven't said that in 15, 20 years. They're like, well, whatever.

Oh, let's reset. No, okay. You don't understand that. You know, the year of America is over. Look at my good friend China.

This is the first time I remember that. Shows me how desperate perhaps things are. Yes, and remember, right before the Olympics, Putin and President Xi got together and they put out this long document. And the thrust of it was in the first few sentences, which said that they would have an unlimited partnership between the two. They keep saying that.

Think about what Vice President Vance said the other day. Maybe Russia doesn't like being the little brother to China. Maybe this relationship isn't working out as well as Putin would like. And I do think that this is probably the message that our intermediaries have been giving to Putin very clearly. You're better off with us than you are with them.

They want back in the G8. They want those sorts of acceptances. But do they, I mean, I don't have it. Do they deserve to be in the G8 after rolling over a country in Europe? Absolutely.

I mean, and killing mass amounts of people who did not ask. For this war? Absolutely not. I think you answered your own question back and forth. The fastest three hours in radio.

You're with Brian Kilmead. Oh, I see it all the time. They tried it, then they stopped. That wasn't. They have many different things of hatred.

Actually,. Elon called me, he said, You know, they're trying to drive us apart. I said, Absolutely. No, they said, We have breaking news. Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk.

President Musk will be attending a cabinet meeting tonight at 8 o'clock. And I say, it's just so obvious. They're so bad at it. I used to think they were good at it. They're actually bad at it.

Because if they were good at it, I'd never be president. Because I think nobody in history has ever gotten more bad publicity than me. Oh, there he is. President Trump sitting down with Sean Hannity with Elon Musk to his left, saying that it's a joke that people try to act as if I'm threatened by Elon Musk's presence. Martha McCallum here, her show starts three today, The Story.

Martha, your thought about what you've seen of the interview and how the relationship is evolving. I think it's fascinating, and I think that that effort to put him behind the resolute desk on Time Magazine, which I think we talked about last week, and all of that is so transparent. I agree with President Trump on that, that they used to be better at it than they are now. Their moves are so easy to read, and it's clear they're trying to drive a wedge. There's been a long history of presidents having special appointees to take on things that are very important to them.

I find it absolutely un I can't understand how people where people are on this whole thing, right? I was watching an interview this morning on one of our competitor channels, and the guest was saying that he was so upset that they wanted to go into Social Security and IRS because our information is all in there. First of all, The IRS and Social Security have so much information on us, it is insane, right? That's already there. Not to mention the fact if you're on Facebook or Instagram or anywhere else, they have a ton of information on you.

They already know how many people in your family, they know how much money you make, they know all these things. But so you're going to protect Social Security, which is probably waste fraud abuse, billions of dollars, right? We heard more about Fishman's Copicent last night. Because You don't want someone to go in there and look at it and figure out if they can figure out how they're wasting the money that they take out of your paycheck every single week. It makes absolutely no sense.

And I thought they made great points on this last night in the interview with Sean. They should be people should be very enthusiastic about this, no matter what side of the fence you're on. Right. Well, As he's been brought up before, he said, You're worried about my per your personal information with me. I've invented PayPal.

Exactly.

All your money was in PayPal. Exactly.

Well, most of it, anyway. Do you really think I need your information? What does he want with our? Yeah, exactly. I mean, yeah.

So, so privacy, unfortunately, of our personal information was long gone.

So we see a lot of people, especially on the right now, coming out and saying I wish the President would slow down a little. Like we had Murkowski and Collins come out and say he's cutting some programs and some jobs that maybe he doesn't want to cut.

So And then he ends up putting them back like the nuclear program. He ends up putting those engineers back and asking energy to come back.

So the other one was. In some farmers came out, and that was a subject conversation yesterday. Here's Senator Peter Walsh of Vermont, Cut 12. I mean, we had folks at the Department of Agriculture who got don't show up to work notices. We have farmers who have contracts where they put up the money.

And gotten loans with the guarantee that the federal government would repay them, and now they're getting stiffed. It's really cruel, a lot of suffering. Have you heard a lot of that? There's anecdotal information about that. Look, when you.

Try to take on a bureaucracy that is so unwieldy, it needs to be scraped and then rebuilt. And I do believe that obviously there's going to be, there will be some collateral damage. People who don't deserve to have their positions cut or don't deserve to have their grants cut, they will need to come back and fight for that money. They will have to make their case, and I'm sure that is painful and difficult for them. But is it better to do it that way, or is it better to just keep flushing money down the toilet?

And I thought it was very interesting last night. Scott Bessant said, waste, fraud, and abuse. And he said, and I do think we're going to find some real fraud.

Now, the definition of these words is different, waste, fraud, and abuse. Fraud is stealing. From the United States government and the taxpayers.

So I want to know more about that. I know this, just some basic whole numbers. There's 6.7, we have an economy that's 6.75 trillion.

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid make up 43% of that. If you have the veterans' benefits, it's 50% of it.

So now we make, we bring in 4.7 trillion. Just basic economics, math. How do we make up the difference?

So, Elon Musk, arguably our finest businessman in the world, goes in and goes, I'm going to do what I do with my businesses. I'm going to find a trillion dollars. Same time, we've got to find a way to grow the economy and set up different systems where maybe we can be more efficient. He said, The real gold, in my words, gold, but he goes, The real find is going to be when I get into Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare and social security. He goes, that's where I'm going to find most of the fraud and abuse.

100%. And the scary thing is that with the accessibility that people have to hacking into systems now, this isn't your old-fashioned kind of like, oh, somebody is putting in, submitting for a check, but they don't really deserve a welfare check or terms out. They have a job. That's like. That's like the easy stuff, right?

This is the potential for people who are doing mass hacking programs. This is how you potentially end up with someone who's 150 years old getting Social Security and tapping into these programs. And I just want to reiterate: stealing your money, my money, every single taxpayer's money. Who among us likes to look at their paycheck and see how much goes to the government?

Now, that's one element, but then imagine. Which is looking like the reality, that a huge percentage of that is getting stolen by hackers, waste, fraud, abuse, people taking advantage of the system.

So we need to, the most important thing is to scrape and then rebuild.

So here's what Kevin O'Leary said on CNN last night: cut 15. I think the issue is they're not whacking enough. There's this concept in private equity when you get a bankrupt company and you go in there, you cut 20% more than your initial read. And then you find like a pool of mercury, the organization gels back together again. Always cut deeper.

Harder when there's fat and waste. The FAA, it's not the people, the code. is cobalt. It's from the sixties. It needs CapEx put into it for the technology.

We upgrade it to make it safer. fat like a chicken. All of these agencies are like Big fat chickens dripping over barbecues of fat. This is the best barbecue I've ever seen, but I don't think it's happening fast enough. They're not cutting enough.

Keep slashing, keep hacking while you have a 24-month mandate before the midterms. Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. More, more cutting. Right, and explain it. Right?

Get the call Rove whiteboard. Explain to what you're doing. Yeah, that's why when I hear that these GOP members of Congress, oh, please slow down. This is the sclerotic problem of government. Every side, Democrats, Republicans, have allowed this to happen on their watch.

I find it so interesting that the person in charge of Social Security now, oh, they pulled the guy up from the agency, the part of the agency that's in charge of fraud and made him the administrator. What has he been doing? Right. What has he been doing? These people need to Prove to the American people that they have been diligent in finding fraud in these agencies.

Every one of these agencies has a person in charge of waste and fraud. What have they been doing? I hear you. And we're going to take a time out, come back, talk more about this. We do have the president eviscerated, Vladimir Zelensky.

He's in Miami today. SpaceX is shooting a rocket. There's more success for him. He's not even wasting one of the stages. It now goes back to Vandenberg Air Force Base as soon as it disengages.

And that's what SpaceX is doing. The Falcon 9 rocket will launch more Starlink mini-satellites over low Earth orbit. At the same time, he spent. Uh he's spending time sleeping on the floor in the Eisenhower building because it's so it's so much and getting ridicule from everybody and having Cheryl Crowe return his Herd Tesla back in the movie. Taking America back.

Our long national nightmare is over. One executive order at a time. I ended the paper straw. You Okay, he's right on this one. It's Brian Kilmead.

The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead. Martha McCallum's here. Martha, we have to know what's going to be on your show. Are you still booking it, by the way?

Because everything keeps changing. But three o'clock in the afternoon Eastern Time is the story.

So we have Eric Adams has a huge hearing in front of a judge at 2 o'clock today.

So we are going to be speaking to Roseanne Escoto about this crazy situation with Al Sharpton coming in. And, you know, he was Adams was indicted. He's never been through a trial. What's Al Sharpton doing this? Never been through a trial.

What is Al Sharpton doing in this situation?

So we're going to talk to him about that. Jack Keene's going to weigh in on what's going on in Ukraine and the negotiations between Russia and the United States and Ukraine. Obviously, a ton of news there. Right. So that'll be big.

The other thing would be today, the way I understand it with Eric Adams. The Justice Department's got to justify in front of this judge why they decided not to prosecute. Uh Eric Adams after his indictment a couple of months ago. Right. Both sides are going to come in and try to convince the judge that the case should be kept open or that the case should be dropped.

And all of that obviously has to happen before Kathy Hochul can weigh in or make up her mind.

So I'm not really sure why she had this big, very public meeting with Hakeem Jeffries and Al Sharpton. Gee, what should I do? This is not how the American justice system works. You have to have an indictment in this system, which we all know, you are innocent until proven guilty. That process hasn't happened.

The DOJ says the charges should be dropped. Eric Adams' policies on what he wants for the city have really not changed that much throughout the course of all of this. You know, they're suggesting that, oh, then he changed on a dime when the charges were dropped. He ran on safety for the city. He rode the subway to work on his first day in office.

He cleared the tent cities out of lower Manhattan. He's always been pretty clear, I think, on what he wanted to do. Yeah, one thing, I don't know how you, let's say a judge says, I don't believe the charges should be dropped. All right, well, I'm not proud. Prosecuting them.

So it's up to the federal government, right? Absolutely.

So the Southern District of New York says, I'm not doing it. The judge says, I think you should. I'm not. I don't know what the next move is. Number two is they never said that he was innocent.

They said it's going to affect an election that's coming up in 2025.

Now, Governor Kathy Hochl, according to the system, she'll say, I want Eric Adams to resign. I'm going to pull you. He's going to say, no, I'm going to fight for my job.

So you have a chance constitutionally in New York. You can fight for your job. All right, fine.

So he goes to fight for his job. We're in February. By the time he gets his hearing, it's April. We have a June primary, which is really the election. Right, let the people decide.

Let the election go forward. I mean, she is, you know, the New York Post has her like hiding behind half of a wall. You know, if she had. The backbone of this situation, she would have said, Look, this is playing out in the courts. Let's see what happens.

And then there's an election in June. Done.

So here is Hakeem Jeffries after the meeting, cut 35. Very concerned, and the situation is very disturbing. Mayor Adams has a responsibility. To convince the people of New York City that he will be able to continue to govern in a manner that puts their best interests first at all times, and that he's not simply taking orders from a Trump. Administration, a Trump Department of Justice or Trump officials who do not have the best interests of the city of New York.

That's what bothers them. Not the indictment with the Turkish embassy. It's these dealing with Trump. No, there there's only one thing that changed in Eric Adams' policy substantially, which was that he agreed to let ICE go into Rikers. He went back and forth on the decision for a while, agreed to allow that to happen.

He is still supporting New York being a sanctuary city. He's like, if you are a well-meaning migrant who comes to this city, we welcome you. If you are a criminal and you are from another country, we want you out of here. It seems like a policy that most New Yorkers would probably be okay with. What I think is so disturbing is that they're trying to throw him out based on what?

Exactly.

That he was indicted.

Well, I mean, that's the early part of the judicial process. Nothing has been decided. Do you think that New York wants Cuomo back? I mean, I know he's got 32%, I guess, in the ratings, but he's so. He's huge name recognition.

And he, you know, there will be a huge campaign to remind him. The interesting thing about New York is that the primary in June, you know, basically is the election, unless someone, a really strong Republican, runs and has a shot. We saw what happened with Lise Elden at the governor level. He, you know, made a lot of gains. It's possible.

You know, New York has had Republican mayors in the past, but that person has not emerged. I don't know if you saw that today it emerged that on February 5th, these two Venezuelans who were dealing drugs with on TDA, that horrible prison gang, they were taken, I think it was in the Bronx, and they were arrested February 5th for drug trafficking and some type of violence. It was knocked down to a misdemeanor they are now out. Right there. I mean, right there.

Eric Adams has got to get the police chief to say, no, no, that's not okay. And that's where Holman's got to move in. I'm saying that's the disconnect that's had to Chicago Philadelphia. And Eric Adams has been up against his own city council the entire time. Everything he has tried to accomplish in terms of making the city safer, he has run up against his own Democratic majority city council in Manhattan and then the government in Albany that have stymied him at every turn.

So he's a Democrat who wants to be mayor again, who wants to make the city safe, and they are trying to block him at every turn. All right, so we're going to see what happens. Last night with President Trump, so with Elon Musk, President Trump, I think it's legally, came out and said he's not running Doge. Elon Musk is my assistant, essentially. He's not running Doge.

Why would he say that? Is that a legal thing? Because then Caroline Levitt said, So yeah, I she just said, well, he works for the President. He's a political appointee, which makes him a government employee at the behest of the President. And I think.

Most people have been under the assumption that he he was running Doge. It was he and Vivek Ramaswamy were going to run it together. Then Vive Vivek was out of there. And I don't know. It may be a legal technicality or something that they want to make clear by separating him from Doge.

Unclear. Right. I don't, yeah, it didn't make any sense to me. But in the big picture, do you see his people staying on? On this, they said for two years, or do you see z do you see Musk staying at the Eisenhower building for two years?

It's a good question. I have always wondered if these two enormous egos and very smart men, President Trump and Elon Musk, can maintain this partnership over the long term. Last night they said they absolutely intend to do that. There's obvious respect between the two of them. Elon Musk has a lot on his plate.

That's why he sleeps in a sleeping bag on the floor of the Eisenhower building to try to get all this done. But he has obviously several companies. Sean ran through them last night: Neuralink, BaseX, Tesla, all of these endeavors.

So we'll see. Yeah, we're going to find out. And don't forget, it's so brilliant to have SpaceX with Starlink.

So you put up the satellites, then you control the transmission and communication for maybe the world, the number one world. While every civilian spacecraft that goes up there, rocket that goes up there, it's unbelievable. Made him the most influential person in the country and maybe the world. But he gets fixated on things almost like Trump and was going after AI and Sam Altman and he broke our agreement. And then yesterday there was an announcement, we just talked about this, that Grok is the number one, he says it's the number one AI tool out there.

It's on X, which everyone said you're crazy to buy.

So I just looked up the question we had before. And I just said, what is Vladimir Zelensky's Vladimir Velensky's approval rating? Because President Trump says it's 4 percent. And he says it isn't. Right now it's at fifty-six percent in Ukraine.

It was at fifty two percent. It just ticked up. It was at ninety percent for a while.

So Gallup and the Rosmov Center reported that approval ratings range from fifty four to fifty nine.

So President Trump wants an election. Maybe Zelensky does too, but he's not supposed to have one during a war. Yeah, Boris Johnson weighed in on this. He said that there were no elections in Great Britain during the course of World War II. It wasn't.

That's what happened after. Absolutely.

Yeah, Churchill lost. That's right. All right. Thanks so much, Martha. See you at 3 p.m.

Fox News Audio presents the Fox Nation Investigates podcast, Evil Next Door, exploring the life and crimes of five serial predators from across the United States. Follow and listen starting February 25th at FoxtrueCrime.com. Listen to the show ad-free on Fox News Podcast Plus, on Apple Podcast, Amazon Music with your Prime Membership, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Hmm.