Ukraine is Putin's war, only Trump can end it

This episode is brought to you by PDS Debt. Struggling with credit cards, personal loans, medical bills, or collections? It's time to stop worrying about that high-interest debt you've got piling up. PDS Debt can help you start saving money immediately. Their platform can analyze your unique situation and create a plan to get you out of debt.

There's no minimum credit score required and it takes 30 seconds to get your results. With PDS Debt, you'll take back control of your finances. Get a free debt analysis in just 30 seconds at pdsdebt.com slash spotify. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead.

And I got a really positive outlook. Hi, everyone. Brian Kilmead.

So glad you're here. Thanks for watching One Nation Sunday night, the first night, 10 o'clock Eastern Time. I appreciate it. Getting a lot of great comments. Ambassador Kurt Volcker is going to be with us, handling one of the top stories in the world right now about Ukraine three years in.

Where do we stand? He was a former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, was once a special envoy over to Ukraine last year. or the second last year of the first Trump administration. There's a lot going on today.

The president will greet the French President Macron at 12:15 today. He's already had a G7 conference call, I guess, Zoom call with all G7 members today. That happened at 8 o'clock in the morning.

So he's had a busy morning already. Pete Hegseth is going to meet with the Saudi defense minister today, his counterpart.

So there's a lot happening already in Washington. I know you personally had a busy weekend.

So let's get back at action now. Number three. What I've said very publicly is that Democrats need to play possum. I believe that this administration, in less than 30 days, in the midst of a massive collapse, and particularly a collapse in public opinion. All right, politics of plenty.

New polls in Trump, as Dems are in on Trump, as Dems search for leaders and some proclaim, as you just heard, this administration is about to implode. We look at the wide-ranging reviews of Trump Term 2. Number two. It should have never happened. That war should have never happened.

Biden said the wrong things. Zelensky said the wrong things. Russia could have been talked out of that so easily. That should never have been a war. President Trump with me Friday.

Ukraine-Russia, war and peace. President Macron is in town. G7 conference call and a mineral deal is in the works with our ally Ukraine and Russia. Drones away. Number The American people love the idea of pairing back the federal government theoretically, but operationally, it's a very different story.

When you start talking about actual people and their actual jobs and their lives are at stake, people don't like it. There you go. Jonathan Martin weighs in on Meet the Press. Doge bulldozing ahead, reshaping federal workforce and getting some pushback from other divisions of the Trump team. We discuss their impact politically and throughout the country.

First off, I'm 100% with Doge. You know, I think it's one of the most unique and necessary things happening in government over the last 20 years. Why is Doge important? Because and why is speed matter? Speed matters because the long you sit back and study, the more people have an interest and some type of leverage or political horse in a race to.

pushback against any administration. When you pull in a business person who is known more as a Democrat, who was once a critic, and now a supporter of Trump, who has no history of being a conservative, he can go in there and just look at it as a business. Exactly what Argentina did, exactly what Germany voted for just now when it comes to expenditures. And speed matters, but speed also leads to some mistakes. And I think yesterday, the President of the United States on Saturday, I think it was in his.

Uh in his CeasePack speech, he made it clear. Because I want you guys to pick up the pace. Doge is doing good. I want you to cut even more. Is it okay?

We got 2.7 million federal workers. They're supposed to all be back in work today, back in work today. Joe Biden said, take another three years off and just work from home. He said, no. And we know about the buyout plan.

You had seven months if you want to take the buyout, so $70,000 left. And now he's looking at some of these divisions and he's sending out emails and saying, you're new, we got it, you gotta go. Why? 2 trillion over debt. The two trillion in debt every single year, thirty-seven to thirty-nine already.

So there's going to be some tough cuts.

Now, some of this stuff is a little callous, it could come off harsh. But almost in all of our lives, so people listening to me right now, we've had that happen. Where they just get, no, you're gone. What do you mean I'm gone?

Well, we have to make a change. Got somebody better, or we're downsizing, or you get the news that your company's going out of business.

So that's the difference. Here's Secretary of Treasury Scott Besson. On the firing of people and how it's being done. Cut one. If we have a bloated government, and if that gets cut down, then government spending will go down.

I've talked about reprivatizing the economy, and that's what we're going to have to do. We're running 6.7, 6.9% deficit to GDP, which we've never had when we're not in a recession, not in a war. And we're going to bring that down. And so, as the government employment comes down, the private sector will not be crowded out anymore.

So and that's what has to happen.

Now Trump didn't run on this and everyone kept saying he spent too much.

Well, we don't really know what he spent because the pandemic threw everything into a tizzy. Revenue was rocketing up with his new tax reform, not tax just tax cuts, tax reform. And then the pandemic hit. We had dual types of spending. We know what happened.

I could get Larry Kudlow in here, and he'll work with those numbers. And he probably will be. We'll have to probably be a great guest for tomorrow. But the way it's being done is rubbing people some law some the wrong way. And there are some town halls where people are Rich McCormick and some others are getting some grief.

I get it. I think a lot of it is mocked up by Democrats who said, go to these town halls and create some havoc. We have to do something.

So, John Curtis came out. He's with the Utah guy. He replaced Mitt Romney. And he is surprisingly supportive of the Trump agenda, but said this, cut too. If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it's like, please put a dose of compassion in this.

These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. It's a false narrative to say we have to cut, and you have to be cruel to do it as well. We can do both.

And that I think that's Well said. But if you look at Elon Musk Track record and many entrepreneurs, that's the way it is. You take big risks, you hire a lot of people, and all of a sudden it's like, well, you know what? This is not working. Investors are getting nervous.

Market drops. Pandemic hits. I got to lay people off. You have hours' notice. It's not that he's just doing this for Trump.

This is his style. And this is exactly what he brings in. Just read Walter Isaacson's book, which I did on Elon Musk. Started reading it, then when he got hired, I finished it. It's a thousand pages.

But this is the way he does things. And I'm sure a lot of people's feelings get hurt, but they're just used to, well, that's part of the business. People push back. Tosi Gabbard joined Cash Patel, saying to Elon Musk. The email that went out that said I should really qualify this.

Elon Musk, in response to President Trump saying, pick up the pace, put in an email. It's every federal worker, which, by the way, he was the first one to ever put all the federal workers in one email. Never been done before. That's his guys. And he said, please tell me what you've been doing over the last five days.

How have you been productive? Don't put classified information in the email. And then we'll evaluate whether you keep your job. Wow.

So, people have to do that.

Now, at first, I thought that's pretty harsh. But then again, if I talk to people in sales, and I've done sales too, maybe not, I'm not.

Something over the course of years. But if you're on your own, you got your own car, the company gives you a car, you have to report where you are. All day. How many calls did you make? How many visits did you make?

How long was your lunch? Write it all in. Record it all in. to your computer that I gave you. And that's people resent that, other people like it.

And then, when you get evaluated, as your manager gets evaluated by how you do, and they're going to be evaluated by how many visits and how many sales you got. And that's just the way it is. There's accountability. There's not that type of accountability for the most part in the federal government. That's what he's trying to bring.

So when that email went out, Tulsi Gabbard said, Director of National Intelligence, that doesn't apply to you guys. I'm not asking you to write down what you did over the last five days. And then Cash Patel at the FBI says I'm not asking you to do that either, so you can ignore that. You do not have to send that email out. And if you don't send that, and if you don't reply to that email, you're not going to lose your job.

That's good. Then, an ambassador on the Office of Personal Management says, requiring you to submit five work-related accomplishments. The State Department will respond on behalf of the State Department. No employee is obligated to do so.

So the State Department kind of exempted themselves. The others have to go do it. And if I am proud of what I did over the last five days, I'm begging to send that email. And I think in the long run, we're going to find out we're going to have the leanest, meanest federal fighting force out there. But it's definitely going to be tough.

Lastly, let's just talk about the number one story in the world right now, three years since the fighting in Ukraine started, by Vladimir Putin. Unprovoked.

Now, there was always a NATO rumor. George W. Bush said Ukraine will be in NATO.

So there's always been NATO. Don't use that Russia as an excuse or anybody else as an excuse to say they were. Then Ukraine brought this on themselves. Was there a sense that maybe Ukraine could have prepared more? Possibly.

But you know what prepared the Ukraine more than mornings? Give him weapon systems, a patriot missile system, giving them more tanks right away.

So Joe Biden did warn them. Publicly, Zelensky says it's not inevitable that Russia is going to invade. But privately he was really worried and when the war started Our idiotic government, Pentagon, says you have four days. We'll fly you out and save you, Zelensky. Ghani saved himself in Afghanistan.

We'll save you. He said, I don't want to ride, I want weapons. Three years later he's still fighting.

So he deserves a ton of credit. I am not a Zelensky detractor, but he made two huge mistakes last week. Mocking President Trump in a post somewhere, I guess, on X. They said President Trump is a victim of misinformation? Yeah.

Can't say that. What what kind of d that's totally disrespectful. And then when Scott Besson, the Treasury Sector, came in with a minerals deal. that will enable us to have a foothold in that country and a portion of their profits on the rare earth. He didn't counterproposal.

He just said, I'm not going to sign this. This is not good. I got to go through Congress. And he disrespected him. And it was very hard to get in and out of Ukraine.

And it's dangerous. And that's when you said to me. On this show You know, it was dangerous. I didn't want my Treasury Secretary to go there. When he came there, he came out with that deal.

And then he got mad at Trump for having the meeting. or having his delegation meet in Saudi Arabia, said he should have been included. Not really. And as much as I am firmly in Ukraine's side, and Vladimir Putin is our modern day Stalin, Mao and Hitler, everything wrapped up in one. Got it.

But you gotta start somewhere. And I don't want the other side sitting across. If I want to have a major meeting with Ukraine, I want their delegation. And Henry Kissinger made it famous in the 70s: shuttle diplomacy. Once this gets started, You're going to have them flying back and forth.

He talked to Zelensky the same day that his delegation met with Lavrov and company in Saudi Arabia.

So we made those mistakes. I look for the deal to get done on minerals, number one. Number two, I look for Europe to step up in the meetings today and then with Macron on on today and then Thursday with um The UK Prime Minister. I look for them to make progress. Here's Michael Waltz, cuts one.

We expect the Ukrainians to realize the opportunity that this is, and President Zelensky to realize the opportunity that this is to be co-invested with the United States of America. Let's grow together in an economic partnership, and of course, the U.S. would protect our assets for which we are invested in. This could mean trillions, not only for the Ukrainian people, but for us, and for stability for the region. And that economic investment is one of the best security guarantees that Ukraine could hope for.

And they said they worked through the night on doing this and they're working it out. And I remember I asked right here: I said, if Zelensky called you, would you take the call? He said, Of course, I'm not playing games, this isn't personal. And almost any time to dismiss my question.

So the thing is don't be dismissive of him. But the whole all the Trump people not admitting that Russia started the war I can't stomach that. Cut 25. The war didn't need to happen. It was provoked.

It doesn't necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians. There were all kinds of conversations back then about Ukraine joining NATO. The President has spoken about this. That didn't need to happen. It basically became a threat to the Russians.

And so we have to deal with that fact. And those are real facts on the ground here.

So It didn't need to happen. Of course, it didn't. But it's all Russia's fault. 1-866-408-7669. When we come back, I want to tell you what James Carville's saying.

James Carville says The Trump administration will essentially collapse in thirty days. At least their ratings will. Really? What do you think? 1-866-408-7669.

Brian Kilmee Show. Politics, current events, and news that affects you. Brian's got a lot more to say. Stay with Brian Kilmead. I'm Ben Dominich, Fox News contributor, editor-at-large of The Spectator, and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter.

I'm inviting you to join in-depth conversations every week on the Ben Dominich Podcast. Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcast.com. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmead. What I've said very publicly, the Democrats need to play possum. This whole thing is collapsing.

It doesn't need Elizabeth Warren. And somebody screaming to pacify some progressive advocacy groups in Washington, which, by the way, I wish these people were just useless. They're actually worse than useless. that they're detrimental. and they never ever learned to shut up.

And so, Dan, this is what I believe. I believe that this administration. in less than thirty days in the midst of a massive collapse. in particularly a collapse in public opinion.

Well, see, we know some of the most successful presidency, if his poll numbers do drop, a lot of times it happens because you have to plow the ground in the first year and a half. You know, whose polls were like around 40, if not a little bit lower? Ronald Reagan early on because he was doing such massive things and trying to get interest rates down and restructuring the supply-side economy. I look at that even though it's different principles, but that's what Trump's trying to do to bring manufacturing back to this country. But James Carville gets headlines with that statement.

Mike in Nebraska, do you agree? Uh I agree, is that this idiot's got to be, he's got to fade into history like he thinks Trump does. How many times does he have to be wrong? I know. He predicted Harris would win, remember?

Oh my god. He guaranteed it. Yeah, he did. He told us everything that's going to happen.

So why are we listening to him continue to tell us what's going to happen? Everything he says, the opposite happens. You know why I think so? The same way Stephen A. Smith is a great guest and Charles Barclay's a fantastic guest, is because they say outrageous things.

And people go, wow, wait a second. I hate him. I love him. I hate him. I love him.

It's good TV. But to me, in terms of substance, I don't think James Carville's been right in a while. The only thing he's good at is dressing worse than John Fetterman. Jeremy in Texas. Hey, Jeremy.

Hey. Hey man, so I'm almost 42 years old, and I've grown up listening to James Carville. And not only is he one of the most annoying men I've ever listened to, but I gotta agree with your first caller there. Everything he has said has been so.

So wrong. The fact that he's even has you know, an invitation to be on a national news station. That just really just blows my mind because who wants to listen to him after he's been fat wrong so many times? I mean, because he's got the credibility, like Axelrod, of winning twice.

So he won Democrat, he won Democrat with pretty much an unknown they both won with unknown candidates. But if you asked me to book a Democrat that knows what's going on, I would take Axelod any day, wouldn't you? I'm not going to be James Carville, I can promise you that. Thanks so much. Charles in Dayton, Ohio.

Charles, as you know, we're coming to Dayton soon for a live show, but what's on your mind? Yeah, I've got a comment I want to make and see what you think about it. The Senate just passed their reconciliation bill, and they're passing it on to the House. And the House is wanting to do one great, great big deal. My question is: the House can barely confirm the nominees Trump has for All these different secretary positions.

I'm just wondering what your thought is of them getting two bills passed when I don't think they can.

Well, I think they got one. They'll get one. The second one's going to be extremely tough because a lot of it divides the House. You know the theory, basically. The theory of the House is they have very little margin for error.

So what if I put something in one bill that has something for everyone, but also something distasteful to some, to most of them, too?

So they can say, well, you know what? To their constituents, I didn't want to do this, but I got that.

So, if you do two bills, you're making them vote on something they clearly don't want.

So, they have no cover. And without any margin, he could only lose two votes. In about three months, he could lose four votes.

So, that's why Speaker Johnson keeps telling Trump it's got to be one bill. Today, it's going to come out in front of the Rules Committee, and then it's going to come to the floor what they did in the Budget Committee last week.

So I won't bore you with the details, but it claims tax reform, border reform, defense dollars, and more. As well as cuts, some additional cuts that President Trump promised, like no taxes on tips and no taxes on Social Security. That's a lot. Ambassador Kurt Volcker next. A talk show that's real.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show. I think we're pretty close to a deal, and we better be close to a deal. Because that has been a horrible situation. I'm trying to get the money back or secured because you know, Europe has given. One hundred billion dollars The United States has given EUR three hundred fifty billion dollars.

Because we had a stupid Incompetent. President and Administration, three hundred and fifty. But he is worse. Europe gave it in the form of a loan. They get their money back.

So we had infirm of a grant, and we did get $63 billion of it back because we went into replenishing our own stocks. Kurt Vokel joins us now, former U.S. Ambassador NATO, Distinguished Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, and briefly was an envoy to Ukraine. Ambassador, welcome back. Thanks very much, Brian.

I'm reading your editorial and you talk about the minerals deal. And there's so many different facets to getting Ukraine and Russia to the table. Let's focus on that. You point out, let's get into detail on it. Where are these minerals located and why is it important?

It's not only minerals, it's also oil and gas and other natural resources.

So, the agreement that is in draft is broader than that. On the minerals, about 60% are in territory that's occupied by Russia. About 40% is in Ukraine that is not occupied, in most of Ukraine. Uh and uh they are scarcely being exploited at the moment. There are some that are being exploited, but mostly not.

And it's unlikely to think that they will be exploited as long as the war is ongoing.

So what this what this draft agreement between the U. S. and Ukraine would be about is getting an end to the war, some security and the ability for Ukraine to realize this resource wealth and then share with the United States American taxpayers, get paid back.

So a lot of it's in Russian territory.

Some of it is not reachable. And this way, if the U.S. sends in our experts in there to develop it, we are not going to be targets of the Russian military. Yeah, I don't think we should be going into Russian-occupied territory. But I don't know what the Trump administration has in mind.

I don't think we should be going in there at all. We should be developing it in Ukrainian-controlled territory where it'll be safe to do so. But right now, they're not, right? They are not developing this.

So that'll be cheap.

Okay.

Now, in terms of the actual back and forth with the deal, the word is it's going to get done this week. Do you think that it was insulting for the Treasury Secretary to arrive and get a no, not a counteroffer?

Well, you know, he did get a counteroffer. And getting the no was, I think, because the agreement, the first draft of this agreement, was incredibly one-sided and not professional. For example, it just said that we're going to create a fund and any resources that are developed, the money goes into this fund. The U.S. gets half off the top, Ukraine gets the other half.

No time limit, no total dollar amount.

So Trump is exaggerating when he says that we've paid $350 billion. It's just over $100 billion. But even so, this was talking indefinitely. Whatever is exploited, we would get half of that. And also it said any disputes are going to be resolved by the Court of New York, the State of New York, which of course in an international agreement is just not the appropriate way to handle it.

So there have been drafts that have gone back and forth since then, multiple counterproposals, and it is much more balanced now. And I do think that it should and hopefully will get signed this week so that we can get this phase of things behind us. We can get our support for Ukraine and pay back to American taxpayers on a sustainable business like basis so that we can get on with ending the war and developing Ukraine. What are your thoughts about Marco Rubio meeting with Lavrov and the rest of the delegation over in Saudi Arabia. Yeah, well, look, they were instructed to do so by Trump.

I think it's good that Trump called Putin. I think we need to hold back a little bit on developing our bilateral relations with Russia, normalizing Russia, until Russia actually delivers. Russia attacked Ukraine. They're still conducting this war. I'm in Kyiv.

There were bombings here overnight. Russia has to be held to account to stop the war before we go too far on that bilateral agenda with them. What does it tell you that even the Russians wanted to sit down and talk right away? To me, but you're the expert. It tells me that there's a vulnerability there that we have not seen.

That's exactly right. That's exactly what I wanted to say. When you examine Russia's economy, Inflation is very high. We don't have reliable numbers, but we know interest rates are at 21%. And typically, inflation is higher than the interest rate, so it's it's up there.

They don't have access to global financial markets, so they can't get a hard currency to pay for the things that they have to pay for. They're spending 40% of their government budget on the military effort in Ukraine, and they're down to about $30 billion in foreign exchange reserves, in a hard currency.

So they know they're coming up against a wall economically. And then militarily, they're losing thousands and thousands of lives, and they're not getting much ground for it. And they know that's not sustainable either.

So I think they know they need a deal. They're trying to project this image of strength and toughness. But I think if the Trump administration is in a far stronger position and we just show firmness and say, no, you got to end the war. We can do things after that, but you have to end this war. And I think they know they need to.

What would convince Ambassador Volcker that the Russians would not be just waiting two years to reload, rearm, and do it again? Nothing. I'm confident that that is exactly what Russia will do. They will use the time to rearm, reload, and plan future attacks. The the trick here is that we have to do a good job of deterring those attacks.

We have to make it clear to Putin that if he attacks again, it's going to be too costly for him. And that's where Macron coming to DC and Starmer later this week, getting a European deterrence force on the ground in Ukraine, getting Ukraine the military assistance that it needs so that it can build up its military capabilities, fast tracking their membership in the European Union, redeveloping the economy quickly. All of these things need to happen so that as those two years go by and Russia is planning to reload, Ukraine actually ends up getting stronger. I mean, in a way, this has been, people should take a step back. It's been such a disaster for Russia.

They've been exposed as an inept military with nuclear weapons. They have lost a million people just in brain drain. People say, I don't want to be part of this country. We know they've been ostracized outside China and Iran and maybe India to a degree and North Korea, whatever that brings you. And then you lost so many people, 800,000 people, and now you're off the Swift Exchange.

You've lost all Western investment. And now you've added two more formidable nations to NATO. You're absolutely right. Putin has a real knack for achieving the opposite of what he wants to do. And they know and certainly the Russian elites know that he has put them in a very untenable position if they keep going.

So in the in the big picture There is a third element to this, which I think is down the line. It's the reverse of what Kissinger did. Kissinger said: let me pull China from the Soviets. Are we trying to pull Russia a little bit from China? Is there an opportunity there?

And how would you approach that? Yes. I think there might be some people, maybe even some in the administration, who think that way, that oh, we're pulling Russia away from China. I think this is a fool's errand here. This is not understanding either country.

Um Putin is never going to change. Putin is never going to become pro-Western or reach deals with the West, and he is never going to distance himself from China. He's dependent on China. The Chinese don't care about Russia at all. They view it completely transactionally.

They can buy resources, or get natural resources from Russia. They can sell things to Russia, but they really don't care about Russia. They're not invested in this.

So I don't think we're gaining anything by trying that. And actually, I think we run risks of encouraging China by showing weakness to Russia. Interesting. I want you to hear with Senator Chris Van Hauen, who's just his hair's on fire, about this whole approach. Cut 29.

I would just say that this is not America first. This is America in retreat. And China and Russia and our adversaries are celebrating every moment of this as our allies are scared to death. And this is not just rhetoric. This is reality.

You heard at Munich last week. Yeah, well, and I think, you know, European allies and others from around the world who believe in freedom and democracy, they're wondering whether this is just rhetoric or whether this is a real shift. My warning to them is I think this is reality. I think Trump is much closer ideologically to Putin and other autocrats around the world than he is to democratic countries. What is the perception from where you're at and from Europe?

You know, from Western Europe, where I was at the Munich Security Conference last weekend, there people genuinely were scared. They thought J.D. Vance's speech was an attack on Europe. They see Donald Trump not supporting traditional things that they've expected from the United States, like support for NATO, not willing to contribute aid to Ukraine. And this has scared them.

But the result of that is that they are getting together to try to put together a plan as to what they can do. And that's exactly what Donald Trump wanted them to do. spend more money on defense. Take the lead on security for Ukraine. Not saying the U.S.

is going away completely, but he wanted to give them that push. And I think that's working. In the case of Ukraine, they are deeply concerned about this resource deal, and Zelensky's wavering over this. Because he sees it as one-sided. We're we're giving our natural resources, our national heritage, half of it to the United States, but there's no security guarantee for Ukraine, no commitment.

But I think that he's right that's not. But at the same time, this is a way of starting that relationship on a stronger footing where we are partners. And I think that is the the way they should think of it. And so I think, as brutal as some of this is, and as much as some people don't like it, I think Trump is steering this in a direction that will create both peace and a sustainable peace. I just hope that we don't do too much giving away things to Russia in the process.

I hope so, too. The German elections. President's very happy with the result. President Trump is. Should he be?

Yeah, I think so. I think getting Friedrich Meertzen as Chancellor, conservative from Germany, he is going to be more in alignment with Trump than Schulz was. Schultz was already very weak in the polls and not really leading on things.

Now Meertz is going to have to form a coalition government with the Social Democrats and with the Greens. There'll be some compromises there. But he comes out the clear winner. Also, what's interesting here, the far-right party and the far-left party, they gained him some votes, but they are not enough to really affect the formation of this German government.

So Meritz comes away in a fairly strong position. And that's what Trump likes: to have a leader who's going to be in a strong position. Right. Anybody but Merkel. Thanks so much, Ambassador Kurt Bolker.

Oh, your insight is invaluable. Thank you. That's appreciated. You got it. Hey, JD, you're in Springfield, Ohio.

Hey, JD. Yeah, I wanted to get your perspective before I turn the page on Ukraine. Go ahead. On my perspective on Ukraine? Yep.

Well, Um I wicked. I'm kind of more of a neutral on that. I mean, uh I realize, you know, that they've been kind of bullied around and everything, so I kind of support them. or I do support them that way. But as far as the financial, I am kinda at the end of the pace scale that uh Struggling alone to where I want to see Americans taken care of.

Financially and come first before anything overseas at all, myself.

So that'll be good. That's what the President's focus is as well, as you could tell. Or uh the way he's talking and what he's doing. I'm content with it. I get a little irked at watching uh kind of your mainstream type news about they're talking about how crude he is with all these layoffs and everything.

Now I admit they sh no one should be making jokes about people getting laid off. But I mean, I spent my life at when I got laid off, all I would see is my name on a piece of paper, so I don't know what kind of compassion you're supposed to show to people. I mean, especially in our business, in my business in particular, all ends of the spectrum, you have no notice. They find someone better, you're done, you get two weeks. And if they come in and they realize you're over budget, you're gone.

The last reporter in is the first one out. And you'll say the new general manager will say, you don't even know me.

So you're the last one in, you're out. And it's really that cruel. And a lot of people told me, too, about the accountability. You reminded me about sales. If you're in sales and they talked about Elon Musk saying, I need to know what you did over the last five days.

In sales. You really have to bang in at the end of the day how many calls you made, how many visits you made, how many lunches that were productive that you took care of, how many sales did you close.

So there's people in the real world out there that don't work for the federal government that are used to this type of accountability. And I think we should just get a grip on all of it instead of hearing the sad stories about people losing their job and not getting noticed.

Now, could there be a little bit more research into the laying off? Yeah, but then people have informed me too, especially in Silicon Valley. That's what happens. Big investors come in, some get nervous.

Next thing you know, a division's caught. You didn't do anything wrong. But you got to take your nose ring and your purple hair and your T-shirt to a different place down the block. All right, when we come back, I'll be able to take some more calls and go over some more things that Democrats seem to be working on that they think is doing some damage, and go over some of the polls that just came in on Trump. Don't move.

It's Brian Killmeade. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Killmead. Democrats can't sell where Donald Trump can sell. You know, if you gave the Democrats a dollar bill and said you can sell these for 50 cents, they would hire 50 people to decide if they really to try to figure out how to do it and then would not know how to sell a dollar bill for 50 cents.

If you gave it to Donald Trump and said sell this dollar bill for $2, he'd figure out a way, right? He'd tell you that $2 bill is, you know, is huge. He's 100% right. And Mark Cuban studied everything that Donald Trump did, all his businesses. He was obsessed.

I like him. I'm kind of friendly with him. And he was obsessed with Trump, but he really didn't think he had any shot of winning. He thought for sure Kamala Harris, that's why he won all in, thought Kamala Harris was going to win. He went all in on him, put a lot of money in it, then put his personal integrity, did a bunch of tapes with her, and it failed.

Now they want him to run in 2028. And he's not going to run in 2028. He said he's not. He said his family would kill him. They don't want the lifestyle change.

His younger family got a little bit older. And he also told me, too, it's like they don't even like going to Maverick games.

So he's getting the casino business. He's already gone in that direction. But that is one thing I did not mention. Dan Bongino is going to be the new assistant FBI director under Cash Patel. A lot of times the assistants do even more than the directors.

So he's going to be out in the field. Not only is he a great personality, he's got the Secret Service, the street cop experience. Then he's got the master's degree in criminal justice. He's got years in interaction in government now, and then the number one podcast.

So he knows how to message. He knows how to crack down. The other thing is, he went on a personal note. He was the first one when all this Russian stuff was coming out in 2017. I was having trouble keeping up with it.

Not so much this. I'm just like, what are they getting at? Like, what it I didn't couldn't find the substance or the method. And he unwound it for me in about 10 minutes. And he said, look for these things to happen.

And almost everything he said, that he said took place took place. And ended up being right years later. I mean, he's not just good, he's great at this. He's in the perfect position. The sacrifice, though.

Is tremendous. I mean, think about the money. This guy is probably the most successful podcaster in the country. But I do want you to hear about podcasts in the country. And I do think that he's given up his radio show, the podcast, his social media presence, which is tops on Facebook.

And he's an investor in Rumble, so Rumble's big too.

So, this is an example. When people talk about governor service and being in a job for egomaniacs, this is just the opposite in Dan Bongino's case. He's not doing this to be famous. He's not doing this to Mattermore. He's actually doing it for the country.

He already is famous. Every day his popularity was growing. His impact was pronounced. Then he says, Let me take a step back, work away from the spotlight. and just make the country better and the FBI better.

which is uh most of the people are just flat out elite. They're being misled by politicians masked as FBI agents, but most are great. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Kill Me Show. I come to you from 48th and 6th in Midtown Manhattan, where congestion pricing, I guess, is going out the window, I assume, for good until the courts get involved, and then who knows? Long live the king, the president's post on Truth Social last week when he said, I'm done with it.

Well, uh, over the weekend.

Well, excuse me, on Friday, Governor Hoku got into the Oval Office for over an hour and they talked, but. She doesn't believe, and nobody else believes, that she was able to change his mind by congestion pricing. Why? I want to be able to take nine more dollars from every New Yorker. Because you don't know how to spend money when you come out with a full audit of everything that you have spent and where it's going, and it's impressive.

Then you explain to me why you need $9 a day from everyone that drives through. Whether they're dropping off bread or they just want to see Central Park, they say it's for the good of the environment. My goodness, I'm on my feet walking to Penn Station on a regular basis or Grand Central Station, nothing has changed. And for the environment, they're just taking their gas guzzling car somewhere else. This hour, we're going to be joined by Bruce Blakeman, Nassau County executive, set for re-election.

A lot of people are pushing him to run for governor, tight with Trump. And Michael Goodwin is standing by.

So let's get to the big three. Number three. What I've said very publicly is that Democrats need to play possum. I believe that this administration, in less than 30 days, in the midst of a massive collapse, and particularly a collapse in public opinion. Good luck with that.

Politics of plenty. New polls in the Trump are in as Dems search for leaders, and some proclaim, as you just heard, that they're about to implode at the Trump White House. We look at the wide-ranging reviews of the Trump term, too. Number two. It should have never happened.

That war should have never happened. Biden said the wrong things. Zelensky said the wrong things. Russia could have been talked out of that so easily, that should never have been a war. That was President Trump with us on Friday.

Ukraine, Russia, war and peace. President Macron is in town. They'll meet at noon today and then have a press conference. Already took place. No word yet on what happened.

The G7 conference call. And we're going to find out about Ukraine and Russia because they are bombing away at each other as we speak. Number The American people love the idea of paring back the federal government theoretically. But operationally, it's a very different story. When you start talking about actual people and their actual jobs and their lives are at stake, people don't like it.

You know what? He's not wrong, Jonathan Martin on Meet the Press. They do say talk about pairing everything back until it affects your family, your company. Doge bulldozing ahead, reshaping the federal workforce, and getting some pushback from other divisions of the Trump team. We discussed their impact politically and throughout the country.

Let's bring in Michael Goodwin. Michael, I don't have any problem with, and to give people an update on what happened over the weekend, President Trump at CPAC said Elon Musk cut even more. And then he said, I hear you, Mr. President.

So from now on, Federal employees, now that you're on one email, tell me what you did over the last five days, every day to be productive. And if you don't email me, essentially you're fired. And then there's some divisions uh like um Office of personnel management, the FBI, and the Department of National Intelligence all said. Ignore that. You don't have to get back to me with the five things you need.

And they're saying the Trump team is divided. No, that's cold reality. I have no problem with any of this, do you?

Now, look, I think, Brian, that the The President is making a calculation, which is that It's very early in his term. He's got the wind at his back, and he wants to get big difficult things done. While he still has that wind at his back, if there's any such thing as a honeymoon, and with Donald Trump, there really isn't because of the media, then it happens early in your tenure. And I think that's where we are, that he'll take the brick bats now because he believes that the results will be worth it. that if you can chop you know, one percent even.

Graduate. Um or anything like that even, you would then be able to show those results. You'll be able to transform the budget. You'll be able to do a refund perhaps to people or pay down debt. I mean, if he were to leave office at the end of four years with debt.

being reduced uh That would be a break with what's been happening, where debt only goes up. It's going up even now. Because it's we're on automatic pilot with spending, where everything just is like plus two or something, and it just keeps growing and growing. And then the cost of the debt keeps growing because interest rates are high. I mean, so the federal government, when it issues its bonds and treasuries, is paying high interest rates now, which of course drives up the debt even further.

There are a lot of factors at play and I think Trump, as is his nature generally, is to go right at it, not to kind of circle around and come in the back door, but to go through the front door, guns blazing. I think that's what he's doing here. He's going to take some knocks and they're going to make some mistakes. But I think the key is you keep moving forward. You don't let You don't get stuck in the mistakes.

You don't let the divisions and the distractions stop you, which is what the Democrats are just trying to do. Stop them. Anyway, you know, turn the field into mud, right? Erect barriers, lawsuits, have demonstrations, call them a racist, call them this, call them that. All these things are designed to stop him while he's got the momentum, take it away from them, take it away from him, and then assume he won't get it back because the public will get tired of the repeat restart.

So I think he's got to keep going. Absolutely.

So I do want to see them do it. I want to see everything get in order, but just explain to people why you're doing it. Not to be punitive. It's absolutely necessary. And we're not going to cut people's benefits from Medicare, but the way it's issued, the systems that are in place, the antiquated way in which we do Social Security, all that is being addressed.

And I don't think the President can explain that often enough.

So Kathy Holkold. I agree with you, Brian. Just one more quick fact. I mean, the the federal budget is seven trillion dollars. 1.9 trillion of that is borrowed money.

He needs I think somebody needs to keep making that point. Everything we spend, when we send money abroad, when we do all these goofy programs, we're borrowing the money to do that. Does it make sense to borrow the money to do that? That's what he's got to keep, I think, reminding people of. All right, absolutely.

So, you wrote this column about congestion pricing and why people should carry around the rest of the country, because if they put it in New York, it's coming to your city. If there's a way to toll to make people pay for bridges and tunnels, they're now going to find a way for you to drive across the middle of a city, big and small. And Kathy Hokle knew it was unpopular. That's why she pulled it back. It was Governor Cuomo that put it in place.

That's why she pulled it back before the election. Then she puts it in place and tells everyone how popular it is to take more money from them. And then, you know, Trump looked at this and said, it's gone. It's finished. It's through.

And now she tried to change his mind. It doesn't look like it worked. You're right about that. And among the people celebrating is the governor of New Jersey. Here's Hokul's response on Face the Nation Cut 39.

I respond this way. With all due respect to the state of New Jersey, they do not tell us in New York what to do, nor does Washington when it comes to policies that we believe are going to reduce congestion, move along vehicles. Emergency vehicles are moving faster. Air quality is improving.

So I have arguments that are important, but no one else should be able to second guess us because that's not how our system of laws. And states was set up. I'm the governor of New York. I will deal with the internal issues before me without interference from New Jersey or indeed the federal government.

So, and she went on to talk about Mayor Adams, and we'll get to that. Where do you think it's heading?

Well look. Um When I spoke to President Trump on Saturday morning after that meeting, I wanted to get his side of the meeting because Hochol's camp had been putting out their side of what had transpired at this Friday meeting at the White House. And Trump told me very clearly: I'm not backing down. There's nothing that she said. persuaded him.

And quite the contrary, Brian, he, according to what he told me, he gave her some numbers. that I think are worth repeating. Much like the federal borrowing. What's happened with the MTA and its budget is that It has lost billions of dollars, billions with a B. In the last four years, it's lost over five billion dollars.

in people not paying the f tolls on bridges and tunnels that the MTA controls. over five billion dollars of fake license plates, obscured license plates. just not paying. And so most this money has not been collected. over $5 billion.

And in addition to that, The MTA has been losing hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years. Uh because people don't pay the fares on buses and subways. They hop the turnstiles, they got on a bus, they just refuse to pay. The bus driver can't really force them. And so that loss has totaled an estimated of $800 million in just one year.

So, all of these big, big numbers going out the door, down the toilet, and so what do they do? Oh, let's tax.

Somebody else. Let's tax somebody else and make up the difference there. But I mean, this is an endless, bottomless game.

So you're going to have to keep raising the tax to keep making up for the losses you suffered elsewhere. And I'll just finally one more number. The combined budgets of New York State, New York City and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority this year are $400 billion, $400 billion combined expense budgets. And you're telling me there's no where in there you can find $1 billion more so that you don't need this congestion tax? I mean, this is a choice they've made, which is everything we're doing, we're going to keep doing, and we're going to do more, so we're going to tax you more.

That's the choice Hochul is making, and that's the kind of choice that's driving people away from New York. I'm going to bring you something else up. This whole green religion, everybody wants a clean environment, but I don't want to change economies. The obsession that Joe Biden pushed forward that Al Gore's been making zillions of dollars on. Governor Hochul has not gotten the memo that nobody wants this.

And now she's saying because she's taxing our oil and gas companies in New York, the utility bills on the average American in this state are now virtually doubling and tripling. It's all because of our idiotic policies and her taxing on fossil fuel companies. Does she not see how this relates to the whole common sense argument that got Trump elected?

Well and And uh I believe that's one of the issues that Trump raised. with her. Is is a pipeline project that, again, back to Cuomo, was stopped. I mean, Pennsylvania benefited greatly from fracking. New York doesn't even want to let pipelines go through it to other states that want to buy the the natural gas from Pennsylvania.

So there is this whole approach to talent. Taxing and spending and policies about the environment, et cetera, that are destructive to ordinary New Yorkers' cost of living. And yet, out of the other side of her mouth, Hoka will say, Oh, New York's too expensive. I want to make it more affordable. Here's $300 in inflation refund.

I mean, it's like she has no idea of economics. It's like she never studied anything about cause and effect. What drives the cost of living? Nothing as much as the cost of government. As Milton Friedman and Hayek and others have always said, it's a tax.

The cost of government is a tax, and it is what drives inflation more than anything else. Yeah, there's a lot going on there. It's just amazing this woman's actually talking about how popular it is to charge people tolls. I never in my life thought someone would be stupider than Kamala Harris, but I think we're witnessing it.

So I have hope, and I don't want to get too much into New York with a national show here, but I like when Democrats talk sense. I see this senator Fetterman sat down with Celina Zito and Dave McCormick, and they just talked about issues, Republican, Democrat, in a battleground state like Pennsylvania. And then I'm seeing Richie Torres, who's from the Bronx, who appeared at a pro-Israeli rally that was calling for the release of hostages as a black man, liberal from the Bronx, who talks about some of the soft-on-crime policies that have not worked. Is there a could there be a crop of sensible Democrats emerging? Brian, it's It's at this point.

It's a few green shoes. Um We haven't seen many of them. And the ones you mentioned are clearly who we would encourage them to have to bring their friends along too. because the Democratic Party is lost. And I think this is the only way back for the Democrats.

I don't think there's another route. I don't think you can go harder left. You can with the governor of Wisconsin women or mothers are now inseminated persons. Uh I mean, i it it's that that way lies madness. and it lies perpetual defeat.

I mean, if there's any one thing that Donald Trump won on, it's that the Democrats went too far left. both on the economy, on the cultural issues, on the border issues. It's all of a piece. And we haven't seen them, for example, say, oh yes, the border was a mistake. W w we needed to fix that.

I mean, there are all kinds of things that that show they went too far and yet As you note, only a few Democrats have acknowledged that and are searching for some common sense answers. We got one here, Harold Ford. You see him on the Five almost every day. Michael Goodwin, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Yeah, read his column about the New York congestion pricing, and he calls President Trump to get his perspective. Bruce Blakeman in 10 minutes, but your calls next: 1-866-408-7669. Increasing your intelligence quotients. What the hell did you say? It's Brian Kilmead.

The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmead. What we create. Is empathy. Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke.

And by the way, woke just means you give a other people. A whole lot of people are going to be really hurt. By what is happening. And even if they're of a different political persuasion, we need to call upon our empathy and. Not judge.

That is that idiot, Jane Fonda, who got a Lifetime Achievement Awards for not being in a movie for 25 years. That's an achievement. She looks like someone just like she's dressed up for a role with fake hair and dumb statements. Just to know that people can go a whole lifetime and not have any emotional growth. Jane in Maryland.

Hey, Jane. Yeah. Hey, Brian, love your show. I'm a CDL truck driver. Yeah.

Uh We are monitored. every second of the day. And if we bring stuff back, We're in trouble. We're talking. of these government workers not doing their job.

They're lucky I'm not in there. I'm fired. Halfway. them tomorrow. It's ridiculous.

We work so hard out here and the federal government does not appreciate it one iota. And the thing is, would you also say, Jane, part of the reason is because you answer to your boss, not really the federal government, but you do know what it's like to report. Where are you? How long was your lunch? When did you fill up for gas?

Where are you going in between? Because that figures into their overall price. And you're judged on performance. Am I right, Jane? Absolutely.

We don't get one. We care. Rolling. We're exempt. Our LTLs, we're so freaking busy, Brian.

I've been taking a lunch in four years. That's awesome. What does LTL mean? Pearl? What does LTL mean?

Less than a load. Oh, okay. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. You know, what was interesting to me is they got this, whatever it is, $9 billion because of congestion pricing.

And the next thing they know, they say, oh, we need another, I think it's $10 or $15 billion. It never ends. You know, and it's unsustainable. It's and New York is too expensive, the government costs too much. Uh we could use A little bit of Doge in Albany and in City Hall instead of raising.

Exactly. And the crazy thing is that Governor Hokul actually said it's very popular. Congestion pricing is very popular in New York. I mean, what kind of idiotic statement is that? If you thought it was popular, you would have instituted it before the election and then ran on it and had every Democrat run on it.

But they begged you, Akeem Jeffries, not to do it before the election. Bruce Blakeman joins us now. He's talking about reelection because Nassau County, as Nassau County executive, Bruce, you don't preside over just a county, one of the most populous counties in the country, right? Yes, we're larger than ten states in population. Our gross domestic product is larger than one hundred forty six nations in the United Nations.

So We have a big area to govern. We've got great people, and I'm just blessed to be able to do this job. What's your reaction to what Governor Bataki said, who used to have to balance a budget in New York, about how Governor Hokul says how popular congestion pricing is and how upset she is, and New Yorkers should be that Trump's taking it away? Yes, just like you said, it was popular to bring hundreds of thousands of people into the state and spend four billion dollars in taxpayer funds, on people who are illegal. They commit crimes.

They're here without the proper credentials. And we haven't vetted them. And then she says, you know, well, we're going to charge people $9 for the privilege to drive on a public thoroughfare. It's outrageous. Why didn't she take that $4 billion that she spent on the migrants, cleaned up the subways, put more cops in the subways?

People would use public transportation if it was safer and cleaner. You must hear people complain about the utility bills. How much worse is it knowing that this is a self-inflicted wound, that they're fining oil and gas companies in New York because they're oil and gas companies? Lee Zeldin is a breath of fresh air at the EPA. As you know, he's a Long Islander.

I've known Lee for a long time, great public official, found two billion dollars Of taxpayer money that was going to a slush fund for political friends and supporters of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. What a disgrace. I think that's the tip of the iceberg. When Governor Pataki says we need a little doge in New York, no, we don't need a little doge. We need a lot of doge.

So I agree with him. We got to start with looking under the carpet and seeing what's been hidden for all these years from the taxpayers. How about they do the impact study on the environment on fracking? And they find that we have a ton of natural gas and it would have almost negligible impact on the environment. And Governor Cuomo still says, I'm not doing it.

And then you look at Pennsylvania, the way it's thriving because of fracking. I mean, how long is that going to be the case? Do you need a Republican to win in order to do this? Absolutely.

And you need more Republican state senators and assembly members. When I was in the Southern tier in New York along the border of Pennsylvania, it always occurred to me that on the Pennsylvania side of the border, people are driving around in brand new Cadillac Escalades. And on the New York side of the border, they're driving around in fifteen year old pickup trucks with one hundred thousand miles on them. It's really a stark contrast. On one side, you have prosperity, on the other side, you have poverty and despair.

We need to do fracking. We need more energy sources here in New York State to bring the utility prices down. We've got to start bringing back gas and other fossil fuels, along with alternative means of generating energy. Nobody's against that. But that can't be the only route.

We can't be all electric vehicles in the next five years. It's ridiculous. Well, you can't do it. And if you go to the dealerships, and Bruce, that makes up so much of the local economy, from the salespeople to the mechanics to the purchases.

So you go to the dealerships, they're forced to carry these electric cars in their lots. They don't move. And when they don't move, they had to buy those cars and they got to go sell them back. And I'm sure there's some type of buyback deal, even with the supplements, they don't move. How long do they have to eat this?

You know, I was with the President of the Long Island Association of Car Dealers. And he was telling me of the hundreds of cars that they have the lots that nobody wants these electric cars. Look, there's nothing wrong with electric cars. You can't force people to buy them. People should have a choice.

It's ridiculous. And by the way, I'm not sure that for me, the technology is there yet that I would consider buying an electric car. I want a car that I can fill up with gasoline, that I know the gasoline's available, and I can get from point A to point B without having to worry about stopping to charge my car for 25 minutes. You know, it's interesting. I spoke to an own gas.

convention about two years ago. And they were just explaining to me the whole global market, and the global market is hybrid.

So you want to have an option. And if you can't get that electric, you know, if you can't get that outlet, or you get there and it's busted, you can't be stuck. You got to call a tow truck. But if you have a hybrid option, you know, you're getting more for your money. It is you charge when you can and you use gas when you have to, or vice versa.

And we just don't seem to buy into that, or Joe Biden didn't buy into that. And if you look at Tesla, they built their own infrastructure.

So you could go to a Tesla charging station, not a Joe Biden infrastructure charging station, because only a dozen have been built in three years. Yeah, and think about how much money they spent on those dozen, probably billions of dollars. I can't wait till Doge looks at that.

So, Bruce Blakeman, you have an announcement. You're running for re-election. Yes, I'm making my announcement today in a community that I think you're a little familiar with, Massapequa at the American Legion Post ten sixty six. Uh you know, I I want to bring it to a place where You know, we honor our veterans, and Nassau County is a very patriotic county. We have probably a larger Veteran population to most counties in America.

So I thought it was a fitting place to kick off my reelection campaign. I hired over 300 police officers. I haven't raised taxes in four years. I canceled the $150 million tax increase by my predecessor. We're the safest county in America.

We're the most desirable place to live in New York State, according to experts.

So we've done a lot of great things, but we've got more work to do, like cooperating with ICE and getting our illegal migrants out. Are you doing that? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. I've dedicated ten detectives that are going to be embedded and cross designated with ICE.

And I've opened up our jails. We're going to dedicate up to fifty jail cells for ICE.

So we're working very closely with ICE. We believe that it's the right thing to do to get criminals out of our communities. And listen, we are the first county in America to ban biological males from competing against girls in girls' sports. only common sense.

So we've done some good things here, but I don't want to rest on my laurels. We got a lot more work to do, and I feel energized. I'm ready to keep on fighting for the people of Nassau County. Are you as is New York a sanctuary state? New York is a sanctuary state, but Nassau County is not.

when President Biden's Staff contacted me when Governor Hokul's staff contacted me, Mayor Adams' staff. All asked me to take in some migrants. I said, no. I said, we're not a migrant sanctuary county. We're not a a sanctuary county because the people in our county don't want people here that aren't vetted, they don't know who they are, they don't know where they came from, and they're going to use all our resources, resources that could go to our schools, our hospitals, and our infrastructure, and to hire more cops.

So I said no, and uh I told them, don't try it, and they didn't. Uh But when I watch these police chiefs, for example, in Boston, say, you know, I can't help ICE. I'm not allowed. What do you say to them?

Well, you know, I've got a police commissioner that's completely in sync with me on this. Commissioner Pat Ryder was with me at a press conference with the Regional Director of ICE, where we dedicated 10 detectives. to work with ICE. And all I can say is I don't know why Democrats are fighting for criminals. We're removing criminals from our communities.

They're pro-criminal, cashless bail, raise the age. It's like they don't think about the people, and they failed miserably. At the polls, and they wonder why. It's because they're on the wrong side of all these issues.

So, I want you to hear, when you mentioned about you, the first to come up and say, I do not want trans men playing in women's sports or boys or whatever. You have a Maine governor that is suing the president because he's passed this nationwide. And listen to Bill Maher on this Pod Saves America with these former Obamaites who now have a very successful podcast. Listen to Bill Maher, cut 35. There are also really important surgeries that people get for their heart, and they go wrong, and somebody dies.

And nobody says we must stop the cardiologists. No one says we must stop the surgeons. We say, Let's govern to ban gender-affirming care for kids. You want to lose every election. Just keep coming down on the side of parents coming in second in a who gets to decide what goes on with my kid contest.

Bill Moore's right, right? I mean, what is these people thinking? What are these people.

Well, he's got an epiphany. I'm very happy that he's seeing that common sense should prevail. I mean, it's just bizarre. And I want to say so you know, President Trump He's been amazing. I've never seen anything like it.

What he's been able to do in four months is just. Awesome. And the people here in Nassau County love everything that he's doing. I want you to hear what Kid Rock told me Sa uh Sunday night. And I said, you know, you've known him for a long time.

I noticed I've never seen him smile so much. I know, like, the stuff he does, some people like or don't like, but he is, I think, really enjoying this. This is what. He said, cut 37. I think a lot of it's, I mean, I don't really think he had any problems with confidence ever, but there's something about a level of confidence, and I think that comes with knowing that what you did the first four years was the right thing to put this country first.

And then to have four years to kind of sit back and see exactly what not to do. It's just experience that he had. I'm sure, you know, trying to, you know, people take his life a couple times, you know, definitely. you know, brings out a certain thing in any of us. Also knowing really who the right people are at this point, the people you can trust to implement the America First Agenda.

How do you feel about that? Because you know him very well too.

Well, you know, I I agree with Kid Rock. I think that we had to see Just how bad things could get under democratic leadership in the last four years. And I think that President Trump did some great things his first four years, but he had four years. to figure out what his next four years would be like, he had the time to plan. Last time he was elected back in 2016, it was new to him and he had a lot of people around him that weren't loyal.

He had a lot of people that weren't on the same page.

Now he's appointed people like Cash Patel from Nassau County, Steve Witcoff from Nassau County, Howard Luttnick from Nassau County, Lee Zeldin. From Suffolk County, Elise Stefanik from the Hudson Valley. He's got smart people now who are loyal to him and loyal to his agenda. And I think that's made all the difference in the world. Absolutely.

So, Bruce, congratulations. I know it's going to be a successful run. It's never easy because Nassau County is a little purple. That's why you got, you know, we have a few Democratic legislators in Congress and Nassau, but you'll run hard. Is there any scenario where you run for governor?

You know, I tell everybody the same thing. I love my job. I'm running for reelection, and I think that to use a sports analogy, You never look two games down because you lose the next game. I'm not thinking about running for governor yet. Gotcha.

I'm thinking about doing the best job I can do as county executive and getting reelected. I'm going to run as if I was five points down. I'm not taking anything for granted because if you take the voters for granted, They'll drop you. And lastly, the Yankees with the facial hair, they're allowed to grow beards in. Are you for that or against that?

I I'm I'm old school, you know. George Steinbrenner's rolling over in his grave right now.

So uh I'm kind of old school. I I go uh I go with George Steinbrenner, who was, you know, the greatest owner the Yankees had. Absolutely, his own son reversed it. And among the people that are with you, Bruce Blakeman, Johnny Damon. The guy who looked like a wild Grizzly Admins character said, No, no, the Yankees should stay with short hair and no facial hair.

Things are changing. Bruce Blakeman, good luck in your reelection. I look forward to talking to you early and off and along the way. Thank you so much, Brian. Go get him.

He's making the announcement at Massapiqua, 1866-408. Wow, every line is jammed. I'll try to get to as many calls as possible when we come back. Breaking news. The latest headlines.

Exciting commentary. People are aroused. I haven't seen people so aroused in a very, very long time. It's Brian Kilmead. Radio that makes you think.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Vladimir Putin is a vile dictator and thug, and he is clearly responsible for the war in Ukraine. Russia, China, and Iran have been working in a coordinated effort to undermine and destabilize the United States, Europe, Israel, and the free world. They are not our allies or our friends, and we must be clear-eyed about that. Mike Lawler weighing in, by the way, he looks like he's going to run for governor as a Republican.

He won his seat again even more handily than he did last time, and a very smart guy. But he, like. You know, if Mike Waltz ran for governor of Florida, which if Trump didn't call him, that's what he'd be doing. I go, wow, what a waste of foreign policy now. It's the same thing with Lawrence.

He's got such a great instinct from foreign policy. It would almost be wasted running New York. But let's see if he can win. Ryan in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hey, Ryan.

Hey, Brian, how are you doing? Great. What's in your mind? Hey, not much, man. We love your show.

And if you could bring Jimmy Phela to Tulsa, I mean, we'd go crazy. I'll do my best. Oh yeah. Hey, yeah, I was trying to take like a 20,000-foot view down. I can't see how the Democrats are coming back.

They're at the end of a dead end road, and they're not coming back from it. And they're losing their platform as far as the mainstream media. And I just don't see, they don't have any legs to stand on, and they're not even trying to stand. They just keep going farther left.

So the thing is, you're right. Here's the thing. They can't figure out where to go. That's why they're saying, that's why Carville is saying, let's lay out. He's saying it's because Trump will collapse, but they're trying to find a weakness.

They lost a lot of the Hispanic vote. They've lost, you know, now it's by, he's got 46% of the Hispanic vote. The black vote is up to 15% to 17%. And he just keeps improving.

So they say, let's see what he does that's unpopular. Even the best president ever does things that aren't popular because he thinks it's for the good of the country. But right now, they don't have an outstanding personality. They don't have an outstanding message. And some of them are having trouble losing the old message, which is go woke.

America's a racist country built on stolen land. Bill is in Myrtle Beach. Hey, Bill. Hey, what's on your mind, Bill?

Well, I want to find out about the those information that was found out about Stacy Abrams in Georgia by getting not a million. How about a billion? dollars. Yeah, how about a billion? And it looks like Lee Zeldon's all over it.

Her company or her organization was getting this money in an area she has no expertise in. And how many of those boondoggles are there out there? Which was so ironic, Bill, on this research. Lee said that they would offer a class. After they granted the money, they offered a class on how to spend it.

You believe that? Scott in North Carolina. Hey, Scott. And thanks for having me on. Just wanted to make a point.

I heard that Jane Fonda clip, and of course I started to get nauseated. But I also have to think of the irony is, you know, we've we've uh the United States has not Been an enemy to Vietnam long since the wars ended, and yet the media has to. Has to pull the greatest traitor in America, one of the greatest traitors in American history of Jane DeFonda. And it's so irrelevant what she has to say. I know, it's just amazing.

She's got a Lifetime Achievement Award. She's been trying to shake a lot of her actions in North Vietnam all year, and she uses it to get political. Good luck with that. You know, that's her legacy. Just embrace it.

Her dad was a great actor. I'll give her that. Brian Kilmeicho. Go to BrianKilmeat.com. Find out how to see me on stage June 21st in Dayton, Ohio.

Brian Kilmead.

From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Killmead. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Brian Killmead Show. I hope you had a great weekend.

We're back in action now. Thanks everyone for watching. I assume everyone watched One Nation Sunday night at 10 p.m. This hour I'm going to be joined by Michael Dorgan, a great writer for Fox News Digital, has this huge story about Barack Obama's library, which is just overridden with corruption. They can't even get the doors open, not closed.

They can't build the place, let alone fill the place. And they built it in a place that's supposed to benefit everybody in Chicago, has benefited no one. We'll talk about that. And then Roger Zakheim, Washington director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. We'll talk about it.

We're back talking about Soviet then, now Russian-U.S. relations and where we stand. This hour, we know that there have already been a G7 Zoom call where President Trump took part. We know the Secretary of Defense for our country, Pete Hagzeth, is meeting with his counterpart in Saudi Arabia. And then there'll be a press conference this afternoon with President Macron.

of France. And there was a time when they would meet and just do a photo op and then leave. But now, under the Trump regime, it's all out there for us to see and evaluate. And there's going to be some real exchanges.

So let's get to the big three. Number three. What I've said very publicly is that Democrats need to play possum. I believe that this administration, in less than 30 days, in the midst of a massive collapse, and particularly a collapse in public opinion. Yep, that's James Carville.

Politics a plenty. New pros for Trump, them search for leaders, and a prediction from James Carville. It all is going to come down on Donald Trump's head. Do you believe it? Number two.

It should have never happened. That war should have never happened. Biden said the wrong things. Zelensky said the wrong things. Russia could have been talked out of that so easily.

That should never have been a war. But they welled up 100,000 troops and they did invade, and it has been a disaster for Russia. Ukraine-Russia, war and peace, Macron town. We'll talk about all that as well as a way forward and a big minerals plan and deal coming down in Ukraine and the U.S. Number The American people love the idea of paring back the federal government theoretically.

But operationally, it's a very different story. When you start talking about actual people and their actual jobs and their lives are at stake, people don't like it. Yeah, that is true. Jonathan Martin, a meet the press as a commentator. Doge, bulldozing itself, reshaping federal workforce, and getting some pushback from other divisions of the Trump team and from some of the country.

We discussed their impact politically and throughout the country. That's true. I mean, we're looking at what, a $7 trillion budget. We only have $5.8 trillion. That leaves a huge gap.

So we got to cut. Musk says, I'll do it. I'll volunteer to do it. But when he actually does it, people start getting angry. And that's what people are finding now.

When they find out that they go on their computer, they can't get on, we're told they're fired. They don't like that. A lot of times that happens in the real world, and there's some uproar in some town halls with various Republicans across the country. I would just say take a pause on that. Number one, if you lose your job, you're going to be upset, especially if you weren't expecting it.

But federal workers have to know only 3% were going actually to their job. He told you to go back to work. They gave you seven months to quit and gave you seven months' severance pay. That almost never happens. And now, the people that went to their job say, Well, I got to go back.

Now, I imagine there's some good people that got it let go, and some might get rehired. But I imagine a lot of other people are cashing a check just hoping to go out and not, you know, under the wire.

Well, that's not going to happen. In terms of the blowback, it was happening in Oklahoma. Senator Mark Wayne Moen was confronted with that question on Meet the Press, cut three. I would tell you that the majority of the American people want to make sure that their taxpayers are being used correctly. I don't want anybody to lose their job.

That's the last thing we want. But at the same time, anytime you're trying to secure this country, which a national security risk we have right now is our national debt, we have to make changes and we have to make it quickly. Unfortunately, when we have bureaucrats and politicians that have wastely spent the American taxpayer dollars, and we don't have to look any further than USAID to see the wasteful billions of dollars that were spent, cuts had to take place. And every business owner understands this.

So you have to do it early. And you have to do it with a president that doesn't want to get reelected because it's unpopular. But can you imagine if we get our country on the right course to paying down the debt instead of increasing the debt, closing that gap, and then having the follow-up presidential candidates and congressmen and senators say, I'm running on this. We're going to stay on this course, and this is how you do it. But I think the best way to do that is to keep the country educated on your approach.

So I had a chance to talk to David Sachs over the weekend. Who's he? One of the founders of PayPal, one of the smartest guys in Silicon Valley, one of the first to come into the Trump team. And now he's AI czar. And he is cryptocurrencies are.

So I asked him about getting AI involved in not cutting Medicare, Social Security, and veterans' benefits or the Pentagon. But making it leaner and meaner and finding out where the actual the best way to do this stuff. Usually he said cut ten. OJ is playing an incredibly important role right now in reshaping and reforming the government. They're really looking at everything.

They're looking at where the money is going. They're getting to the bottom of how the money is being spent. And to do that, you have to go to the system level and look at actually what's happening in the accounting systems, what's happening in the HR systems. And no one had really done that before. And I think that is what is leading to all these discoveries of waste, fraud, and abuse.

I hope for paying all the dead people reined in. I hope for the fraud and abuse to be reined in. Do you know there's a reason to believe that a lot of foreign hackers are making money?

So at least if we're going to be defrauded, can it be Americans?

So at least it stays in our economy. And I'm doing it with my tongue on my cheek. But that's what these cyber thieves can do. And we're watching it. We hear how China's embedded itself in our infrastructure.

That happened over the last four years faster than any other four years. Got to bulk that up, don't you think? But the problem is when it actually starts happening. People start getting angry. Jonathan Martin, you heard a little about this in the open on with Politico, said this about some of the blowback that Trump's feeling right now, Cut Five.

The American people love the idea of pairing back the federal government theoretically, but operationally, Kristen, it's a very different story. When you start talking about actual people and their actual jobs and their lives are at stake, you see the kind of clips that we've seen the last week at these town halls. People don't like it. They like the idea of it, not the actual application of it. That's an old axiom in American politics, and I think that's going to put Elon Musk on thin ice.

Uh, yeah, maybe. But how do you get on thin ice if you never wanted to put on skates? He doesn't care. What do you mean thin ice? He's going to keep doing it as much as Trump wants him to do it.

The day that Trump says, listen, Doge is done, we cut a trillion out of the budget. He goes back to Tesla. Boring company, which is making tunnels under to alleviate traffic in places like Las Vegas and eventually Los Angeles. He goes back to Starlink and he goes back to SpaceX and he goes back to putting chips in brains.

Okay.

I don't think thin ice is even an act everyone's thinking that people want to hold on to these jobs. Oh, thin ice, not reelected. Not in his case, not in David Sachs' case. I don't really see almost anybody in this government that doesn't feel like it's service. Personally.

So what's going to happen with Republicans? What's going to happen with Democrats? Where are they going to come up with a candidate that's going to attack some of these issues, these common sense issues the Republicans have embraced because Democrats haven't? James Carville's got an opinion. I know he's a great guest, but this is based on nothing.

Well let's listen to it, cut thirty-four. What I've said very publicly is that Democrats need to play possum. This whole thing is collapsing. It doesn't need Elizabeth Warren and somebody screaming to pacify some progressive advocacy groups in Washington, which, by the way, I wish these people were just useless. They're actually worse than useless.

that they're detrimental. And they never ever learned to shut up. And so, Dan, this is what I believe. I believe that this administration. in less than 30 days in the midst of a massive collapse.

in particularly a collapse in public opinion.

You really believe that? You think we're about to collapse? Do you think that we, as the government, is about to collapse? They're going to turn on each other. They just got their people in place.

They're going to collapse in 30 days? What is Tulsi Gabbert going to do? What is Pete Hakeseth going to do that's caused a collapse? They dismissed six people over the weekend: Inspector Generals, Chairman. Of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I think Secretary of the Navy.

Why should President Trump not get the people in there that he wants? When is the last time? You remember the last time he was in office? He had a bunch of people there that were competent, but they weren't for Trump. They went out of their way to undermine him.

General Milley making apologies. General Milley was a big embarrassment. Obviously, then he was an embarrassment that Joe Biden oversaw the whole withdrawal from Afghanistan, then said, wasn't my idea, and then left and said, maybe we shouldn't have fought, and we shouldn't have taught the Afghanis to fight in a Western way. Really? Do you think you could have said that when you actually had the job?

And then you have all the others. You have Jim Mattis, great guy, not good with Trump. John Kelly, General Kelly, not good with Trump.

So he's saying FBI, James Comey, not good with Trump, and a clown. Then you have Christopher Reagan? bought into the people that were there with Comey.

So Trump says, I'm going to watch my back, new FBI director. I'm going to watch my back with Pam Bondi. I'm going to watch my back. And I'm going to put good people there that are not going to turn on me. Especially legally, think about what he's been through legally: the ringer, his business, pursued professionally, people coming out of the woodwork, making accusations, civil trials, all these things.

Do you think that now that he gets in there, it gets over the top, he's not going to look, he's not going to learn from any of that? Of course, he is. When we come back, and I see your calls up there, I'm going to get to him. But next, I'm going to bring in Michael Dorgan, a writer for Fox News Digital. You're not going to believe this story about the Obama library.

You'll listen to the Brian Kilmeat show. 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. Hey, welcome back, everyone. With me in the studio, if you're watching on Fox Nation, it's Michael Dorgan, writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Michael, great to see you. Thanks for having me, Brian.

So I read your story. And you were nice enough to alert me to it about what's going on with Barack Obama's library. Obviously, we don't get up every morning and wonder what's going on with the library. We do remember George W. Bush's library being done pretty quickly, Jimmy Carter's Bill Clinton, and a lot of fun and momentum was built around it.

Here we are. We've been through the Biden presidency four years of Trump, starting another four years of Trump. Where's the library?

Well, officially, a couple of years ago, it was supposed to finish a couple of years ago. The initial cost was $330 million. It's now ballooned to $830 million. They were the 2021 figures. We still don't have updated costs on the center there.

There's a massive cost overruns at the moment. And rooted in all that is this explosive lawsuit between one of the structural engineers and one of the subcontractors on the site. What's the problem?

So basically, the architect, the structural engineer, is saying that the subcontractor did a poor job on it. There's cracked concrete. There's exposed rebar. They were sending back all the problems.

So the contractor fixed all these issues with the concrete and they racked up overruns of $40 million.

Now, the structural engineer wrote to the Obama Presidential Center and they said, look, this is nothing to do with us. The subcontractors did a poor job on it.

So the subcontractors. Went to the Obama Foundation and said. We're owed $40 million. Obama Foundation said, No, the structural engineer says it's your fault.

So now the structural engine or the forgive me, the subcontractor is now suing the structural engineer on the basis of discrimination. Say that they were discriminated against and that it was based on race, everything that they are they are minority-owned. They're minority-owned, they're black-owned. There's three firms together are doing the concrete. Two black owned firms, and another firm together they make up 51% of the minority business enterprise.

That's the whole basis of this construction project: DEI. All these subcontractors have to reach a minimum standard, 35% minority-owned business. And here we have a situation where one of the minority-owned businesses is now suing the structural engineer on the base of racism. It's incredible.

So, his quest to be equal and fair and use DEI has screwed up his whole and cost overruns at his library. How close is it to being done? They're saying 2026, but as I said, there's been numerous delays in the last couple of years. We're not exactly sure. I think 2026 was the last figures given to us, so we can just have to take them on their word for that.

Now, the concrete has been finished. If you see on Fox News Digital, we've got some great drone footage there. The museum part of the center is 235 feet tall. It's a big concrete, almost like a wooden stub, and that's where the museum is going to go. The concrete is finished on that.

I know they're putting on the outside of that at the moment.

So they're doing that right now, and we have the drone footage, on Fox News Digital. They built it in a place that's not conducive to growth in the area. You're saying that if they built it in a different place, it would have been an asset to the area. But where did they decide to build it? They built it.

It's actually on Chicago Southside on the shores of Lake Michigan. It's on this park. It's called Jackson Park. It's 551 square feet in size. It's very historic.

It's been there since 1871. Environmentalists have opposed this from the outset. They said we're giving a big section of this historic park to basically a private enterprise, the Obama Foundation. It's worth $200 million. I think it was transferred over for $10 in the end.

But the lawsuits failed in the end. But they also tried to sue them on other grounds, like financial grounds. They said that they accused the Obama Center of not having. The money to build the center and they couldn't they were trying to audit the their financials. Michael Dorgan, our guest, he wrote this story about the Obama Library.

They had these lofty goals and it still might turn out good, but it's way overpriced.

Now we find out the Obama Library is the first not to take any federal funds for the library. Yeah, it's not exactly a library. You see, there's restrictions on presidential libraries. They can only be 70 feet tall.

So the Obama Center is a very good question. Yeah, so there's a lot of legal wranglings going on here to get this big, huge center built. Like it's going to be a museum. That big concrete structure is a museum. There's going to be a digital library, but it's not actually going to be a presidential library.

And that's how they kind of get around these legal restrictions. Also, I see that it's a 19-acre plot. I see that in the past, Chicago residents are basically being displaced because of what Obama Presidential Center is bringing to the community. They've got to clear a lot of these people out.

So here you are trying to revitalize a section of Chicago, but instead you're forcing Chicago residents out. Yeah, they're saying there's going to be gentrification problems here. There's also a six-lane thoroughfare running alongside it that has to be cut up, and the cost of that is going to be leveled on the city of Chicago. That was another component of the lawsuit, but still it's got approval and it's nearly there. But there is a pending a lawsuit.

There's litigants trying to get this hurt before the Supreme Court still.

So it's a $500 million project that is going over. And then when it's all said and done, there's going to be people angry that it's put there that it was supposed to revitalize things. Do you think that it's at, in your opinion, is this at the point where it's affecting his legacy?

Well, I think so. I think so. You would have to say that. And the thing is that the money isn't coming in as much as it was. Like, this was announced maybe 10 years ago when he was still in office, leaving office.

His star has slightly faded in the last couple of years.

So they're going to say. Need to bring in the money, and the donations have been falling steadily since.

So then you got to keep it going, but people got to visit. There's got to be a reason to go. And now, well, you have this negative connotation to it. And it's landlocked.

So people who were suing the Obama, who are trying to stop this from going ahead, were saying that it's very hard to access. They actually came up with another site in the south side of Chicago that was a dozen acres. It was private land, wouldn't be open to all these restrictions, was easily accessible. But for some reason, the Obamas wanted to power ahead and place it here on Jackson Park. Right.

So we're going to see what's going to be made first. Trump library, which has got a lot of money already through the fines, or it's going to be Obama or the Biden Library. That's going to be exciting to see Joe Biden in a library. Yeah. All right, Mike, what else are you working on?

So, yeah, a couple of things.

So we're always with the breaking news on Fox News Digital. I'm following up on this story. There's a lot more to come in this story. I have sources telling me on the ground in the Obama Center. That there are one or two businesses, minority-owned businesses, are on the verge of bankruptcy here because of the overruns.

So we're looking into that. I've got some good stuff. Thanks, Michael. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead.

We expect the Ukrainians to realize the opportunity that this is, and President Zelensky to realize the opportunity that this is to be co-invested with the United States of America. Let's grow together in an economic partnership, and of course, the U.S. would protect our assets for which we are invested in. This could mean trillions, not only for the Ukrainian people, but for us and for stability for the region. And that economic investment is one of the best security guarantees that Ukraine could hope for.

And that's how Michael Wall's working through the night to try to get some type of deal hammered out with some type of payback with rare earth, raw materials, oil and gas in Ukraine in exchange for American aid and security. Roger Zackheim joins us now, Washington Director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. If you want to go to an administration that turned things around with the Soviets, the Reagan administration did just that, followed up by Bush 41. Roger, welcome. Thanks for having me on.

It looks like we have a guy, Vladimir Putin, who wants to pretend that Gorbachev didn't exist and he wants to reconstitute the Soviet Union, but he's got huge problems in Ukraine. Regardless of how this turns out, he's lost about nine hundred thousand people from the battlefield. You're exactly right. This has not gone the way Putin wanted. He invaded Ukraine, and we're, of course, talking three years from the day that he invaded.

wasn't him occupying Kyiv like he anticipated. His military has really been depleted substantially in a fashion that no one expected, not even the most insightful security analysts. And in a way, that advantages the US, because Russia, of course, has been a threat and challenge to NATO for years, our alliance in Europe. And when the Russian military is weakened, it produces less of a threat to U. S.

interests and to the interests of our friends and allies. Why do you think they agreed to sit down in Saudi Arabia? For me, it looks like they're desperate. It looks like things are hollowed out a lot worse than one would expect. Listen, Putin knows that President Trump was elected.

in part on the basis that he wanted to negotiate into this deal. And what I think the Kremlin has done from the beginning is try to advance themselves in the inevitable negotiation. And stonewalling President Trump is not a successful recipe. And I think that's what's driving there. They probably think right now they have the upper hand as the administration works with Kyiv to work out this mineral deal as you've outlined.

Uh but in the end of the day The American people know that Russia is an adversary, and we do a poll here at the Reagan Institute twice a year where we look at how Americans view countries around the world, whether they're an adversary or an ally. And in our latest survey, which we did just toward the end of this year, by a 66-point margin, 80% of those surveyed, including by a larger number, voters for President Trump. Yeah. Russia as an adversary. And they are.

And Ukraine has been remarkably resourceful. Their factory is now producing 1.5 million drones, and they started this conflict without any. And they'll make even more. They're actually saying, give us metal, raw materials, we'll make our own weapons. And they got some of their best software analysts working for weaponry to make sure that the Russians can't take any more territory.

So, what they have done in terms of fighting prowess can't be overstated, I think, and it's getting kind of plowed under by the friction between Zelensky and Trump. Brian, you've done great work on this. And I listened to your interview with President Trump at the end of last week, covering exactly what's happening on the battlefield, and you're spot on. Ukraine has become a leader in the world for how to use drones. in warfare.

When the reality is American companies that have been trying to develop this capability don't compete, at least in these small tactical drones that could take out Troops at the line of conflict, the way that Ukraine has developed it. And they want to do it on their own. I mean, listen, this is serious. in terms of the amount of funds the United States has given. And President Trump was very clear That He was going to be very careful before the United States gives additional military assistance and security assistance to Ukraine.

But at the same time, this is not a country that has been looking for U. S. boots on the ground to support them in this fight. This is not Afghanistan where you had Ashraf Ghani leave the country the second that he saw U. S support go away.

I mean, famously, Vladimir Zelensky said, listen, I don't even Uber. I need weapons. That's trying to get out of the country.

So they are. absolutely not just Zelensky. It's not about one man. This is a country that wants to protect its sovereign territory, that wants to remain free and not under the thumb of an autocrat like Vladimir Putin. That much is not debatable.

How the United States and Ukraine work together, what that support looks like, is of course now tied to this mineral deal. But these are people who wanted to fight for their own freedom and counter this autocrat Putin.

So here's the bigger picture. The Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said this, Cut 22. This deal is part of President Trump's long arc negotiating strategy for peace between Ukraine and Russia and to let the Ukrainians get back To a peaceful existence.

So, the first part of this is a partnership between Ukraine and the US that involves strategic minerals. Energy and state-owned enterprises, where we set up a partnership.

So he also talked about that they want to get back to talking to Russia. I mean, they have to do a lot to convince me. I'm not saying that Putin will ever change his ways, to convince me that we should ever have long-term relationships with them. But it would be great to have them not cutting cable lines to the Baltics, not causing unrest in Moldova, not, you know, basically annexing Belarus. It would be great to see a non-belligerent Russia.

Is there any scenario where that happens with Putin in charge?

Okay.

Putin has to be careful. The issue right now is the United States and Ukraine getting on the same page. And of course, you've covered all the tensions involved, as we just heard from Secretary Beston, in terms of this deal. But that does not translate into Vladimir Putin, in my mind, having free reign in the Trump administration. President Trump knows that 79% of his voters view Russia as an adversary.

He knows this guy's a cold-blooded murderer. He knows he's a war criminal. And he thinks, and we'll see how this shakes out, that once. They bring this conflict from a hot conflict to what will inevitably be, Brian, a cold conflict, right? One that's frozen there on whatever the line of contact is, if and when they get the deal together.

Russia is going to have to be Changing its behavior and not the pariah carrying out the sorts of things you just described. And if he dares do that, That's going to be on President's Trump watch. We have to remember. The narrative, the uh story that President Trump has said before he was elected. in November and continues now that he is sitting in the Oval Office is that Putin would not have done this under my watch.

Out there. Counter narrative. We don't know that to be the case. But President Trump believes that. And so Putin knows that if he tries to do any of this stuff, on President Trump's watch, there'll be hell to pay.

And I believe that. And I think that is the famous Trump deterrence, right? The sort of thing that the man in his own right. Deters adversaries. And that was, in many respects, the case we saw during his first administration, and we'll see how it plays out.

In his second administration. We're through Roger Zachheim, Washington Director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.

So, Roger, I want to go back to the first term with Reagan. And I remember when he came out with his supplied-side economics and there was some panic there that the interest rates weren't coming down fast enough, and people were wondering, you know, people were wondering if Reagan was going to be able to pull off some of his lofty things that, as a conservative, that many people thought couldn't govern, his approval rating dropped. And I'm looking at Trump's approval rating: 45, 45, CNN, 47, UGov, 50, 45. His first term averaged 44 percent in very polarized time. Did Reagan also go stay under 50 percent for the first half of his first term?

And there was some doubt maybe about some of his principles? No doubt in nineteen eighty two, eighty three.

So it wasn't like the pace we saw or seeing right now with President Trump, we're just over thirty days in office. But by nineteen eighty two, eighty three, as The president was doing two things that the conventional wisdom said. were not aligned. That We were self-defeating. He had once, as you just referenced, was trying to reboot the economy, getting his tax plan through.

And at the same time, He was rebuilding the military. That's where PC's strength comes from. And they said, well, you're going to hurt the economy with the spending on defense. and you have to do them sequentially. And wait for their economy to recover.

Reagan, for the reasons you were just talking about, was unwilling to do that because he had to confront and challenge. The Soviet Union and basically restore the strength I had. evaporated under Jimmy Carter's leadership.

So that tested a lot of the elite thinking at the time, hurt because the economy worsened before it got better, his ratings. But ultimately, as he got through the heady days of the end of 1982, 1983, it came back to Morning America, and that's why we saw the success. You haven't had one that comes close to it in 1984. But yeah, I mean, he held on to those principles, never let them go, had a plan, believed he came to Washington to execute that plan. Primarily was winning the Cold War and restoring the American economy.

And by the end of his first term, it was clear that he was going to deliver on that promise.

So interesting is that Trump's doing something different, different principles. He's trying to realign trade. He's trying to bring manufacturing back. He's trying to hit him with tariffs to try to jar our partners, friends and foes, into understanding there's going to be a new balance. And because of that, initially, there might be some rises in some prices.

And I think a lot of people should hold on tight because, in the long run, if we can rebalance trade, Manufacturing comes back and prices come down.

Well, very different approaches to the economy, as you know. Um the tariff is something that President Trump has always been committed to before he came to office the first time during his first administration.

So nobody should be surprised that we're seeing it surface again and be a priority during his second term. But I think ultimately, as you note, it's quite clear what the metrics are, right? Will the American economy be stronger? Will we see increased manufacturing in the United States? Will we be better off for it?

And we'll see how this shakes out. Ultimately, you have both the threat of tariffs and we'll see what the reality is. But for President Trump, it's always about deal making. And that, I think, is what's tied To the discussions around tariffs today. And of course, goes back to our conversation over Ukraine.

Do you find that the traditional Republicans, Bush, Reagan Republicans are more accepting of Donald Trump now? I mean, you look at the numbers in terms of those who voted for them, you have to say F. I mean, the clear difference between 2016 and, of course, 2024. And then there's what's happening day to day. You know, the just the President Trump coming to office, putting in his policies in place, being the center of attention, bringing all this energy.

And I'm sure it's Changing and varied up and down with each passing day, let alone each passing hour. But I think broadly speaking, His second term has brought back far more support of quote-unquote traditional Republican than he saw in 2016. Oh, wow. All right, Roger, thanks so much. Always great to get your perspective on what's going on in the world.

We've never seen anything quite like this first month. It's going to be a great four years. Roger, thank you. Thank you. You got it.

1-866-408-7669. I see you up there in Indiana, Washington, State, New Burg, New York, and Dallas.

So don't move. Brian, Kilmeetcho. Diving deep into today's top stories, it's Brian Kilmead. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead.

This is a reflection of the president wanting the right people around him to execute the national security approach we want to take. And I have a lot of respect for C.Q. Brown. I got to know him over the course of the month. He's an honorable man, not the right man for the moment.

And ultimately, the president made that call. And there's a new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff nominee. There's an acting one right there. But Pete wanted C.Q. Brown wrote about in his book, didn't think he was a good pick, thought he was a DEI pick.

Retired three-star general Dan Kaine is now in. Chief of the Navy, Admiral Lisa Franchetti is gone. Also, out of the Secretary of Air Force, three top jag officers are now gone. I don't blame them. They need people that aren't risk averse, that are going to take chances and have a new mindset.

So, six new people at the top. Why should Trump not have the right people?

Now, you think about it, Barack Obama was not comfortable with. with General Petraeus. He felt as though he wasn't giving it enough options on major situations like winding down the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I remember Joe Biden hated the military. He had a problem with huge people.

He kept telling Barack Obama, look out, don't trust these guys. And that was written about in Defense Secretary Casey's book. Uh Gates' book, rather, excuse me, Casey's different administration. Still thinking Reagan. What I don't understand is there's going to be about 5,400 civilian Pentagon employees cut.

But keep in mind, there is 700,000. They talk about a 7% cut in budget. I actually think we need an increase in the budget. And we were talking about that before, a substantial increase.

So I think we've got to get the 3.8% to 4% spending.

So I don't know how both mix. Maybe he's going to lean it out in order to build it up right. I hope. Just a quick announcement. I'm going to be in two places that I hope you join me at in St.

Louis, Missouri, coming up on March 22nd.

Some good seats are left, but it's almost all sold out at the factory, the History, Liberty, and Laughs on tour. Fox Nation will definitely have promotions for it, probably be streaming it. And then we just put this up now, June 21st. WHIO Listeners, you listen up. I'm going to be in Dayton, Ohio, at the Victoria Theater.

It's a beautiful theater. I'm just looking at some of these pictures. History and Liberty and Laughs.

So our chance to do patriotic salute America and be inspirational, motivational. I think it's just great for me personally to be able to see all of you in person because sometimes you come into the studio, you don't realize how big the audience is and who exactly you are, unless I pick up the phones and I can imagine, like Matt in Indiana. Matt, you're on the Brian Killmeat Show. Hey, Brian. Great show, man.

Thank you. Awesome. Which are you mine? Hey, with all the With all the ways fraud and abuse being uncovered, one thing is incredibly clear. And that is that our government is packed with two kinds of people.

First You know, there's the ones like Biden who've sold themselves out to foreign influence. But then there's the second group, and that's the unskilled, some, maybe clueless. Bureaucrats. And they served the first group, all raking in millions off of our backs. And the biggest game of all is climate change.

One of the greatest fraud and money laundering schemes ever created. These organizations and so-called experts are making billions, and yet there's nothing to show for it except they get rich while we put the bill. It's the same with DEI. It's just another scheme, and it's clear, and Americans are sick of it. Matt, I hear you.

And guess what? Look in Germany. They feel the same way. They disabled all their oil and gas and their nuclear because they panicked after what happened with the Japanese tsunami. And now they're sitting there going, well, what are we doing?

The wind's not working.

Solar's not effective. Our utility bills are through the roof. Let me vote all these idiots out of office. Hopefully you realize there's a responsible way to focus on the planet, and there's also a practical way. Lance in Newburgh, New York.

Hey, Lance. Um Good morning, Brian. I watch you every morning. Thank you. Sunday, and I came to see you in Pennsylvania.

All right. I have a. I have a question regarding this administrative leave. I've been hearing it on the news everywhere. About that, but nobody ever then I looked it up this morning on Google, and the people are still getting paid and they're on leave.

So, what money is that saving?

Well, put it this way: in six months, they'll all be gone.

So they gave, I thought that was a very nice thing to do, give him six months to leave. And then they're gone. And that's where we've got to do it. That ship is sailed, though. Because they had a certain time period to do that.

70,000 signed up for that. Six months out, go find another job. And then we're going to see a lot of people just not showing up for work and they're going to fire themselves. Thanks for the call. I appreciate it.

Just a quick announcement: coming up on Wednesday, two days from now, I'll be at the Community Beer Company in Dallas. And of course, I want to see everybody there in person. That's the 26th from 6 to 8. Come one, come all. Come on.

Texas is a big place. I want to see everyone there. It's all free. A chance to interact, speak about what's happening in this country. And you tell me what's happening in Dallas.

And not just about the Mavericks and the big trade and the Cowboys and the 500 squad that pays zillions of dollars and their new coach. I'm Dana Perino. This week on Perino on Politics, I'm joined by former GOP strategist and host of the Rich Zioli show, Rich Zioli. Available now on FoxNewsPodcast.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Must listen to podcasts from Fox News Audio.

Listen to the show at free on Fox News Podcast Plus, on Apple Podcast, Amazon Music with your Prime Membership, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Hmm.