Musk attends Trump's first cabinet meeting; Ukraine agrees to minerals deal?

From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead. Welcome, everyone, to the latest moments of the show. Rich Lowry is going to be coming up at the bottom of the hour. Brett Baer, it's getting set to get going.

He's already interviewed the President of France. Could he be talking to the UK Prime Minister? And it may be President Zelensky on Friday. A lot going on in the Capitol today as the President of the United States will have his first, yes. his first cabinet meeting.

You got it. Thanks to Senator John Thune. He's been relentless. He is Got a whole bunch of confirmations done pretty quickly, almost past Obama's pace.

So, before we get to Brett, let's get to the big three. Number three. These girls have worked tirelessly To reach their athletic goals. And now, They're being told that if they don't like competing against boys, that the burden to stop it rests on them. That is unacceptable.

You can't be this stupid. Democrats still digging in on letting trans men play in women's sports. Four states, at least one major city, are defying Trump's executive order to get it between men and women. That's in sports. Like, separate them.

Maine and Wisconsin are doubling down on idiotic phrases, too, that you can't believe, that we thought we left in our rearview mirror. Number two. I hear that. I hear that he's coming on Friday. Certainly, it's okay with me if he'd like to, and he would like to sign it together with me, and I understand that's a big deal, very big deal.

Yup, President Trump yesterday. Close to a massive deal in Ukraine. President Zelensky is heading to Washington, it seems. Russia seems to be heading to the negotiating table. Could the brutal war be coming to a close?

We keep up with the fast-moving story. Number We got it done. We had the requisite number of votes to move this process along, and we are going to deliver the American First Agenda. We're going to deliver all of it, not just parts of it. And this was the first step in that process.

What a crazy series of events in the House. We heard it was dead in the water. We heard Speaker Johnson could not get the blueprint through on the big, beautiful bill.

Well, it turns out he did. And by the way, Donald Trump, a man in motion. The Trump White House has its first cabinet meeting and a blizzard of activity to review while Congress might be prepping to give him his biggest legislative win yet. Here to make sense of it and why everyone agrees that nothing could possibly pass until April is Brett Baer. Hey, Brett.

Hey, how are you, Brad?

So, Brett, in layman's terms, we know that there is a deal done yesterday in the House. We know it it was surprised to a lot of people that it got done. We knew Donald Trump had to personally pick up the phone and talk to, I guess, Burkitt as well as Sparks of The center, I believe, from Virginia, and Victoria Spartes. And she, and they, yeah, so, um, So it's going to be the House passed a plan that calls for one point five trillion to two trillion in spending reductions over a decade and four trillion to four point five trillion in tax cuts. What exactly got accomplished?

Well, I mean they they got the votes. They didn't really think they were going to get the the votes. This is a a budget blueprint. This is kind of like a broad budget blueprint that enables them to then put in to this vehicle the specifics of what they want to do with the Trump agenda.

So that by doing that is reconciliation, which enables the Senate to pass it with 51 votes, not 60, which is usually needed. Um What the real nuts and bolts, the details of it, happen in the committees. and the markups of each section of this the budget as it stands. And that's where the devil's in details as far as the specifics. Right.

So what what he wanted to do is the one bill. We know the one big bill. We know in the Senate they said they'd rather do two bills.

So they passed a Senate version, right? One half of a bill without the tax without extending the tax reform from 2017. Where does that stand as it relates to this?

So Basically, that was a backup. That was a uh you know in case of emergency, break glass. uh in case the House didn't have the votes. to get it across the finish line.

Now that they do, they will bring together the Senate version and the House version in a conference committee, and they will go into one big, beautiful bill.

So is there a reason to think that in committee, when it goes into committee and they start filling in the details, that this could still fall apart? It's highly unlikely. They've already got the framework. They're Republicans are going to argue about ver the specifics. Democrats really won't.

Have a say because they don't have the votes in the committees. You know, and um So I think it's on track. I I mean, I think it's It's surprising that it got done on the first go round. All right, so that was some of the backdrop.

Now, what was your takeaway from your interview with President Macron? That he was encouraged. He was. Uh privately and publicly encouraged about what he heard from President Trump, that they could be getting to an end game here. But he was also warning: don't.

don't be um Non, essentially, makes sure that Putin is contained and doesn't expand. They said they've had. Ceasefires or truces before 2014, where it just rolled on.

So his big concern is security guarantees and what exactly that looks like.

So here's what President Trump said yesterday about what looks like to be the framework, at least, of a rare earth deal, Cut 14.

Well, we'll see. I mean right now we're just in the process of negotiating. We've pretty much negotiated our deal on raw earth and various other things. We'll be looking at that security. You're talking about general security for Ukraine later on.

I don't think that's going to be a problem. There are a lot of people that want to do it. And I spoke with Russia about it. They didn't seem to have a problem with it.

So I think they understand. They're not going back in. Once we do this, they're not going back in.

So that's what we think, but I guess Russia was not too enthused about what your what President France said to you, that there'll be some type of peacekeeping force in Ukraine. I don't think they're enthused about that. No, but they're going to have to get enthused in order for it to happen because Ukraine's not going to sign on to anything unless there is some security guarantee. We know what it's not going to be. It's not going to be Ukraine in NATO, but it could be some combination of You know, French-UK peacekeepers with a backup of U.S.

in case something happens. I think that's how it's starting to look. I have an interview with the UK Prime Minister Starmer tomorrow at the Blair House, so we'll get his take as well. They're on the record of saying they've already pledged to increase defense spending. Yeah, the the UK has gone from 1.8 to 2.5.

Um and France is at 2.1. Neither up to 3%. President Trump wants to get them up to 5%. Um, and, you know, McCron told me they have a lot of work to do on that front. Remember, McCron's in a political tough spot.

I mean, his coalition's kind of fragmented and his economy is Not too good.

So we'll see what Vladimir Putin wants to do. The word yesterday is that Russia, in Vladimir Putin's address citing the three years since the war, since he started it. He came out and said, Look, we want to do a deal with the U.S. We want them to use our rare earth. We want them to help us, you know.

um export your uh aluminum and things to that nature.

So Trump is kind of indicating too that there could be an economic component to the Russia uh to to Russia with this deal. Yeah.

Well, that's where the interesting part comes, and that part that we don't know yet. First of all, a lot of the rare earths in Ukraine are in now Russian controlled territories.

So do they become Ukraine again? Do they still become Russia? Does the deal go that way? I you know, it's a a lot of up in the air. I I do think that Zelensky talked this morning saying that that this deal, the security agreement has to come around.

He said he has moved forward with the rare earth mineral deal. And it's interesting to point out that President Trump, every time he talks about it, says we've put in three hundred fifty billion dollars into Ukraine. Actually, we've put in one hundred eighty three billion if you added everything up. Uh This deal, he says, is for $500 billion.

So, you know, he's always one-upping on the real estate. Yeah, I know, it goes a little bit high. But the other thing is, they say estimated between $50 and $60 billion came back to America to modernize our arsenal.

So we have had that. The other thing, the Ukrainians have been remarkable, I'm sure military experts will tell you, in adapting their own drone technology, their own cutting-edge information.

Now they're at the point where they want raw material from their allies. They want to make their own weapons. They can't do everything, obviously, but they've really gone a long way to being self-sufficient. Yeah, and the drone technology is to the point where we are studying what they're doing. and how they're using AI with drones and It's really technologically advanced.

And I saw it firsthand when I was over there last year doing a Zelensky interview on the front lines. then saw kind of some of their classified stuff. And it's it is really forward leaning.

So today, cabinet meeting, 11 o'clock, cameras will be there. Carolyn Levitt, the press secretary, said this, cut seven. Elon, considering he is working alongside the President and our Cabinet Secretaries this entire administration, will be in attendance tomorrow just to talk about Doge's efforts and how all of the Cabinet Secretaries are identifying waste, fraud and abuse at their respective agencies. This is going to be all eyes on Elon, right? Yeah, it is quite something.

You know, he's not a cabinet official, but he's in the cabinet meeting. He's obviously taking a lot of heat. for you know the pushback, if there is pushback, um from from workers and from obviously democratic lawmakers. But he's the center of attention, and it'll be interesting to see today. Yeah, it's going to be interesting.

In terms of the pushback, what what is Now we understand he's not heading up Doge. But he is. But he's not. Wh what is the truth there? Yeah.

I I think that that's a little bizarre in that this person who they gave us the name yesterday, was on vacation. apparently. And but the guy running Doge is Elon, and he's the guy that's putting out the public statements. He's steering the crews to go to the different agencies.

So, I'm not sure. There's an administrator, I guess, technically, that is inside the administration, and technically, Doge is. is an outside advisor group. All right, uh Brett, are you going to be able to get Zielinski if he comes to town Friday? We're hoping, we're hoping, we'll see.

It's world leader Agogo on special report this week. You also have Howard Luttnick tonight? We do. We're going to go to the Commerce Department. tonight and do that kind of tour around.

By the way, nice interview with Secretary Rubio. Oh, thanks very much. Appreciate it.

So with Howard Luttnick, he's going to be doing the tariffs. Were you surprised that it came out that Trump believes that Canada and Mexico are heading towards tariffs when I thought they were bulking up the border? No, I actually thought that that was going to come come around and that the border stuff was separate of what he really believes about, for example, Canadian cars or Different goods. I think we're heading towards a big tariff regime, and that's one of the questions for Howard Luttnack, who, by the way, is Commerce Secretary, is also. apparently gonna uh take over the post office, which is kind of an interesting deal.

Right.

The post office sold me when they had to peel off stamps. Knowing I didn't have to lick them anymore gave me a sense that the post office was gonna be around for a while, but maybe I was mistaken. Yeah.

No, I think it'll be around, but it'll be a part of commerce. And they're going to use it for the census, which is under commerce. and have the post office kind of Use due to the census is what I hear. It's so funny. And there's not one There's not one typical day, right?

There's not one day where you go, that's reminds me of yesterday. Not one. No, it's all new. All new. All right, Brett, we'll watch it tonight.

We look forward to the Lutnick interview, the Stormer interview, and maybe the Zelensky interview. We shall see. Thanks, man. I'm optimistic. Back in a moment.

Taking America back. Our long national nightmare is over. One executive order at a time. I ended the paper straw. You.

Okay, he's right on this one. It's Brian Kelmead. 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. No. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. Fifty three years in business to have a CEO.

As president of this country and doing what they're doing, getting rid of waste. It's not uncommon, I've run into this, where I follow a CEO. That has left behind is like a dead fish in a refrigerator unplugged. It's a budget you can't live with. And unfortunately, you have to be the heavy going in there to try to get things back under control.

And that's what this president is doing with Elon Musk. He's driving the waste, the inefficiencies, the lack of productivity. I don't know why people are complaining. I mean, I have my people report sales daily. We have a weekly flash report.

We got KPIs for everybody in the business that they have to be measured on. Not only qualitative, but quantitative. I don't know why people are upset with this is the way business runs today. And the U.S. is a big business and needs to get, we need to get control of it.

And that is Bob Nardelli, who was CEO of Home Depot as well as Chrysler. And he said, when people come in, and I said this over and over again: if anyone does sales, you know, and it drives you crazy, a lot of people don't like it. You have to tell everyone how many stops you made, how many calls you made, where you were every day. You have to account for everything.

So, this dates back to what Elon Musk did on Saturday, and he put out an email saying, if you work for the federal government, list the five things you did the previous week. People got so upset. Then they said, Well, extended till today, but I need to know the five things you're doing.

Now, the FBI, Cash Patel, and the DNI, Tulsi Gabbard, said, Don't do this because we're not. Don't do it because I just got here. I don't need that. to do this and especially because in our business In intelligence, we can't be emailing out what you did because it might give away some secrets and operations. Understood.

But when Trump was asked about it, he said, Yeah, of course, there's nothing wrong with that, being reportable.

So, a million people did it. They didn't say it had to be intricate, just give me five things you're doing.

So, get the sense that you got to be accountable. And evidently, yesterday they also found did Doge $100 million worth of buildings that were empty that they're closing.

So, they're getting out of the leases, giving up the leases, they're saving money. But for people in business, they don't understand. I watched Kevin O'Leary last night, they don't understand the blowback and the anger from federal workers because they're asked to justify their positions. And I think everybody who works here on Fox Doesn't really understand it either because we pretty much have to justify it. Very rarely do we have to do five.

things, but almost daily with ratings and everything else, we're judged, consolidation, expansion, staying ahead of the curve. Radio audio is expanding. A few years ago, it didn't look like audio is expanding here.

Now it's probably one of the biggest growth areas in the company because of the explosion of shows like this and podcasting.

So everybody's doing audio now. I think the company just bought a a podcasting company.

So they got big butt if they didn't. If people were just looking at terrestrial radio, we could easily come in one day and have found out that we're ending the show. Here's your two weeks. Trump gave you a digital Trump technically, but Elon Musk gave you seven months. And you waited two weeks, you didn't take it, 80,000 did.

So I think people are getting a little offended. I don't know why. But if I am in the federal buildings, sometimes you have trouble with motivation. You feel as though you're stuck at a job. You could predict what kind of raise you're going to get.

You don't really get evaluated by people that you respect in some cases or that have a great work ethic. And now, all of a sudden, everyone's going to be accountable. I think it makes for the federal workers to have a different. perspective on the job that they have. and the job that they what they have to do to keep it.

So President Trump said, Yeah, I guess you're not going to get fired, but you really should if you don't email. Plus, Trump is convinced, as am I, that a lot of people don't exist. A lot of people are collecting paychecks that aren't alive, or they're scamming us. And some of it could be coming outside the country. Can we at least find out?

The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead. How much friction is between President Zelensky and President Trump? I don't, you know, people, there's a lot of stuff in the media about it, but in the end of the day, the President's objective is clear. He wants the war to stop.

He wants the war to end. And to do that, you have to have both sides agree to it, right?

Now, we talked to Zelensky. I think what the President was irritated by, and rightfully so, was this argument that somehow we haven't talked to Ukraine. Yes. And you have Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who sat down with me yesterday to say the one thing that bothered the President about Zelensky was he wasn't acknowledging the fact that he's been in touch with him along the way, that President Trump was not at the meeting in Saudi Arabia. But he was, but uh, but he was one-on-one with Zelensky, and they talk a lot.

And he said that the president was offended that Zelensky took it personal that he met with the Russian delegation, kind of brought him out of the wilderness. Trump doesn't take kindly of that also when he said the president was a victim of misinformation when it comes to Ukraine. That really was insulting to the president, too. But he's coming to town, I think, on Friday. Although both sides aren't confirming it yet.

Rich Lowry is editor of National Review, author of The Case for Nationalism. Hey, Rich, welcome back. Hey, how's it going?

So well this is fast moving. It looks as though Zelensky could be here on Friday. If he does, they should be signing a minerals deal at which we'll be, I guess, co-owners of rare earth in Ukraine. Yeah, so to the point you were just making a minute ago, I think it was such a mistake of Zielinski to hit back at Trump. You know, Trump seemed to blame Ukraine for the war, and that's got to be really annoying if you're Zelensky.

But just say, you know what, I don't agree with that interpretation, but I look forward to talking to my friend President Trump about it more. And we so appreciate the support from the United States. But instead, getting sucked in, you know, to calling it disinformation, which inevitably invited the response you got from the president, a mistake. And Ukraine is in the subordinate position here. They're really dependent on our help, and he just needs to show all due deference in public and then try to cut the best deal he can, which for him means the best ability to defend his country in the future from subsequent Russian, potential Russian aggression if they get a peace deal here.

Rich, as you know, personally, you could spar with the president, and he doesn't. He also turns the page.

So, the fact that Zelensky and he had a fallout, maybe with other leaders, it's going to be a long-term problem. Not really. If he goes out and says, let's turn the page, let's talk about where we go from here, and is reasonable in the president's mind, that's fine. Hence, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State. Key advisor, Senator Ted Cruz, is very tight with the President of the United States.

I mean, Governor DeSantis was golfing with him a few months ago. They were going at each other's throats last year at this year. Totally. Yeah, so it's recoverable for Zelensky. I think this rare earth deal makes sense.

You know, it gets a stake for the United States in a future of a secure, thriving Ukraine. But look, this is going to be a bitter pill for Zelensky to sign. He may, in effect, be ending his political career in Ukraine when and if he signs on the dotted line.

So that's not easy for any leader, and it's tough for any country to give up any territory, even if the territory at the moment is depopulated and ruined. Still, that means those lines on the map, they mean a lot to people. People.

So this is going to be tough, but I don't think there's any alternative. I don't think Ukraine is getting it back. I wanted Ukraine to get it back. I didn't want Ukraine to be rolled over by Russia. They stopped that from happening, and now it is time for it to end.

Here's what Trump said: cut 14.

Well, we'll see. I mean, right now we're just in the process of negotiating. Uh we've pretty much negotiated our deal on raw earth and various other things. Uh we'll be looking at that security. You're talking about general security for Ukraine later on.

I don't think that's going to be a problem. There are a lot of people that want to do it. And I spoke with Russia about it. They didn't seem to have a problem with it.

So I think they understand. They're not going back in. Once we do this, they're not going back in.

So just for the record, it looks like Russia is not happy with a. NATO presence in Ukraine.

So the UK and France would have a presence there, not necessarily at the border. Russia does have a problem with that. But these are just part of the negotiations, I guess. Yes. And what you got to be cautious of is just a pause where Russia just waits until it's better thinks it's in a better position to take a third crack at this, right?

Because they invaded first, took the Crimea in 19, and there was a big invasion in twenty twenty two. And And you can't trust Putin, and he might want even more.

So the name of the game, I think, for the West is what can we do to make Ukraine as defensible as possible? And they're never going to truly accept that they've lost this territory. And who knows what happens 30 years from now, they might get it back. But stopping Putin from even thinking about doing it again is really important to a settlement that at least is going to be lasting in the medium term.

So you write about the Pentagon shake-up last Friday night. We also know that as the Pentagon looks to pare down its budget, it's also looking to add money to build up defense to try to keep pace with the rest of the world and China specifically. What could you tell us about that shake-up and your reporting and your perspective on it?

Well, these guys, you know, it's not their fault. Like a CQ Brown is an honorable guy, a very competent guy, but they've worked in the system that's just been designed to create these totally irreplaceable cogs. You know, no one's interesting. No one's original. No one's a strategist.

They're all kind of bureaucrats, right? And that's what I think the attitude they want to shake up, as well as obviously extricating the whole poisonous DEI outlook. But it's not just firing people, Brian. They need to come up with a better system for identifying generals and Promoting them. It has to be a little bit like what George C.

Marshall did right before we entered World War II. He went through about 600 generals: you're too fat, you're out of shape, you're not imaginative, you're not competent enough, you're plotting. See you later, thanks to your service. And I'm bringing in these people I think are more impressive. And in that cadre of people, you had your Dwight Eisenhower Dwight Eisenhower's and some of the most storied generals in American history.

So that should be the attitude. It can't be complacent. It can't be bureaucratic. And it has to be focused, as Pete says over and over again, on warfighting. Rich, it just reminds me of a very experienced president.

He thought, I'll keep these guys around. I could win him over, I could win her over, and it didn't. Not only the cabinet secretaries, but the institutionalists that were there already.

So he's saying, Hey, Pete, no one's expecting you to be Secretary of Defense. Go in there. By the way, I like what you stand for. You know what I stand for? Find people that we can trust that will be open to running things differently.

So you say, so I'm watching other channels and I say, look at these people's accolades, look at their accomplishments. No one's diminishing that. There was no personal attacks on the way out. But you don't need people slow-walking missions. You don't need people giving you options that you know you can't.

Exercise. And by the way, Barack Obama complained about that too. We know that George Bush, nobody wanted to do the surge outside David Petraeus. A lot of his established generals like Casey didn't want anything to do with it.

So it's not a big deal to get your right people in place. Yeah.

So there's no point to having Pete Hexeth as Secretary of Defense unless you're going to shake it up. That's the whole point of it, right? If you wanted just someone to sit on top of the same organization operating the same way, there are a dozen people you would have selected before Pete.

So this is what they need to do.

Now that they need to follow through and be effective at it. But the kind of general we've had to this point, last thirty years, has not worked very well, with some exceptions, a Petraeus or an H.R. McMaster. They thought outside the box. And it was really hard for their careers initially.

So we need more of that. Yeah, okay, we'll see what happens there. Today's cabinet meeting, you know, and normally I'd say, what's the big deal? It's going to be a spray. They're going to pretend to like each other.

Then they're going to go back to their respective positions. But you know, something's going to happen today between Elon Musk in the backdrop as the czar line. Then there's the envoy line, maybe back against the wall. I mean, you got Rick Crudell, you got Witkoff, you have Kellogg, then you got the actual Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, Elon Musk as the Czar. Borders are Tom Holman, as high-profile as anyone.

Describe what you think this is going to be like.

Well, uh, you know, it it's it's Trump will always think of of In terms of everything as a show, and you're right, something's going to happen and it's going to be a good show. And by the way, this is one of the reasons he loves Elon, right? Who's the most entertaining person on the planet, you know, besides Donald Trump, right, at the moment? It's Elon Musk.

So like the whole attempt of the liberal media, like a week or two ago when they had that Oval Office meeting where Trump was sitting down and Elon was standing there holding forth with his adorable son X, you know, they're like, oh, Trump subordinated himself, you know, and is Elon really in charge? No, we all know who's in charge, but he enjoys seeing the guy who can draw a lot of attention. And by the way, take, you know, a lot of the fire away from Trump at the moment. You know, that's a very hard thing to do. And Elon Musk has managed to do it.

I think that's what Trump likes about it. It's so underappreciated. He's getting things done. Elon Musk is taking the fire. What is behind, Rich?

You might not know, but I think that you might know how Washington works. Is there something legally, is there a legal reason why Elon Musk is not listed as head of Doge? There must be. I think it might be, and I've not looked at this closely, that Doge itself might have an expiration date because it's kind of a temporary thing that's been created. Like it might only have three months of formal existence.

I don't know whether that has something to do with it, but it is a little convoluted. And I don't think, although I think Carolyn Levitt's done a great job generally, it wasn't great when she couldn't say who's in charge of Doge because Elon's not formally in charge of it. Right.

Okay. Rich Lowry, thanks so much. Hey, thanks, Brian. Talk to you. 1866-408-7669.

I'll get to some of your calls in a moment. If you prefer to write me at BriankillMe.com, go ahead and do it. Just click on Ask Brian, and then I'll get to it. Don't move. Giving you everything you need to know.

You're with Brian Kilmead. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Killmead. We're going to be doing something else. It's going to be very, very good.

We're going to be. Uh selling. Uh a gold card. You have a green card. This is a gold card.

We're going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million, and that's going to give you green card privileges plus. It's going to be a route to citizenship. And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They'll be wealthy and they'll be successful and they'll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people. And we think it's going to be extremely successful.

So Trump kind of surprised everyone. Evidently, there's a visa similar to that where you pledge to do all those things. Here, you have to do those things. It wants the money up front.

Some business people that come in, and also they're going to do a background check. Because as people have brought up, there's a lot of oligarchs who have got a lot of money. I really don't want them here. Do you? Unless they're an oligarch that happens to be clean and fair and balanced, I'm not too sure there are any out there.

But what his theory is, if they pay the $5 million, it goes into our Treasury. Number two is they gotta hire they gotta start a business, they gotta hire a certain amount of Americans. If not, they violate their green card. And it could be a path to citizenship for that. It's a way of I mean, there's two things he wants to do: get our first-round draft picks at our elite institutions to have an option to stay here if they want to, a little bit easier.

And then, number two, he wants to make the other visas Maybe you could jump the line a little bit if you're rich. It's a little bit unorthodox, except for we have a similar program out there that's Very much abused. Robert in Norfolk, Virginia. Hey, Robert. Hi there, good morning.

Uh first thing I want to say is when Rush passed away, I thought political talk radio would never be the same and it would affect me listening to the radio. I have to say I l I look forward to your show every day. You got humor, you got great guests, you got great commentary, so I really appreciate that. That was an ultimate compliment, Robert. It doesn't get better than that.

But what's on your mind today? Very military uh oriented community you're in. Uh yeah, it is a a na a naval community, a big naval community. Um but my question is more general. That you have people, the Nancy Pelosis of the world, the leaders of the Democrat Party.

And I'm wondering, do they really want illegal aliens coming across the border and some of these far-left ideas? I mean, she has grandchildren that has to walk around the streets of New York or San Francisco. Do they really want that? Or are they getting paid? Or are they in fear of their life?

Is Soros have tentacles that long? That's what I wanted to say. I know what you're saying. It's common sense. You didn't say anything Republican.

Do you really want illegal aliens, gotaways? Do you really want thousands of gang members coming in here? You see how hard, do you know that they were just giving us a report from Gitmo?

Some of those Venezuelans, they say, are tougher than the Al Qaeda guys that they've had there for years. They are just as bad as it gets. They emptied all their prisons. Why wouldn't Biden want to crack down on that? Why wouldn't Kamala Harris use it as an opportunity to maybe show that you could be a true leader of our country?

Instead, they wanted to deny it was a problem. It is unthinkable to think that they don't think it's a problem. James in Delaware. Hey, James. Hey, how are you?

Yeah.

Good, what's on your mind? Love the show. You know, all the wonderful things in this world, right? It's very simple. Who's in charge?

Trump's in charge. We don't have to tell you who's in charge of Doge, he's sitting right there telling you what he's doing. I mean, where's the common sense? Where is it? Come with a common sense.

I hear you. And today, you're going to see it again. But I was with Secretary of State Rubio yesterday, too. He's in charge of the State Department. There's no question.

There's not a lot of political speak. He got to the point. You ever listen to Anthony Blinken speak? They never got to the point. You never know what they meant, what they said, what they were doing.

You always had to get a report in the Jerusalem Post that he was yelling at Prime Minister Netanyahu. The cameras are always on. Trump tells you what he's doing every day. He tells these people: come on in. If you have questions, you could ask me, you could ask my press secretary.

We're all together.

So I appreciate that. To me, it's not a salute to the press, it's a salute. to the people that voted him into office. Thanks so much for the call.

So, Doge is the most controversial thing going on right now. And they say at town halls, people are starting to speak up.

Well, I was talking to one. Lawmaker that was had a town hall that seemed to be out of control, got way too many people in there. And he thought to himself, What's going on here? Why are so many people showing up?

Well, he doesn't know for sure, but there are a lot of people that are being paid to show up and just start screaming at Republicans and saying that Elon Musk is evil. He has fired me, fired my relatives, doesn't care about me, and say you're a member of the workforce. The one thing about the Tea Party, that the reason why Barack Obama got shellacked in his midterms is because the Tea Party was real. And that was a legitimate movement, not organized. It was a grassroots movement.

They're trying to replicate this now. But don't tell me that with two point seven million federal workers who have now been called out, their family and friends are that angry that they're out there trying to defend their loved ones whose jobs could be on the line. There's no way. That is authentic. There's some people angry that say, oh, my congressman let me down, I voted for Trump, and now I got myself fired.

I get that. But not what I'm seeing in these town halls. CNN is dying for that opportunity. Stephen W L A D in Bethel, Connecticut. Hey, Stephen.

Good morning, Brian, great show! And it's a beautiful day with the sun. Finally. Finally. About this Doge and then going in and weeding out the corruption and all the waste I took a government course in nineteen seventy two.

The teacher, his cousin, was the former Speaker of the House. Uh Mansfield, Mike Mansfield. And uh he had partisan everything about the government and how it works.

Well so it's into Uh Governor of Senator Udall. had the Golden Fleece Award. In nineteen seventy two, every month he would post all the stuff that was being wasted. This has been going on m almost my whole life. And it's finally happening.

They're finally getting an audit. And people going crazy. They're going nuts. They say it's too you everyone's being too callous. And being so downgrading people that work for the federal government.

I don't feel that way. They just have a lot of people have had it too good for too long. They just want them accountable. If you're accountable, you should love the scrutiny. in my view.

Hey, don't forget, go to BrianKilmey.com. I'm going to be in St. Louis at the factory and in Dayton, Ohio in June. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian.

In Kill Mead. Thanks for being here, everybody. It's the Brian Kilmey Show coming to you from 48th and 6th in Midtown Manhattan, but her around the world. Ian Bremer at the bottom of the hour, president and founder of the Eurasia Group. Chris DeSepano, one of the hottest comedians in the country.

About 45 after, he's going to look to sell out Madison Square Garden right here in New York City. I think he'll do it. He's got a deal with Jimmy Kimmel. He said, let's just agree not to talk about politics. And they are working on a sitcom together, too.

And with me in the studio is Ben Dominich, Fox News contributor, editor-at-large for the Spectator World. Hey, Ben, are you tingling? We have our first cabinet meeting with a brand new administration. Oh, my God. And I don't think this president needs little index cards to find out who's in the room.

No, he doesn't. And he also, I think, is going to be going into this with a lot of questions from this cabinet about the decisions that have been made and the cascade of policies that we've seen put into place. 70-plus executive orders or actions. I've never seen anything like it, Brian. It is so much activity so rapidly.

And I think it's the Right tactic because the truth is, the president and I think the team around him understands that they have to move fast because they're going to take on water. They're going to run out of some of this juice if they don't lean into it right now in order to get things done. And I think that they came in with a plan on how to do that. And, you know, frankly, letting Elon be the kind of. Crazy honey badger that he is seeking out the need for efficiency and fraud and waste in the government is something I think the president really supports and is getting and is getting behind, even if he's getting criticism now from a few people, including some in his own party.

It's never been effectively explained to me, and maybe with all your experience, you can, Ben. Let me know why they don't just say that Elon Musk is head of Doge. It was his idea. I heard it come up on his XCAST, whatever that was. Sure.

Well, one of the things that I think they want to do with that is give him the freedom and flexibility as a special assistant to the president, which is his technical designation, to have a lot of freedom and not to necessarily have the kind of blockages that could occur if Congress just had direct access to him, essentially, to call him in front of them for committee hearings, to go after him. I mean, that's the reason. Imagine the situation. Because Elizabeth Warren already asked for him. Yeah, imagine the situation where Jasmine Crockett just spends all day trying to get him in front of her so that she can yell at him just every day.

Day because that's what Democrats would try to be doing right now, because they understand how dangerous what he is doing is to their fundamental understanding of the way the government works. They believe in the power of bureaucracy to block Republican agendas.

So even if you get a Republican into the White House, the bureaucracy is going to move slow. They're going to put every kind of guardrail. They're going to put every kind of blockage that they can in order for you to get anything done. And you're going to have a constant battle between the political appointees who try to put the president's administration in place, his policies in place, with those bureaucrats who believe that they can outlast the president. Here's Congressman Ralph Norman, sometimes a critic of Trump, on what he thinks that Doge is doing, cut eight.

He's getting a lot of criticism now because he's a brilliant he's a billionaire. And I asked one of my Democrat colleagues last night on rules, I said, how did he make his money? Was it on the government paycheck? No. Was it producing a product?

Yes. Was it taking risk? Yes. Was it sleeping on the floor of his factories? Yes.

He risked it all. It is he's an example of the American spirit. Entrepreneurship, capitalism. That's what made this country great. Not government.

I mean, I agree entirely with Representative Norman on this, but I also think that one of the things That we have to keep in mind is this is happening because of a sclerotic. Congress that has not been able to deliver the kind of budgetary decision-making that the American people have wanted for a long time. Instead, you've had these automatic increases, these continuing resolutions, where things, even if people want things to change, these programs just continue and they grow and they take over more space, they take over more regulatory power, they add more people to the mix. And that's not the way that our government is supposed to function or work.

So we know that there's pushback from various groups, and sometimes they're successful with education cuts. I know that came down yesterday. They pushed back on that.

Some DEI programs that they wanted to go away. There's pushback on that. But we have not had them get into Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security and the Pentagon yet. And I think Elon Musk is on the record saying that's where the real savings and cutting can begin. Not in necessarily the checks that they write to people, but the way it's done and who gets them.

Yes, absolutely. And keep in mind the level of fraud that exists. Particularly within the Medicaid program, is gigantic. We have enormous problems with it in this country. The GAO has estimates that are just entirely eye-popping in terms of the level of hundreds of billions of dollars that are wasted that go to people who aren't authorized or go to people who are doing things that they shouldn't be doing, are overcharging for services, et cetera.

And those, as you said, are not necessarily about checks that are being cut to the American people. It's about the way that that money flows through the programs that it's supposed to, and whether there are people who are taking bits and pieces of it. The amount of fraud that exists there is astonishing. We're talking about checks going to P.O. boxes and things like that that represent themselves as clinics.

And that's something that I think is going to take a lot of work and effort. There have been many, many commissions. I, in fact, was on the Social Security Commission way back in the day. Newt Gingrich appointed me to look at the fraud that was within that program. It was astounding.

Way back then, that's more than 25 years ago. And it's only grown since.

So it's a real problem. Jim Baker had an editorial yesterday where he talked about the need to cut and how they were months away from Social Security going bankrupt. And they said that's when things started to change and that structure was reconfigured. This one's going to go bankrupt in a few years. But you tell people I'm going to raise the age or maybe take more raise the cap in what you give.

People go crazy. But you just, maybe, if one president that can't run again can make some of those tougher decisions. That is exactly the point that I think we are at right now. The idea coming into this was maybe Donald Trump's second term, he won't be as effective because he's going to be a quote-unquote lame duck after a certain amount of time or something like that because he can't run again. Instead, I think what we're actually seeing is that he's now free to make a lot of these tough decisions that have been overdue for a long time.

And then when it comes to the Pentagon, it's not like Republicans oppose spending money on defense, but we also can't have a situation where. We are overspending so much on the cost of a hammer or a toilet and things like that that have nothing to do with the actual problems within the defense department and within the defense cohort. And that's something that my brother is still an army major and he is welcoming all of this. Yeah, the other thing is you need somebody on the outside who's not running for office like Elon Musk's group to go in there and just be somewhat callous about it.

So of all people, Charlemagne the God this morning kind of agrees with Ben Dominich. Listen. Good morning. I want to stay anonymous, but I do work for the federal government, Department of Human Services.

Okay. Okay. Well, now what's up? T get you how you how are you feeling? Did you get one of those emails?

Talk to us. Yes, I got the email and I honestly feel like this is a great opportunity to outline what you as an employee bring to the company bring to the federal government.

So at the end of the day, God forbid anybody make any, and this is a democratic thing. It's like, I don't want to get the parties into it, but they don't want to go to work. They want to work from home. People are not working from home. You know, this is what you signed up for.

If you don't like it, resign. And he won and agreed with her after.

Well, I completely agree with her. But here's the other thing. When I worked at HHS, I had to do weekly reports like this all the time in order. I mean, just make sure that you got your duties taken care of for the week. Why should we have less requirements, Brian, of people working for the taxpayers and the federal government serving in these critical positions than we do for the checklist for Starbucks baristas?

And that's the kind of thing that I just think is absolutely absurd. And the fact that the Democrats are so mad about this to me is a sign that they just think the bureaucracy is sacrosanct. You can't touch it. And now Elon Musk is touching it, and he's touching it in a way that really does expose, I think, how much the government has not actually worked for the American people. It's been working for its own interests.

So, Ben, we come back. I want to talk about having Friday. It looks like Zelensky is going to be here. What's happening? Thursday, it looks like the Prime Minister of the UK will be here.

He's already. agreed to go over two percent on his 2.5% on his defense spending. That shows a major improvement. What do you expect to happen with these Russian-Ukrainian peace talks? That story more when we come back, Brian Kilmeat Show.

Taking America back. Canada's been very abusive of the United States for many years. One ally at a time. It is an act of economic warfare. The trade imbalance on our trade deficit has gone up 200 plus percent.

With Brian Kilmead. Information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Killmead Show. It looks like the mineral deal has been done. Can you confirm that?

Well, I can't confirm it. Obviously, our Secretary of Treasury Vesant is working on that. He's done a great job of putting that together.

So my last indication was that it was very close to the finish line. We were on not even the one-yard line. We were like at the half-yard line, you know, like almost like when the Eagles pushed the quarterback across, you know, that tush-push thing.

So it's close and it's good. Look, it's a good deal. It's an important deal. We still want to end this war. I mean, that's the important thing the president's made very clear.

He campaigned on that.

So that was me with Marco Rubio. Yesterday was his first Fox interview. I think he's doing Breitbart today. And he sat down with Catherine Herridge for Independent Media. There's a huge push with the Trump team to do independent media.

and you understand it. Ben Dominich is here. Ben, I want to get into this. Your international relations and intercountry relations is extraordinary. This is a very interesting time now.

And I encourage everyone to do this. I know there's some unorthodox things happening, but understand their goal is clear. And how we get to that end of fighting is going to dictate how good how long it the fighting stops. Because we thought the deal was done in 97 or 94. I'm not sure when that deal was cut, where we promised Ukraine security for nukes.

And then in 2014 was brutal, but they said that's it. Crimea belongs to us historically. They made up some stuffed Russian speaking people in the Donbass. And then, what do we have in 2022? It's eight years later.

So, your thoughts about where we're at right now.

Well, I think we're in an interesting position. Obviously, the fact that there was a deal done is significant, at least on paper. We'll see how significant it actually turns out to be. But I think that one of the real things that people should understand about this is that I think the Russians are in a much weaker position than a lot of the people in the world think. Do you think they'd be in Saudi Arabia if they weren't?

Yes, that is exactly what. Yeah.

So you understand that. I understand that. But I think that for whatever reason, the rest of the media is still acting as if. This is some kind of power dynamic. And that, no, I think that the Russians are doing what they're doing because they need to do it, because they're in a much weaker position.

Their military has been decimated. They have all sorts of problems internally. You know, energy prices and the way that that economy depends on them is a major factor here. And I think that they also know that this administration, unlike the prior one, is actually going to enforce a lot of the sanctions that the Biden people made a big show of, but didn't actually put into play if a deal doesn't come through.

So ultimately, what do we want? We want a deal where you do not have the possibility of Russia within a few years' time just rolling back in there again. And I think that that's something that is achievable, and it's what the president wants to achieve. But how do you do that? I think you put UK French troops in Ukraine?

Well, no, I think that I think, for one, I think you bolster the bases in Poland. And I think that you view that as being something that is part of the deterrence factor. But I think that you also have to place requirements on Russia in terms of where their military is positioned so that they cannot move quickly in terms of having a follow-on invasion. That would be tough. That's going to be tough.

Do you want to tell Russia where to put their military? It's going to be very tough. And it's not something that I think we're going to do publicly. But I think in terms of a behind-the-scenes conversation about where certain forces are positioned, I think that's going to be something that has to be a part of that.

So I think that French President Macron was essentially saying we will have, it's not going to be U.S. forces, but we've got to have some peacekeeping forces. And they're not necessarily going to be on the line, but they'll be present that I don't think Russia will embrace. But there's something that's got to change. There's got to be a fundamental change.

But look. There's a window of time here that I think this administration has, with all of the momentum behind them, with this new foreign policy team in place, to make something like this happen. And that's something that hasn't been true since the beginning of this war. The Biden administration never got to a point where there was really going to be any deal to be made. And I think that the president wants to make a deal.

And he understands how important this is for his legacy going forward, that this is a deal that can solve. I'm comfortable with telling a country, you got rare earth, we need it. We've given you, the president says $300 billion, it's more $180 billion. $180 billion. Let's do a deal.

Are you comfortable with that? I know your father-in-law wouldn't have been. My one issue about that is that I'm not sure how valuable those rare minerals actually are. And there's a good portion of them. There's a good portion of them that is in Russian-controlled territory right now.

I think this is more along the lines of you've got to do something here to make us feel like we're going to be able to have some confidence that we're going to get some of that money back. And I think it's more about sending the message of you need to be able to agree to something like this so that we can say to the American people, there is something that's going to come out of the end. I have the best long-term plan. Are you ready for it? I should really charge you.

But I'm going to give it to you.

Okay. I would say I would obligate our allies to spend a certain amount on military equipment that they buy from us. We have to upgrade and expand our military base, which we have to do. And we give friends and family discount to our people. We get maintenance contracts to go along with that.

And we get strong allies that deter future conflict. And if we need them, they'll be there. And I think it raises their civic pride. I think it does. I like that deal.

Problem, though, that I will say is that they have a manpower problem, too. It's not just a problem here in America. You know, I think I've said this to you before, but you're probably aware of it. The size of the British Royal Navy has shrunk so low that it could not fill the United States Naval Academy Stadium in Annapolis. Think about that for a second.

This is the Royal Navy that once ruled the seas, and now they can't even... Ruled the planet. Yeah, ruled the planet.

Okay. I mean, there are rooms in England that you can go into and say, this is where they ran the empire, and yet they don't even have enough manpower to even satisfy that level of requirement.

So, there's got to be an increase, not just in spending, but in terms of recruitment, in terms of building up these militaries in a serious way. And they've gotten away with living off of the American paycheck in terms of defense for way too long. It just can't continue. You know, I read this quote from the new, the presumed ex-leader of Germany. Germany says, We have to go on with the world without America.

I'm listening to the comments, and we have to have a European fighting force. That's the message he got. Yeah, and I think that that's a message that's important, but I also believe. I believe in our allies, but I believe in requiring them to do the things that they've promised and never lived up to. And that particularly involves them investing in the kind of things that will make them a harder target and that will prevent these types of wars in the future.

They made their choices with their economy, and a lot of it are the socialistic things. There's not a push for innovation and meritocracy and their three-hour lunches. And this is the result. We have great paintings, great history, but what about your future? And I don't want a Napoleon to emerge and take over the continent, but it would be great to see a charismatic leader emerge from these historically significant nations.

Yes. Look, the history of The history of Europe when it comes to war is obviously important to remember, and keeping those wars from happening is very important. But in terms of providing for their own national defense, and as you said, I think it's a matter of civic pride too. I think it's important for them to really step up in a way that they haven't in recent years. All right, we'll see what happens on Thursday with the UK leader.

What are you working on, Ben? Right now, I'm working on Mexico, actually. I'm very interested in the decisions that were made that flowed into the naming of these various cartels as foreign terror organizations. I'm interested in the follow-on to that. What that looks like in terms of being able to seize the assets, particularly of a lot of these organizations that have a lot of assets here in America that we can go after and target, and really forcing the Mexican government to live up to its promises to us when they really haven't.

They've had a hand-in-glove relationship under AMLO and going back even before then with these cartels is unacceptable. And that's a problem. And I think that the terrorist organization designation, with permission, we could take them out like we did Al-Qaeda. That would be interesting in our own hemisphere. Very interesting.

Ben Dominic, thanks so much. Ian Bremer next. Don't move. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmead. Senator Rubio called Vladimir Putin a thug.

You still feel the same way? But at the end of the day, what we feel about Vladimir Putin is irrelevant to achieving a peace here. What we're trying to do now is get people, we have to be grown-ups here, we're trying to get people to a negotiating table. You don't get people to a negotiating table like Vladimir Putin by calling them names, by being antagonistic. This is a costly war.

It's cost billions of dollars for the United States, billions of dollars for Europe, three million Ukrainians no longer living in the country.

So this is not a PR thing. This is not a political campaign. This is real world.

So that was Secretary of State Marco Rubio. First interview that I've had with him, I think anyone's had with him, I think outside Catherine Herridge. But I asked him, too, his strong statements against Vladimir Putin is as strong as it gets. He said, it doesn't really matter what I think now. I'm dealing with him.

And the only way President Trump wants him here is to end this war. How does Ian Bremer feel about it? The President and founder of the Eurasia Group. Hey, Ian, where are we at in the peace process, do you think?

Well, first of all, I thought that was a pretty good answer from the Secretary of State. I mean, it's a gotcha question from the press. call him a thug now because uh you know that that will uh put you crosswise with the President and undermine the negotiations that you are trying to engage in. There's no the journalist doesn't have to take any responsibility for that, but he has to answer the question of the person who's in it.

So I don't think you or I would have answered it better than that. But look, the fact is the United States is trying very hard. Uh to get to an end of this war. And you'll remember that when Trump was really interested in ending the war in Afghanistan, he was not going to be deterred by anybody.

So he didn't engage with the Allies to coordinate. He did it himself. and he was willing to give terms to the Taliban that a lot of other people wouldn't have in service of ending the war. And long term, I would argue that probably made the transition worse. But it did allow Trump to say he was the guy that ended a war that was going on for twenty years.

And I think that what Trump really wants to do here is say that three years and a million casualties plus And the Americans have spent over 100 billion, the Europeans have spent over 100 billion, and we don't want to continue doing it.

So he sees. Pressing very hard to end the war in service of that. And if that means that you give the Russians more than you otherwise would like to, so be it. He's willing to do that. He's willing to say no to NATO.

He's willing to say that there won't be US boots on the ground to provide security guarantees. He's willing to throw the Ukrainians under the bus. and say Zelensky is a dictator with only four percent approval, even though Zelensky is also one of the partners that you need to get to the table to agree. But of course, also, he's a party that is far, far weaker than Putin. Yeah, I think in the long term, in the big picture, Zelensky is a lot like he treats Zelensky a lot like Manchin, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio.

The Santis Anybody that comes after him. And then when it's done, it's done.

So if I'm going to take, if you're giving me a hard time, if you're Trump, I'm going after your jugular. And that's who he is. When he comes Friday. I think we look at the end deal and see where it goes. The big difference is there's got to be some.

Type of Accountability in five, six years, where Trump's not going to be there. Who's going to be there? Is Russia going to be reloaded and now more educated on how to do the rest of the job?

So I just don't know without I need to see something like that in this agreement. I'm fine. With the agreement that the US is getting the Ukrainians to sign, I didn't like it being framed As a return on investment for aid that's already been promised, because it makes the Americans look like we can't go back on our word. And we're strong enough and big enough that we don't need to do that. I think that we could have gotten this deal without raising the question of, hey, that isn't really aid anymore.

We're going to make it into a loan. We're going to get something back for it. But be that as it may, I'm comfortable with a critical minerals agreement that gives the Americans a stake An economic stake in Ukraine longer term, I think there's nothing wrong with that. What worries me is I don't think there's so much urgency. I don't think Trump needs to rush to a deal Directly with Putin tomorrow.

Trump has credibility in pressuring the Europeans to do more. I think the Europeans should now be given a few weeks, a month, a month and a half. to see how much they can put on the table. Troops on the ground in the aftermath of a ceasefire that is a credible security guarantee that the Americans could potentially backstop. additional support for Ukrainian reconstruction and, of course, much more commitment to spending on European defense.

I don't think Trump should rush into a unilateral deal with an untrusted Putin over the heads. Of American allies that have been with there fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Americans for 20 years in Afghanistan, that have been with the Americans in basing agreements and in military exercises and intelligence sharing and all the rest. Why would you undermine that relationship in favor of rushing into a deal with Putin that you know not only can you not trust, but whose interests are in undermining the Americans everywhere? Right.

So, Ian, I want to talk about what's happening at Gaza, but just before we leave, I don't think Trump thinks he entered the war in Afghanistan. Not in a million years. I think that some of those meetings that led to the lack of violence towards American fighters, he takes credit for, but they were aiming at. Uh they were aiming at the Afghan forces, which wasn't good.

So I think that Joe Biden owns that. And whatever you think of the deal he left, he absolutely could have done a million things. That's true. I agree with that. Biden is the one that ultimately got the troops out, but Trump was trying to end this war as soon as possible.

And he was the one that was working heavily to get a deal with the Taliban.

So I look, I think that if you look over the course of five administrations involved in various components of the war, there's plenty of blame to go around. I'm not looking to allocate blame here. I'm simply looking to say that Trump has been very consistent through two terms now that he does not want the Americans in wars. And when Netanyahu came to Washington just a couple of weeks ago and was trying to get Trump to say, hey, we want you to support us in going after Iran's nuclear facilities, Trump said, I don't want to I don't want to risk a war with Iran. I'm not interested in using and exposing American troops in defense that way.

He's been very consistent on that point. True. First off. Russia coming to the table with Saudi Arabia and some of the statements that came out of there, that stunned me. It just seems, I have not heard that in about 15 years, but you have more into the international press than I am.

But when they came out and said, you know, we want relations to get better with the U.S., I haven't heard that. Barack Obama tried to get that out of him. Joe Biden said I want to have a meet with him. Hillary Clinton tried to get a reset with him. Trump with all the all the other stuff and the the Russian Ridiculous investigation, stopped them from having any meetings that were of some substance.

Does that show you, Ian Bremer? that this toll has been substantial along with new world isolation on their economy and their country. I think it does. I mean, they have a war economy with forty percent of their GDP going to defense. And I mean, you know, tho tho all of that money that's going into that war materiel It's not something that is productive.

It's something that gets destroyed. It gets used up and then you have to just make more.

So I do think that's creating a lot of stress. There are over one hundred thousand Russian citizens that are dead because of the fighting over the last three years, and there are about eight hundred plus thousand Russians that have been injured.

So I mean, this is these are greater casualties than the Russians have taken in all wars combined after World War two.

So I think that this does absolutely have a cost. But I also think that Putin is prepared to keep fighting. And the reason that he is reaching out to Trump is because he understands that Trump shares a strategic interest. Of Putin's which is they both mistrust A strong European Union. And when you see Elon Musk and then JD Vance.

Supporting the alternatives for Deutschland in Germany that the establishment German parties consider neo-Nazi, but they are strongly anti-Europe, they're strongly pro-Russia. Putin loves that. You see Victor Orban making his trips to Mar-a-Lago from Hungary.

Well, this is not only Trump's best friend in Europe. But this is also Putin's, one of Putin's only friends in Europe.

So, I do think that Putin sees an opportunity to split the Americans from the Europeans, to undermine NATO. And of course, he has to be careful how he plays that because Trump is not only very skeptical of the EU, but Trump is also doing something Putin doesn't want, which is pushing the Europeans to spend more on defense.

Well, that could lead to a stronger NATO. And Putin doesn't want a stronger NATO. And also, he's exporting natural horrible outcome. He's also exporting his natural gas that Putin is dying to start giving to Europe again or selling to Europe again. Ian, thanks so much.

Great job. Ian Bremer, 1866-408-7669, Chris DeSepano is next. You're going to love this comedian. He's one of the best in the country. He's going to sell out the garden.

That interview coming to work. Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show.

So, one of the funniest comedians in the country, certainly the hottest, is Chris DiStefano. And he's going to be looking to sell out Madison Square Garden. And to do that, he's got to get the word out. I mean you're talking about, I don't know, 18,000 seats. Uh to do that, it's one of these things where If you grew up in New York, That's all you ever want to do.

Sell out sell out the garden. I think he's going to do it. Very funny, very conversational, a good friend of the show, and will be back with us again in this studio, having some fun. He's very good off the cuff. Most of his stand up Is the first five minutes are all off the cuff.

Here's my interview with Chris DeStefano on One Nation. I believe if you have no kids, you have no problems. I don't know what you're complaining about in your life. If you have no children, go do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it. Nobody's stopping you.

I can't do whatever I want. Every step I take, I have three little empanadas on my ankle. Yeah.

She's leaving. She's like, not if he's gonna make fun of milk! Yes, that's comedian Chris DeStefano making us laugh harder than ever in his new Hulu special called It's Just Unfortunate. He's currently on tour with a big show coming up in September, September 11th, where he plans to sell out the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. And he could appear with the Knicks, but he wants to be the show himself.

Luckily, he's here to stop by first. Chris, great to see you. Great to see you. First of all, let me tell you something, Brian. What?

Okay? You got great teeth. Are they fake? No. You got the best teeth in the business then.

And you're one of these guys that. My mom is single. You're one of these guys that you'd be a nightmare if my mom was like, I got a new boyfriend. And it's you because you're just so handsome and you're just better than my dad. Really?

But you're also so likable.

So I would have to just understand that you're having sex with my mom and I have to just take it. A couple of things are going on here. I don't know where that came from, but why do I feel awkward? It came from. This is your problems and you threw it on me.

It came from my brain on Paxil. That's what's happening.

So it's a prescription. It's a prescription. I have a prescription brain. Right, fantastic.

So, Chris, the last time I saw you was at Madison Square Garden. And I said to you, you got the best seats in the house. And it's because the Knicks screwed up. They forgot to leave you tickets. And you end up with these unbelievable tickets.

I get to the game. I'm like, oh, I'm here. They're like, oh, we don't see your name on the list. I said, no, no, I showed the text. I got the tickets.

By the way, I said, we apologize, sir. We don't have the tickets, but we are going to get you seats. We're the Knicks from Madison Square Garden. We will make it right. I said, thank you.

They sat me at the scores table. At the scores table, right next to the New York Knicks bench, I was giving, I was messing around. They had like mints and wraps. There was one time, Jalen Brunson was walking to the bench and he was pointing to his hand for the trainer, and I gave the trainer the tape to put on. I was like, let me smell that tape.

Right.

This is fantastic. It was awesome. It's great to be you. And now you're going to be playing at this arena. What is it going to be like for a Queens guy to play Madison Square Guard?

It's the only thing that's ever like really mattered to me in comedy is to do comedy at Madison Square Garden. And I'm doing the show on September 11th. You know, I have a thing, if you Google Chris Distefrow, 9-11, my comedy bit on there about my dad coming and threatening to kill the principal and what happened to me on 9-11.

So what I want to do is I'm going to do the show, and then I either want to give proceeds to a different 9-11 foundation or open up an entire section of the arena just for first responders, just for my cops, my firemen, my first responders, those guys, because, you know, I'm just a, you know, I'm a New York City kid. And here's the thing, Chris, you were pro-cop when everyone was. Was to fund the police. You said, screw that. I am not doing that.

100%. Can I ask you about some things in the news that are bothering me that I wanted to bounce off you? And if you want to reject any topic, feel free to do it. Great. All right, first off, NASA says a city killer asteroid has a 3.1% chance of hitting Earth.

They're really working on some type of defense mechanism. Should we be worried? Is this something that would bother you? It's not going to bother me. Elon Musk will save us.

But don't worry about it. He's saving it for everything else. Saving Brass, here's the thing: is just, I just, can you deflect that asteroid long enough that it just doesn't kill us before my show, September 11, 2025 at MSG? After that, kill everybody. I can't guarantee it, but it's up to Elon to come up with the answers.

Elon Saves. All right, so what about celebrities? They are now wondering if in your special there's some things like Tori special. This could be the Tori spelling. She could be in your special.

She revealed that her seven-year-old son massages her for an allowance. Do you have a problem with that? Yeah, I feel like it's illegal, and I feel like I'm watching this video, and I want to immediately. Immediately send this to Cash Patel. The FBI needs to be involved right now.

Really? He's only been on the job one day. He's got to deal with this.

Well, he's open up your inbox, Mr. Patel. We have Tori's spelling evidence. Mia Kunis and Ashton Kucher do not wash their or bathe their kids unless they have grime. It's like it's openly they have grime on their face or it looks like they're visibly dirty.

So what I'm gonna do, in addition to also sending that material to Cash Patel, I'm gonna call my boys, my boy Patty Fly Balls, a fireman. We're gonna get the hoses out. We're gonna get the hoses from Ladder 14 and we're gonna spray these kids down.

Okay, I'm gonna get the hose to wherever Mila Kunis asked you to put your kids off. Whatever it is. I'm just lost in your eyes, babe.

So I'm gonna wash these kids down with an FDNY regulated fire hose because you gotta clean. You gotta clean your kids. You gotta clean the dirt out. I mean, you know, what do you think? You don't want to dry out their skin is their thing.

Oh my God, dude. I'm just telling you. What are people talking about? Then clean them and then rub them down with lotion. Right.

I don't know what you want me to do. Rub them down with lotion like Tori spelling. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. All right, so there's a.

I'm going to ask you honestly. We have this big debate, and is. Your wife, right? You're engaged, right? You're engaged.

She got married? Engaged. You're engaged. And you've had kids, but you're doing everything reverse. We do it.

That's what I do. I'm Chrissy backwards. More on that later. Yes. Here's.

Okay. If there was an emergency and you're filling that form, would she write you down as the emergency contact? In case of emergency, contact Chris. Are you responsible enough? She's actually told me directly into my face that she would feel more comfortable with our three-year-old daughter as the emergency contact than me because one, I wouldn't pick up the phone, and two, if I did, I would panic and pass out and not be able to help, or my three-year-old daughter would know what to do.

All right, here's how I dealt with that same question. Do you think that Brian is Dawn's emergency contact? Not a change. I will not speak for her. Not a change on that?

Who is her emergency contact? I would, you know, even though my son's away at college, I think she would choose him. I'm just being honest. Brian, I can confirm from dawn that her emergency contact is also my three-year-old daughter. Better than both of us.

We are irresponsible people, but we're happy. That's it, baby. Both of you are happy. Here's the thing: Does your fiancé think you're funny? At times.

When she's drunk or under the influence of drugs. Right, you have some altered status. Yes, yes, yes. Listen, Chris doesn't need our help, but let's make sure this thing is sold out. Chris comes home from Queens to a different borough, not quite as good as Queens, Madison Square Garden.

Look how sexy that man is. Go to ChrisDcomedy.com. Appreciate it, man. Follow me on Grindr. Why did you say that?

I can't find you on the bottom. Zooming on Kill Meet's face. I know he has an account. Not anymore.

So great of Chris to come out. By the way, he's doing some work with Jimmy Kimmel. They're trying to roll out a sitcom, and I believe he's already done the pilot. And many people are optimistic he'll pull it off. Great guy.

I have so many people just say not only is he funny, a great person. And that's really what he's like with the staff and everything else. By the way, go to BrianKillmee.com to see me on stage. It's not Madison Square Garden, but it'll be at the factory in St. Louis, March 22nd.

VIP opportunities available. And in Dayton, Ohio, WHIO. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian. Welcome to the latest moments of the Brian Kilmey Show on a beautiful Wednesday.

So happy you're here, of course, in New York City. The big story is locally that a national figure is going to run for mayor. It looks like Cuomo is all but locked in to do it because Eric Adams is basically dead on arrival. He's going to be in some type of forum this week. But Cuomo's back.

Can you believe it?

Now, will he come back and be a thorn in the side of Trump or work with him? You know, like Adams is working with him. Maybe he has to. I don't know. But Governor Hochul's been a disaster.

We'll see. It'll be a high-profile race. How about that?

Meanwhile, I had a chance yesterday to go down to the State Department to meet and greet and interview Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He's been a great friend to this show, and his foreign policy knowledge is just off the charts. Great. Trump realized it. Even though they were rivals in 2016, he was a big campaign aide and almost was vice president.

Now, all of a sudden, he's Secretary of State, and they're talking about a Ukraine mineral deal. It was breaking when I walked in there. He's going to let Trump break the news. Zelensky is going to be coming to our shores on Friday to Washington, D.C. We talked about that and the friction between the two leaders.

Here's my interview with Marco Rubio. As we talk about that, Russia, EU and NATO, let's listen. Mr. Secretary, first off, congratulations. 99 votes.

I guess everyone is behind you. How does it feel 30 plus days in? Busy? Yeah, we've been busy. We've been a lot of work.

We're doing the work of diplomacy in the State Department. Not a patient man. He works, moves very quickly. He's been given a mandate. And he would hit the ground running from day one, going through that, then going through some of the reforms that we're going through on foreign aid and things of that nature.

So it's a lot of work, but it's been fun. It's been exhilarating. One thing he said he wanted to do is address the Ukraine-Russia war quickly. And we got some news today. First off, it looks like the mineral deal has been done.

Can you confirm that?

Well, I can't confirm it. Obviously, our Secretary of Treasury, Besant, is working on that. He's done a great job of putting that together.

So my last indication was that it was very close to the finish line. We were on not even a one-yard line. We were like at the half-yard line, you know, like almost like when the Eagles pushed the quarterback across, you know, that tush-push thing.

So it's close and it's good. Look, it's a good deal. It's an important deal. We still want to end this war. I mean, that's the important thing the President's made very clear.

He campaigned on that.

If there's a chance to end this war, he wants to pursue it. He views it as a dumb war, a costly war, it's a meat grinder, and it has to stop. And we're going to do everything we can, if it's possible, to try to bring it to an end to an end, to a peace that's sustainable. President Zelensky and the President clashed last week. There's no doubt about it.

Maybe President Zelensky said some things he shouldn't about the President not being informed and then came back and didn't do the mineral deal, even though the Secretary of Treasury was hoping to leave with it.

So this week is going to be different. It looks like President Zelensky is going to be here in Washington this week. What could you tell us about? It's a good deal for Ukraine. I mean, the United States working with them to, you know, after the conflict, to be able to utilize their natural resources, not just to pay back the American taxpayer, but to develop the Ukrainian economy.

I think it's a great deal for them. It's the right deal for us as to the US.

Well, there are these security guarantees in it?

Well, the security guarantee is that the United States is now a partner with the Ukrainians in something important. That's going to be making money for us to get paid back for our taxpayers and also Ukraine to build. But what Ukraine needs, people keep using the term security guarantees, what Ukraine needs really is a deterrent. They need to make it costly for anyone to come after them again in the future. And that can be discussed.

And it doesn't have to just be America. I mean, the Europeans can be involved in that. But really, none of that can be discussed. until the war ends. We have to have the war end.

And as long as people are being killed, you know, this is a meat grinder. And it's a challenging thing because the Russians have more meat to grind, right? They're throwing people out there in waves. And it's a very, very bloody war. It's a very costly war.

And it's time for it to come to an end. The president's right. President Trump's right about that. How much friction is between President Zelensky and President Trump? I don't, you know, people, there's a lot of stuff in the media about it, but in the end of the day, the President's objective is clear.

He wants the war to stop. He wants the war to end. And to do that, you have to have both sides agree to it, right?

Now, we talked to Zelensky. I think what the President was irritated by, and rightfully so, was this argument that somehow we haven't talked to Ukraine. After President Trump spoke to Putin, She hadn't spoken to him in four years. He picked up the phone. I was there for both calls.

He immediately called Zelensky right away. And then Zelensky met with our Treasury Secretary. And then he met with me and the Vice President. And then he met with Kellogg. And then, so he has had engagements, constant engagements.

I've talked to the Foreign Minister of Ukraine twice in the last six days.

So to say that we're not engaged with him is just not accurate. Which I'm accurate. You sat down in Saudi Arabia and you looked at Lavrov, who's got decades of experience in his position. You've been there just for a month, even though you've got foreign policy experience. What makes you believe that the Russians sincerely want to have this war to end?

I don't know. I don't know the answer. What do you think?

Well, I think we're going to test it. We told them: do you guys want to end the war or do you want to continue? If you want to end the war, we can talk about what it would take to end it from their perspective. If you want to continue on the war, just tell us now. And they agreed to a follow-up where we're going to send teams of diplomats to meet with theirs to sort of talk about what it would take to end the war.

If what they insist on is unrealistic, then we know they're not real about it. But we have to test that proposition. We need to know, and the president wants to know early in his presidency: are the Russians interested in ending this war or are they not? You know, Donald Trump is a deal maker. President Trump's made deals his entire life.

He's not going to get suckered into a bad deal. He's not going to get tricked into endless negotiations. But he does want to be a peacemaker. Not just a deal maker, but a peacemaker. And President Trump is testing whether the Russians are serious or not.

So the answer to your question is: we don't know, but we're going to find out. But we know this: it's easier to have a ceasefire than it has to end the conflict. Because you remember in the 90s, We promised if they give up their nuclear weapons, we'd watch their back. That didn't work out. And the 2014, a ceasefire, that didn't work out.

They have an invasion in 2022. Macron just came down and said, I sat for seven hours with Vladimir Putin. And when I left, he totally flipped on everything we discussed and he invaded Ukraine anyway. How does that make you feel confident that he would ever agree to anything that you could be sustainable?

Well, first of all, with all due respect to President Macron, he's not President Trump. President Trump is a different Person, you know, very different, also represents the United States, which I think is the only country in the world, and President Trump is the only leader in the world that could actually get Putin to agree to a peace. If it's possible, the only one who can do it is President Trump.

So I think there's a big difference there. Again, this is not about having confidence in the Russians. This is actions. Either they're serious about stopping the war, and we'll know that when we engage them, pretty quickly, we'll know. You know, if they're making maximalist demands that they know can't be met, then we know they're not serious about it.

But we have to test that, right? It's the only way you're going to find out if this is possible or not. And we were very clear with the Russians. There was no negotiation. We didn't sit down over a map and start drawing lines.

What we said is: if you're interested, we can't do anything with you. We can't cooperate with you economically. We can't engage with you on a bunch of other issues. They want that.

Well, maybe. We'll find out, right? I mean, I'm sure they want it, but they can't have it. That can't happen until the war ends. And that was our point.

If you want to have closer cooperation with the United States on a bunch of other issues around the world, both geopolitical and economic. That war has to end. And so we need to test to see how serious they are about it. And that's what we're doing. And that's what the President has asked us to do.

And that's what we're going to try to do here. Senator Rubiel. Called Vladimir Putin a thug. You still feel the same way? But at the end of the day, what we feel about Vladimir Putin is irrelevant to achieving a peace here.

What we're trying to do now is get people, we have to be grown-ups here, we're trying to get people to a negotiating table. You don't get people to a negotiating table like Vladimir Putin by calling them names, by being antagonistic. This is a costly war. It's cost billions of dollars for the United States, billions of dollars for Europe, three million Ukrainians no longer living in the country.

So this is not a PR thing. This is not a political campaign. This is real world.

Every day, this war goes on for another year, like some people say it should. That's thousands of dead people.

So this is real stuff. We have to be serious and mature about it. And in the work of diplomacy, you don't get someone to the table, right? I can't attract someone to sit down at a table and tell us what they're interested in doing about ending a war if we're insulting them. No matter how we may feel about them, I'm sure they've said very mean things about me, but we want to get this thing done.

We want peace. Do you think it was necessary to take out of the UN resolution Talk that Russia did invade Ukraine and start this war.

So, what is the UN? The UN's usefulness is to promote peace, to end wars. And so, I go back to the same point I made, to put a resolution out there that condemns Russia, no matter how people may feel about it, is to basically invite them not to sit at the table, to argue nothing's changed, why are we going to negotiate with you? We're trying to get them to a negotiating table so we can test whether they're serious or not about peace. And I think anything that's unnecessarily antagonistic is going to keep them from negotiating.

We're going to find out soon enough. But what everyone needs to remember here, the goal here is not to help Russia or anything. The goal here is to end a war that is costing the lives of thousands of people, destroying a country. Every day that goes by, the cost of rebuilding Ukraine gets higher and higher and higher. Who's going to pay that?

But is it worth noting that Ukraine has outstripped everybody's expectations? There's over 800,000. There's been casualties of over 800,000 for the Russians. They have to bring in North Koreans. They killed just about all of them.

There's no dispute. There's no dispute. The Ukrainians have been very brave. They're fighting for their country. They've exceeded everyone's expectations, especially the Biden administration.

They've done incredible stuff. But at the end, what we're trying to point to here is that this war has to come to an end now. We're three years into the thing, and it needs to stop. And we can do that and also recognize their bravery. Also, just the Ukrainian Parliament just voted to keep President Zelensky present throughout the war.

So the talk of him being a dictator probably isn't accurate.

Well, ultimately, the bottom line here is that they've got their system of government. They'll have to handle that internally. What we're focused on here is ending the war. That's it. That's all the thing that matters: can we end the war?

Is it possible? If this war doesn't end, then this administration is going to, we're going to go back to Congress and ask for more money for Ukraine. It was hard enough to pass that the last time. And even the Europeans are telling us they're going to have trouble with it.

So we need to bring this thing to an end. Right, but how it ends would really dictate if it starts again. Absolutely. Right.

It's got to be a sustainable end to the war. Germany had a big election. President Trump congratulated the new presumed leader, although it's going to take months for them to form a government. His name is Frederick Mertz. And he said this.

I would never have thought I would be saying this on TV. But after Donald Trump's remark last week, it is clear that the government does not care much about the fate of Europe. My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that step by step we can really achieve independence from the U.S. He says, in its current form, NATO in its current form is in jeopardy. It is time for the European nations to have to establish an independent European defense capability.

Your reaction? My reaction is NATO is not in jeopardy. The only thing that puts NATO in jeopardy is the fact that we have NATO allies. who barely have militaries or whose militaries are not very capable because they've spent 40 years not spending any money on it. We'd been NATO.

And all President Trump has argued is what every president, every American president has argued for the last 30 years, and that is these are rich countries. These are rich countries, especially in Western Europe. They have plenty of money. They should be investing that in the national security. And they're not.

You have countries spending 1.5%, 1% of their economy, and we just can't keep subsidizing that. It's not fair, and it's not sustainable. That's what puts NATO in jeopardy, is that we don't have allies in some cases.

Now, others have done it. Poland, Czechia. There's a bunch of countries that have done it. But some have not. And these are rich countries, Germany, France.

We know this.

So that has to be fixed. I would also say that you talk about the comments of the new German leader. He was in the middle of a campaign. People say things. I think there was a little bit of hysteria last week.

But this was after he won.

Okay, well, there's a lot of hysteria going on. But does he misreading? Misreading. As far as you are concerned, he thinks that the U.S. wants out of Europe, do your own thing.

Is he misreading Donald Trump? No, we're not saying do your own thing, we're saying do more. It's their continent, right? Why should we not be ⁇ why is it unreasonable for the United States to ask rich European countries to invest more money in their own national security? What can't continue to happen is the United States basically is their security blanket, so they only spend 2% on defense and then build up this massive social safety net.

Well, you know, of course they can. Of course they have universal everything because we've basically been their security. That's not sustainable. It's not a partnership. That's a dependency.

And that's not good for Europe either. All right, coming up next, more for my interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He's only done one other interview that I know of. I think it's with Catherine Herridge. He's going to do independent media.

When it came to Fox, I was just honored he gave me this opportunity. If you listen to this show, it might drive you crazy, but I just love the whole war, peace, international relations stuff. He's fantastic at it. One of his expertise is Central and South America and Venezuela, especially. We talked about that next.

It's Brian Killmead. The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmead. Welcome back. Marco Rubio's at a cabinet meeting today, first one of the Trump administration.

First time he's ever been in a cabinet. Obviously, as Secretary of State, one of the most powerful positions in the world. I had a chance to talk to him about an area in which he really worked, did a lot of work for President Trump in the first term, and that's Central and South America. Out of his first eight stops since he got the job, I think six were in Central and South America. And then, of course, the controversy in Venezuela.

Rick Grinnell handled that.

So I talked to him about that as I sat down with the Secretary of State in an exclusive interview, which you'll see even more clips coming up on One Nation on Sunday. But here's Marco Rubio talking about our neighborhood. What a start you've had. 30 plus days. You've been to Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Germany, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and UAE.

In the beginning, you got six nations there, Central and South America. There's a message, and it seems to have been: our border matters. Let's establish some relationship because we've got to get control of our southern border and you've got to control yours. What did you walk away with? What was your message?

Well, we walked away from the following. All those countries you mentioned in Central America are all migratory routes. That is the route that people take to get to the southern border, right? They start in the Darien Gap in Panama, they work their way, you know, sometimes to Costa Rica, oftentimes through Guatemala and El Salvador, and they work their way up towards the United States.

So, our border, in many cases, when it comes to mass migration, begins there.

So, we want countries to cooperate in stopping it. In addition, a number of these countries, I add Honduras now to the list, a number of these countries have now agreed not just to take back repatriation flights of their own nationals, but to take third country, meaning people from other countries who basically enter the United States illegally. We can send them to those countries, and they have a choice. They can go back to their home country or they can go to these countries. These are powerful.

Tools, and that's why you're now seeing historically low numbers under President Trump. Do you think historically your visits?

Well, I think it has a lot to do with President Trump. It has to do with the fact that people that were coming here realize that this isn't Joe Biden. Under President Trump, you're not just going to be able to come in, claim asylum, and stay forever. And so, we are literally in some of these countries. I had a call yesterday, one of these countries, they now have people doing U-turns.

They were on their way here, they realized, okay, they're not playing around anymore, President Trump is serious, and they've done a U-turn. They're trying to go back to their country. We're seeing that happen. And that is as a result of President Trump's very clear leadership on migration. You have an expertise in Central and South America.

One area in which you focused on was Venezuela.

So there's got to be a regime change. There still isn't. The election was a sham. By Rick Grinnell going down there and pulling out hostages, which is great. And having them take in their citizens is excellent.

Love the result. But are you legitimizing an illegitimate leader? No. A thug down leader? No, no.

Venezuela has the regime. which is what controls that territory of Venezuela. Has an obligation under the law, under international law, under recognized covenants of every law, to accept their foreign nationals who are lawfully and illegally in another country. If an American is illegally immigrates to Venezuela or Panama or Costa Rica, we have an obligation. to take them back if they deport them to us.

The same is true. And so Rick went down there to basically tell them. You need to take these people back. And you're going to come get them. And they have.

They've had, they flew to Honduras last week and picked up a bunch of these gang members, trained at Agua gang members, and we need you to release these Americans. And he went down asking, you know, we thought maybe five. He came back with six.

So that's it. That's what the trip was about. And that's what it needs to be. Because Venezuela, remember, Venezuela stopped taking migration flights, deportations, because they wanted to blackmail Joe Biden. Donald Trump's not going to be blackmailed.

President Trump will not be blackmailed by them. And so that's what that trip is. But Maduro should go in your mind still? I continue to believe that he's a horrible dictator who's instilling All kinds of information. Are you demanding he leave?

Well, we're going to work on that policy because I'm going to tell you something. He is allowing Iran to operate out of Venezuela. He's allowing the Chinese to operate out of Venezuela. He's threatening his neighbors in the region. He has flooded us with gang members, flooded us with these trained Aragua gang members that are in this country doing terrible things.

Why would we want someone like that to be there? We're not going to discuss publicly what our work's going to be in that regard, but he remains the same threat today that he was two years ago, three years ago, four years ago. That's going to have to be dealt with. All right, I hope you're enjoying this interview. I absolutely loved it.

I needed another hour, but when we come back, we talk about Panama, why that was his first trip. What does it mean that the cartels are now labeled terrorist groups? What does that mean for us? And if China attacks Taiwan. Do we do anything?

We'll discuss it all on the Brian Killmee Show, don't move. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. So, yesterday I had a chance to talk to Marco Rubio. Hopped on an Amtrak train, was a little bit late.

Then went to the State Department where the Secretary of State was running a little bit late, but we sat down. He did his first Fox interview with me, and I truly appreciate it. He's got such a passion for. Foreign policy. I get it.

But what his real expertise was Central and South America. And here's an element of the interview where I talk about Panama, where I talk about what why we what's significant about naming the cartels a terrorist network. China and Taiwan Wide-ranging interview, here it is with the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. We allowed over decades China to make their way into Central and South America. And is Panama an example of that?

Yes. We've just not put enough attention in our own backyard.

Well, is that what you heard when you went there? It is. I mean, a couple things. They're corruption, right? The previous president, two presidents ago, those people are all wrapped up in a web of corruption.

In fact, he's standing trial in Panama now for that.

So they bought their way like they've done in many parts. And you wake up one day and realize they control both of the ports of entry to the Panama Canal. They control the cranes. They have a huge presence there. And I'm very happy that after our visit, I think the same day I was there, Panama became the first country.

In Latin America, in the Western Hemisphere, to get out of the Belt and Road initiative. And I think there will be more news coming up soon with regards to Panama, all positive for America. Our Admiral, who runs Southcom, was down there last week, signed the cybersecurity agreement with them, because the cyber vulnerability of the canal is also very serious. You guys had a very good special on Fox Nation about the Panama Canal and the threats you posed there.

So I think that this is something you're going to see a lot more news on in the next few months. We go down there and we make demands, but they also look at us here, and you tell me, and say, where have you been? You know, there was a gap. We need aid. And you have not really paid much attention.

Do you plan on addressing? Is there a comprehensive policy to get China out and be more attentive?

Well, the good news about both Costa Rica and Panama is they don't need aid. They really don't need it. I mean, they want to partner with training, like they want us to help train their police forces and things of that nature. But these are not recipient countries for the most part. They're very pro-American.

The president of Panama, you know, we've got a problem with the canal situation, but he's a pro-American president. President Costa Rica is a pro-American president. President Bukeley in El Salvador, pro-American president. We had a good meeting with the president of Guatemala. The president of the Dominican Republic, pro-American president.

So, what I would say is, what we haven't done is we haven't paid attention to pro-American allies in the region. We've almost ignored them, and in some cases, we've even punished them. We've had administrations like the Biden administration that criticized Bukele and called him a dictator and all kinds of things like that when he's actually pro-American. And the biggest joke is Brazil, where this Lula is a criminal, convicted criminal. He's leading that country.

Bolsonaro, who is pro-American. West and pro-U.S. seems to be looking at a looming arrest, and that has allowed China to get a foothold there. But I want to talk about what else you did and what the President did. He's declared MS-13 and TDA terrorist networks, and these cartels, terrorist networks.

Does that allow us to go after them like we do al-Qaeda and ISIS? That allows us to, obviously, we have to cooperate with the countries that we're working on. We've been working very closely with Mexico. We want them to do more. I know Pete's been talking to them.

We're going to have meetings with them later this week as well. We'd like to work with Mexico to go after these cartels because they're a threat to the Mexican government, not just to us. And some of that work is already happening. In the case of Trendadagua, this is a vicious. One of the most vicious criminal gangs in the world.

Right.

These guys from the military, we had them in Guantanamo. We sent them to Guantanamo, Guantanamo to Honduras. The Venezuelan regime picked them up from there. These guys in Guantanamo, the military police are saying these are some of the toughest people. They're tougher than the Al-Qaeda guys in the prisons.

Well, you have KSM and all these other guys. Yeah, these guys are even tougher than those guys. They're even worse than those guys. They're a very dangerous gang. We've seen it in our streets.

So you need permission from their government to take them out. I don't think we were asking Yemen, Sudan, Syria if we have to take out ISIS and Al Qaeda. I think we just hit them, right? The United States has a right to defend its national interests at every point. If our national security is being threatened, it doesn't matter where it's coming from.

We have a right to activate it. But we never did that before.

Well, but what we want is we want to work with Mexicans. We want to work with them to go after them. Because they're on the ground. What have they told you, Mr. Secretary?

Look, we're going to find out. I mean, so far there's good signs. There's some good things we've never seen before. We've seen the numbers at the border come down. We want them to do more.

But they've deployed, what, 14,000 of their National Guard to their border. We've provided them information about certain cartel leaders. They've gone after them. But you know, we've got to keep this going. This isn't like a one-week or one-month thing.

We got to make sure this is enduring. Everyone who's decided that it matters to them, who cares about drugs coming across our border, fentanyl coming across our border, knows the precursors are in China. They could stop in a second. They go to Mexico to the cartels and they come across our border. And Mexico blames us for wanting.

To begin with, that to me is a non-starter. I don't know about you.

So, how do we stop this? China could stop it tomorrow.

Well, they could. And a couple things. The Chinese would tell you, if you were with them here today, they'd say, well, we don't have a drug problem. What do we care about precursors? They're not drugs, right?

But they could stop it if they wanted to. You have to wonder, in some cases, is this a deliberate thing? Like, are they flooding us with fancy? Like their own version of the opium war. And reverse, right.

And are they doing this on purpose? You know, you have to wonder. But do you really wonder, or do you know?

Well, we can't prove that they're doing it on purpose, but boy, it looks like it. It really does. I mean, they know these guys are operating, and I think they're holding it over our head, too, right? They're saying, well, we'll help you with this if you don't put tariffs or you don't do something else. But we can do more.

So, as an example, when I was in Guatemala, we've trained their police department. It was one of the waivers I issued on foreign aid. And we've trained their police department to spot the precursors. Because one of the ways they do it is they bring it through Guatemala and then up into the United States and into the labs in Mexico that are making these pills. And the Guatemalans themselves, we've trained them and equipped them to be able, with our DEA, to be able to identify the precursors and pull them out.

I'd much rather disrupt it there than when they're in the lab already in Mexico. It's almost too late.

So these are good things that we want to continue to do. But look, at the end, we're being flooded. It's coming through there, and it's also coming through the border with Canada. You've called China the most dangerous near-peer adversary the U.S. has faced.

Ever.

So we need concrete steps to face off with them, who clearly are building up their military to face off with us as sophisticated as possible. What is your plan? And they have told us by 2027 they're taking Taiwan. Daily incursions. What could you do about it?

How committed are you and the President of the United States to defending Taiwan?

Well, a couple points. The first is there's three things we have to do when it comes to. Look, China is going to be a rich and powerful country. No matter what we do, we're going to have to deal with that. But we have to deal with a reality.

What we cannot have is a world where China is so powerful we depend on them. And that's right now where we're headed, unfortunately. That's going to change. It's going to change under President Trump. Number one is we have to have our own domestic capability.

If you don't want to depend on China, you better be able to make it for yourself. And we've allowed way too many industries to fall into the hands of the Chinese. Everything from rare earth minerals to pharmaceuticals, we have to have a domestic capacity, and it's one of the ideas behind the tariffs that the President is pursuing writ large. That's why people say we'll only put tariffs on China.

Well, that's not enough, because China has factories in other countries all over the world, and they flood us with those products.

So we have to have our own domestic capacity. Number two is we have to be present. In the Indo-Pacific, they're trying to drive us out. We have a strong relationship. We are a Pacific nation.

We are. And so we have relationships in the Pacific and we're not going to abandon those. Japan, South Korea. You mentioned Taiwan. We have a long-standing position on Taiwan that we're not going to abandon, and that is we are against any forced, compelled, coercive change in the status of Taiwan.

That's been our position. Since the late 1970s, and that continues to be our position, and that's not going to change. And then the third is, you know, and it's outside the purview of this Department of State, but we have to have military capabilities that allow us to respond to the threat that China is posing. And we need to be concerned. We have our aircraft manufacturing, our ship manufacturers.

They are not keeping pace. China can build 10 ships before we can build one. That's a very serious vulnerability that cannot continue. And obviously, I know Pete has a plan for that, and the President has a plan for that, and they're working on it. And if you get woken up at 2 o'clock in the morning, This morning, and it is we have but we have reason to believe that China is taking Taiwan right now.

What does America do?

Well, America has existing commitments that it has made. To prevent that from happening and to react to it, and that would be executed on. And those are the standing, and the Chinese are aware of this as well. But again, Let's hope that doesn't happen. And the best way to prevent that from happening is to have the capability, a strong leader in the White House, which we have, President Trump, and the capability, military capability to respond.

If the Chinese know we have the ability to respond, then they may do that. If they know we don't have the capability to respond or we have a weak leader, then they may test it. And we just don't want to get to that point. That would be a terrible thing for the world. And it would be a bad thing for China, too, by the way.

And I know we've got to go, but will you say that to your counterpart in China?

Well, we have, and they know that's our position. They're mad. You only have the job for 30 days. I know, but I've spoken to the foreign minister one time, you know, and I think we've made clear what I said is China's going to, we have to have relations with China. We're not saying we don't.

We have to. They're a nuclear power. They're the second largest economy in the world. The second most populous country in the world.

So we have to deal with them. But that, maybe most populous, maybe I don't know, them in India are pretty close. But we have to have a relationship with them.

However, It has to be a balanced relationship. It cannot be one where they become dominant because then we are going to have a conflict and we don't want that. It would be bad for the world. It would be bad for the world. And I think the best way to avoid that is a strong America, which is what we're getting under President Trump.

So, after the sit-down with the Secretary of State, which I truly appreciated, we did a little walk-in talk, and then we talked a little personally about what it's like getting the job and what his family's reaction was about him going full-time to Washington, D.C. You're with Brian Kilmead. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Hey, we are back, and I just want to bring you up close and personal to Marco Rubio.

After our sit-down with the Secretary of State, the first one he did at Fox, I believe the second overall interview, he did speak to Captain Herrge. We got on our feet, and he showed me Thomas Jefferson's portrait in this great room right off the huge room where we were doing our interview. And he just showed me some of the portraits, what it means to him, and what this job is like for him and his family. Especially, he's not going to get a chance to see his son as much, who's a running back at the University of Florida. Here's my interview with Marco Rubio.

So Mr. Secretary, where are we going? This is Jefferson's room. And um For Secretary of State and there's a portrait. Of him.

How much did you study? American history in school and growing up. How how into it? Not enough, apparently. I had to l I had to learn it over the last 40 years, you know.

I wasn't the best student in high school. I was a pretty good college student, but not high school. But no, but you I mean, obviously they still are very appreciative of sort of some of the history. That's one of the best collections of 18th century America. Right.

Whether it's portraits or desks and things of that nature, is here at the State Department.

So it belongs to the American people, obviously. But we do have, there are actually tourists that come up here and want to see all this stuff. It's it's uh I I've not spent a lot of time. I've been up here three times, so I've been here, we've been kind of busy, but. It's a good space to host events when you have foreign ministers and people like that from around the world, and we'll be using it.

I know it's been a blur. You got nominated. How surprised were you? When you got the call from President Trump, that this is the position he had in mind? Or did he tell you, Marco, I win, you're in?

No, you know, we really never talked about it beforehand. He sort of called and said, I want to make you Secretary of State. You don't say no to that. It's an enormous honor to be able to do it. Totally surprised?

Pretty much. I mean, in the sense that I thought maybe he'd think for me for something. I didn't know what role, you know. But I think what's most exciting to me is the time in which I get to do it. I get to work for a president who is committed to making big change, both in the geopolitics.

I said that in my confirmation hearing. What I said is, you know, at the end of the Cold War, we sort of lost our way, and we have a chance to remake American foreign policy and put the national interest, like what's important to America, first and foremost. And people say America first. Yes, it's not America only, but it is America first. And bringing it back to that is something I'm excited to be a part of.

Having known you for a while? I've always used to know you as someone who calls zone shots. It's like, this is what I think, this is how I feel. You know, if Republicans are with you, they're not. Obviously, you got 99 votes, so obviously, people looked at you beyond Democrat or Republican.

Now you're running the State Department, but you're also. Taking your marching orders from the president. How hard is it to work for somebody? Not hard at all. That's the way I worked.

You have no experience with that. No, no, but the Republic, the Republic, that's how it works. The president was the one who got the electoral votes. The president is the president. Nobody voted for me for Secretary of State except for senators, right?

The American people elected him.

So the President of the United States, under our system of government, sets foreign policy. That's the way the system works. And our job is to provide advice and counsel, but at the end of the day, he makes the decisions, and our job is to execute. And people need to realize that. And I think there's some misunderstanding out there when people talk about the agencies of government.

Their job is to execute the orders of our elected president. And that's what we intend to do while we're here. And so when people say, hey, Senator, when you were senator, you felt this way, now you're Secretary of State, you feel this way, your answer is? That they obviously don't understand the American Republic. The American Republic, the President conducts foreign policy.

We execute. But he's the one that makes those decisions. He's the one the American people voted for. Not With all due respects, somebody who works here is a Foreign Service officer, and not even me. I was confirmed by the Senate to execute the President's foreign policy.

I know you are an anti-DEI administration, and that's where the country is heading. But it's hard not to acknowledge that you are the highest-ranking Hispanic American in the history of the country and the first to hold this. What does that mean to you?

Well, it means this is a great country. Because I don't think I'm Secretary of State because I'm Hispanic. I think I'm Secretary of State because it doesn't matter. People want good people in these positions. And that's the point.

That's what's wrong with DEI. It divides us on the basis of our ethnicity, our race, our gender, whatever it may be. And in fact, what we should be is a meritocracy where we are rewarding people for competence and performance. And so what I like to say is I don't know of a single person that came up to me in the Senate as an example and said, I voted for you because you're Hispanic. They voted for me, I hope, because they think they knew me from my time in the Senate and they thought I'd do a good job.

And I think that's why President Trump picked me.

Now that said, you look at his cabinet, it's pretty diverse. But he put really good people that happen to be diverse. Not I'm going to go in and put people for diversity whether they're good or not. That's how other people have done it. That's not how he's done it.

So do you know in history the most smoothest running administrations have clashes? You got Casper Weinberger and George Schultz, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld. You have Jake Sullivan, according to reports, and Anthony blinking. We're not even speaking by the end of their four-year term. How do you avoid that?

Even though these are a lot of these guys and these women are your friends, how do you avoid that? That is a great question. I'm going to give you the answer to it. The president has put together a tremendous team of people that have known each other for a long time. First of all, half of us are from Florida, so that's good.

But if you think about Mike Waltz, I've known Mike Waltz since his entire time in Congress. We've been working together for a long time, and we're aligned in our thinking and in our view of our roles. You think about Steve Witkoff, who's an envoy. Steve lives in Miami. Great guy, phenomenal, very talented person, very smart.

I talk to Steve four times a day. Excellent. You talk about Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, and someone I've known for 15 years. You talk about Pam Bondi. I've known her for 15 years.

So it's just a team of people that all know each other, have been working together for a long time, and get along. And it extends to the president. You know, the president was president once. People remember this. And I was in the Senate, and it was the best four years I had in the Senate.

I worked very closely with him. And he's also from Florida. You know, they like to claim him in New York, but we claim him in Florida. And he's a great person to work for. I think he's a bold leader with a lot of energy.

And we're trying to keep up with the gas, no break here. But, Mr. Secretary, I do remember when you were running for president against him. And how personal it got, and you guys were slugging it out. Do you ever talk about that?

Like how rugged it is.

Well, I'll never tell you how tight you are now. I'll never tell you what we talk about. I can only tell you he picked me to be his Secretary of State. And I would also tell you that this is an analogy I've always used. Like, there's a lot of sports I like.

I like watching boxing, grew up watching a lot of boxing. My dad was a boxing fan. I've never heard anyone at the end of a boxing match ask them, hey, why did you punch that guy in the face in the third round? You're in a competitive environment. What I can tell you is.

The voters picked Donald Trump, and I think they were wise to do so. He became our president. We had four good years, you know, and now he's back. And With a real mandate. And I'm just excited to be a part of this.

It's an enormous honor. You're also a dad, and you're also a husband. Your son's playing over at the University of Florida, scored a touchdown. We see that. Is it going to be hard to keep in touch with your family with a job?

You've already been to 12 different places. I mean, we have phones, you know, and we have the ability to communicate with them. My kids are a little older now. You know, they have their own lives going on, so they probably don't like to hear from me as much as they used to. And so, you know, that'll always be my most important job: husband, father, and then, you know, Secretary of State.

And I don't think those things are in conflict. My family's, I wouldn't be able to do this if they weren't supportive. They were all in. They knew it was going to be less seeing you, right? Yeah, and I think that, but ultimately, I think you can't do this if your family's not supportive.

And the great news about it is you do this for a while. You know, you don't do this forever. And I'm just happy to be able to serve the country, and I think they appreciate that. And it's been a blessing for them, too, you know, to be able to watch that and see that. It's been an influence on their lives.

And we feel very fortunate on your first Fox interview.

So that is great. Hopefully, it's a beautiful place. I know. And I'll get a full tour where we don't have so much to talk about when you can be a tour guide. Or I'll hire a tour guide so I'll know a little bit more.

Congratulations again, Mr. Secretary. Thank you. Best of luck settling the world's scores.

So I hope you enjoyed the interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. We're going to have more of it on One Nation, some more clips. Believe it or not, we even have more that did not air on TV and did not air on radio. We'll have more of those clips on One Nation on Sunday night at 10 o'clock Eastern Time. Keep it here.

Don't forget, BrianKillMe.com to see me on March 22nd in St. Louis and in June in Dayton, Ohio. WHIO LINERS. You know all about it. BrianKillMe.com.

History, Liberty, and Laughs. I'm Dana Perino. This week on Perino on Politics, I'm joined by Executive Vice President at Targeted Victory, Matt Gorman. Available now on FoxNewsPodcast.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Must listen to podcasts from Fox News Audio.

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