Why Ukraine deserves better

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Terms apply. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmead. Hi, everyone.

So glad you're here. Hope you had a great weekend. We're back in action now, and it's going to be a busy week. 50 days, can you believe it? 50 days of the Trump administration.

I can't even say we can wait for 100. We've been trying to chronicle all the success they've had and all the challenges that still lie ahead. But the one thing about it, They're trying to tackle it all. at once, multiple times, multiple conflicts. multiple economic challenges.

This hour we're going to be joined By Dan Hoffman. He's going to bring us the latest from his perspective, on Russia's perspective on our dealings with Ukraine, which is going to have peace talks this week. And Taylor Riggs, Inside the Economy.

So let's get to the big three. Number three. Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is now in ICE custody after he was arrested by agents on Saturday. The former Columbia University graduate student helped lead some protests on campus last year. Khalil's attorney says he is living in the U.S.

legally and called the arrest a repression of student activism. Yeah, there better be a huge repression and then kick his butt out. Columbia gets clobbered. First, persistent anti-Semitic protests and clashes have resulted in a Columbia student losing, Columbia University losing $400 million, and the first deportation of a grad student behind it. And hopefully it will not be the last because this guy's gotta go.

Number two. Here in Ukraine, there is deep anxiety about President Trump's upending of US support three years after Vladimir Putin invaded this country. In fact, one Ukrainian poll found that trust in Zelensky has soared to 68% here in Ukraine following his public dressing down at the White House. Ukraine deserves better. Ukrainians deserve better.

Mysteriously, Trump team stops intel sharing and satellite communication, making their F-16s useless and prevents them from blocking any Russian missile attack. And the Russians are bombing like crazy because of it. Talks begin with Ukraine and Jeddah tomorrow. Number one. One.

This was the week that Wall Street woke up. And Wall Street snapped out of its denialism. He is somebody who does deeply believe in tariffs. This was a sort of seminal week on Wall Street, and then it's not going to change. And that is a Jonathan Martin.

Oh, hold on tight. The President's effort to bring manufacturing back to America through tariffs and massive incentives is rocking the economy. What we should what he could do to steady the ship, and how an enemy turned ally. Could help.

Okay. First off, with President Trump at the tariffs, I'm sure the big picture is he wants to get tariffs and bring manufacturing back. But I think going up and down, changing his mind, offering them, extending them, going back and forth has caused the market to really be rocked.

So if you look at it, when he took over, when he was inaugurated, the market was up 3.9% on the prospect of him taking over. Since inauguration, the market is down 1.6%. The last time he was there, the first two months, the market was up 5.7% because they like his deregulation and the whole free market concept that he has. Obama was down 20%. Bush was up 1.3%.

Biden was up slightly. But Trump was a different story. He's so pro-business. The only thing that's throwing him, I believe, Inflation hasn't Gone down, which I think is impossible to do in a month. And the other thing would be the tariffs.

And they did and the how unclear it is on what he wants to accomplish and what he's actually off to do. Here's uh and now the market went up and down with the tariffs.

So when he said the tariffs were on, they'd go market would go down. When he'd say they're off, they'd go up. Last week, he took them on and took them off and extended Canadian and Mexican tariffs until april first. And the market didn't respond. They're sticking with the uncertainty and they don't like it.

Cut one. Oh, I think the tariffs are going to be the greatest thing we've ever done as a country. It's going to make our country rich again. We have many companies, as you know. Auto companies are opening up plants now.

We've had four or five announced already, but many more are coming. And we're basically going to take back the money, a lot of the money, that we've given away over many decades. We've lost our jobs, we've lost our factories.

So That's part of it.

Now, with Canada and Mexico, even though there's somewhat mixed messaging, with Canada and Mexico, It is about fentanyl and slowing it down.

Now, they say that through the northern border is only 40 pounds of fentanyl, which, by the way, is devastating. I think it's a lot more. There's no doubt about it, it's a lot more. And they could do a lot more. And I think they got the message.

in Canada. A fentanyl czar, more assets. And then Mexico, no doubt about it. I mean, exporting all those cartel members who were in Mexican prisons to our prisons, we've been asking for that for over ten years. And then shutting down the border has a lot to do with Mexico cracking down on their border.

So that helps. The arresting of hundreds of cartel members? That helps. To me, that's take the win. Kevin Hassett said, yeah.

Th in this case Tariffs are not about the economy, cut seven. Canada's not a major source. Not at all of fentanyl in the United States.

Well, yes, they are a major source. And I can tell you that in the Situation Room, I've seen photographs of fentanyl labs in Canada that the law enforcement folks were leaving alone. Canada's got a big drug problem, even in their own cities. Go walk around Toronto and see what it's like, and you'll see that it is a big problem. And frankly, we have intelligence that Mexican cartels operate in Canada as well.

So, if you want to get the cartels out of the U.S., you've got to get them out of Canada and Mexico.

So, the President extended the lack of tariffs. Until April 1st.

So Scheinbaum's personal rating's going up because she's working with President Trump. Maybe she's looking tough. President Trump kinda likes her, I think, and respects her. But for the most part, if we could help Mexico get free of cartel influence in their government, it would help the whole hemisphere, wouldn't it? Free them up to maybe act clearly.

In a way in which the Palestinian people perhaps can't with Hamas there. Maybe the cartels, as rumored, have so much power. Sheinbaum has no. Choice but to come out and say they don't have that power for our own security.

So, this is a drug war, Kevin Hassett says.

So Canada has elected a new Liberal Prime Minister to finish out Trudeau's term.

So he'll be Prime Minister for the next few months. He wants to stand strong and look good against Trump. And because people of Canada have rallied around their leader, because we are taking them on in so many ways, and we're. Taking them on in terms of economically in so many ways. The Canadian Prime Minister is a big time banker, and he's talking tough with Trump.

Cut four. There's someone who's trying to do the opposite. There's someone who's trying to weaken our economy. The man. Yeah.

Donald Trump. Donald Trump. And Donald Trump As we know, has put As the Prime Minister just said, unjustified tariffs On what we build, on what we sell, on how we make a living. He's attacking. Canadian families, workers and businesses, and we cannot let him succeed.

And we won't.

So he's going to be tough on Trump. We'll see how this goes because it's not going to get him anywhere to act tough because we have more levers to pull, no question about it. And I think there's got to be a big push on different things to balance out our trade. As people have told me, they said President Trump should talk about the imbalance between the two countries, especially when it comes to farming and dairy farming specifically. The USMCA helped straighten it out, but didn't go far enough.

I could not believe this. The president's getting an ally in UAW President Sean Fane. Remember him and Biden with Tyat? He spoke at the DNC, ripped Donald Trump, said how he was bad for business, but now he sees the tariffs. as a godsend.

And just to hear his perspective, reluctantly coming out, saying, you have to understand, there's another side to the tariff story, it's about bringing jobs back. And he goes back in history to review it. Here's Sean Fane on this week with George Stephanopoulos, cut 12. You know, in nineteen ninety two. I was a twenty three year old man.

I I voted for Ross Perot. And the reason I voted for Ross Perot was during the debate between Clinton, Perot, and Bush. Ross Perot talked about that giant sucking sound. And I'll tell you, in nineteen ninety three There was a debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot on Larry King Live. And Al Gore talked about the four living presidents, Nobel laureate, economists, and everyone said this was going to create 400,000 jobs in the first year of NAFTA's inception.

And you know what happened? We've lost millions of jobs since then. We've lost 90,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States since the inception of NAFTA. That's 1,800 manufacturing plants per state.

So that's what he thinks tariffs could help bring jobs back. Honda says they're starting to build here. They changed plans for Mexico. They also said. That this Taiwanese tech company is coming here to build to make chips.

So that'll be within the next two years.

So now we have some jobs coming back and a lot of incentive to do it. The president's got a whole list of them. That's his goal. But in the short term, the tariffs can be. Cause prices to go up because tariffs come in, cost more to bring the product in.

People are going to pay more to get that product in. Then they're going to turn around, in theory, and charge you more. I'll talk more about this a little bit later. 1-866-408-7669. But when I come back, I want to talk to Dan Hoffman about what's happening with Russia and Ukraine as we have a delegation heading to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to meet with Ukrainian officials.

And I'll go through some of the developments over the weekend, many of which I cannot get close to supporting from the Trump administration. Really disappointing. You're listening to the Brian Kill Me Show.

So glad you're here. Coming to you on a need-to-know basis, because Mandy, you need to know. It's Brian Kilmead. Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy, host of the Trey Goutdee Podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side.

Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcast.com. A radio show like no other. It's Brian, kill me. My colleagues at Political Europe have a score overnight about the possibility of Europeans creating their own intelligence sharing instead of Five Eyes calling it Euro Eyes because they can't rely. I think they're realizing in Europe they can't rely on the U.S.

as a steady partner as they have for the last 80 years because Donald Trump is not committed to the transatlantic alliance. Donald Trump is more invested in a great powers-type geopolitical structure in which big countries like the U.S., Russia, and China are effectively the deciders as to who knows what. I agree with partially what he said. I don't think he's looking to Divide up the world with China and Russia. He's looking to confront them with a strategy that's going to work.

Number one, trying to separate them. Number two is not put past anxieties in the past and then start building a block militarily, trade-wise, economically, but confronting it. Not avoiding it, but confronting it. I don't think they're trying to divide the world up.

So that's wrong. That's the view of most Democrats. They just want to think the worst. But I don't think the president's handling it well, leading up to talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. With me right now to discuss it and get his point of view is a guy who used to work in that neighborhood for quite a long time.

Dan Hoffman, former CIA station chief, served in Moscow, Iraq, Pakistan, just about everywhere else. Dan, I don't like shutting off the satellites. I don't like pausing weapon shipments to Ukraine at this point. Yeah, I don't either. I think it emboldens Putin.

to be more aggressive militarily and ultimately take away any incentive he might have had, if he indeed has any, to join in negotiations. Look, Russia just over the weekend Was using munitions, their S300 munitions, air defense munitions. to strike Ukraine because they're not concerned about Ukrainian strikes Along the border inside Russian territory, because Ukraine doesn't have the U.S. intelligence to conduct those strikes.

So it is of concern, and I agree with you. I wish we hadn't done that. Kursk right now is really under pressure. That is the portion of Russia that the Ukrainians took. And now the North Koreans, who love just to run into bullets, are blocking, and then the Russians come in from behind.

But we're not able to use long-range weapons to back them off because we don't have the satellites to make that possible. Yeah. it just encourages Russia to believe that they're Strategy is working. And let's remember that Vladimir Putin's strategic objective is. To destroy Ukraine as a nation state, topple the government in Kyiv and install a puppet regime that would be a threat to Europe.

And we enjoy $1 trillion worth of trade with Europe. And if Putin casts a shadow over Europe, as I think he would, if he were able to achieve his objectives in Ukraine, that would put our trade, and not to mention our strategic relationships with our NATO member partners, at risk.

So German president wants European nuclear weapons to boost U.S. shield. French minister is talking about setting up a European fighting force, which I'm not against. I don't think any American should be against that. But if we're going to let them fend for themselves, we're going to also lose influence in Europe.

If we're going to let them come up with their own force, they might start reaching to China for protection and for markets. There's going to be no pressure on us not to do that. Yeah, I think we should remember that there's a reason why we're aligned with Europe. We share a commitment to democratic values, everything that's enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights, which happens to be an existential threat to Russia. And I'm sorry to say, but Vladimir Putin is more dangerous in leading the most repressive regime since Stalin.

He's also been more aggressive overseas than at any time since the height of the Cold War. Remember, he invaded Georgia in 2008 and then illegally annexed Crimea by force in 2014 and fought a low level conflict against Ukraine until invading in 2022. He's conducted cyber operations against us, hacking operations, hybrid operations with assassinations in Europe. I mean, He's aligned with China, North Korea and Iran. And the only way to deal with Putin is to deter him.

And I'm sorry I'm using Cold War language, but he happens to be the KGB guy in the Kremlin, and I think that's most appropriate. It is pro appropriate.

So here's how Russia TV is perceiving what's going on. Cut 29. Kremlin channels struggling to make sense of Washington's seismic shift. Trump speaks about peace and those around him talk about Ukraine's success, says this reporter on state television. But it looks like he's giving Russia all the cards to achieve success on the battlefield, he adds.

So Russia's saying what I what anybody would conclude it's only helping Russia. Yeah. Look, we the Trump administration has tried to entice Russia to the negotiating table. And as if that is our objective, to get them to negotiate. And so we promised Russia as a precondition that Ukraine wouldn't join NATO, that there would be no opportunity for Ukraine to go back to its twenty fourteen border.

Then we halted military assistance and intelligence assistance support to Ukraine as well. I think the Trump administration, honestly, is behaving as if the greatest obstacle to peace is Ukraine. I mean We're placating Russia and that's risky business. Ukraine desperately wants peace. They're also concerned, though, about security guarantees.

because they're concerned that Russia may seek to rearm or may seek to attack them again and deprive Ukraine as part of an agreement of any potential to rearm themselves and to stay strong. And Russia doesn't want Any European peacekeepers in Ukraine, and they want to interfere in Ukraine's domestic politics by forcing elections on them. During a period of war, which listened didn't happen to the UK when they were fighting the Nazis. There was an election after that war. Was over, and we had won that war.

So look, I know what we're doing. They need to be able to protect themselves, and there's got to be European troops in there, right? Absolutely, and I know a lot of our citizens are upset and frustrated with this idea of forever wars, and I share that sentiment. That's about Afghanistan and Iraq. That's not what this is.

Um This isn't our war. It's Ukraine's war. They're the ones fighting and dying. And to the extent that they're shooting at Russians, it's to defend their own innocent civilians who have been under threat and being killed by Russians for the past three plus years. Um That's the wickedly complex challenge the Trump administration is going to face.

Look, I don't see any evidence Russia wants a peace deal, Brian. Show me that. I don't see it. Neither do I. That's why I put the pressure on Russia.

Reinstate the satellites, bug unpause the weapons, and let's see what Russia's got. You got the mineral deal, it'll be signed tomorrow, I'm sure, and then we'll get going. All the pressure on them. Dan, thanks so much. All right, thank you.

Yeah, and Danos, I know Russian motivation. They think they can win, they'll stick it out. If they're really going bankrupt, like it seems, and it seems helpless to try to, they'll quit. The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmead.

The Democrats seem so lost, and here's Jasmine Crockett. Who is, I thought, a big leader in the Democratic Party. Her quote is: this is a terrible nightmare.

Somebody slap me and wake me the f ⁇ up because I'm ready to get on with it. Uh On with what would be my first question. And also, this is the way a leader. This is like how a podcaster talks or some shit. Can you imagine, I don't know, Obama saying, oh, man, dude, this is whack to f it.

Slap me. I mean, come on, man. And by the way, that is such a good point. Jasmine Crockett out there, great personality, but she's abrasive. She's ultra-left wing.

And she is somebody now that is going to be booked on every single show. But it's actually hurting the Democratic cause. She's charismatic, just like AOC is. They can't get elected outside their district. They don't resonate with the country.

They're not doing anything of significance. They're not accomplishing anything in the private sector, public sector. Just going off, just dancing, singing, cursing. It's embarrassing.

So Bill Maher, by the way, did you hear about this? Is going to the White House with Kid Rock. Kid Rock is looking to bring the country together, and Bill Maher says he's going. Isn't that great? Isn't that a great idea?

No, I think it'll be fantastic and dynamic. When is that scheduled to happen? I think in the next couple of weeks. Weird, because you remember, Trump sued Bill Moore. for his comments on him.

So he sues Bill Maher, and they've been enemies. But if you watch Bill Maher's show, about half of it is trying to slap the Democrats into understanding that a lot of your Your conceptions, your preconceptions about Trump and current perception about Trump are not embraced by the rest of the country.

So enough. Knock it off. He says, I'm not going to pre-hate. And some of the stuff he's doing, he pre-hates. He's hating currently Democrats, men and women's sports.

He doesn't go for that. Building up the border, not letting 8 million people in. He doesn't go for that. Joe Biden is not all there. He understood that.

And yet he's still a liberal Democrat. That's why him going to the White House is key. Because, look, I think he's going to be candid with Trump. I don't think he's going to be intimidated at all. I think they'll probably have a good conversation.

He'll bring it back. And I'll have a line of communication with the president. President will probably, unless Bill Moore goes in there and just wants to just light it up and create an uproar, but at his age in his career, I don't see him doing that. Here we go, Cavan go, listen, this is what I thought about Trump. Gave me some answers I didn't like, he'll tell you.

And now They'll be able to talk. And that's what Kid Rock sees. He's like, I'm just, he's half most of his friends are to the left. And he came on with us two weeks ago on One Nation, your favorite show, Sunday Nights at 10 o'clock. And he was saying that I have nothing against people that don't agree with me, one of which is.

Uh one of which is M M. him and Another guy, I forgot the singer. They used to Hang out in Michigan all the time, create music. And K Kid Rock was his mentor to a degree, I think, even though different styles of music. And Eminem is a Trump hater.

He's like, but we're still friends. And I think that that's his point at this point, because he's all in for Trump, but he doesn't hate people that aren't. which is an interesting concept. Just like, for example, I totally agree with President Trump's decision With what he's doing right now, Ukraine. It doesn't mean I think less of him.

I just disagree with his decision. Do I think the other stuff, the border, has been unbelievable? Women have been sports, everything that you the logic he's bringing to the government. The bringing in this rainy and the spending is awesome. I just don't agree with Ukraine.

John writes me and says this is something that Donald Trump should put. He went to Briankilme.com and quick comments. He said, in the president's remarks in the Oval Office, President Trump indicated that for 40 years, more and more people were hired in the federal government. He says, way too many. He mentioned that during his final two years of the Biden administration, one in every four jobs created was a government job.

He said, make up another chart showing the increase of the government jobs, not just what's happening at the border. Patrick writes about Ukraine. He says, why can't we have the UN intervene militarily in the Ukraine conflict like they did in Korea? Not really the case. We intervened.

The UN backed us in intervening for the South Koreans just to try to bring back the border. We were supposed to be one Korea after World War II. Brian writes me, Brian Dillon writes me, Trump and Ukraine. He said, Brian, I'm glad you were critical of President Trump's wrong headed view and orientation towards Ukraine is welcome, but this is nothing new. Trump called the initial invasion of Ukraine genius and savvy.

That's a little bit disingenuous. What he's trying to say is from Russia's standpoint. He saw weakness. This is the interview. Just watch the whole interview.

He said this like this: if you're Vladimir Putin and you saw us give away Afghanistan. and leave all our equipment behind and say we don't want any involvement. He said this is the perfect time to go test them in Europe.

So for Putin's case, this is the moment.

So it's savvy. but he's almost doing it as a commentator, as if it's a game. But he's doing analysis as a former president and future candidate. That's the difference.

So people say, oh, look, he was it was it doesn't mean he supports it. He means from that perspective, that's how he looks at it. I think Vladimir Putin is the villain of our time. Mike Waltz will be there, which makes me feel great. Marco Rubio will be there, which makes me feel great.

In Jeddah or Saudi Arabia, they're going to walk off with all guarantees. Here's your minerals deal. We're partners. This is what we hope. We hope you sincerely engage in Peace Talks.

Let's go. Give me an idea of the framework you'd like to see of confidence-building measures. For example, stop targeting energy, number one, two. Stop flying anything in the sky, drones and planes. How about that?

And then stops uh shooting at civilian targets. That might be good. Hughes General Jack Keene, cut 26. It remains to be seen if Russia is gaming us here, and are they going to move off their very hardline positions that they put on the table right now? And if they don't move off of those, then President Trump's going to have to take some action, slap some tough sanctions on them, possibly upgun Ukraine a little bit, to show definitely that Russia, if you're going to come to the table, We're not going to buy into these hardline conditions you've got.

You're going to have to make some compromises.

So here's the thing. I don't think Russia's ready to deal at all. I don't. And I listen to Avrov, and I'll play it for you in a second. This guy's not giving in.

This is what you need if you're Ukraine. Don't ever acknowledge that you lost that land. Like North Korea, South Korea never acknowledged they lost North Korea. They still say that's the goal. They have a ceasefire.

They have an armistice by 38th parallels where both countries cut off. But South Korea goes, we should be one peninsula. Same thing with Ukraine. I don't know what the future is going to bring, but I wouldn't give up that land and say you can have it. But you have to have forces.

Spread out across a huge border in case there's an invasion. Number two, you need some international forces to be a tripwire. Sergei Lavrov said that's a non-starter. And I played this for Mike Waltz. I don't know how they get around this.

Cut 28. Trump administration's hard line on Kiev, including the suspension of US military aid, has been greeted with glee in the Kremlin, with Russian officials now berating Europe while flip-flopping on Washington's historical role. All of the tragedies of the world originated in Europe, claims the Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov. Colonization, wars, the Crimean War, Napoleon, World War I, Hitler. If we look at history in retrospect, he says, Americans played no instigating or even inflammatory role.

It's extraordinary revisionism in extraordinary times. Number one, extraordinary revisionism from Russia's perspective. Lavrov is actually right in that America has not started any of these world wars, both these world wars. No, they didn't start Vietnam, believe me. We didn't start Korea, you can guarantee that.

So he's bringing that up. But they're so negative on America until President Trump started changing his policy on Ukraine.

So it is not Europe's fault. I mean, that's where the center of civilization had been in the West, in Europe. But now, I think Europe looked at their defense programs like we look at our space program. Yeah, we want to get to space. We want to explore, but I got a budget, and that's going to be the first thing we cut.

Up until now, Germany, France, Spain Not the Baltic Sea European nations get it. They look around and they go, Uh England. Yeah, I'm not gonna put I'm not gonna worry that much about defense because we've got America.

Now they realize they got it, and they got to turn to their people and say, I need 3%. Are they going to lose? They're going to leave NATO. I don't think that's a bad thing. But what happens is if we continue to just relinquish leadership in Europe.

We also relink influence. And you want influence. That's what we have. Our greatest asset is our greatest asset, Zos. but also that we have allies and friends.

And Russia doesn't. legitimate friend, either is China. They would go over and say, listen, America left you, I'll take over. And that's the risk. Hopefully, we stop the bleeding diplomatically.

When we come back, what is going on with the tariffs? Where's our economy heading? Did Donald Trump actually say over the weekend he can't guarantee no recession? We're going to talk to Taylor Riggs, who's set to host her show in a couple hours, The Big Money Show. It goes for two over on FBN.

Don't move. We will accept nothing less than full victory. Total victory incoming. We cannot be defeated by force of arms. It's Brian Kilmead.

We will bring freedom to others and all who defend her. If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. I don't have federal future. Are you expecting a recession this year?

Um I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition. Because what we're doing is very big. We're bringing wealth back to America. That's a big thing.

And there are always periods of It takes a little time. It takes a little time. But I don't I think it should be great for us. I mean, I think it should be great.

So the President of the United States talked with Marie yesterday about bringing factory jobs back, and that's part of the reason and factory jobs and factories period back. And he says NAFTA and the USMCA didn't go far enough To do that. That's where the tariffs are coming from.

So let's talk to a Fox business expert, Taylor Riggs, big money show, co-host, comes up from 12, goes till 2. And you saw Taylor on the weekend show, too, and you see her all over the channel. Taylor, your thoughts about President Trump last week on tariffs and where you think, what do you think the market, how do you think the market reacted? The market is surprising me that it's acting surprised. Tariffs aren't a surprise.

Trump has been talking about this since well into his campaign, let alone the election. I think the markets are caught off guard that he isn't bluffing, that he is serious this time. That being said, I love what Scott Besson had to say a few weeks ago when he was at the New York Economic Club, where he said, we are taking this economy off life support from massive, massive government spending, and we're reprivatizing it. We're shifting from massive public spending to private money. That is a transition and it takes time.

And when I pull you off life support, there is a moment when things are touch and go, when things are wobbly. But that is necessary to get you fully able to breathe on your own. And that's what he's doing when he talks about this economy. The market is another story, but I also love that Trump has said that he's not focused on the equity market as much as he was during Trump 1.0. They're really focused on.

Bringing costs down for the consumer, which is focusing on the ten-year yield and mortgages, and that's what Scott Bessant, Treasury Secretary, has reiterated.

Now, the threshold for paying if the market falls 10, 20 percent, I don't know. But at least for now, they're understanding that this is a transition period and it will take some time. Stock market when he was inaugurated went up 3.9 percent. Since the inauguration has gone down to one point down 1.6 percent. The first two months of his last term, his first term, it was up five point seven percent.

Some have pointed to the fact is it isn't just tariff and I'm sticking with it, it's tariffs stick two days on, two days off. Hey, on then here you okay, I'm going to forget the tariffs, leave them on China. But I'm going to Take them back in April if I don't see more progress on fentanyl with Canada and Mexico.

So, how does the market love that? Correct. The market hates uncertainty. I think what the market can cope with. Is Reciprocal tariffs.

That makes sense. If I'm a business person, I can plan that. If Europe wants to charge me 10% for my cars and I'm only charging them 2.5% for their cars, we have a choice. We can all go up to 10% or we can all come down to 2.5%. If I'm a business person, bingo, right?

Or hopefully, in a perfect world, zero. Right? Open free market says zero tariffs on everything. As a business person, I can plan that. I can't plan around this month it's a fentanyl issue, next month it's a USMCA NAFTA issue.

The month after that, it's reciprocal, and then there's exemption.

So they need to get the messaging better on reciprocal, April 2nd. That I get.

Now, Canada's all ticked off and they're trying to build off this momentum of pride because they don't want to be a 51st state. Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, said this on Face the Nation Cut 5. I'm going to put a 25% tariff on the electricity, the 1.5 million homes and businesses, as of Monday, until President Trump drops these tariffs. He has to understand that he can't attack our country economically and expect us to roll over. Your thoughts.

I don't think they control electricity. Exactly.

Well, look. You control the lines. They need us more than we need them. And again, when you're talking to me about reciprocal tariffs and not a fentanyl border issue, I can measure that. The problem with making this a fentanyl issue is are we looking at autopsy deaths?

How am I measuring the appropriate way of one-way fentanyl incoming without outcoming when a lot of the measures I'm looking at looks at cumulative borders, but I don't know which way it's flowing. I agree there's the massive fentanyl issue, but I don't know if tariffs is the way to solve that issue. But do you agree the precursors are from China? Thousand percent.

So nobody denies that. Thousand percent.

And they're not cracking down on it. And with China, I heard a wonderful anecdote this morning. The American dream is not buying a cheap trinket from China. If I went back to you in the 1990s in Ohio, And I said thirty years from now you could get a T V that's ten times cheaper. But the cost of that is your children and grandchildren will have to leave this town because that job just disappeared.

Yeah. I think 100% of Americans would say, I don't want that deal. I don't want TV 10 times cheaper, but giving up my children and my grandchildren's future. But that's what takes time to adjust when we think about specifically with China, the fentanyl, but also the manufacturing prowess that they have, reversing that and bringing that back to the U.S. We have not felt the jobs that are lost in the federal government yet.

We're not figured in this jobs report. Correct. So this could be like the little wobbliness that you see the jobs maybe not added as we had 150,000 this time. Not bad, not good. Right.

Not bad, you know, somewhere in between. But we might have one of those job numbers where it looks bad. Yeah. And I will say the Atlanta Fed Now GDP survey is wildly volatile, but they are looking at. A correction, a contraction in the first quarter.

And if you get theoretically, if you get two back-to-back quarters of negative GDP growth, that is a recession.

So, look, this is going to be about messaging. This is going to be about this reprivatization of the economy, getting people off the payroll. Should we be talking more about that? Yeah, and frankly, I want more on tax cuts and deregulation because that's how we offset the fear of tariffs. Everyone's freaking out about tariff, tariff, tariff.

But if you were to talk to me about a really good timeline for tax cuts and deregulation, that's what people are excited about. That's when my real wages grow above inflation, when my take-home pay gets stronger. That's what I want to hear a little bit more about. Right now, we're only hearing about tariffs. What's your lead story today, you think, at noon?

Look, you have a ton of tech CEOs all going to the White House to talk about tariffs. It is the CEO of HP, Qualcomm, Intel, IBM. What do they talk to the president about? Consequential. We're going to watch at noon.

Thanks so much. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest-growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead. Glad you're here. Hope you had a fantastic weekend.

We're back in action today from Midtown Manhattan, but heard around the country. This is the place where we see the anti-Semitic protests taking place. You know, they were happening at one point at New School, which is a small school in downtown NYU. We saw that city college, but it's really focused, and the worst is clearly Columbia. And their sister college, Barnard.

And we see the anti-Semitism after two Palestinian students stormed into an Israeli history class, started protesting it, so they got tossed out of school. And after that, these militants went into action. Nine are arrested. Hundreds have breached buildings and caused havoc. But nine arrested, not one of them was a student.

This hour, we're going to be joined by Michael Goodwin, who talks about that in his column, and Jeremy Hunt, chairman of the Veterans on Duty. We're going to talk to him about the story that needs to be clarified with 80,000 perhaps being laid off from the Veterans Administration. It's got to be leaned out anyway. Let's get to the big three. Number three.

Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is now in ICE custody after he was arrested by agents on Saturday. The former Columbia University graduate student helped lead some protests on campus last year. Columbia gets clobbered. The president's persistent anti-Semitic protests and clashes has resulted in Colombia losing $400 million and the first imminent deportation of a grad student behind it. And it's just the beginning, I hope.

Number two. Here in Ukraine, there is deep anxiety about President Trump's upending of U.S. support three years after Vladimir Putin invaded this country. In fact, one Ukrainian poll found that trust in Zelensky has soared to 68% here in Ukraine. Ukraine deserves better.

Mysteriously, Trump team stops intel sharing and satellite communications, making their F-16s useless, preventing them from blocking any Russian missile attack. And the Russians are blitzing them. Talks begin in Ukraine today in Jeddah. Number one. This was the week that Wall Street woke up.

And Wall Street snapped out of its denialism. He is somebody who does deeply believe in tariffs. This was a sort of seminal week on Wall Street, and that it's not going to change. Hold on tight. The president's effort to bring manufacturing back to America through tariffs and massive incentives is rocking the economy.

What he could do to steady the ship and have an enemy turned ally could help.

So we'll see. I will say a couple of things. I was pretty shocked to see the market not bounce back after President Trump made his plans more clear about what he's doing with Canada and Mexico and their tariffs. Because the market says, you know, I'm tired of being led astray.

So the president said, I'm not going to let that worry me too much about the market. But if it's sustained and it starts hurting the overall economic performance of Trump, I think he will.

So far, when you talk about the inauguration numbers, the stock market went up when he was inaugurated almost 4%. Since inauguration is down 1.6%, it's because I think the unpredictability of his tariffs on Mexico. China And Canada. Let's bring in. A guy that, I don't know, knows pretty well what President Trump was going to do from day one.

It was going to be tariffs. Michael Goodwin, New York Post columns. Michael, welcome back. Good morning, Brian. Thank you.

Michael, do you think that the Trump tariff scheme is is that part of it? to be unpredictable? Or do you think that this is just lack of organization? Um Well uh Look, I think the President Trump is unpredictable in some ways, but this one sort of takes the cake.

So I I tend to think there's a bit of both going on here, that there there are some shifty decisions that seem firm one day, but then seem to be l a lot less firm the next day or the next week. And I think that is what is unnerving the market. It's not so much the decision, it's the indecision. It's the back and forth, the flip-flopping I think is unnerving the markets. I mean, if you the the markets like certainty, so even if it's something a policy many investors don't like, at least they know what it is and they can bet on it or bet against it effectively.

When the policy keeps shifting and when there's uncertainty, then no one knows what to do. And so the smart money just says, I'll keep my hands in my pocket. I won't do anything until get some clarity. I I think that's where we are in the market. To show you how confusing it is to people who think this person's Republican, this person's Democrat, this is what they stand for.

Well, he blended all that over the last six years and made. The Republican Party more of a worker party and not anti union. President, as you know, worked with unions. We couldn't get a brick put in the ground here in New York City if you can't work with unions. Sean Fane is UAW president.

And while all these people are being critical of Tariffs. This is what he said. On ABC this weekend, cut 12. You know, in 1992. I was a twenty three year old man.

I I voted for Ross Perot. And the reason I voted for Ross Perot was during the debate between Clinton, Perot, and Bush. Ross Perot talked about that giant sucking sound. And I'll tell you, in nineteen ninety three There was a debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot on Larry King Live. And Al Gore talked about the four living presidents, Nobel laureate economists, and everyone said this is going to create 400,000 jobs in the first year of NAFTA's inception.

And you know what happened? We've lost millions of jobs since then. We've lost 90,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States since the inception of NAFTA. That's 1,800 manufacturing plants per state.

So he thinks the tariffs could help bring that and bring back manufacturing to America.

Okay, I I mean, he he might well be right. I think President Trump shares that too. Um and that there is some reason to think that. I mean, when you uh w see the history as Fane recounts it, I mean there's no question that the the globalist Uh um attraction did lead to a hollowing out of the American industries.

So from steel to cars to all the different things that used to be American made, it was cheaper to make them somewhere else in China, low labor costs, no safety issues, whatever, right? No torque, no lawyers, and then send them back by boat. I mean, so all of this supply chain that has popped up in the last 25 years is global supply chains. I mean, at some point, even China got too expensive, and a lot of manufacturing, particularly in clothing, got shipped to Vietnam and other places.

So there's a continual churning going on of this. And I think it would be great if we could get back to Made in America was not just a slogan, but a common factor in a lot of products. And look, as There's another element to this too, Brian, and that is sort of the adversarial relationship that America has with China. When everybody was for globalization, everybody was for letting China into the World Trade Organization, all that, China was seen as a benign force on the global stage.

Now it's viewed very much as an adversary. It has made it clear it is a military adversary to us and many of our allies, including especially Taiwan.

So the world has changed since that globalization mania, and it's not just about the products, it's about security. And so I think that Made in America solves both of those problems. Absolutely.

So I want to talk about the protests that we were both sickened by at Barnard College, which is affiliated with Columbia. And they were not subsiding. They took over a building. The president was going to negotiate with them. We saw AIDA RAS security.

Official was knocked over.

So now we find out these guys cover their face. The nine arrests, not one of them was a student. Because of the protest and persistence, now the President of the United States has said the State Department has taken out $400 million worth of contracts and grants to Colombia, and they've suspended their first student. And this is a former student, a graduate student of Palestinian heritage, and he is going to be sent back. And there's going to be lawyers and people are going to try to maneuver to keep him here.

But this persistent pest, who is dangerous in my view, finally was starting to fight back. Where's this going? Look, I share your enthusiasm for this, Brian, this idea that you can come to America on a student visa or a green card or some other way and become a problem to America, become supporting a terrorist organization.

Now, we see this all over the country now in these marches. And this this young fellow was a former Columbia graduate student. He had a green card supposedly. I'm not sure what it what the rest of his circumstances are, but he clearly came or he clearly participated in things that were supporting Hamas. And it and disrupting the rights and blocking the rights of other students.

And you know, this the most recent demonstrations at Barnard, there were no Barnard students, but there were apparently three or four Columbia students who were part of that.

So I think these schools, I mean, when you look at the history of the last few years, when all these marches, all these demonstrations, and disruptions, and threats, and whatnot, Almost nobody ever gets suspended or arrested. And so I think one of the impacts of what the President did last week with taking away the Columbia $400 million. I think it's going to put these schools on notice now. You've got to be proactive. When this happens in your school, you've got to suspend those kids.

And for the prosecutors, when they get arrested, when the police are called and these students and the others get arrested, you can't drop the charges because now the feds are going to have to arrest them and impose federal charges.

So I think this is great. And I think that the real deterrent effect is going to be that the schools know if they go down this road, they're going to lose enormous amounts of federal money. They're going to lose all kinds of the top professors and researchers. I mean, Columbia gets... Upwards, apparently, it has contracts with the federal government of some $5 billion over several years.

And it gets roughly 25% of its operating revenue from federal funds.

So there's a lot at stake for these schools. And I think what the president has done is put the pressure on them to take tougher action, and that will be how this thing gets resolved.

So, you know, by the way, no Chuck Schumer, too, what an embarrassment.

So the attorney, this guy's name is Mahmoud Khalil. And his lawyer says this: ISIS's arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the U.S. government's open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia for criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza. The U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech.

Marco Rubio came out and says we will be revoking the visa or green cards of Hamas supporters. In America, so they can be deported. And we also know, according to Jeff Lacks, he says in the times of Israel, the hostages now released said that Hamas was bragging about their links to students in America. Yes, yes. One of the Hamas leaders said that early on, how encouraged they were by the demonstration.

They were behind it. He's saying they're behind it. And you know, Brian, just to the lawyers saying that this is repression of speech. Campuses have a s have a double responsibility. Yes, they are required to allow free speech because it's in the Constitution, but they also have a duty to protect their students From harassment and fear and intimidation.

And that's where the free speech ends. It's not unlimited. And when you're harassing and frightening and threatening other students and blocking their way to school, then you are depriving them of their rights. And that's why you should be deported for that. And you should be arrested at any event, no matter your nationality.

And take your mask off, you coward. If you're so proud of what you're doing, take your mask off.

So lastly, Andrew Como is running for mayor. The governor. Among the things he said is, I'm going to add 5,000 cops. Does he know they don't want to be cops because of his no-bed card cash bail laws and everything else because they're not backed? Everybody wants to add cops.

Nobody's going to the academy. Number two, he came out and said. The uh he has no regrets about the cashless bail. He says it straightened out a lot of past wrongs. That should be disqualifying.

Look, uh Andrew Cuomo, um I mean I He made so many huge mistakes in his near two and a half terms as governor. And nursing home debacle being, I think, number one on the list. And the the ba the cashless bail, I mean the judges, I mean so many things. Congestion pricing he authorized first. Um He but he shows no regrets, no remorse.

And I think that's a huge mistake because he was driven from office by public acclaim. He was going to be impeached and convicted, and so he resigned instead. That was more than three years ago now, and he apparently learned nothing. And I think the message Brian and I take from this is. If he doesn't think he did anything wrong, then he'll do it again.

And until he shows some understanding of why people are angry, why they don't trust him, I as you say, disqualified. I think a lot of people look, New York is hungry for leadership, but you better look very carefully under the hood at this guy. I know, guys, please. But Adrian Adams is no treat. Eric Adams can't get out of his own way.

So I'm not sure what the hell is going on. But it's such a valuable. I know we're a national show, but it's such a high-profile mayor position. It could be the first Democrat or Republican that starts changing around this soft-on-crime, pro-sanctuary city attitudes. And I don't think Cuomo's the guy to do it.

He has learned nothing, as you said. Michael Goodwin, check out your column. Hopefully, we'll be talking every week about more arrests for these pro-Hamas protests, of these pro-Hamas protesters. Thanks, Michael. My pleasure, Brian.

Thank you. We'll come back. Take Q calls 1-866-408-7669. Don't move. Politics, current events, and news that affects you.

Brian's got a lot more to say. Stay with Brian Kilmead. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. Where we are today, though, is I think there's a lot of advisors around the president who do no longer believe Russia's the same threat and do want to walk away from NATO.

But they make the arguments because China is our number one adversary. We need to focus on China. But Kristen, candidly, I'm concerned also that so far, so far, other than the tariffs on China, our posture's actually been weak. Basically, the president has defied the law on TikTok, and he's basically sent signals that we're not going to defend Taiwan. And so, if the strategy was to say we need to focus here in the Pacific, Charitably, some may agree with that, but what's the evidence we're actually doing that?

Right. That was Mark Short yesterday on the panel. You know, he was the former legislative aide to the President of the United States and Chief of Staff of the Vice President.

So he was saying we have not been strong. I think we're building up to that. and to get the trade deal going again. I also think we're building up every time we build up the Navy, every time we build up the Army, that's in response to China.

So I think that's one thing is clear. The other thing is the President's got a strategy. He doesn't want to come out and say China's a problem, China's a problem, China's a problem, because we get it. He knows it, they know it. He's saying, okay, let me Handle this hemisphere.

Let me look at the Panama Canal. Let me look at Greenland. Why do you think he's doing that? To hassle Panama because he loves Greenland people. No, because he says strategically, we're going to need this lane.

Strategically, why are they in our hemisphere?

Next thing you know, he's got to focus on the Caribbean. And you might be saying, why is he doing the Caribbean? China is basically taking over the Caribbean, that's why.

So there's a method to it. And I think it's going to come to a fruition. He ta he's tacking everything at once. And he's also seeing How serious and how economically stressed China is right now. Breaking news, unique opinions.

Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. I have some very specific concerns from two groups of people. No, I think need to be looked at. in a little different light. And I spoke to Elon specifically about this.

There are our veterans. and our farmers. There's a lot of angst going right now because people don't understand what's going on. that expressed uh very clearly concerns of our veterans community and Mr. Musk was explicitly clear.

That we will make sure that we have no degradation of the benefits for our veterans that they have earned. Yeah, I mean, the benefits is true, but they are going to have to cut at the VA. And they said make it more efficient. And 27% of the VA workforce are veterans.

So that's just one of the things that will happen. But hopefully, there'll be other opportunities for them. And that's what Doug Collins told me today. He's the new VA secretary.

So that was Derek Van Orden of Wisconsin. With me right now is Jeremy Hunt, chairman of Veterans on Duty, former Army intelligence captain. Just reminded me that he served in Ukraine, went to Yale Law School. And Went to West Point, graduated West Point.

So now you're here, Jeremy, just in particular. On Doge, are you hearing similar things that Congressman Van Ordener brought up? Yeah, I mean, I think what we're seeing right now is the return of accountability. A lot of these kind of Bureaucracies that have just gotten way too, way too big, way too much civilian bloat in a lot of different, especially in the Pentagon and different places. When you look at VA in particular, several of the contracts, if you look at, for example, the electronic health record contract, I mean, Oracle has spent billions and billions of dollars, and we have not seen really the results of those work to get our project?

It's called the Electronic Health Records, the VAEHR contract. You take that as an example of where you have billions of dollars pumped into a program to get our veterans' health records, get those electronics so that the Veterans Affairs can go anywhere and Veterans Affairs can deliver more efficient, quick service to our veterans. What do they have to show for? It's been now, you know, a few years now. We still have not seen the result of it.

So, things like that, I think it's good that Doge is exposing a lot of the waste, sometimes straight up fraud. I mean, I think a lot of these times we need someone that should go in and get the answers. I want to make sure that veterans are continued to be taken care of. And I think that we have a great VA Secretary, Doug Collins, who is making sure that happens every day. Right.

So, well, I guess we'll see. I don't think anyone's talking about cutting benefits, but they have to, at one point, go into Social Security and Medicare and see there are inefficiencies there, let alone fraud and abuse. People are like, well, don't cut my benefits. I get it. It's hard to take things back from people who are probably.

living paycheck to paycheck.

Social Security, same thing. But There could be things structurally with Social Security that we change. For example, I think you stop contributing after you make $160,000. Right. Okay.

Why? If you're making more, why can't I contribute the whole year? You know, if you're lucky enough to have a job that goes over 160, if you contribute the whole year, that might be able to save a system that's going under. I would love to see some bold. You know, bold moves.

So you're making $162,000? You're really going to protest in the streets that you have to give, contribute the rest of the year, let's say, raise the cap to $350,000? I think what we're going to see, especially out of this administration, is a lot more creative solutions to these issues. We've been talking about issues for decades about how do we reform this and that? How do we look at Social Security and make sure we get out some of those inefficiencies?

And finally, we have an administration that is saying, look, we're going to put all options on the table. We're going to see what we can do to make sure that the American people, that the government is accountable to the American people, not the other way around. Right. So let's talk about Ukraine. You served there.

What was your impression? What was it like when you were there? What years? Yeah, so I was there in 2016, and I was there on what's called the Joint Multinational Training Group Ukraine. We were there.

This is before, obviously, before Putin's kind of full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 2022. Right, which was in 2022. I was there in 2016, where you had these, as they were called, separatists on the eastern side of the country who were really Russia. Russian-backed separatists.

And so you had the Ukrainian armed forces. We were training them on a lot of their kind of operations to help them defeat the separatists on the eastern side of their country. And what I saw was a lot of people who love their country. There are people who are fighting hard for their homeland. I think it's just unfortunate just the way that Zelensky in particular has kind of fumbled the football with a lot of the politics of this.

I think starting out, there's a lot of goodwill from the American people, and you got to earn that. And so I think it's unfortunate that the Ukrainian armed forces, folks who, they didn't ask for this war. This is obviously Putin's war. He provoked it. It's unfortunate that so many of them are kind of getting the short end of the stick with their leader really not doing a great job in terms of garnering American goodwill from both sides of the country, from both Republicans and Democrats.

Well, it's a very tough situation. He was thrusting the whole thing with the whole impeachment. Oh, with Louis Giuliani walking through saying, what is Joe Biden up to? And then we know how that resulted in impeachment. Never should have been an impeachment.

I don't love what Rudy Giuliani was doing, but to me, it doesn't even get close to impeachable. But he was in the middle of that, where every question was about America. I have no problem with Zelensky's way he handled it. You know, when he comes to the White House, just sign the deal. Just sign the deal.

Yeah, you can do it. Absolutely.

Just do the deal. If you're going to come, do the deal. If you still want to debate it, you can do that on a Zoom call. And do it in closed doors. I mean, like, you know, these kind of discussions, if you're going to have those discussions, have those in closed doors.

You don't want to go in a position where you're getting into a spat in the Oval Office. And I also think even just before then, I mean, going to. Pennsylvania to tour this weapons facility on the Harris. And I blame the ambassador. The local ambassador said, Go thank the weapons factor.

They didn't.

Next thing you know, Governor Shapiro, Democrat, showing up with Kamala Harris, Democrat, obviously. What the hell was that?

So I just want you to hear with Fiona Hill. I'm not a big fan of, self-important State Department aficionado, senior fellow at Brookings. But I think she had an interesting take. I just thought she was going to tee off typically on Trump. But listen to her take, cut 18.

In diplomacy, you really should only be speaking in your native language. And I think that there was a lot of this was lost in translation. First of all, President Zelensky didn't fully understand that this agreement was just purely with President Trump. And you may remember, if we all go back and watch that, I watched it many times just to try to figure out exactly where things had gone wrong. There were multiple points.

But there was one point when President Zelensky basically said, look, you know, we had deals with your previous presidents, basically with Obama and Biden. And President Trump immediately dismissed all of that. Basically said those deals were not worth the paper they were written on, all the commitments that were made because they were weak, and it wasn't me. Interesting, right? She went on, cut nineteen.

President Zelensky didn't quite follow all of this because, like the rest of our allies, he actually thinks that commitments made by the United States are supposed to hold over successive administrations. And what we learned there and what he learned there was that is not the case. You're essentially going to have to make a new commitment with President Trump. It's a personal commitment, and that was what he was being told, and he didn't fully understand. And I think in future, when the Ukrainians are meeting with the Americans, they ought to have translators with them because, as good as President Zielensky's English is, there's two things that he's missing there.

He doesn't quite understand the way that President Trump operates, although I think he's probably got the message now, but he doesn't always understand the nuances. Think about it. I mean, it's so consequential. You have your own translator right over your right shoulder. Yeah.

And he's got to make the case to the American people saying, look, Russia is not a friend of the United States. And this is a low-cost way for one of our allies to fight a war against one of our foes without having any American soldiers there, boots on the ground.

So that's a good case to make, but you've got to do it effectively. And you can't do it by kind of getting on this, getting sideways with the Trump administration and going in this very public way and airing it all out there on TV. It's really unfortunate. And as I said, it's unfortunate really for many folks in Eastern Europe who care about their families, care about their freedom, and don't want to see poops. I understand it.

I'm not an expert in the Vietnam War, but we were upset with every South Korean leader, South Vietnamese leader, right? I remember Charles de Gaulle got under our skin even when he was kicked out of France. And then afterwards, we saved their butt, and they were still critical of America. A lot of times you don't love the leaders that your allies put forward. I don't think President Trump really liked the two British leaders.

Leaders he had to deal with, except for Boris Johnson. And Boris Johnson chained on him at the end. But we don't give away Britain.

So my feeling is. I think we're letting the leader, maybe the personal conflict get in the way of the mission. The mission is you have a democracy that is a blocking sled to an expansive Russia. It is not our fault that NATO countries that were once Warsaw Pact want to be part of the West. This is a defensive organization, no threat, but they're so freaked out by their decades under Soviet control that they're saying, if I have a chance to go West, I'm doing it.

That's what I want to do with my economy, and that's what I want to do with my security.

So, for Vladimir Putin to have some oracle sitting next to him telling him that your goal is to reestablish Soviet Union, that's not our fault. You know, that's not, I don't think the West is to blame on that. Because there's people out there that started to say we never should have got close to their border. Without a doubt, I mean, Vladimir Putin, he has said, and he said this multiple times, that he thinks that the greatest geopolitical disaster was the fall of the Soviet Union. And I didn't expect you to think.

He wants to reconstitute the old Soviet Union. And that is absolutely a disaster, and it's not something that we can make sure that doesn't happen on our watch. And I think the way to do that is we first, we've got to make a deal. We've got to come to the table and actually make sure we're getting something on paper instead of kind of airing things out in the press and everything else. We've got to get serious, and they've got to be behind closed doors, I think, to make things actually shake and get solutions and actual role end to the conflict.

So a couple of things. Do you think that Russia wants this thing? And You know, I I think it's I'm not someone who you kind of see into Putin's mad mind, but you know, I think that you know, he is he is someone who is certainly uh Right now, thinking that he has played a really started off as kind of a bad hand. He thinks he's probably played it well. And he thinks that Zelensky, who started off with a relatively good hand in terms of having goodwill in the West, has kind of mismanaged it.

So I think right now he thinks that he's ahead. But what I would hope is that the Trump administration is clear that Putin started this war. He's the one that was going through raping families. I mean, it is horrible, the atrocities that that man has committed against a free country. And so I think it's important that we are clear-eyed about who started the war and who should have to pay for the disaster that is happening.

So this is the Russian perception I find fascinating.

So here's a cut from their news talking about why Putin seems to have control, seems to have an in with Trump. Cut 30. In exchange, all Putin has done is offer potentially lucrative business deals. Trump's kryptonite, according to one Russian commentator. Trump is like Superman, and our President Putin has found his weakness, he tells state T V.

As soon as Trump hears the words rare earth metals, he's ready to accept any terms, he adds. What am I supposed to say to that? Look, I mean, this is the idea that Trump is in bed with people, this stuff is, I think, absurd. I do think that the administration rightly thinks about how do we put America first? What does America get out of this deal?

And I think that the onus is on Zelensky to make that case. What does America get out of this? How do we win this case and win hearts and minds of the American people? If I were him, that's what I would be focused on. And I think that's got to be key moving forward.

All right. Jeremy Hunt is with us for one more segment. Quick note, coming up before you know it, I believe that it is in two weeks now, coming up on the 22nd at the factory in St. Louis. I'll be going on stage talking about things like this and the history of our country, history of Liberty and Labs, also on Fox Nation.

So if you're in St. Louis, anywhere in the area, go to briankilme.com and get tickets. Very few are left, but I want to see you in person. And then in late June, Dayton, Ohio, June 21st, I want to see you guys in person too. We'll be back there in Dayton, WHIO listeners especially.

Back with Jeremy Hunt. Hunt a few more, including the latest, on what's happening with Hamas. And is it true that they're helping finance students in America? Illuminating, intriguing, inculcating. I know some of these words.

It's Brian Kilmead. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. But we also discussed what the end might look like. And I will tell you that Hamas did orient toward a long-term truce, as they called it: a truce where they would be disarmed.

a truth where they truce where they would not be part of the political po uh policy, and a truce where we would ensure that they are in a place where they can't hur hurt Israel. Part of that was rebuilding Gaza. But the the discussions Revolved around a few things that I think might actually end up being some of what you see post-Steve Wyatkoff. And that is Adam Bowler, who's in charge of hostage negotiations, meeting face-to-face with Amos. Many people don't think he should, but he said, I got to get the American out.

And word is, The Hamasa is a vote of confidence. Might do it. And that's great. But if I'm in Israel, I go, what about the other 56? twenty four of which are alive.

And Adam Bowler's goal is to get as many Americans out as possible. But right now, everything shifts to Doha, where they're going to try to make a deal. And one thing would be now an international coalition would go in. Hamas would not have any leadership ability in it. I had no word if they're going to be there, but the Palestinian Authority would run it.

Palestinian Authority is what gave us Yasser Arafat. Palestinian Authority got blown up by Hamas. What's going to change in a few months after Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Qatar and UAE leave and stop writing the checks? That's one thing to think about. And if you're Israel, why would you ever let your enemy camp out again in your backyard?

With me right now is Jeremy Hunt. Delicate time, Jeremy. Yeah, it absolutely is. I mean, you look at all the instability around the globe, and let me be clear: a lot of this, you know, this all started under a Biden administration who has enabled a lot of this kind of pro-Amos sentiment that's kind of spread even here in our own country. And I think that we now is that there's a time of return to accountability, and we're seeing that happen right now.

You go half measures on everything. I'm all Israel. I'm going to go visit after the October 7th attack. But you can't bomb here. You can't bomb there.

You better get aid in quickly. And we're not going to give you 2,000 mountain bombs. We don't think you need them. We're going to tell you how to fight and what to do because we made huge mistakes in Iraq.

Okay. Calm down. They know how to fight in Israel. Exactly.

So, what I would love that Trump does is just let them go. You know your neighborhood better. You were attacked. I trust your judgment.

So, this is a critical time because. Right now, at this hour, Iran's vulnerable. Their missile defense has been damaged. Their nuclear program's been damaged. And we know that Israel could take both out, especially with the bombs we just supplied.

Do we let that window close? Yeah, yeah. And I hope that President Trump will do exactly what he did in his first administration, maximum pressure on Iran. We aren't going to be doing like what Biden did. You know, let's just have, let's just, you know, see what we can do and try to cozy up to the, you know, the Iranians.

Maybe they'll, you know, somehow do what we want them to do. I mean, that was a total disaster. We saw how that resulted. I think you're exactly right. I love how President Trump has allowed Israel to carry out this war as they need to.

We're not going to be hamstringing them anymore like we did before. We're not going to be doing the half measures like Biden did. And just all the indecision out of the White House over the last four years has really led to even more instability around the globe. And, Jeremy, I don't have to remind you that we didn't give him high Mars, then we gave him high Mars. We didn't give him Patriots, then we gave him Patriots.

Didn't give him F-16s, now we give him F-16s. Didn't give him ATACMs, we ended up giving him Atacoms. And little by little, incrementally, what do you? doing it's isn't at the at West Point Where you went. Isn't that anti-leadership?

Yeah. I mean, that's exactly right. And I would add to that list, too. A lot of American sources here in the Biden administration were leaking a lot of the information of Israel's plans. I mean, just disaster all around.

And you're exactly right. It is total, totally, it was devoid of leadership. And now we have a leader in the White House who actually has a vision, who actually is making sure that we are equipping our allies and making sure that they are able to secure their own, make sure they're secure in their own countries and able to carry out this war as they see fit. And I think that is the big difference maker. And that's why so many of us are excited about the next four years under President Trump.

You're going to be on outnumbered in an hour. Yes. Join us at 12 o'clock from 12 to 1 to be on outnumbered. It'll be a great time with the ladies. And of course, yes, on camera.

I don't want Jeremy Hunt to get in trouble. Thank you so much, Jeremy. We'll look forward to seeing you again. Great to see you. All right.

Keep it here, Brian. Kill me, Choe. Don't move. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Killmead.

So glad you're here. Brian Killmead Show. I know you had a fantastic weekend, but if you're in New York, a little disappointed. 36 degrees, really? I know, four seasons.

I should get used to it. Been here most of my life, but I still want March to feel like spring. This hour will be joined by Senator Tom Cotton at the bottom of the hour, one of the smartest guys in Washington, as is my next guest, Josh Rogan, lead global analyst for the Washington Post Intelligence and author of Chaos Under the Heaven. And before we get to Josh, his quick announcement: the President of the United States is going to have his roundtable with CEOs, his tech CEO council. They're going to talk about what NAFTA would mean for them and not NAFTA, excuse me, what these tariffs would mean if they were able to bring some businesses back here.

And we're also going to have executive orders today at 3 p.m.

So I don't know what else he's signing in. We are at day 50 of the president's first 100 days.

So let's get to the big three. Number three. Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is now in ICE custody after he was arrested by agents on Saturday. The former Columbia University graduate student helped lead some protests on campus last year. Love it.

Columbia gets clobbered. Persistent and anti-Semitic protests and clashes have resulted in Columbia losing $400 million of grants and contracts and the first imminent deportation of a grad student behind it all. Is this just the beginning of the Trump crackdown? I hope so. Number two.

Here in Ukraine, there is deep anxiety about President Trump's upending of U.S. support three years after Vladimir Putin invaded this country. In fact, one Ukrainian poll found that trust in Zelensky has soared to 68% here in Ukraine. If there was an election, he might be unopposed. Ukraine deserves better.

Mysteriously, Trump team stops intel sharing and satellite communication, making their F-16s useless and the Patriots almost impossible to implement. It prevents them from blocking any Russian missile attack. I don't know what the Trump team is thinking. Number one. This was the week that Wall Street woke up.

And Wall Street snapped out of its denialism. He is somebody who does deeply believe in tariffs. This was a sort of seminal week on Wall Street, and that it's not going to change. Yep, hold on tight. The president's effort to bring manufacturing back to America through tariffs and massive incentives is rocking the economy.

What he could do to steady the ship and how an enemy turned ally could help. And I'm talking about a labor union that's normally against Republicans. They're kind of open to what President Trump is doing. Josh Rogan, always love having you on. Josh, how are you?

Brian, great to be with you. Thanks for having me. First off, what do you think of the first 50 days? Crazy. Just total chaos.

Every he President Trump has flipped over the chessboard, and now we're just sort of all waiting to see how he sets it back up again. There are a lot of things to like. There's some things I don't like. We're going to get into it. But I think basically, he's taken every U.

S. relationship with every country in the world and pressed reset. It started from scratch. And yeah, the next I think the n the first hundred days are going to be the flipping over the testboard and the next hundred days are going to be the setting back up again. Yeah, I mean, first off, with Mexico and Canada, both leaders have benefited.

Trudeau is now out, but the Liberal Party is now rising in popularity. And Mexico, Scheinbrum's got about 80% approval rating now, but yet she has had progress with President Trump. She is really clamped down on cartels, the ones in prison, and the ones not in prison. She's arrested 400, if I'm to believe the reports. And we've seen what happened at the border.

It is down to a trickle, Josh. Right. Well, this just shows you that there actually is a method to Trump's madness. People think that he's just changing the tariffs up and down, yes or no, on a whim, but it isn't a whim. He's trying to do something, and he's trying to wake up these foreign leaders and get them to put something on the table that he wants.

In this case, Fentadal.

Some of them are doing it, and some of them are not. And the clearest example is that Mexico played ball and they got relief. Canada didn't play ball, they didn't get relief. Zelensky, that's a whole nother story.

So, Russia, that's a whole nother story. China, that's a whole nother story.

So, you know, the tariffs are really just a lever. They're a tactic. They're a way to get these countries to do what Trump wants, whatever that is. And he's trying to show every country in the world that if they respond positively, then positive things happen. And if negatively, then negative things happen.

And one by one, they're each sort of learning that either the easy way or the hard way. Right. So here's what Kevin Hassett said. You know, he's the director of the National Economic Council, but he says this is about drugs. Cut six.

Mm-hmm. What happened was that we launched a drug war, not a trade war, and it was part of a negotiation to get Canada and Mexico to stop shipping fentanyl across our borders. And as we've watched them make progress on the drug war, then we've relaxed some of the tariffs that we've put on them because they're making progress. And so that drug war is something that's been going on since really the beginning of the Trump administration.

So, what I would do with Mexico, for example, if this continues, no tariffs. I wouldn't put an April date. With Canada, figure it out. It's a lot worse than I think 43 pounds, but figure it out what it's going to take the threshold. But if you can back off that date, it seems the stock market will respond positively.

Because if there's just some amorphous tariffs are coming every two weeks, I think the market doesn't seem to be digesting that well if I'm going by numbers, which most people do. Right. I think Trump says he's not watching the market. Of course, he's watching the market. He's Trump.

He's watching the market. Everyone's watching the market. And so there's a level of market overreaction that we have to sort of factor in. And there's also a level of real uncertainty and unpredictability that businesses have to deal with that harms their ability to plan and do things.

Now I think everyone's looking towards April second. That's the date that the White House is going to announce their reciprocal trade scheme, whatever that is. It's going to affect every country. That's going to tell us a lot of information.

So I think the markets are going to be up and down, up and down until April second. And then depending on what's happened, then we'll really know. And then after April second, we've got six months to implement that Trump trade policy for better or worse.

So, I think those are the dates that you got to look out for if you're a businessman. April 2nd, and then six months from April 2nd. And it's going to be about a year before we actually know what's what. Because you're also thinking about legislation. I know.

One big, beautiful bill or two bills. That's going to be the Trump agenda. Right now, you have executive order agenda because we're waiting for Congress to do something. And not that they're behind schedule, but this is what it takes. First, you've got to fix the economy, fund the government.

Let's see how that goes this week. And then you got to get these bills passed, which would have increased in defense spending. You would have an increase in border construction of a wall. You would also have the permanent in theory, the permanent tax reform from twenty eighteen.

So that is truly the Trump agenda then. But I thought about you right away when they talked about the Panama Canal and Greenland. And well, that's crazy and the stand up comics go nuts. But the more you think about it, One of the main things we have done is ignored Central and South America. We've let China and Russia get inroads, and even Iran to a degree, in the area, not only just Cuba, but everywhere.

And the first thing he says is it's against our security interest to allow China to run both ends of that canal. And guess what? It's now flipped. It's going to be an American company controlling it. The first time we've upended it and get someone to unsubscribe to the Belt and Road program.

Greenland, too. That is in our security interest to make it a territory or have some expanded relations with it on a possible confrontation with Russia and China. Do you agree with the bigger strategy? Yeah, well, I think I agree with the goals of the strategy. I don't really agree with the tactics of the strategy.

In other words, yes, of course, we want to give all of these countries, especially in the Western Hemisphere, a good reason to get rid of their Chinese investment, to take on American investment, to take on U.S. security commitments. Is telling them that we're going to invade them if they don't do it the best way to do that? I don't really think so.

Okay. Because, A, because we're not really going to invade them, and B, what it's done is it's turned a lot of these Greenlanders and people in Panama, it's forced them to come out against the United States because it's such a crazy thing to say that we're going to invade you if you don't do what you want.

So the tactic backfires, kind of, but the goal is good. It's to make sure that we're ensuring our security from the North Pole to the South Pole. And the fact that Panama is divesting of Chinese control of its ports, that's great, okay? But could it be done better? I think so.

So I think that's what you get with Trump. You get good goals, but you get some tactics that have some bad side effects. I just was shocked to see how little feeling, little sentiment the Greenland people seem to have towards Denmark. who's done little for them. And now Denmark's picking up the supplies and things of that nature, and they're open to expanded military presence, and I guess they're going to have a referendum soon.

But I know what you're saying, Josh. Point well taken. Yeah, I'm just saying that like i if you you know, you're you're you if you really wanted to get the Greenlanders on your side, which I think we want, we shouldn't threaten to invade them because that has the opposite effect. That's all. Right, we could take them.

I think it's pretty clear. Yeah, but we shouldn't. We should just move on. We can get them to work with us because that's going to be better for them and better for us. First Greenland, then Iceland, then China.

We'll do that in that order.

So, Josh, let's talk about what's happening over in Russia. We got a delegation heading over to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Michael Waltz, Marco Rubio will lead the delegation. I think Witkoff will join them at some point. At which time, I think there's going to be a minerals deal done.

Where do you think we go from there? Yeah, no, I got a lot of criticism for criticizing when I criticized Zelensky when he came to Washington, because like you, Brian, I think that Russia is the bad guy and Ukraine is the good guy, and that we have an interest in helping Ukraine. I saw your great interview with President Trump. Broadly, we're all on the same page that we shouldn't allow Russia to invade Ukraine and get away with it. At the same time, Zelensky mishandled his interaction with Trump.

There's no doubt about it. All he had to do was come and sign the minerals deal, and Trump would have been happy, and then we could have moved on from there toward the peace deal. And because Zelensky didn't understand what was going on in that room, he really mucked up U.S.-Ukraine relations, and now he's got to fix it.

So, if he can fix it, if they can just get back to where we were 14 days ago before the break happened, sign the minerals deal, and Just get on a process towards having negotiations towards peace. It doesn't mean they have to give up everything right now or anything right now. It just means they have to. Show Trump that they're willing to talk about peace, sign the deal. We'll get back to where we were before the clash.

And I think that's a good thing, because I do think in the end, there are lots of people in the Trump administration, not all of them, but a lot of them, who do think we should support Ukraine. And who do think that any negotiation to end the war should make Ukraine whole and free, or at least free, if it's not whole. And this is a really important moment for that.

So what I'm hoping is that the Ukrainians come in, understanding what they did wrong when Selensky came to Washington, and that the Trump people come in and are able to reset relations with Ukraine in a way that turns back on the intelligence and turns back on the funding, because the price of that clash is that Trump turned off the intelligence, and that means Ukrainians are dying who otherwise wouldn't die. And that's not good. That's not what we want.

So this is a really crucial couple days in Saudi Arabia for the Trump team and for the Ukrainians to just make up. And and work together because they're going to have to do that in order to have peace and to have a good US-Ukraine relationship. Absolutely.

It just is so devastating. Innocent people die when you shut off the satellites and when you shut off when you shut off the uh their weapons. I mean, just give them a chance to win. Even though this this country is twice the size, and I don't have to tell Josh Rogan that When Ukraine's cutting Russia down to size, and they've suffered 700,000 casualties, maybe 200,000 deaths, and they have to call in North Koreans and ask Yemeni to help them out. And they have to have all their axes of evil supply them with weapons, even in a country that big.

That's helping our chief adversary. lose a lot of global prestige and power. That helps America. Exactly.

And not only that, Brian. What's even more important here is that just think of it from President Trump's perspective. If he wants a peace deal, the best way to get a peace deal is to have a strong Ukraine. And the weaker Ukraine is, the harder it's going to be to get a good peace deal.

So by making Ukraine weaker, he's actually undermining his own goals. And if President Trump really wanted to strike a tough deal with Putin, he's going to have to do more of what he did late last week, which was to threaten Putin with some more punishments if Putin doesn't come to the table. Because all we've seen from Putin in the last seven days is more and more bombing of Ukrainian civilians. And this is not war. This is just a massacre of civilians in Ukraine, cutting off their energy, cutting off their infrastructure and just killing them in the streets, okay?

And so it's clear Putin's not feeling the pressure.

So again, we all want peace. Even the Ukrainians want peace. We just have to make sure that we're having a a fair and just peace. And that means helping Ukraine be strong to go into those negotiations from a position of power. My gut tells me we've had a long history of not understanding.

Yeah. Russia, what's going really going on in Russia, and even the Cold War caught us by surprise. I still don't think we fully understand how bad things are. My hunch is it is really bad there. They've lost a million people through a voluntary brain drain, people just getting out of there.

The money from the West, whether it's oil, gas, or just to McDonald's, they have lost all that Western investment, and I think they're hurting pretty badly. General Jack Keene said this to Mark Levin, Cut 26. It remains to be seen if Russia is gaming us here and are they going to move off their very hardline positions that they put on the table right now. And if they don't move off of those, then President Trump's going to have to take some action, slap some tough sanctions on them, possibly upgun Ukraine a little bit, to show definitely that Russia, if you're going to come to the table, we're not going to buy into these hardline conditions you've got. You're going to have to make some compromises.

That's just it. Put all the pressure on Russia, whatever it is. Find out. Are they really says it's a non-starter to put international troops in Ukraine?

Well, that's a problem because then we're back at the same place we were in twenty sixteen.

So what are your thoughts about how willing Russia is to do a deal? Right. Well, right now we've seen zero evidence that Russia is willing to come to the table to make a fair and just peace to end the war in Ukraine. That's not to say they won't ever do it. We just haven't seen any evidence of it.

And so this is exactly what Jack King was talking about. You've got to pressure Putin. And when you pressure him, we'll find out. You know, we don't really know if ultimately he's going to stop fighting. He may not even stop fighting no matter what we do.

In that case, at least President Trump will realize that it's Putin's fault and not Zelensky's fault. Because right now he thinks it's Zelensky's fault that the war is going on. I don't think that's true, but he's the president of the United States. He gets to make his own judgment. If we get to that table and the Ukrainians show that they're willing to make peace and we show that we're willing to support them, and then Putin doesn't do anything, and then he keeps killing Ukrainians, he won't make any concessions, he won't negotiate in good faith, then it'll be obvious to everyone, including President Trump, that Putin's the problem here.

Now, I think that's a very likely scenario. A less likely scenario is that Putin says, okay, well, let's make some peace that makes Everybody happy. That would be great. Don't get me wrong. If Putin wants to.

Strike a deal to make a just peace. I'm all for that. But what I think is going to happen, based on all the evidence, is that Putin's going to show the same thing that he's always showed: that he's a mass-murdering, psychopathic dictator who's intent on expansion, no matter what we do, no matter what the Ukrainians do. And the only thing he responds to is people standing up to him. And that's how all thugs are.

That's how all bullies are. That's how all aggressive dictators are. They don't actually care about the just in peace. They just. Care about what the pressure is on them and what they have to do to respond.

And I think President Trump will come around to that because eventually, after he gets through this period of sort of putting the pressure on Zelensky and not Putin. Josh, I'm going to play that last soundbite back in a month or so. I think, sadly, you're going to be 100% right. Josh Rogan, thank you. Back in a moment.

Sponsored by Previgen. Previgen made for your brain. Amazon Prime has launched a new tool that will use AI to dub movies into English from foreign languages like Spanish, Korean, and Sylvester Sloan. President Trump also said that he signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women's sports. But if men aren't allowed to play women's sports, explain soccer.

Yeah, I mean that's very 1978. I mean, aren't we over saying that it's not a real sport? I feel physical. The people that like that. I mean, are we done with this?

The people that like that joke will never get over that joke, which is funny. It's fucking freaking terrible. That's what they were trying to do eight years ago. They said, Brian, World Cup's coming here. We're going to make fun of it.

Like what? You could fight back. Like, are you crazy? It's the world's most popular sport. No one in America who just focused on football and baseball or hockey can fully, or basketball, could fully understand how great a sport it is.

They just don't seem to respect it. I do. And Sylvester Stallone took a knock at him, too. I got hurt twice, and you played it back. And, Eric, you're part of that.

Both of you are going to be fined and suspended. Benny, I have no to replace you.

Sorry about that. I'll take that back. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead. We have seamless intelligence sharing with the UK, to give you one example.

There's no restriction on the UK sharing that intelligence with Ukraine.

So what I suspect is happening here, and I could be proven wrong, is that this is an escalate-to-deescalate tactic by the administration to bring these parties to the table and to come to a conclusion, a just conclusion, which means success and victory for Ukraine. And I want to emphasize that.

So, that is a former FBI guy, turned Pennsylvania Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, talking about the decision to no longer share intelligence and satellites with the Ukrainians, as well as pause weapons, because of the fallout from two weeks ago in the Oval Office. And I understand you want to get them to the table and you don't think they were serious about it, whatever. But I don't think you let innocent people die. And that's a little bit what's happening because the Russians say, This is, oh my goodness, let's blow up all their energy and let's start shooting at our apartment buildings. They won't be able to stop us.

And he can't use the F-16s. I really question the tactic as talks get underway. The U.S. delegation left today to store tomorrow in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with the Ukrainians to see where to go forward. Senator Tom Cotton joins us now.

The same Tom Cotton, who's the author of the number one bestseller, Seven Things You Can't Say About China. And China has been good to you, Senator, because they stay in the news and they stay Threatening almost on every turn. Welcome back. Bright, it's going to make it on you. Yes, when I wrote this book, I figured that.

Communist China will continue to give us important news hooks to talk to the American people about seven things you can't say about China and the ways they threaten our safety and our way of life. not just at some distant point in the future but right now today. And I want to get to that in a second, but can we just bring you to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? Do you think the President has strengthened Ukraine's hand or weakened it with his decisions over the last few days?

Well, the pause that you were talking about, the intelligence pause, is part of the administration wide pause on intelligence. I can tell you that. I've spoken with CIA Director John Ratcliffe about it. He did tell me, as I believe he said publicly, that it would be temporary and brief. And the president you probably saw last night.

Said that we're to the point of getting the intelligence support turned back on. And I do think that's important, Brian. This point you made. Is Ukraine has a lot of weapons right now. Ukraine is still fighting, still fighting on the Eastern Front, it's still defending.

Its civilian targets, but the intelligence support that the United States provides is really vital for it to use those weapons. For it to defend its people, to defend its troops. And the best way to get to a lasting and durable peace. is for Russia to continue to face pressure on the battlefield.

So I was pleased to hear the President's comments last night. I haven't been able to check in this morning with the White House, the CIA, but I hope we're on the verge of having that intelligence support turned back on. That's the best way to keep the pressure on Russia and to help get to the lasting peace that I know the President wants.

So, the way I understand it, the one area in Russia that Ukraine occupies is Kursk. And they're being pushed back because they can't get the long-term weapons to push back and the intelligence to push back the Russians who are being led by the North Koreans. I mean, this sounds like a game of Stratego or something, but the North Koreans actually fighting in Russia. For Russia, and they're great because they run straight ahead into cannon fire to rocket fire, and then the Russians come up from behind.

So this is really the Ukrainians, you have to wonder if they feel as though they're abandoned. Don't you think it's important for them to hold on to that piece of real estate for the negotiations? Yes, Brian, that was the exact reason that Ukraine went into what's now known as the Kursk salient last year, is Russia has seized so much Ukrainian land that Ukraine obviously wanted some Russian territory that could be used In negotiations to make concessions both sides to bring the war to an end. You're right that that's where most of the North Korean troops, as far as we know, are fighting. Not fighting very well, I would add.

It's also, though, putting pressure on Ukraine's or on Russia on the Eastern Front. Ukraine has been making some progress there over the last six months or so, but it's very, very slow. There are indications that it's gotten even slower. In the last few weeks. And obviously, without that kind of progress on the battlefield, Russia doesn't have much to look forward to either in any kind of significant battlefield success.

in the coming months. And if a war is not going to end on the battlefield, the only way it can end is through negotiations. And I think that's what President Trump's trying to do. I think there's no doubt about it.

So we'll see what happens. Everybody, I think, feels good about having Mike Waltz. And Marco Rubio negotiating against or with the Ukrainians who will sign this minerals deal and possibly talk about what they would love to see. on confidence measures to let's say they give up Um attacks through the air. or they stop missile attacks, or they stop uh aiming for energy structures or of each other's.

Something to start on the process. I guess we'll see what happens. The other area, which I'm very curious to get your response on, the President wrote Iran a note. I basically said in that letter, We can negotiate, get rid of your nuclear weapons program so we don't have to use the other alternative. The Grand Diato, in his only Grand Diato way, said we'll not be threatened.

We don't like that ultimatum, and kind of just kicked it to the side. What should our be what should our next step be?

Well, Brian, I agree entirely with the President. This is actually the first time the President and I ever spoke now almost ten years ago in the summer of twenty fifteen as I was leading the fight against President Obama's nuclear deal. which was a terrible deal. He called me and expressed his appreciation for that.

So we've been aligned on this question for a decade. And he was very clear in his interview with your Fox News colleague, Maria Bartiromo, in a press brief impromptu press conference last week. Iran can't be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. There's two ways to do that. Bombs or deal.

Obviously, we all prefer to have a deal. We would prefer Iran to do what, say, Libya did in two thousand three when it was scared straight and threw open the doors and told the United States and the West to come in and take all of our nuclear weapons, and for that matter, chemical and biological weapons as well and all the precursors for those weapons. That's what a good deal would look like. Obviously. The Supreme Leader in Iran has a different approach.

So unless they start singing a different tune, And a deal is not going to happen along those lines.

Well, I guess we all know what the alternative is, as President Trump said last week. That's why it's so important that he reimposed last month. his maximum pressure campaign on Iran. We've seen time and time again. with Joe Biden, with Barack Obama, the way to get a good deal is not through conciliation and appeasement, but through pressure and strength.

True.

So having said that, they're also more vulnerable than ever before because of the damage the Israelis have done. We have a window for the first time, as General Jack Keene says in what, since 1979, to defang the biggest problem America and Israel has in the Middle East. And by the way, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Jordan. Pretty much agree Egypt, pretty much agree with us. that Iran's the problem.

It's hard not to go through that window, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, that's exactly right, Brian. Israel's attacks last spring on Iran and then in October, both of which were in retaliation for Iran's attacks on Israel, has completely neutered Iran's defenses. You know, we constantly heard from Barack Obama and Joe Biden, well, Iran's homeland defenses are fearsome. They've got air defense and missile defenses from Russia.

They have this ring of fire of terrorist proxies around Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas and others. And now that's all been totally neutered. Iran is completely defenseless in the skies over Iran, and Hamas is largely destroyed. Hezbollah's rocket and missile forces, which is Iran's main deterrent, is severely degraded. Israel has made it clear that this is a window of opportunity in which they think that they can settle the Iran nuclear threat.

They're happy to do it with a deal if it's a real and genuine deal that leads to Iran turning over all of the precursors of nuclear weapons. And the chances of that, Senator, are less than zero. If anyone's been paying it all attention from 11th grade on, they are not trustworthy. They don't want to give. They didn't even give in last time to on-site weapons inspectors, and they still had to have their coveted nuclear program.

So we know this is a lark, right? It seems very, very unlikely. Brian.

Now, if anyone could do it, because again, Iran might be scared straight or they might be on the ropes financially, economically, politically. It could be Donald Trump because Donald Trump takes his threat seriously. He's willing to put pressure on Iran. He's made it clear he's willing to use force if necessary. That's not his first choice.

It's not my first choice. It's not your first choice. But it's something that they didn't have to confront with Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

So, right now, you're on the Armed Services Committee. You're trying to do two things. You're trying to get our military ready to take on China. And multiple threats, or that has not been able to, with investment, even keep up with inflation over the last four years. At the same time, Restructure the Pentagon in a way to make it more efficient, get away from redundant, antiquated programs.

How big a task is that? And is there a plan?

Well, it's monumental task. Brian.

Um and I think is I've told Secretary Hegstaff when he first came in after his Uh nomination. But he's probably gonna spite. A few dozen problems in his early days in the Pentagon, and he has to appreciate that if If you can solve a dozen of them, that would probably be success. That's what Bob Gates talked about being the head of the Defense Department and running such a monumental organization. But there are some things that we just have to get right, like increasing our manufacturing capacity, not creating new stuff.

But just being able to build the stuff that we need now. the kind of basic artillery shells or missiles. Um or other munitions.

Now, we do need to create new stuff as well, and that's another place that we really do have to get right, bringing in new stuff. startup, innovative contractors. who can build not just giant ships and bombers, we certainly need those. but also the kinds of autonomous weapons and vehicles that we also need that the war in Ukraine has demonstrated the urgency of.

So I I think you can say for sure that when Donald Trump and PPAC SF leave this job at four years leave their jobs in four years. that the Department of Defense is not going to be perfect. But I hope it'll be a lot better than it is now, and that's certainly something I'll work with them in Congress for the next four years on. I'm encouraged by the numbers I'm recruiting to. People want to serve.

I can't wait to see the ads, the image ads, to talk about how great it is to serve our country's military. You served in the infantry after going to the Ivy Leagues, which is pretty unique and amazing.

So let's talk about China. It looks as though there's a report out from the South China Morning Post that. Donald Trump may meet with President Xi as early as April. Would you recommend that? Um That's fine, Brian.

It's not so much the question of the meeting, it's what happens at the meeting. You know, Ronald Reagan. Met with Gorbachev four times in three years, ended up writing him, I think, more than forty letters. They even called him, you know, said that they had developed a friendship and a bond.

So it's fine to have the meeting. What matters is what occurs at the meeting. And I think what occurs is President Trump will lay out in great detail the Grievances, the crimes, the offenses. That communist China has committed against the United States and the free world. And demand concessions on all of them.

And if he doesn't get it, then he'll do what he's already done, which is continue to increase tariffs. continue to rebuild our military in a way that's Yeah. Of Chinese aggression and rally our allies, countries like South Korea and Japan and the Philippines and Australia. to contain China's rising ambitions. If we don't, they will.

Are you concerned about the pace? Of the what seems to be dress rehearsals in the overflights and harassment of Taiwan. Yes, very much so, Brian. This is true going back years. It's a very risky situation when you have all these military drills conducted around Taiwan.

and Japan for that matter. It it puts a lot of strain On Taiwan and Japan's military to scramble every time they have communist Chinese. Aircraft or ships coming into their airspace or their territorial waters. That means that they're not training. That means that those aircraft and ships are not getting the kind of maintenance resets that they need.

It also is a kind of camouflage. Communist China keeps doing this. it can dull the census somewhat.

So if they do decide to go for the jugular one day, it might start out as something that looks like these drills.

So again, it's just one more example of the kinds of aggression that I write about, Seven Things You Can't Say About China, that Communist China has been pursuing against the United States and against our friends. Um Why do you think they view us as a problem? Why why do you think they view us as an enemy?

Well, there's still a communist regime, Brian. I mean, I know some people in the West have been tricked in years to think, oh, that's just a facade, just something they say for their own people. No, not at all. Look at Xi Jinping's public statements in Chinese. He is a Marxist-Leninist Maoist.

He probably one day hopes that future leaders of China are referred to Marxist-Leninist. G F's. because he probably hopes to replace now as the great leader of modern communist China. Um, and like communist countries everywhere, whether it was communist Russia or communist Cuba now, they recognize that the United States. is a fundamental threat to their way of life.

a country that is built on the dignity of man Free uh Right. and democratic self governments that can't help but be an affront to them because it shows them, it shows everyone else around the world what a legitimate model for uh self-government is.

So, when you look at their economy right now, from your indications, they got problems, don't they? I don't know how they're able to spend like they do, but they got huge economic problems. They have tons of economic problems. They have big demographic problems. China's population is starting to decline.

I I wouldn't necessarily view that as a good thing though, because unfortunately, Um you know what I Cornered rat can sometimes lash out. And I think G sees this as a moment. where China's power is maybe as great as it's going to be relative to the United States. And therefore, it may be time to settle. all of China's grievances.

Most notably for them. um their illegitimate desire to blockade, quarantine, or even invade Taiwan and annex it to mainland China.

So rather than being reassured by China's problems internally, I think we should view it as something that might cause China's leaders to be even more aggressive and more reckless than they otherwise might be. By the way, pick up his book. It's number one in the country for a reason. On the New York Times list: Seven Things You Can't Say About China. Everybody needs a competency in our number one adversary.

Senator, thanks so much. Thank you, Brian. Good to be honest with you. Back in a moment. You're with Brian Kilmead.

He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmeade. They've been left up there. I hope they like each other. But maybe they'll love each other, I don't know.

But they've been left up there, think of it. And I see the woman with the wild hair, good solid head of hair she's got. There's no kidding, there's no games with her hair. Our hair goes straight up. Telling about these, can you imagine these astronauts left up there by Boeing?

Because they said the capsule was only not. Deemed safe enough to return with people in them.

So he left him up there. And then Musk in the fall said, I'll go get him. You know, I got a SpaceX rocket, I'll go get him. And Biden people said no. Because it would look like Trump has a victory.

Trump's person has to go save the astronauts because Biden does it.

So these people stay up there, and they're still up there today. I guess you they're going to come down in a few weeks. You can't tell me they're happy about that. I don't think they're unhappy. I mean, they have been training to do this for their life, and you know, oh, you get to stay in space for nine months instead of eight days.

Really, if you stay up too long, You lose the bone density. And then, you know, you break your ankle stepping off a curb.

So, I mean, it's getting to a dangerous point right now. With nothing to do. You can't hatch fish eggs. You can't do anything. She could put her hair in a bun.

That would have been what she could do. Couldn't she have done that? She could. But then we wouldn't get the entertainment of her hair. Right.

Go save them. These people are stuck up there. It's terrible. Hey, go to BrianKillme.com. Find out how to see me in St.

Louis. On the twenty second, Fox News Audio presents the Fox Nation Investigates podcast, Evil Next Door, exploring the life and crimes of five serial predators from across the United States. Listen and follow now at FoxtrueCrime.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Listen to the show ad-free on Fox News Podcast Plus, on Apple Podcast, Amazon Music with your Prime membership, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Hmm.