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White House responds to Democrat attacks on Elon Musk and DOGE · Elon Musk Podcast

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for the show Elon Musk News. Any topic any of you wish to
1:04
talk about? President Trump set the tone on
1:07
this approach immediately when he took more than 12 times the
1:11
questions in his first few hours in office, as Joe Biden did in
1:15
his entire first week. Yesterday, we hosted a local
1:19
media row here at the White House with television and radio
1:22
stations from across the country that that reached up to 60
1:26
million viewers and listeners in our ongoing pursuit of
1:30
transparency. On this one month celebration, I
1:33
am thrilled to bring three of my colleagues and our policy
1:36
experts here at the White House to further recap this incredible
1:39
first month of accomplishments in greater detail.
1:42
We have Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security
1:45
Advisor, Stephen Miller, the Director of the National
1:48
Economic Council, Kevin Hassett and our National Security
1:51
Advisor, Mike Waltz. I will hand it over to them.
1:54
They will deliver brief remarks on the accomplishments of this
1:57
administration in the first month and then we will open it
2:00
up to Q&A. When we open up the Q and A
2:02
portion. I do ask for the sake of
2:04
efficiency in this room that you direct your question to the
2:06
principal you he can answer from and I will call on you in this
2:10
room. But first I will let them roll
2:12
through their remarks. And 1st up, I'll turn it over to
2:15
Stephen Miller. Thank you.
2:18
It's great to be back. And I want to just thank you all
2:22
for joining today, our one month celebration of the most historic
2:26
opening to a presidency in American history.
2:30
No president comes close to what Donald Trump has achieved over
2:33
just the last 30 days. He has packed eight years of
2:38
transformative action, restoring this nation, restoring our laws,
2:43
restoring fairness, restoring economic opportunity, restoring
2:47
national security in just one month.
2:49
No one in this country has ever seen anything like it.
2:53
And when you look at the consequentiality and the
2:56
significance and the transformative nature of the
2:59
actions he's taking, it truly defies description.
3:02
For example, in just one area, this nation has been plagued and
3:06
crippled by illegal discrimination, diversity,
3:09
equity and inclusion policies. It strangled our economy.
3:12
It has undermined public safety. It has made every aspect of life
3:15
more difficult, more painful and less safe.
3:19
He has ended all DEI across the federal government.
3:23
He has terminated all federal workers involved in promulgating
3:26
these unlawful policies. He has ended diversity, equity,
3:29
and inclusion in all federal contracting.
3:33
He has restored merit as the cornerstone of all federal
3:37
policy, restored the full, fair, impartial enforcement of our
3:41
federal civil rights laws for the first time in generations.
3:45
And he has cracked down on individuals across this
3:48
government and nonprofits who have engaged in illegal racial
3:52
discrimination against the American people.
3:54
This includes making clear to every educational institution in
3:59
this country that ending diversity, equity and inclusion,
4:02
ending unlawful race discrimination is a precondition
4:05
of receiving federal funds. He has also saved women's sports
4:10
by ending the participation of men in women's sports.
4:14
He has ended radical gender ideology across the entire
4:18
federal government and he's pressured the private sector to
4:21
also end and combat radical gender ideology.
4:24
He's re established the scientific and biological truth
4:27
that there are only two sexes in this country, male and female,
4:32
that those are biologically based determinations.
4:35
They are not based and can never be based on gender identity.
4:38
That includes rooting out of the Department of Defense all DEI
4:42
policies, all critical race theory, all gender madness, and
4:46
once again, having a military that is focused solely and
4:48
exclusively on readiness, preparedness, and lethality.
4:52
As I'm sure Kevin will talk about more, of course, he has
4:54
undertaken a historic cost cutting effort across the
4:57
federal government, launching the first ever Department of
5:00
Government efficiency, uncovering corruption on a scale
5:04
that we never thought imaginable, terminating every
5:07
single federal worker that we are, that we have found to be
5:09
engaged in the corruption and theft and the waste of taxpayer
5:13
dollars. And already saving $50 billion
5:16
in a single year, which over a 10 year period would be 500
5:21
billion dollars. Just think about how vast and
5:24
enormous that sum is. Of course, as you all know, he
5:27
has renamed the Gulf of Mexico to his correct and proper name,
5:30
the Gulf of America. He is renamed Mount Denali into
5:33
Mount McKinley, part of a historic effort to restore
5:36
patriotism and national pride all across this land.
5:40
He has ended the weaponization of the federal government,
5:43
restored the Department of Justice to his true mission of
5:46
combating threats to this nation and keeping the American people
5:49
safe. He has ended all federal
5:52
censorship of free speech. This has been one of the
5:55
greatest crises that has plagued this nation years and years and
5:59
years. The federal government violating
6:01
the First Amendment to take away Americans right of free speech.
6:05
President Trump has ended that, and he has demanded that all
6:09
federal workers, all law enforcement, cease any effort to
6:13
intimidate the rights of Americans or to police their
6:15
speech. He has also restored the death
6:19
penalty at the Department of Justice, including for illegal
6:22
aliens who commit murder, including for those who murder
6:25
cops, and including for all of those who threaten Americans
6:28
with heinous acts of violence. The death penalty is back.
6:33
Law and order is back. The streets are being made safe
6:36
once again. On the public health front, he
6:39
has launched the nation's first ever Commission, the Maha
6:42
Commission Make America Healthy Again, following the historic
6:45
confirmation of RFK Junior. To finally uncover the true root
6:51
causes of the public health crisis in this country, the
6:54
childhood disease epidemic in this country, the spiraling
6:58
rates of pediatric cancer and devastating childhood sickness.
7:03
He is finally created a situation where the federal
7:07
health agencies in this country will be focused on preventing
7:10
disease, on keeping children from getting sick in the 1st
7:14
place, not sending them to a lifetime in and out of
7:17
hospitals, suffering needlessly. When we can find ways to prevent
7:21
this epidemic of illness, then of course, on Homeland Security,
7:26
today it is officially the law of the land.
7:30
At the conclusion of the Congressional notification
7:32
process, that's 6 Mexican cartels and two transnational
7:37
gangs, Trende Aragua, or TDA and Ms. 13.
7:41
So 8 organizations in total are now formally designated as
7:45
foreign terrorist organizations, which means that every single
7:48
member of those organizations who operates on US soil is now,
7:52
as a legal matter, a terrorist, and they will be treated as
7:56
terrorists. This is a sea change in U.S.
7:59
policy. And this means the Department of
8:01
Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, along with
8:04
the rest of U.S. law enforcement and the Department of Defense,
8:07
are now operating in a legal reality where these cartels are
8:11
recognized as terrorists. And there will be a whole of
8:14
government effort to remove these terrorists from our soil
8:18
and to degrade their ability to threaten or undermine any
8:21
American security or sovereignty interest.
8:25
Border crossings since the day he took office are down 95%.
8:31
I think it's almost impossible to even describe the scale and
8:35
scope of that achievement. President Trump, within days of
8:39
taking office, cut border crossings 95% and those few who
8:45
have dared to cross are being either prosecuted or deported.
8:50
They're either facing significant jail time for
8:53
trafficking, smuggling, harboring, aiding, impeding, or
8:57
they're being immediately removed from our soil.
8:59
Either way, at the end of the process, they are going home.
9:03
He's reimplement to remain in Mexico, and he has obtained
9:06
historic cooperation from foreign countries all around the
9:09
world in accepting their deportees back.
9:12
And he's used the United States military to fully seal the
9:15
southern border with a historic deployment of both active duty
9:20
and National Guard troops, resumed the building of
9:23
infrastructure. He has opened up Guantanamo Bay.
9:25
And he's using military aircraft to carry out deportations all
9:28
across this country. And ICE is joining with ATFDEA
9:32
and FBI to carry out the largest deportation operation in
9:36
American history. The criminals are going home.
9:38
The border is sealed shut. America is safe, sovereign,
9:41
proud and free. We are a nation that everyone in
9:44
the world understands all across this planet.
9:47
You do not come here illegally. You will not get in.
9:50
You will go to jail. You will go home.
9:52
You will not succeed. This is the biggest and most
9:55
successful change in any area of law enforcement that this nation
9:59
has ever seen. And he did it in under one
10:03
month. Thank you.
10:04
Thank. You, yes.
10:08
Well, thank you, Caroline. Thank you, Steven.
10:12
You know, one thing that President Trump cares most about
10:14
is job creation. And it was about seven years ago
10:17
I had the honor of joining you in this room for the first time.
10:21
And it looks like we've created a lot more jobs than the last
10:23
month. Look at how many people are
10:24
here, right? My estimate is about 180, but I
10:27
didn't count. So thank you.
10:29
It's really an honor to be back here.
10:31
I think that I just want to go over a few things and then hand
10:34
it off to Mike. The first thing is that the
10:36
president has told us to prioritize fighting inflation.
10:39
And he had to do that because, as you know, President Biden let
10:42
inflation get completely out of control and he did it with
10:46
policies that made no sense. They made no sense.
10:49
You know, a lot of times you people say to us, our friends
10:52
are journalists, why are you doing that?
10:54
But but, you know, I like to think, why did they do that?
10:58
Why did they spend so much money?
11:00
And then why did the Fed print so much money so that we had
11:02
inflation as high as we've ever seen since JB Carter.
11:05
So why did they do that? So we're addressing inflation.
11:08
We didn't have to address it in the first term because it was
11:10
always in the ones, almost always.
11:11
But we're going to get it back there.
11:13
And how are we doing it? Well, we're doing it with a plan
11:15
that President Trump and I and others have talked about in the
11:18
Oval that involves like every level of fighting inflation,
11:22
1st, the back or economic level. We're cutting spending.
11:24
We're cutting spending in negotiations with people on the
11:27
Hill. We're cutting spending with the
11:29
advice of our IT consultant, Elon Musk.
11:33
And then we're also looking into supply side things like
11:37
restoring Trump's tax cuts, maybe even expensing new
11:41
factories so that there is an explosion of supply.
11:43
If you have an explosion of supply and a reduction in
11:46
government demand, then inflation goes way down.
11:49
And then one of the things that you will want to say is, well,
11:51
what are you going to see it? Well, the first thing that
11:53
you'll see when the markets believe that we're going to get
11:57
inflation under control is that the 10 year Treasury rate goes
12:00
down because that's how they think about future expected
12:03
inflation. And so we're still going to see
12:05
some memory of Biden's inflation.
12:07
It's not going to go away in a month, but the 10 year Treasury
12:10
before the last consumer price index had dropped about 40 basis
12:12
points, 40 basis points because markets were optimistic about
12:16
our ability to fight inflation. 40 basis points is kind of not a
12:20
fun thing to say. I kind of just talk that way.
12:22
I apologize. But the way to think about it is
12:24
for a typical mortgage, if that affects the mortgage rate, then
12:27
it's going to save a typical family buying a house about 1000
12:29
bucks a year. And that's just at our first
12:32
month. OK.
12:33
The second thing we've done is we've had a lot of trade talks.
12:36
In fact, I was just meeting a minister from Mexico with Howard
12:39
Lutnick just a couple of hours ago, and we're talking about
12:43
reciprocal trade, and we're also talking about the federal
12:46
crisis. And so reciprocal trade is about
12:49
our government treating other governments the way they treat
12:51
us. We want trade to be fair.
12:54
It turns out that Americans have been disadvantaged by foreign
12:57
governments over and over, and President Trump wants it to
12:59
stop. And the fact that struck me as
13:03
most noticeable when I started to look at what President Trump
13:06
was asking us to do is that last year, last year, we have data
13:11
U.S. companies paid $370 billion in taxes to foreign governments,
13:15
370 billion last year. Foreign multinationals paid US
13:20
$57 billion in taxes. We have 1/4 of world GDP.
13:25
They have 3/4 of world GDP and we're paying 370, they're paying
13:28
57. This is not reciprocal.
13:31
We're going to try or we're going to fix it.
13:34
The other thing that we've done is we've had an all of the above
13:37
energy approach that's led by Doug Brigham and Chris and a
13:41
really large team, EPA, and we've already made so many
13:46
actions that are going to affect the price of energy and lower
13:50
inflation. We've opened up 625,000,000
13:52
acres to energy exploration. We've cut 50 years of red tape
13:57
that makes it so you can't have permits.
14:00
And we've even made it so that when you go home, if you get a
14:03
new one, then you can take a shower or or flush a toilet or
14:07
read under a light bulb. We're doing that too.
14:11
So, so finally, let's just think about like the facts that we can
14:16
see right now that we think are awesome.
14:19
So guess what? Small business optimism is, has
14:22
gone up by the most ever since President Trump came in ISM,
14:28
which is the measure of what's going on in manufacturing.
14:31
It's expanding again for the first time in years.
14:35
CEO confidence is the highest it's been in years.
14:40
And the reason, the reason people are thinking this is that
14:43
our policies give people cause for optimism.
14:46
And then I want to reiterate what Stephen Miller said,
14:49
because it's so important and it's so important for financial
14:51
markets to start to digest this, that if say the Treasury
14:55
Secretary or the any Cabinet Secretary with Elon Musk is able
15:00
to find some savings, say $100 billion.
15:04
Well, in CBO land, that's actually like about 10 times
15:08
that or maybe 12 times that over a 10 year window.
15:11
And so when you're thinking about the negotiations right now
15:14
over reconciliation and thinking about, well, four trillion, 5
15:17
trillion, well, those numbers in terms of the savings are going
15:20
to end up being small because of all the waste that we're
15:23
finding. And so we're incredibly
15:24
optimistic about the future of inflation and the future of our
15:27
economy. And we're optimistic because
15:30
we're making so much progress so far.
15:31
We already see it in market prices.
15:33
And with that, I'll hand it off the mic.
15:35
Thanks. Well, good afternoon.
15:41
What a month and what a sea change in our in our foreign
15:45
policy, in addition to what we're doing on the border and
15:48
restoring American sovereignty, in addition to what we're doing
15:53
in our economy and the job creation and the inflation
15:57
reduction. We are bringing the world back
16:00
to where it was at the end of President Trump's first term,
16:02
which is a world of peace, prosperity, and, and looking
16:07
forward and getting us out of the chaos that we've just seen
16:10
over the last four years. So over the last month, just to
16:15
name a few, I had the honor of sitting in the Oval Office as
16:21
President Trump spoke with President Putin and then
16:25
immediately spoke with President Solinsky.
16:28
And both of them said only President Trump could bring both
16:32
sides of the table and only President Trump could stop the
16:35
horrific fighting that has been going on now for the better part
16:40
of four years and that only President Trump could drive the
16:44
world back to peace. Both of those leaders said that
16:47
in back-to-back calls. And of course, we just had our
16:51
historic talks mediated by our our good friends and partners.
16:57
Saudi Arabia, we give great thanks to Crown Prince Mohammed
17:01
bin Salman for hosting and sat down for the first time in years
17:07
with the Russians and talked about a path forward with peace
17:11
on top of that. And one of the things that led
17:14
to that was a tremendous confidence building measure that
17:17
we had with the release of Mark Fogle.
17:19
I'll remind everyone, the last time that we had an American
17:22
released from the Russians, either we gave up a deadly spy,
17:29
pressured our allies to give up a lethal killer, or we released
17:33
under the Biden administration the world's most notorious arms
17:37
dealer, Victor Boot, who by the way had one of his main clients
17:41
for arms, the cartels in in Mexico and Central America.
17:46
We gave up none of that. This was released as a
17:48
confidence building measure, working with our great Middle
17:52
East envoy Steve Witkoff and our Secretary of State as a first
17:57
step towards opening these talks and then moving forward towards
18:01
peace. On top of that, we've secured
18:03
just in a month the return of a dozen 12 American hostages from
18:10
Russia, from Bulgaria, from Venezuela, the Taliban and
18:15
Hamas, Excuse me, that's from Belarus, not Bulgaria.
18:18
We also had for the first time in quite some time, we took out
18:26
a senior leader of ISIS and international financier and
18:29
recruiter that the military had been trying to take out for
18:33
quite some time and and wasn't able to do so, frankly, because
18:39
of a bureaucratic approval process.
18:41
President Trump said take him out and that ISIS financier and
18:45
leader is no longer on this earth.
18:48
We've also taken action to eliminate other terrorist
18:52
organizations in the Middle East.
18:54
We drove before the president was even in office.
18:58
He started talking consequences for people that would hold
19:01
Americans heretofore. There's been nothing but upside.
19:04
You take an American, you get some better deal.
19:07
You take another one, maybe you get a better deal.
19:09
No more. There is now nothing but
19:11
downside for taking Americans illegally, either as hostages or
19:16
illegal detainees. And when President Trump sent a
19:19
very clear message across the Middle East, but particularly to
19:22
Hamas, that there would be all hell to pay, we suddenly saw a
19:25
breakthrough. And now we just saw the release
19:29
of yet another group of hostages.
19:32
There have been dozens now, including two Americans that
19:35
we've seen once again reunited with their families as part of
19:40
the talks with King Abdullah. He offered and and I think the
19:45
entire world is graciously accepted to take 2000 sick
19:51
children, cancer patients and others out of Gaza as a
19:55
humanitarian, as a humanitarian gesture. 2000 Gazans will come
20:02
out of that hellhole that it is that wasteland that Gaza is
20:08
right now, with unexploded ordnance, with debris
20:11
everywhere, with no sewage, with no water.
20:14
And, and President Trump has has put forward a plan to deal with
20:17
the practical reality that is 1.8 million Gazans now, now
20:23
truly suffering and then, you know, just to bring it back to
20:28
our own hemisphere. We've seen literally in the last
20:31
month, after years of national security experts, the generals
20:36
in charge, and others testifying and ringing the alarm bells
20:40
about about the Chinese Communist Party's presence in
20:44
our own hemisphere, particularly in the Panama Canal.
20:48
We're seeing the leadership of Panama step away from the Belt
20:52
and Road program, move away from China and back towards the
20:55
United States, and even enter into talks and and other
21:01
negotiations about addressing the ports on either side of the
21:05
canal. And then finally, last but not
21:08
least, we've had four world leaders in the White House, in
21:12
the Oval Office. We've had the Prime Minister of
21:14
Japan, the Prime Minister of India, the king of of Jordan,
21:19
and of course, the Prime Minister of Israel just in the
21:22
last four weeks. And next week, we'll have the
21:24
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and we'll have the
21:28
president of France, Mccrone. So President Trump is on what we
21:33
call Trump Warp speed. We are all, we are all honored
21:39
to be really serving under under his leadership and his vision.
21:44
And truly, you know, when we all say, and the president himself
21:48
says, says he is a president of peace.
21:51
He is a president focused on restoring stability.
21:54
I think the entire world saw what the world will look like
21:58
without strong American leadership in the last four
22:01
years. And it's truly been an honor to
22:03
get us back to where we were and back on track under President
22:08
Trump's leadership. Thank you, Mike.
22:10
Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
22:13
I'm sure you're very eager to ask questions of these very
22:15
smart people working very hard on behalf of the president.
22:19
We do have somebody in our new media seat today.
22:22
We have John Stoll, who is the head of news at X.
22:25
As you all know, you're all on. X is home to hundreds of
22:28
millions of users, a large contingent of independent
22:31
journalists and news organizations across geographies
22:35
and political spectrums. And at the same time, X remains
22:38
the go to platform for many legacy news outlets.
22:42
And I know as I mentioned, many of the reporters in this room
22:44
use X to attract eyeballs to your work.
22:47
Prior to joining X, John spent two decades in journalism,
22:51
including several years as an editor at The Wall Street
22:53
Journal. We are excited to have him in
22:55
the briefing room today. John, we'll let you kick it off.
22:57
And as I said at the top, please direct your question to the
23:01
individual up here who you'd like an answer from.
23:03
John, why don't you begin all? Right.
23:05
Thank you very much. I am sitting in for a thriving
23:08
ecosystem of journalists, independent and emerging news
23:12
organizations who do depend on X for publicity for a business
23:18
month. And so I look forward to seeing
23:20
many of them in the seat in months and years to come.
23:23
Also, thank you Caroline for opening the seat up to new media
23:27
It. It really is a testament not
23:29
only to your open mindedness, but also to innovation that
23:33
you'd actually think about, you know, folks that are not
23:35
traditionally potential to be in this room, to be in this room
23:38
and not only have a a question, but also to witness, you know,
23:41
this is a very important intersection of power and the
23:46
Free Press. And so just the ability to
23:49
witness this and and be part of it, it brings everybody's game
23:52
up. So thank you for that.
23:54
I think this is for Mike Waltz. My question is about Ukraine.
23:57
Sure. For about more than 10 years
24:01
I've been fascinated like all, like many with what's going on
24:04
was in Northern Europe working out of the Baltics when Crimea
24:09
was annexed and was a lot, a lot of this came on Twitter.
24:14
The platform used to be known as Twitter was a lot of European
24:19
leaders would, would, would talk about their disappointment and
24:22
and solidarity with Ukraine. But when it came to actually
24:25
doing something, it felt like they were passing a hot potato
24:27
and sent it over the Atlantic. I wonder how much of what we're
24:32
seeing right now out of the administration and President
24:34
Trump is a call to Europe and the European leaders and the
24:37
allies that we've traditionally had to pick up that hot potato
24:40
and, and, and start doing something a little bit more
24:42
concrete to win and preserve the peace in Ukraine.
24:46
The second question I have is it, it, it's related is there's
24:50
been some a lot of speculation in that President Trump in the
24:54
administration might be manipulated by by Vladimir
24:57
Putin. I wonder if you just talk a
24:59
little bit about the the administration's posture and
25:02
your confidence in the competence of this
25:04
administration to go toe to tail with both Vladimir Putin.
25:07
Well, if there's, and I'll take the second question first, if
25:09
there's anybody in this world that can go toe to toe with
25:13
Putin, that could go toe to toe with XI, that could go toe to
25:16
toe with Kim Jong Un and we could keep going down the list,
25:20
it's Donald J Trump. He is the deal maker in chief.
25:23
There is no question that he is the commander in chief.
25:26
And I, for one, and I think all Americans and around the world
25:30
should have no doubt about his ability to not only handle
25:35
Putin, but to handle the complexity of driving this war
25:40
to an end. And then on your first piece on
25:43
Europe, I'll take you back to 2014.
25:45
You're right. There was a lot of hand wringing
25:47
in Europe and not a lot of action.
25:49
There's also a lot of hand wringing here in Washington
25:52
under the Obama administration and not a lot of action.
25:54
They literally threw blankets at the problem.
25:57
And so I'll remind everyone that Putin had, you know, some type
26:02
of conflict, invasion or issue with their neighbor under
26:05
President Bush, with Georgia, under President Obama, with
26:09
Ukraine 2014, not under President Trump 45, and again
26:13
with President Biden in 2022. The war should have been
26:17
deterred. The war should have never
26:19
happened. And I have no doubt it would not
26:20
have happened under President Trump and will stop under
26:23
President, President Trump again.
26:26
But I just want to push back on this notion of our European
26:28
allies not being consulted as we've entered into this process.
26:33
I already mentioned the immediate phone call President
26:35
Trump made to President Solinsky.
26:37
He has talked to President Mccrone of France repeatedly.
26:41
Last week, President Mccrone convened European leaders and
26:44
then is coming here on Monday. Prime Minister Starmer is coming
26:49
next Thursday. We've also, I've talked to every
26:53
one of my national security, national security advisor
26:57
counterparts across, across the spectrum in Europe.
27:01
I've talked to Secretary General Ruta, the the leader of NATO,
27:06
the secretary general of NATO. We have repeatedly, oh, by the
27:09
way, we had half our cabinet, 7 cabinet officials, including the
27:12
vice president at the Munich Security Conference, all
27:16
engaging, all listening, and all making sure our allies are
27:19
heard. However, we've also made it
27:22
clear for years, decades even, that it is unacceptable that the
27:28
United States and the United States taxpayer continues to
27:31
bear the burden not only of the cost of the war in Ukraine, but
27:36
of the defensive of Europe. We fully support our NATO
27:39
allies. We fully support the Article 5
27:43
commitment, but it's time for our European allies to step up.
27:47
And one of the things that Secretary General Ruta said on
27:50
our call was this last couple of weeks have been a real wake up
27:53
call. And I asked them, what have you
27:55
been missing the last couple of years?
27:57
The fact that we are going to enter into a NATO summit this
28:01
June with a third of our NATO allies still not meeting the 2%
28:05
minimum, a commitment they made a decade ago, literally a decade
28:11
ago, with a war on their doorstep, the largest war that
28:15
they're all extremely concerned about, but yet it's, well,
28:19
somebody else needs to pay. We've got other domestic
28:22
priorities. It's unacceptable.
28:24
President Trump's made that clear.
28:26
And the minimum needs to be met. We need to be at 100% in this
28:29
June of the NATO summit. And then let's talk about
28:32
exceeding it, which what is what President Trump has been talking
28:35
about With 5% of GDP, Europe needs to step up for their own
28:39
defense as a partner. And we can be friends and allies
28:42
and have those tough conversations.
28:44
Peter. Thank you Caroline, I have a
28:46
Ukraine one and a Doge one. Who can talk Doge?
28:52
All of us. Well, so, so Steven, we're
28:54
hearing about. These dodge dividend checks that
28:57
would be 20% back to taxpayers, 20% to pay down the debt, 60% is
29:02
left. Who gets that?
29:04
Well, the way that it works is when you achieve savings, you
29:07
can either return to the taxpayers, you can return it to
29:11
our debtors, or it can be cycled into next year's budget and then
29:16
it just lowers the overall baseline for next year.
29:18
So in other words, you can just transfer into the next fiscal
29:20
window and then lower the overall spending level.
29:23
And that means that you can achieve a permanent savings that
29:25
way and that reduces the deficit.
29:27
And when is it that people might see those checks?
29:29
What is it all going to be worked on through the
29:31
reconciliation process with Congress that's going underway
29:34
right now? As you've seen, the Senate's
29:36
moving a bill. The House is moving a bill.
29:37
The president has great confidence in both chambers to
29:40
deliver on his priorities. Now, just take this opportunity
29:43
to note that President Trump has made a historic commitment to
29:47
the working class of this country to fight for a major tax
29:50
relief and major price relief and cutting spending, as
29:54
Dozier's doing. And cutting taxes is the key to
29:56
delivering on both of those promises.
29:58
And President Trump is resolutely committed to doing
30:00
both. Thank you.
30:01
And on Ukraine, I guess this is for Mike.
30:03
Sure, after the president's post on Truth Social yesterday, need
30:07
to know who does he think is more responsible for the Russian
30:11
invasion of Ukraine? Who Or Solinsky?
30:15
Well, look, his his goal here is to bring this war to an end
30:20
period. And there has been ongoing
30:23
fighting on both sides. It is World War One style trench
30:28
warfare. His frustration with President
30:31
Solinsky is that you heard is multifold.
30:34
One, there needs to be a deep appreciation for what the
30:38
American people, what the American taxpayer, what
30:41
President Trump did in, in his first term and what we've done
30:46
since. So some of the rhetoric coming
30:48
out of Kiev, frankly, and, and, and insults to President Trump
30:52
were unacceptable #1 #2 our own Secretary of Treasury personally
30:56
made the trip to offer the Ukrainians what is can only be
31:01
described as a historic opportunity that is for America
31:05
to Co invest with Ukraine in their minerals, in their
31:08
resources to truly grow the pie. So case in point, there's a
31:14
foundry that processes aluminum in Ukraine.
31:17
It's, it's been damaged. It's not at its current
31:19
capacity. If that is restored, it would
31:22
account for America's entire imports of aluminum for an
31:27
entire year, that one foundry. There are tremendous resources
31:31
there. Not only is that long term
31:33
security for Ukraine, not only do we help them grow the pie
31:37
with investments, but you know, we do have an obligation to the
31:40
American taxpayer and helping them recoup the hundreds of
31:44
billions that that have occurred.
31:47
So, you know, rather than enter, enter into some constructive
31:51
conversations about what that deal should be going forward, We
31:56
got a lot of rhetoric in the media that was that was
31:59
incredibly unfortunate. And I could just tell you,
32:01
Peter, you know, as a veteran, as somebody who's been in
32:05
combat, this war is horrific. And I think we've lost sight of
32:09
that, of the literally thousands of people that are dying a day,
32:15
families that are going without the next generation.
32:18
And I find it kind of, you know, frankly ridiculous.
32:21
So many people in Washington that were just demanding,
32:24
pounding the table for a ceasefire in Gaza are suddenly
32:28
aghast that the president would demand one and both sides come
32:31
to the table when it talks to when when it comes to Ukraine, a
32:36
war that has been arguably far greater in in in, in scope and
32:42
scale and far more dangerous in terms of global escalation to US
32:46
security. And I do have one for Caroline.
32:49
Does President Trump have a bet with Trudeau about this USA
32:54
Canada hockey game tonight? And when there is a big hockey
32:57
game on, is the president watching for the goals or for
33:01
the fights? Probably both.
33:04
I think he's watching for the United States to win tonight.
33:06
I know he talked to the USA Hockey team this morning.
33:10
He talked to the players after their morning practice around
33:13
10:00. And I also spoke to some folks
33:16
from that team after they were jubilant over President Trump's
33:19
comments to the team. I believe they're going to put
33:21
out a video of that call. So he looks forward to watching
33:24
the game tonight. And we look forward to the
33:26
United States feeding our soon to be 51st state Canada.
33:30
Bloomberg, go ahead. My question is for Mike Waltz.
33:32
Can you give us a readout of the Pella's meeting with Williams,
33:35
who had just wrapped up? And in particular, is Williams
33:38
the opportunity to rejected this deal about the rare earth
33:41
minerals? Where?
33:41
Where does that stand? Well, we're going to continue to
33:44
have. He needs to come back to the
33:47
table and we're going to continue to have discussions
33:49
about where that deal is going. Again, we have an obligation,
33:53
the taxpayer. I think this is an opportunity.
33:55
The president thinks this is an opportunity for Ukraine going
33:57
forward. There can be, in my view,
34:01
nothing better for Ukraine future and for their security
34:05
than than to have the United States invested in their
34:09
prosperity long term. And then a key piece of this is
34:12
also been security guarantees. Look, the the reality that we're
34:17
talking about here is, is it in Ukraine's interest?
34:22
Is it in Europe's interest? It certainly isn't in Russia's
34:25
interest or in the American people's interest for this war
34:29
to grind on forever and ever and ever.
34:32
So a key part of his conversation was helping
34:36
President Zelensky understand this war needs to come to an
34:39
end. This kind of open-ended mantra
34:42
that we had under the Biden administration, that's over.
34:45
And I think a lot of people are having a hard time accepting
34:48
that. And then the other piece is
34:49
there's been discussions from Prime Minister Starmer and also
34:54
President Mccrone about European LED security guarantees.
34:58
We welcome that. We've been asking Europe to step
35:01
up and secure its own prosperity, safety and security.
35:05
So we certainly welcome that and we certainly welcome more
35:08
European assistance, as I told my counterparts, come to the
35:12
table with more if if you want a bigger seat at the table.
35:16
And we've been asking for that for quite some time.
35:20
Sanctions in your talks with them and if you consulted with
35:23
international partners and allies about essentially rolling
35:26
back sanctions in these negotiations to end the.
35:28
Those the talks with, with our Russian counterparts, both with
35:32
my counterpart, the national Security Advisor, Secretary
35:35
Rubio's counterpart, the foreign minister, Foreign Minister
35:39
Lavrov, you know, it, it really were was quite broad focused on
35:46
what is the goals for our broader relationship, but very
35:50
clear that the fighting has to stop to get to any of those
35:54
brighter goals. And as a first step, we're just
35:56
going to do some common sense things like restore the, the
35:59
ability of both of our embassies to function.
36:03
And again, you know, this is this was common sense in in
36:07
foreign policy world, they call it shuttle diplomacy.
36:10
We have to talk to both sides in order to get to both sides to
36:14
the table. And both sides have said only
36:17
President Trump could do that. Deanna, thank you.
36:20
My question is for Mike Waltz. The president has called
36:25
Zelensky a dictator. Does he view Putin as a
36:28
dictator? And does he want Zelensky out of
36:32
power? I know he's called for
36:33
elections. And then thirdly, the head of
36:36
the defense committee in Ukraine's parliament just has
36:40
claimed that the US has stopped selling weapons to Ukraine.
36:43
Is that true? Well, most of our weapons that
36:46
have gone to Ukraine have been part of a drawdown authority
36:49
where we've literally taken them out of our stocks and then
36:52
eventually through appropriations started buying
36:55
them again to refill our stocks. I'll, you know, just state that
36:59
there has been a lag and a lot of that process.
37:02
So many of our stocks, as we look at our operations around
37:05
the world are becoming more depleted.
37:08
That's one of the reasons many people have had a lot of concern
37:12
about when does this end? How much is it going to take?
37:15
How many lives will be lost? How much will we be?
37:18
How much will we spend as a member of Congress?
37:20
We repeatedly asked the Biden administration those questions
37:23
and we never got a satisfactory answer.
37:27
Look, President Trump is obviously very frustrated right
37:32
now with President Zelensky. The fact that that he hasn't
37:37
come to the table, that he hasn't been willing to take this
37:41
opportunity that we have offered, I think he eventually
37:44
will get to that point, and I hope so very quickly.
37:48
But President Trump is, as we made clear to our Russian
37:51
counterparts, and I want to make clear today, he's focused on
37:54
stopping the fighting and moving forward.
37:56
And we can argue all day long about what's happened in the
37:59
past. Reagan Yeah.
38:01
Wait, what about? What about?
38:04
Excuse me. I just called on Reagan.
38:06
Reagan, go ahead. I have a question for Stephen
38:07
and a question for Mike. Steve, Max Review.
38:10
There have been reports that Trump is unhappy with the rate
38:14
of deportations and he wants them to be hired.
38:16
Is the president happy with the rate of deportations?
38:19
And are there any plans to speed up the process?
38:22
Well, first of all, we all appreciate the encouragement
38:25
from the media to deport as many illegal aliens as humanly
38:27
possible. So thank you.
38:29
And I will promise you that the full might of the Department of
38:33
Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the
38:36
Department of Defense, and every element and instrument of
38:39
national power will be used to remove with speed all criminal
38:44
illegals from the soil of the United States of America, to
38:47
enforce final removal orders and to ensure that this country is
38:51
for American citizens and those who legally belong in this
38:54
country. We inherited an ICE that was
38:57
completely shuttered. We inherited the Department of
38:59
Homeland Security, whose sole mission was to resettle illegal
39:03
aliens within the United States of America in 30 days.
39:07
The President sealed the border shut, declared the cartels to be
39:10
terrorist organizations, has increased ICE deportations to
39:14
levels not seen in decades, and we are shortly on the verge of
39:18
achieving a pace and speed of deportations this country has
39:22
never before seen. Thank you, Mike.
39:25
There have been reports that there's some underground
39:27
opposition to Trump's pick for Under Secretary of Defense and
39:31
Policy, Elbridge Colby. Have you or anyone from the
39:34
administration been personally lobbying senators to support
39:39
Elbridge Colby? Look, I've worked with Bridge Co
39:43
Colby in the past. He has the president's full
39:46
support to be the Under Secretary of Policy, which will
39:50
be a critical policy arm for Secretary Hagseth going forward
39:53
that will implement a lot of these policies.
39:56
And, and really that's, that's been to the extent of it.
39:59
I think there's been a lot of kind of, you know, breathless, I
40:03
don't know, back and forth in the in the press, but we're full
40:08
speed ahead to get the president's.
40:10
Team in place so we can implement as America First
40:12
policy. Thank.
40:13
You, Mike, has spoken pretty extensively.
40:15
Does anybody have questions for Stephen or for Mr. Hassett?
40:18
Nobody wants to talk about the economy.
40:21
Yeah, sure. IRS OK, so this would be for
40:24
either one of you. So we reported several other
40:27
outlets have reported that about 3500 people are due to be lose
40:34
their jobs at the IRS by the end of the week.
40:36
If the goal of these spending cuts across the federal
40:39
government has been to reduce the debt, why impose some of the
40:43
deepest cuts we've seen so far at the agency responsible for
40:46
raising? Revenue for the federal
40:47
government. I think our objective is to make
40:49
sure that the employees that we pay are being productive and
40:53
effective. And there are many, many more
40:57
than 100,000 people working to collect taxes and not all of
41:00
them are fully occupied. And the Treasury Secretary is
41:03
cutting the matter and feels like 3500 is a small number and
41:07
probably you can get bigger, especially as we improve the IT
41:10
at the IRS. And so, so I think that it's
41:13
absolutely something that is on the table for good reasons.
41:15
And the point is that don't just talk about the IRS, talk about
41:19
all of government that there are so many places I live in DC,
41:22
you've maybe live in DC where you never there.
41:24
Nobody, nobody's going to the buildings.
41:26
People aren't commuting because nobody's doing their job.
41:28
We look back and we see that there are all these people doing
41:30
2 jobs while getting a government payroll on the
41:33
payroll. So the point is we're fixing
41:34
that and the IRS is a small part of that picture.
41:37
So you're saying that everybody who's being let go was doing a
41:41
bad job? I'm saying that we're studying
41:44
every agency and deciding who to let go and why, and we're doing
41:47
so very rationally with a lot of support from analysis.
41:51
Because we're being told by a lot of people who have been let
41:53
go at other agencies that they were told they were being
41:56
dismissed because of poor performance, when in some cases
42:00
they haven't even had a performance review yet because
42:02
they've only been on the job a couple of.
42:03
Months. Yeah, I've never seen a person
42:05
who was laid off for poor performance to say that they
42:08
were performing poorly. OK.
42:12
Good point. Sure.
42:13
Caitlin, I have a question. I'll start with you.
42:15
Kevin has it. Thank you for being here.
42:16
And I've got a question for Mr. Waltz on these potential checks
42:19
that you might send out from Dodge.
42:21
Is there a concern as you're thinking through this that they
42:23
could be inflationary? Oh, absolutely not.
42:26
Because imagine if we don't spend government money and we
42:29
give it back to people, then the, you know, if they spend it
42:32
all, then you're even, but they're probably going to save a
42:34
lot of it, in which case you're reducing inflation.
42:36
And also with the government spends a lot, that's what
42:38
creates inflation. We learn that from Joe Biden.
42:40
And so if we reduce government spending, then that's, you know,
42:43
reduces inflation. And if you give people money,
42:45
then they're going to save much of it.
42:46
And and when they save it, then that also reduces demand,
42:49
reduces inflation. OK, so you're not worried about
42:51
it? And Mr. Bolt, to follow up on
42:53
Peter's question, you wrote in an op-ed in the fall of 2023
42:56
that, quote, Putin is to blame, certainly like Al Qaeda was to
42:59
blame for 911. Do you still feel that way now
43:01
or do you share the president's assessment as he says Ukraine is
43:05
to blame for the start of this war?
43:06
Well, it shouldn't surprise you that I share the president's
43:09
assessment on all kinds of issues.
43:11
What I wrote as a member of Congress's was, was as a former
43:14
member of Congress, Look, what I share the president's assessment
43:17
on is that the war has to end. And what comes with that, what
43:22
comes with that should be at some point, elections.
43:26
What comes with that should be peace.
43:28
What comes with that is prosperity that we've just
43:30
offered in this natural resources and economic
43:33
partnership arrangement, an end to the killing and European
43:39
security and security for the world.
43:41
The president's not only determined to do that in Europe,
43:44
he's determined to do it in the Middle East.
43:47
And just a few months ago, we had an administration that had
43:50
tried for 15 months, week after week, sitting with you here and
43:55
couldn't get us to a ceasefire, couldn't get our hostages out.
43:58
Now we're at that point, we're back to the maximum pressure on
44:01
Iran and we will, we have just begun and we will drive towards
44:06
a ceasefire and all of those other steps.
44:08
I'm not going to pre negotiate or get ahead of the sequencing
44:13
of all of that. It's a very delicate situation.
44:15
But this is a president of peace and who here would argue against
44:19
peace? OK, so.
44:20
You do share that assessment. And can I follow up in 2017 then
44:23
Jordan and Trump go ahead, I just told.
44:24
You. You just.
44:25
Want 2 questions? Kate Jordan.
44:26
Go ahead. Mr. Mr. Hassett, you were
44:31
speaking about about the tariff revenue and you also addressed a
44:35
question about the IRS. President Trump has spoken about
44:38
replacing income tax with tariff revenue, especially with all
44:42
this waste ground abuse that we're seeing cut.
44:44
Is that a possibility? Absolutely.
44:46
And in fact, if you think about the China tariff revenue that
44:50
we're estimating is coming in from the 10% that we just added,
44:54
plus the de minimis thing that it's between 500 billion and a
44:58
trillion dollars over 10 years is our estimate.
45:01
And that's something that is outside of the reductions that
45:04
markets are seeing through the negotiations up on the Hill.
45:07
And so we expect that the tariff revenue is actually going to
45:10
make it much easier for Republicans to pass a bill, and
45:12
that was the President's plan all along.
45:14
Excuse me, alert about Doge. So you, you spoke about DOGE.
45:20
You said roughly $50 billion is set to be cut in a year of
45:25
waste, fraud and abuse by unelected bureaucrats.
45:29
We're hearing this. Ironic narrative from the
45:31
president's critics and the left wing media that Elon Musk is an
45:34
unelected bureaucrat and he's doing all this terrible stuff.
45:37
Isn't 1 of Doge's objectives to get get rid of the federal
45:41
bureaucracy the the deep state? And also who was running the
45:45
White House when Joe Biden was in office?
45:47
Because I don't know a single person who believes it was Joe
45:50
Biden. You're, you're tempting me to
45:52
say the very harsh things about some of our media friends.
45:57
The yes, it is true that many of the people in this room for four
46:01
years failed to cover the fact that Joe Biden was mentally
46:05
incompetent and was not running the country.
46:09
It is also true that many people in this room who have used this
46:12
talking point that Elon is not elected fail to understand how
46:16
government works. So I'm glad for the opportunity
46:18
for a brief civics lesson. A president is elected by the
46:22
whole American people. He's the only official in the
46:24
entire government that is elected by the entire nation,
46:28
right? Judges are appointed, members of
46:31
Congress are elected at the district or state level, just
46:33
one man and the Constitution. Article 2 has a clause known as
46:36
the vesting clause, and it says the executive power shall be
46:39
vested in a president singular. The whole will of democracy is
46:45
imbued into the elected president.
46:47
That president then appoints staff to then impose that
46:51
democratic will onto the government.
46:54
The threat to democracy, indeed the existential threat to
46:57
democracy is the unelected bureaucracy of lifetime tenured
47:01
civil servants who believe they answer to no one, who believe
47:05
they can do whatever they want without consequence, who believe
47:08
they can set their own agenda no matter what Americans vote for.
47:12
So Americans vote for radical FBI reform, and FBI agents say
47:15
they don't want to change. Or Americans vote for radical
47:18
reform under energy policies, but EPA bureaucrats say they
47:21
don't want to change. Or Americans vote to end DEI,
47:24
racist DEI policies and lawyers, the Department of Justice say
47:28
they don't want to change. What President Trump is doing is
47:32
he is removing federal bureaucrats who are defying
47:36
democracy by failing to implement his lawful orders,
47:41
which are the will of the whole American people.
47:44
Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody.
47:48
I'm looking at the clock. We've almost had an hour of
47:50
time. I know a couple of these
47:52
individuals have a meeting to get to at 2:00 PM.
47:54
So you're welcome to follow up with my team for further
47:57
questions. And we're going to let these
47:58
guys get back to running the United States government.
48:01
And we will see you all later. President Trump will be speaking
48:03
at 3:00 at the Black History Month reception.
48:06
So thank you. Just good to see you.
48:07
We'll see you in a bit. Even on the pause, should we
48:12
expect indictments or the invitements coming for the
48:14
problem we found? Let's love to pull up with you
48:16
just. Instead of.
48:18
Thank you. Hey, thank you so much for
48:33
listening today. I really do appreciate your
48:36
support. If you could take a second and
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hit the subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast
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platform that you're listening on right now, I greatly
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appreciate it. It helps out the show
48:45
tremendously and you'll never miss an episode.
48:48
And each episode is about 10 minutes or less to get you
48:51
caught up quickly. And please, if you want to
48:54
support the show even more, go to patreon.com/stagezero.
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And please take care of yourselves and each other, and
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I'll see you tomorrow.