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Thanks to IP. Learn more at phrma.org slash IPWorksWonders. I'm Shannon Bream. President Trump ramps up pressure on Ukraine to broker a peace deal as the war enters a fourth year. Zelensky has done a terrible job. A dictator without elections. Zelensky better move faster. He's not going to have a country left. A war of words sparking new uncertainty over negotiations to end Russia's war on Ukraine.
As the president shakes up Pentagon leadership, replacing the nation's highest-ranking military officer, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joins us exclusively on this and plans to cut thousands of civilian jobs in the Pentagon bureaucracy. Then... The chain's off.
Doge escalates its sweeping cuts to federal spending, claiming more than $55 billion in savings. And Elon Musk says some of that money could end up as a refund check in your mailbox. We discuss the political impact exclusively with Republican Congressman Jim Jordan and Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Plus.
I gave a very strong warning. If you don't comply with the law, you're next. Legal battles heat up over the Trump administration's scores of executive orders, from sanctuary cities to federal layoffs. How the battle over executive power might play out in our nation's highest courts. All right now on Fox News Sunday. ♪
Hello from Fox News in Washington. We began with a look at some of today's top headlines. The Vatican says Pope Francis spent a restful night after experiencing a respiratory crisis Saturday. The 88-year-old Pontiff has been struggling with double pneumonia and a lung infection. We're going to take you live to Rome for an update on that later this hour.
And Germans are going to the polls today to decide whether to keep Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party in power or take a rightward turn in a high-stakes election being closely watched in Europe and by the White House.
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are headed to Washington this week to meet with President Trump. Macron and Starmer are working on a plan to deploy up to 30,000 European peacekeepers in Ukraine if a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow can be reached. In a moment, reaction to that, much more from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. But first, we begin with another busy week for the Trump administration. Lucas Tomlinson is tracking it at the White House. Hey, Lucas.
Shannon, President Trump is here at the White House after addressing a throng of supporters at CPAC to mark his first month back in office. An enthusiastic crowd of supporters greeted President Donald Trump outside the nation's capital. Trump told them his predecessor left him a mess. Joe was the worst. Every single thing he touched turned to s**t.
Trump touted his accomplishments and promised to do more. The fraudsters, liars, cheaters, globalists and deep state bureaucrats are being sent packing. The illegal alien criminals are being sent home.
We're draining the swamp and we're restoring government by the people. Aiding Trump, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, tearing through government agencies searching for waste, fraud and abuse. But apparently not fast enough for the president who posted ahead of his speech.
Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive. Musk responded, will do, Mr. President, and then fired off this post a few minutes into Trump's speech. All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation. Friday night, Trump fired the U.S. military's top officer, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In his place, he nominated a retired three-star Air Force lieutenant general, Dan Raisin Kane, who first met Trump in Iraq in 2018, where Trump claims Kane said the Islamic State could be destroyed in a week.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later fired the Navy's top officer and the Air Force's No. 2 officer, as well as the top military lawyers for the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
Hegseth visited Warsaw last week, calling Poland a model ally in Europe. At CPAC, Poland's President Andrzej Duda met with Trump ahead of his speech and later spoke to Fox. I do trust President Donald Trump. I do trust in his efficiency. And I do trust that he's going to bring an efficient and lasting peace to Ukraine.
When asked if he trusted Vladimir Putin, the Polish president replied, he's a former KGB officer. Shannon. All right, Lucas Tomlinson for us at the White House. Thank you very much, Lucas. And now to Fox News correspondent Alex Hogan in Kiev with more on President Trump's efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Hello, Alex.
Hi, Shannon. A political firestorm sending U.S.-Ukraine relations into a tailspin this week on the heels of U.S.-Russia talks aimed at bringing the war to an end.
President Donald Trump blasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a dictator. Zelensky accused Trump of living in a disinformation bubble. Zelensky's predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, says Ukraine should strike a calmer tone. Does President Trump easily communicate? No, not at all. We should understand, we should learn how to speak with him. But if you find out the way, the results would be fantastic.
Could you tell me how you assess the current diplomatic tension between Ukraine and the U.S. right now? Unacceptable. This is too risky. Does Ukraine win with this contradiction? By the way, does the United States win with this contradiction? And could you tell me what is one person who is beneficial of this contradiction? Yes, his name is...
Kiev's ever-expanding military cemetery is a reminder of the cost of war. At the grave of one soldier, loved ones mark what would have been his 38th birthday. Like so many families here, they're divided on what a peace deal now would cost them. It's not up to us to stop the war. If we do, then what did my husband, the father of my child, die for? Whatever it is, end this war so that more people don't die.
President Trump says he's working on that and a deal to gain access to Ukraine's natural resources. We're asking for rare earth and oil, anything we can get. We're pretty close to a deal and we better be close to a deal because that has been a horrible situation.
The deal would share the revenue of Ukraine's rare earth minerals by compensating the U.S. for its military support. Shannon. All right. Alex Hogan reporting from Ukraine. Alex, thank you. Joining us now, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Welcome to Fox News Sunday. Okay, so let's start here. Tomorrow marks three years, an anniversary of the start of this war. Russia apparently is planning to declare victory tomorrow. There are propagandists who say they're going to share messages that the West is
essentially abandoned Ukraine. I mean, how does the U.S. and will it counter that messaging if that's a victory lap Russia tries to take? Well, Vladimir Putin can attempt to take all the victory laps he wants. The reality is the president is focused on one thing and one thing only, and that's stopping the killing and the destruction across Ukraine and ensuring an enduring peace. So both sides are going to make a lot of claims.
And the president has very directly engaged both sides in real time. There's bilateral negotiations with Russia, which, by the way, no one else has been able to do. Joe Biden was never able to bring Russia to the table for actual peace talks. Only Donald Trump. He's the only man in the world that would able to do that. He's also engaging directly with Ukraine. There's going to be bumps in the road in these conversations when you're seeking a historic peace. And ultimately,
Our role is to do just that. And Donald Trump, President Trump is doing that. So I'm not I don't need to get into the characterization of we know who invaded who. We understand the stakes of this game. The America, more than any other country in the world, has invested in helping Ukraine defend itself. Now it's time for peace. And that's what the president is dedicated to.
Why has it seemed that there is some reticence to say who invaded whom or who's responsible for this? You know, there are questions about reports that a G7 statement, the U.S. opposed calling Russia the aggressor in that statement. And also there are these warring resolutions allegedly at the U.N. The U.S. wanted to essentially water down what Ukraine is trying to offer. This is what The Wall Street Journal reports. The Ukrainian draft pins the worst cause on Russia.
Russia and calls for a peaceful solution this year built around a Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory. The U.S. resolution makes no reference to who started the war and makes no specific demands of the Kremlin. You know, your former colleague, my current colleague, Brian Kilmeade, pressed the president numerous times on this on Friday, and he finally did say, OK, Russia attacked. But why does it seem there's some hesitance to say that? My question is, does all the finger pointing and pearl clutching make peace more likely?
That's the enduring question the president is asking. He wants peace. And if that's the case, you've got to stare down the Russians and Vladimir Putin and who they've chosen to negotiate and have earnest conversations about difficult things, about security guarantees, about, you know, 2014 borders, what those will look like, about NATO members. Same thing with Ukraine.
constructively and productively so standing here and saying you're good you're bad you're a dictator you're not a dictator you invaded you didn't it's not useful it's not productive and so the
President Trump isn't getting drawn into that in unnecessary ways. And as a result, we're closer to peace today than ever before. And I've been privy to these conversations. Great progress is being made. Zelensky should come to the table because this economic partnership is an important thing for the future of his country. And we hope that he will very soon. But fair to say Russia attacked unprovoked.
into Ukraine three years ago tomorrow. Fair to say it's a very complicated situation. Okay, we'll leave it there. You have said previously that Putin is a maniac. You've called him a war criminal. How would you describe him today?
He's someone we're negotiating with to end a conflict. What I said as a private citizen has no bearing on what, as Secretary of Defense, my job is as far as the characterization of a regime. I need to make sure our troops are ready. I need to be able to give advice to the president vis-a-vis future military aid, the posture in Europe. But I'm not driving these negotiations. I mean, Mike Walz and the Secretary of State and the vice president and others are directly involved in these discussions. We're going to get to peace.
But what the defense secretary thinks about Vladimir Putin is more or less irrelevant in this. I want peace. I want the killing to stop. I'm going to play my role. And Donald Trump is leading it. And we're closer today than ever before. Does the U.S. have a role, though, on the world stage to say this is a bad person? This is a dictator. This is an aggressor. Do we have a responsibility to say that? We have done that plenty of times. And it's not.
a crazy statement to say there was an incursion into Ukraine. There was an invasion into Ukraine. Everybody, I mean, it was previous administrations who said a minor incursion and then welcomed Vladimir Putin, took that as a signal of weakness and entered. The other thing to step back on Ukraine here, Shannon, that's really important. Every part of this discussion for President Trump is from a position of strength.
The perception from Vladimir Putin that Donald Trump is strong and means what he said, says, has driven them and the Ukrainians to the table with an opportunity for peace. There's nothing weak about it. It was Obama and Biden that allowed the Russians to make and make take land, take territory and be aggressors. Donald Trump never had.
He's going to bring peace that nobody else would be able to do. Okay, so a couple of deals trying to come together here. One that would end the conflict, but a separate one with the U.S. and Ukraine potentially about rare earth minerals, security guarantees that we may provide them in that scenario. So there's that. There are also these foreign leaders from France and the U.K. coming this week to the White House. Alex talked about them potentially putting together a $30,000 deal.
strong force and peacekeepers. Is there any scenario, whether it's the rare earth minerals agreement, whether it's this force that the Europeans want to stand up, any scenario in which U.S. troops are on the ground in Ukraine? No, we've been very clear about that. U.S. troops will not be on the ground in Ukraine. But an economic partnership is important and an important commitment to Ukraine.
My message in Brussels, which Russell's ruffled some feathers and that's OK, that my my my point there was to inject realism into the conversation was, hey, on the continent, Europe should lead. So it's very encouraging to see European leaders saying we're prepared to step in, you know,
in Ukraine and help provide security guarantees. We welcome that, and we hope they step up and do it. Okay, starting Friday night, some big changes at the Pentagon in personnel and leadership and assignments. Senator Reid, who is, as you know, a veteran, he is the ranking member on Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote this. He says, "...a clear message is being sent to military leaders. Failure to demonstrate personal and political loyalty to Trump could result in retribution even after decades of honorable service."
Goes on to say his military officers must remain free to give their best military advice without fear of reprisal. Is there room in military leadership for those who have loyalty to President Trump, but to those who may feel like that could be in conflict at some point to the Constitution? That's a total mischaracterization from Senator Reid, as has been most of the hyperbole in the press around this.
There is civilian control of the military. Nothing about this is unprecedented. The president deserves to pick his key national security and military advisory team. There are lots of presidents who've made changes from FDR to Eisenhower to H.W. Bush to Barack Obama, who fired or dismissed hundreds of militaries during during his term.
We there were six three and four star generals that were moved into different positions or retired on Friday night of one hundred and sixty three and four star generals. This is this is a reflection of the president wanting the right people around him to execute the national security approach we want to take.
And I have a lot of respect for C.Q. Brown. I got to know him over the course of a month. He's an honorable man, not the right man for the moment. And ultimately, the president made that call. And Dan Raising Cane is going to be a fantastic chairman. I look forward to working with him and he will give straightforward advice, as he did to President Trump on the defeat of ISIS. No one else said it could be done in a matter of weeks. Raising Cane said it could. And guess what?
it happened and the president respects leaders who untie the hands of war fighters in a very dangerous world i think dan kane's the man to meet the moment okay i gotta ask you about this rumored list of people that you allegedly put together that we're all going to be cleaned out is there a list is there anybody left on the list if it exists uh there's no list shannon i've heard that seen that very rumor although we have a very keen eye toward military leadership uh and their willingness to follow lawful orders this is all about defending the constitution
Joe Biden gave lawful orders. A lot of them are really bad. And it's unfortunate how they eroded our military ideological covid mandates. President Trump has given another set of lawful orders and they will be followed if they're not followed. And all these orders are in keeping with the Constitution and norms inside the military. If they're not followed, then those officers will find the door. And that's not a that's not a tough calculation. We feel really good about the decision.
The Pentagon is headed under President Trump. We're going to focus on warfighting and lethality and accountability and be the most transparent Pentagon that folks have seen in a long time, which is why I explain these things on a regular basis. Well, and part of what you said on Friday night is that you were going to be looking for replacements, essentially, for judge advocates general for several of the branches.
For people who may not know, I mean, they give advice to the military about what is lawful and what isn't. Not surprisingly, there's been some backlash to those who are worried about their removal. One Georgetown law professor says this. Trump also firing the Army, Navy and Air Force Jags in some ways. That's even more chilling than firing the four stars. It's what you do when you're planning to break the law. You get rid of any lawyers who might try to slow you down. Your response to her. I don't know who Rosa is and what her hyperbole is all about.
Ultimately, we want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice and don't exist to attempt to be roadblocks to anything that happens in their spots. What we know about these TJAGs, they're called TJAGs inside the military, traditionally they've been elected by each other or chosen by each other, which is exactly how it works often with the chairman as well. Small group of insulated officers who perpetuate the status quo. Well, guess what? Status quo hasn't worked very well at the Pentagon.
It's time for fresh blood. So we're going to open up those positions to a broader set and a merit-based process to find the best lawyers possible to lead the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy. There's nothing about purging. There's nothing about illegal. We've made clear from the beginning, Shannon,
The military will be apolitical with a fidelity to the Constitution, prepared to close with and destroy our enemies. One thing people haven't noted yet, which I'll share, is we're going to take those are three star billets. Those but traditionally they've been two star billets over time. There's been lots of inflation in in the ranks over time. We're going to return those billets to two star billets. We're going to shrink the size of our headquarters units. The inflation of military generals. We won World War Two with seven four star generals.
Janet. We have 44 today. We have 163 and four star generals. And has it created better outcomes or not? We're challenging a lot of assumptions at the Pentagon to streamline what we do so that we get as many resources as possible to the warfighter. Well, and we know the Pentagon has not ever passed one of its audits. And that's next on your list. We know you're asking for cuts. I can talk the whole hour with you. I want to get to Iran, Israel, China, all of that. So please come back. We would love to see you again soon. Love it. Thank you. Thank you.
All right, coming up, we're going to get reaction to President Trump's tough talk on Ukraine and his jam-packed domestic agenda from both sides of the aisle. Congressman Jim Himes and Jim Jordan coming up live. But first, more Israeli hostages freed by Hamas in Gaza this weekend. Our Sunday panel is here to weigh on that and what comes next in the Middle East. They're next.
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President Putin and President Zelensky are going to have to get together because you know what? We want to stop killing millions of people. That's why I want to see a ceasefire and I want to get the deal done.
Growing tensions between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky, casting new uncertainty over ceasefire negotiations. A speedy end to the war in Ukraine was, of course, a key campaign promise of the president, and he's working on it. It is time now for our Sunday group. Former Bush national security official Michael Allen.
Marie Harf, Fox News contributor and former State Department spokesperson. The Hill national political reporter, Julia Manchester. And Cal Thomas, syndicated columnist. Welcome to everyone. Good to see you on this Sunday morning. Okay, so let's start with Ukraine. Ukraine.
Axios had a very interesting deep dive into the background, saying that there were a number of things that have really upset the Trump administration. Vice President Vance, Secretary Rubio, many of them. They go on to say this in the White House view. Zelensky grew too accustomed to former President Biden's open ended support for Ukraine's war effort.
They quote an official involved in negotiations saying, quote, we created a monster with Zelensky. Yeah, I think Zelensky obviously mishandled this. It's not the right way to deal with President Trump to say things in the public sphere. Most of these conversations need to be behind closed doors.
Zelensky should be excited that President Trump is interested in a critical minerals deal. That would give Trump a way to justify past U.S. spending and perhaps future spending, because what President Trump ultimately wants,
is for the killing to stop. That won't happen. It won't be a durable peace without security assurances. And part of that has to be some U.S. weapons going forward, not on the order as it was in the Biden administration, more balanced with the Europeans. But you need the U.S. as part of it. And if Trump feels like we can get repaid for that...
then that's a good thing. It may seem coldly exploitative, but I think ultimately it will help Ukraine. Well, Emery, both the president and President Zelensky sound like they are inching closer to this deal. But to President Trump's point, he says, you know, Europe got guarantees on what they paid into this. We didn't. You know, Michael out, my friend over here, Michael Allen, outlines a very rational approach to what's happening in Ukraine today. The problem is,
Donald Trump isn't just talking about a deal. He is saying that Ukraine started the war. He is defending Vladimir Putin. I don't mean to sound hyperbolic here, but Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, just on this one issue, Shannon, have done more in the last week to destroy America's credibility in the world and to upend the post-World War II values that we have promoted, to side with Vladimir Putin.
Over Ukraine. And Ukraine is not perfect. Zelensky did. Michael's right. Zelensky did not play this perfectly. He doesn't know how to deal with Trump, clearly. But Donald Trump clearly personally doesn't like Ukraine because it led to his first impeachment. He has this affinity for Putin, which I have never been able to fully understand. And the things he's saying a month ago were unthinkable, not just for Democrats, but for Marco Rubio or Mike Waltz or many of the people in the Republicans in the Trump administration to side with Russia.
Over Ukraine in this moment is a sea change. The Europeans are terrified. They think we've abandoned them. This is an American foreign policy we have never seen in our modern history. And it is it is upending everything around the world. And people just don't trust that we will be there for our friends anymore. I want to bring Callan here. But to the point about who attacked whom, Brian Kilmeade pressed President Trump on this repeatedly. And he did say Russia attacked Ukraine.
But clearly, Cal, I mean, the telegraphing recently is I wonder how much of it is for public consumption, you know, because he is in negotiations with Putin right now. Well, one of the problems, Shannon, is we don't know what the end game is here. Nobody has has talked about victory. Putin has said he has no intention of giving up any of the land that he has occupied. And evil people don't normally tell the truth. But I think he should be regarded as telling the truth in this instance.
What is the end game? Is it pushing Russia back? They've lost over 100,000 lives. It doesn't matter in a totalitarian state, their troops. Or is it ceding some kind of territory and giving Putin permission to start grabbing more territory? Remember, he said that the greatest disaster...
in Russian history was the collapse of communism. And he said he wants to reclaim Latvia and Estonia and these other former Soviet republics. We have to take that seriously, and it has to be part of the formulation for standing against him so he's not aggressive against other nations in the region.
Yeah. And Julia, that's been one of the concerns is that if this is not resolved in a way that clearly draws the lines for Putin, there is the worry among European allies that he may try this again with other further broader, broader territory. And I think of Poland and yesterday I was at CPAC covering the president. And right before he spoke at CPAC, he met with the
Polish president who earlier that week or the day before actually went on X very publicly and, you know, made an appeal to Zelensky after speaking privately with Zelensky and said, look, we need to lower the rhetoric when we talk with President Trump. And Poland is a country, you have its leader who is a conservative populist, a very good friend or ally of President Trump.
politically, but at the same time has a vested interest in having U.S. and NATO troops there. So definitely, I think the rhetoric coming from the Polish president is telling.
All right. We've got a lot of domestic stuff to discuss. In case you didn't know, there is plenty going on on that front. So don't go far, panel. By the way, you're looking live now at Capitol Hill as the president's messaging on Ukraine stirs strong reactions on both sides of the aisle. You're going to hear from House Judiciary Chairman Republican Jim Jordan and the top Democrat on the House Intel Committee, Jim Himes. They're both live and they're next.
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It brings people together in meaningful ways. Kuhnle and his team are building a Wi-Fi experience that connects one billion devices every year. Learn more about how Comcast is redefining the future of connectivity at ComcastCorporation.com slash Wi-Fi. I'm trying to get the money back or secured because, you know, Europe has given $100 billion.
The United States has given $350 billion. Europe gave it in the form of a loan. They get their money back. We gave it in the form of nothing.
President Trump at the conservative political action conference here in the D.C. area yesterday talking about his efforts to sign a deal guaranteeing mineral rights from Ukraine. Some security guarantees apparently part of that conversation. So let's get some bipartisan reaction. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan coming up. But we begin with Congressman Jim Himes, Democrat from Connecticut, who is the ranking member on the House Intel Committee. Congressman, good to have you with us.
Thanks for having me, Shannon. All right, let's start there with what the president was talking about. We discussed this with the panel a couple of minutes ago. Should the U.S. have some kind of guarantee or return on the billions of taxpayer dollars that have flowed into that conflict?
Well, Shannon, I have, I mean, I have two problems with that concept. One, it just looks like an episode of The Sopranos, right? Give us your minerals or we're not going to help you fight a bloody butcher. I mean, is this really what we want the greatest country in history to be known for, for like, you know, some mafia thing?
Look, we've always stood with the good guys. We stood with Churchill against Hitler in World War One. We stood with the good guys. Even when we've gotten it wrong in Vietnam, we were standing with the good guys against the Viet Cong in Iraq. We were going after Saddam Hussein. Now this president is standing with the bad guy. He's saying Zelensky is the problem with Zelensky with very few resources is trying to stand up for democracy against a totalitarian butcher. What really worries me, Shannon, though, is what do you
think President Xi is thinking? Because President Xi wakes up every single morning thinking is today they go out the day I go into Taiwan. Right. And he says, look at that. Donald Trump stands with the authoritarian invaders, not with the people who are being invaded. And now you're talking about the real possibility that American troops get involved in something that was facilitated by the mafia like activities of Donald Trump. OK, just a couple of things there. First of all,
Secretary of Defense just told us when I asked him point blank, any chance any U.S. troops get involved on the ground in this? He said, absolutely not. So we will hold him to that promise and to that statement that he's made very clearly here. But also on this issue of the loans, you characterize it as feeling very mafia like. But would you characterize that as well with the deals that the European leaders made with Ukraine that do give them guarantees?
Look, Shannon, I would hope that when the moment for reconstruction comes in Ukraine, and it will come, that it will be remembered that the United States stepped up to help Ukraine defeat Russia, right? Now, by the way, you know, I heard the Secretary of Defense say we've just been handing a maid and handing a maid. No, we have not. It took us a year because of Republicans in Congress.
to get Ukraine the aid that they needed to fight off the Russians. And in that year, the Russians killed thousands of Ukrainians that didn't need to die because the United States Congress was dithering over whether we should help, again, the good guy here. So the facts are just plain wrong. But yeah, of course, when Ukraine is rebuilt, I would hope that we would get...
you know, a significant slice of that business. But Shannon, we've never done this before. We never went to Winston Churchill and said, hey, unless you give us half of London to build hotels, we're not going to help you against Hitler. You know, imagine the signal that that sends to the people who are doing the fighting and dying. What does Zelensky say? Zelensky is not losing money. He's losing thousands of people a week. And he doesn't even get invited by Donald Trump to the peace conference.
Again, I would ask you to think about what the folks in Taiwan are thinking about this right now, because if I was in Taiwan, I would be like, oh, my God, the country that is supposedly my protector is now going to side with China when they come knocking on our door. Well, we have made clear that it's not our foreign policy, but we'll talk about that more in the show when it comes to Taiwan and China.
To the issue, though, also in the Middle East, since we're on foreign policy, I want to talk to you about what's going on in Israel. More hostages released. Now we've got to get to the second phase and third phase of negotiating what is essentially a very fragile ceasefire there. Newsweek has this headline. The two-state solution died with Ariel and Kaffir Bebas, meaning the nine-month-old and the four-year-old boy whose bodies were paraded through the streets as they were returned to Israel. Where do we go from here in the Middle East?
Yeah, Shannon, as it happens, I just spent a week in Israel and had about two hours with the prime minister. And I think the two state solution died not with the murder, the brutal murder of these hostages. But frankly, it's been on life support for a very long time. And the Hamas attack, the brutal attack on Israel on October 7th, 500 plus days ago, probably ended that. But, you know, here's here's the.
I don't know what's going to happen in the next week or so, two weeks. My guess is actually that Israel will go back in. You just can't see hostages treated the way these hostages have been treated and be the prime minister and say, OK, we're going to figure out how to end this. I think he's going back in after Hamas. And look, Hamas needs to be taken over.
out of the equation. What does worry me, though, is that even if the two-state solution is dead, there needs to be some solution, right? There are millions of Palestinians who are enraged. I talk to a lot of them. They are enraged, right? And Israel will never be secure as long as they are living in a very small sliver of land with millions of enraged Palestinians.
Set aside who's right, who's wrong here. That's just not a recipe for stability. So I do hope that the prime minister and the Israeli leadership can get together with the Palestinian leadership, not Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and say, let's start making some progress to take down the level of rage and therefore the violence, and then figure out what the actual solution is to this problem. We know that...
Arab leaders met in Saudi a couple of days ago trying to come up with their own plan for what will hopefully be progress in that region and moving forward. Domestically, before we let you go, I want to talk about the fact that there's obviously been a lot of pushback, and I'll talk to Chairman Jordan about this, about Doge and about the cuts and the layoffs and all kinds of things.
And there's been a lot of consternation with the president's use of executive power from his perch there in the executive branch. But a piece of the Federalist says this. Democrats beef isn't with executive power. It's with Trump and his voters. They go on to say that, you know, President Biden clearly continually tried to overturn the parameters of presidential power. He repeatedly sought to shift suit and debt to the general taxpayer, even after the president's
After the Supreme Court ruled against him, he opened the border in violation of his constitutional obligation to enforce the law. They go on to say Democrats real grievance is with last November's voters who overwhelmingly rejected Democrats distorted dystopian view of what America should be. Talk about it all the time on the show here. Voter analysis showed us people wanted major upheaval. So is your issue really with the voters more so than the president? Because there have been times that Democrats were fine with use of executive power and rather broadly.
Look, every president gets turned back by the Supreme Court. Every president does. And you're right to point out that Biden was turned back on the student loan thing. And you know what Biden said? Biden said, no problem. I will abide by the court. As you know, President Trump tweeted. Wait, I don't want to escape past that. He actually then went out and did a number of other programs that actually gave out billions in student loan forgiveness.
Right. That were not deemed illegal. So he did what he wanted to do. But when the court said you can't do it this way, he did it in a way that the court ultimately said was a legal way to do it. Now, you may not like student loan forgiveness. That's fine. That's a policy position. The point is there was never any question about whether he was going to abide by the law. President Trump, in contrast, says, you know, if I'm doing it for the good of the country, I decide what the law is. And of course, he's done it a lot more than Biden did. But here
Look, my problem is not with Trump voters. My problem is, and as a Democrat, I'll be the first one to tell you that the federal government, the bureaucracy can absolutely use a diet. But the way Doge has done it, where he's just indiscriminately gone in and particularly focused on firing young people who are often the most energetic, the most determined to make a difference.
There's two things that America is forgetting right now, although I would tell you. Ask Jim Jordan about what Republicans are hearing in their town hall meetings right now, because the people in those town hall meetings are realizing that the federal bureaucracy actually keeps the plane flying, keeps viruses out of our meat. If there's ever a pandemic, it's going to be the CDC that they rely on to keep us safe. And when you just go in with a buzz of the chainsaw that you saw Musk waving around. Okay.
You know, that's a real problem. By the way, Shannon, what about inflation? I think the reason people are giving my Republican colleagues a hard time is because Donald Trump said, I'm taking inflation down. Inflation has gone up, and that's a problem. All right, we're a month in, and I will talk about all those things with Congressman Jordan. So, Congressman Himes, thank you very much for your time. Let's pick up there, Congressman Jordan. This issue of...
There's a lot there. So, well, let's start here. Let's start on Doge because here's part of what is going on with Elon Musk. The Washington Post says these mass firings are backfiring because they say dismissals have been so chaotic and rushed. Termination letters often listed wrong start dates, wrong jobs or left the agency named Blake. As if a former form letter hadn't been properly filled out. Some workers are notified their own bosses that they've been fired. Is there some wisdom in slowing down?
Well, I think more scalpel. I think I think American voters like the intensity and the focus that they've seen from 30 some days of this administration going about doing the things they told the voters they were going to do, doing the things they were elected to do. What was the polling? I think I saw just recently 70 percent of Americans think President Trump is doing what he said he was going to do.
Imagine that. You ran for office. You put your name on a ballot. You said, I'm going to go do this. And one of the things he said he was going to do was get rid of the waste, fraud and abuse and the stupid spending going on in the federal government. Instead of Democrats attacking the guy who's exposing the stupid spending, how about helping us get rid of the stupid spending? And most Americans say, yeah, that makes sense to me, particularly when they see some of the corruptions.
crazy things that their tax dollars were being used for. I always point to Sesame Street and Iraq, you know, Bert and Ernie and Big Bird in Baghdad on Baghdad TV. Not really the best use of money when you look at the deficits we've been running and the debt that we've piled up.
Well, do you worry, though, that that goodwill that the American people are like, yes, I need to know what's going on with my tax dollars and no, I'm not OK with a lot of this stuff. Federal workers haven't been the most empathetic characters for a lot of Americans, but now they're starting to hear their stories that entire offices are wiped out. People are crying. They're completely...
and have no idea how their agencies are going to run. I grabbed this headline, National Parks in Chaos, after the Washington Post story. Here's the first paragraph. California National Park, a Trump administration, fired the only locksmith on staff. Next sentence. He was fired. He was the sole employee with keys and institutional knowledge needed to rescue visitors from locked restrooms.
Now, if that is it, I mean, that's the best you can do. The real question is, how do visitors get locked in restrooms? I mean, this is how ridiculous some of this thing is. So maybe there have been some mistakes made. But I think the intensity and the focus on getting rid of the wasteful spending, the one guy who can unlock people who somehow get locked in a restroom at a national park, this is ridiculous. So the arguments I think you're seeing from the left are pretty darn perverse.
pretty darn crazy when you think about, oh, we're spending money for the crazy things of a trans comic opera in wherever. I mean, come on. But do you worry that people, they're with you when they hear that, but then when they start to see things like Elon Musk putting out a tweet saying everyone's getting an email and you've got to respond with five things you got done last week, copy your manager, or we're going to count, if you don't respond, we're going to count that as a resignation.
That's probably not legal in the first place. But do you worry about losing the momentum? You can name the five things you did last week. I can. I was in Israel last week. I know we met with the prime minister. We met with some of the opposition. We met with the we met with the speaker of the Knesset. We toured the kibbutz somewhere, the kibbutz where the terrible things happened in rows, where the
The VBUS kids were taken and killed. I mean, we went up to the north and saw what has bolded. I mean, we had all kinds of I can name five things I did, not to mention other things I did relative to things back here with our responsibilities as a member of Congress. So anyone can name five. But if you're some federal worker working remote, you should be able to name those things, too. So I don't think.
I don't think that's a big deal. But, you know, people are saying, oh, you shouldn't do those kind of things. You can name the five things you were. I can't. I can't. But I'm not a federal worker and I don't know who's going to feed through all of those responses. Maybe it's the manager who's copied. I don't know. But I wonder how many people are. That's probably just another round of lawsuits because we have already got about 80 that we're tracking with regards to recent policy. I want to make sure that we get to foreign policy with you as well, though.
As we're waiting for negotiations to come together on this rare earth minerals deal, you heard your colleague, Congressman Heim, saying it feels like, you know, some kind of
this mafia situation, like we're extorting people to try to get them to come to the table and agree to what we want them to agree to. Reuters has this. They say U.S. negotiators pressing key for access to Ukraine's critical minerals have raised the possibility of cutting the country's access to Elon Musk's vital Starlink satellite system. They go on to say it provides crucial Internet connectivity to war-torn Ukraine and its military. Is that something that we should be threatening?
Well, look, I don't know if that's the case. What I what I do know is President Trump has been clear he wants to end the war. He wants to stop the killing. President Trump has, I think, a unique way of negotiating. And it's a way that typically gets results. And you can look at the situation with Canada and Mexico, what he threatened and then how they suddenly decided, well, Shazam, we're going to help you with securing the border. You can look at.
You can look at Israel in his first term. He campaigned on putting the embassy in Jerusalem. And when he gets in office, all the people at the State Department, I think they're smarter than you and I and all the people across this country. All those people at the State Department said, President, you really shouldn't do that. Because that's what every other president had done when they campaigned. President Trump said, I told the American people I was going to do it. We're going to do it. And he did. And I would argue that laid the foundation for the Abraham Accords and all he got accomplished with Israel and in the Middle East. So I think...
He doesn't always operate in the most conventional way when it comes to negotiating, but the results speak for themselves. And he understands the billions of dollars taxpayers have given to Ukraine. And by the way, what's the goal been? What was our objective all along? Was it to get them out of the eastern drive rush out of the eastern region of Ukraine? Was it get back Crimea? Do you know how long Russia's had Crimea?
14 years or excuse me, 11 years of next month, it'll be 11 years that they took it under Obama. Is that the goal? No one could ever define the goal, but money just kept flowing. And President Trump says this has to end. And he's working on doing that and doing it in a way that I think is beneficial to Ukraine and certainly beneficial to the American taxpayer. OK, a quick question on money flowing, but here, Domestic.
because you guys got to get together on this budget deal. The New York Times reports on the House version, the budget that Speaker Johnson has negotiated for the next decade calls for around $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid. That's in an effort to counterbalance a portion of the tax cuts. That scares people when they hear that. Where do we get $880 billion out of Medicaid? The focus has been clear. The president's been clear. Waste, fraud, and abuse we're going to look at. Is there enough of that to cover $800 billion?
Well, we're going to we're going to we're going to look to find that. I do think we're not looking to make cuts to to Medicaid, but certainly work requirements are something that I don't view as cuts. Work requirements is common sense. You're an able bodied adult and you're getting a benefit from the government. There should be some requirement that you do work or volunteer work or something. That's we have that in other parts of our of our government payment systems where people are getting aid from from the taxpayer. I think that makes sense. So, look, our plan is pretty basic.
cut taxes, cut some spending, help the national defense, and secure the border. Exactly what we told the voters we were going to do. That's what's in our plan. The budget resolution will allow us to accomplish that. I hope it's going to pass this week. The math is going to be tough, not only on the budget, but on the votes as well. So we'll be watching. But, Chairman, thank you for coming in. Good to see you. Thank you. All right, Elon Musk's efforts to take a chainsaw to the federal bureaucracy continue to ruffle some feathers here in Washington. As the president urges him to step it up, the panel is back next.
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But I understand Maine is the main here the governor of Maine. Are you not going to comply with it? Well, I'm we are the federal law.
Well, you better do it. You better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't. And by the way, your population, even though it's somewhat liberal, although I did very well there, your population doesn't want men playing in women's sports. So you better comply because otherwise you're not getting any federal funding. Every state. Good. I'll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one.
I have never had a lunch that awkward. OK, President Trump and Maine Governor Janet Mills getting into a war of words over the president's executive order preventing transgender athletes from competing in many women's sports programs. And Maine's position on that differs. We are back with the panel. And Julia, there is now an investigation, we're told by the Department of Education, saying to Maine, if you're getting federal funds, you've got to comply with the way that we see this law. And that is no biologically born males competing in women's sports, which Maine continues to allow.
continues to allow. But I think we're going to expect to see, obviously, a big legal fight brewing, you know, potentially not only between Maine and the administration, but maybe other states that are, you know, trying to push back on this mandate. It's interesting to see how Governor Mills is handling President Trump in this way, because looking across to other Democratic governors, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, I understand it's a completely different
different situation. When he met with President Trump, he was essentially lobbying for wildfire aid in that regard. But, you know, it seems like she is taking much more of an aggressive stance than a number of these other Democratic governors, you know, pushing for these legal fights. So something to watch there.
Yeah, and of all these legal fights, Kimberly Strassel writes over the Wall Street Journal that the Trump administration is testing a lot of boundaries. They're doing things they know are going straight to court. She says vigorous debate over the powers and structure of government ought to be a feature of every administration. What should worry us isn't that Mr. Trump is doing this now, but that our drowsy political system considers it an anomaly. Washington does not love it, Marie.
Well, and increasingly, Americans across the country don't love it either. I mean, we've seen videos from these town halls this week about...
People in deeply red districts screaming at their members of Congress. But again, we are told just to be clear that some of those are not Republicans that are standing up to be upset. And that's look, we all lived through the midterm for President Obama's first midterm in Obamacare and the same town halls. Look, Elon Musk has fired tens of thousands of government workers. Well, every day personally at his business is getting eight million dollars of government funding.
They are firing people working on bird flu, FAA safety officers after all of these plane crashes, 1,000 Veterans Affairs employees, including disabled military vets.
So I get that people don't like waste, fraud and abuse, but this is not about making government more efficient. They put out this ridiculous spreadsheet that had a ton of errors in it. Making public servants across the country, not just in Washington, seem dishonorable, turning that into a dishonorable profession is cruel. And when we see federal workers waking up at 2 a.m., not knowing how the people that make $50,000 a year in Nebraska, not knowing if they will be able to feed their children because they could get an email from Elon Musk.
This is not about efficiency. This is a vendetta. This is slash and burn. And I think it will have electoral consequences across the country. First in Virginia this fall when there's a governor's race. And how many of these people are getting fired that live in Virginia? Not to mention the personal aspect of it. What are the long term implications, Cal, you think politically?
Well, I favor a little more compassion in this. I think that Maria is right that a lot of people who have dedicated themselves in a federal job for many, many years, they have mortgages to pay. They have car payments, groceries. They're human beings after all. So a little more compassion, I think, would go well. But this is something that's needed to be done for a long time. And as surgery sometimes hurts.
cutting government will as well. Two quick quotes. Thomas Jefferson, the course of history shows that as government grows, liberty decreases. And Calvin Coolidge, 100 years ago, our 30th president, unless the people through unified action arise and take charge of their government, they will find that their government has taken charge of them.
A couple of great quotes that I think go along with what's going on in Washington right now. This might explain why the Democrats are in the wilderness right now. They're not sure, and the main governor is trying to defend some things that the American people have clearly rejected. Others are trying to defend the federal government leviathan, which crowds out economic growth because it's so big and large. I'd be worried also about unintended consequences, but by and large, I think the American people support this.
The only cautionary note I would say is the president's pollster, Tony Fabrizio, put out a memo on Valentine's Day saying that personal economic issues, especially the cost of living, including groceries, is what the voters care about. Yeah. And those are still painfully high for Americans. But again, it's been one month.
We'll see how policy plays out from here. Thank you, panel, very much. We will see you next Sunday. Word today, by the way, that Pope Francis is still struggling, battling that severe respiratory infection. Jeff Paul is live outside his hospital in Rome where the Pope's being treated. We're going to take you there for a live update next. You'll be back.
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Has the president been updated on the Pope's status? Yes, he has been updated, and we're praying for the Pope. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. White House responding to reports of Pope Francis' worsening condition yesterday. We're looking live at Vatican City, where the 88-year-old Panev continues to battle a severe respiratory infection. Fox News national correspondent Jeff Paul is live outside the hospital in Rome. Hello, Jeff.
Yeah, Shanna, and there's truly a somber feeling here outside the Gemelli Hospital in Rome where the Pope is currently recovering. We've seen all sorts of people showing up here to the medical center to pray for the Pope's recovery, especially after hearing the Vatican describe his health as in critical condition. But even with that being said, we know the Pope is awake. He is receiving oxygen, but he is breathing on his own, and he's doing well enough to post on social media writing this article.
on X a short time ago, basically thanking people for their closeness and their prayers that are coming in from all over the world. Now, the 88-year-old has been receiving high flows of oxygen to help him breathe after suffering from a prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis. Pope Francis
has also received blood transfusions. The Pope was admitted February 14th and has been getting treatment for double pneumonia and a complex lung infection. Now, it's worth pointing out throughout his more than week stay at the hospital, Pope Francis has been fully conscious. He's been eating, working, and reading. And those who have been gathering both at the hospital and at St. Peter's Square say they feel it's very important to make that trip. I came here for the Pope.
And it's a symbolic time. And I think that all the prayers and the support that he can get, we must support the Pope at this moment.
Now, we are expecting another update on Pope Francis a few hours from now here in Rome, where we'll get some sort of update from the Vatican. But it is a sort of good sign that he is eating an alert. All right, Jeff Paul, thank you very much. That's it for us today. We'll see you next Fox News Sunday.
I'm Dana Perino. This week on Perino on Politics, I'm joined by former GOP strategist and host of The Rich Zioli Show, Rich Zioli. Available now on FoxNewsPodcast.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Must listen to podcasts from Fox News Audio. Listen to Fox News Sunday ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.