Shownotes Transcript
I'm Shannon Bream. The White House defends its aggressive tariffs, saying the outcome will ultimately pay off for U.S. workers and the broader economy.
April 2nd, 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn. The administration says the short-term pain will bring long-term gain. Their tariffs are the tip of the iceberg. It's going to create a renaissance of manufacturing. It's going to be the employment of American workers. But not everyone in Washington agrees.
Donald Trump is using tariffs in the dumbest way imaginable. They're not only bad economically, they're bad politically. We'll get reaction from both sides of the aisle, Senators Chris Coons and Mark Wayne Mullen.
These gangs are organized. They are terrorists. They are living among us because they think they can get away with this, and they cannot. The Justice Department ramps up its prosecution of violent gangs. If you are a gang member living in this country, I'd self-deport right now.
because we're coming after you. We're joined by Attorney General Pam Bondi to talk about that and the administration's use of a wartime law to deport alleged gang members. Plus, we're changing the way that Congress works, making sure that moms and parents have a voice. A possible path out of a fight over proxy voting for new parent members of Congress. We'll ask our Sunday panel about the new twist and push to negotiate now that the president has weighed in. All right now on Fox News Sunday.
Hello from Fox News in Washington. We begin with a look at some of your headlines. At least 16 people have died. Thousands have been displaced by severe storms causing widespread flooding and power outages across several states in the Midwest and across the South. More heavy rain is predicted for parts of those regions today. We're going to get a live report on the ground in Tennessee later on in the show.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio releasing a statement Saturday announcing the suspension of all visas for citizens of South Sudan, accusing the African country of not accepting the return of its citizens being deported from the U.S., quote, in a timely manner.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with President Trump here in Washington tomorrow. The two leaders are expected to talk about the war against Hamas in Gaza and to negotiate over those new 17 percent tariffs imposed on Israeli imports to the U.S.
In a moment, we'll get reaction to the fallout from the tariffs from Senators Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma and Chris Coons of Delaware. But first, we turn to Lucas Tomlinson in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he is covering the president. Hello, Lucas. Shannon, the stock market has lost nearly $10 trillion since President Trump returned to the White House, over $6 trillion alone since the new tariffs were announced. Trump's advice to Americans, hang tough.
Now they'll do anything for us. At the stroke of midnight Saturday, 10% tariffs went into effect on most of the world, including nations where the U.S. has a trade surplus, using the International Emergency Powers Act of 1977. Many U.S. allies are outraged. This is not the act of a friend. We must respond.
with both purpose and force. A member of Trump's cabinet defended the use of emergency powers to build up America's industrial base. We can't even make screws and nuts and bolts in this country anymore. The Senate's top Democrat says history is not on Trump's side. We all know that the Great Depression was caused by a trade war like this. Even some Republicans appear dubious. I'm not a fan of jacking up taxes on American consumers, so my hope is...
These tariffs are short-lived. The head of the Federal Reserve issued the following warning. Well, tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation. It's also possible...
Trump responded, this would be a perfect time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut interest rates. Using another obscure act, the Trump administration has continued deporting what it says are violent gang members to El Salvador, something U.S. District Judge James Boasberg says he once stopped.
and has accused the Justice Department of violating his ruling. Some have questioned the power of federal judges issuing nationwide injunctions. And in a victory for the White House, the Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration could block teacher training grants that include DEI programs.
Judge Boasberg is now weighing whether or not to hold Trump officials in contempt. Shannon. All right, Lucas, we'll get to a lot of that with the attorney general coming up. Thank you very much. But joining us first, Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen. Welcome to Fox News Sunday.
Thanks for having me on, Shannon. Okay, you've seen the headlines. They are in papers across the country, across the world, talking about the markets tanking, about all of the trouble that has been sparked by these tariff wars. So the president has taken a victory lap when the markets are good. He has taken credit for that.
But they've taken a brutal beating this week. The Wall Street Journal says this. Trade wars are easy to start, but they can be hard to stop. Once the retaliation gets rolling, Mr. Trump started this war and he owns whatever happens next to prices, jobs and economic growth. Do you agree he owns what's happening now, Senator?
Well, what we have wrong here, Shannon, is this isn't a trade war. This is balancing our economy with countries that have taken advantage of us. There's countries for decades that have got rich over the backs of the workers here in America. What's happened is we've lost manufacturing jobs because of our unfair trade deals that have left America, went to other countries, building their products and turning it back around and selling it to our economy.
The countries need access to our economy because we're the largest and the greatest economy in the world. The problem is it's costing us manufacturing jobs. It is time for someone to stand up. And I applaud President Trump for having a backbone and being the first president to ever stand up and say, hold on a second.
It's not about today's economy. It's about the future of America's economy going down the road. We know the trade deficits have spread. They've only got worse year after year after year. And at some point, someone had to do something about it. And President Trump is finally doing that. And the reality is it has rattled the markets. It is affecting people's 401ks. Millions of Americans have those. It's not just the economic issue, though. One of your GOP colleagues is warning about the potential political impact. Here's Rand Paul.
Tariffs have also led to political decimation. When McKinley most famously put tariffs on in 1890, they lost 50% of their seats in the next election. When Hans Smuley put on their tariff in the early 1930s, we lost the House and the Senate for 60 years. So they're not only bad economically, they're bad politically.
Do you worry about that short term, some of these special elections and things going on now, but more broadly, long term, midterms, 2026, which generally are not good for the president in power? Well, here's what you have. You have a president in the White House as a business person, not a career like a career politician. I would trust President Trump in his handling of the economy way before I would trust Senator Paul on this. The truth is we have to do something about it now.
We know, Shannon, it's cost us jobs year after year after year. And these countries have taken advantage of us. What the president is saying here is he's not wanting to start a trade war. He's simply wanting to even the playing field. Reciprocal tariffs isn't just about the tariffs, but it's also access to our economy. I say this all the time.
But Japan charges us 0% tariffs on going on selling U.S. auto vehicles in Japan. But we can't sell them because the access to the economy is closed. So it's not just tariffs. It's also the rules that prevent us from going to do business in their country like we allow them to do business in our country. And President Trump has been talking about this since literally the 80s, way before he was even considering running for president.
And so he understands what's going on. And when are we going to fix it? If we're not going to fix it now, Shannon, when are we going to have the backbone in this country to fix it? And now is the time to do it. And I trust President Trump and his leadership in doing so. So you've been a consistent critic.
Of China, as has President Trump. And yet we know that there is a fallout from what is going on with the tariffs. The Wall Street Journal reports that they're actually benefiting Xi Jinping. Here's what they write. Mr. Trump has taken an axe to the economic cords that were binding the rest of the world into an economic and strategic block to rival Beijing. And at precisely the moment, many countries were finally taking
starting to reevaluate their economic relationships with China. China's already announced some retaliation limits on their export of rare earth minerals that we don't have in abundance. We use them in defense. We use them in MRI machines. What is the off ramp now with something like China, where we are a major trading partner and we need each other's goods?
Well, we actually do have rare earth minerals here in the United States. The problem is because of the environmental movement that we have, we can't mine them. As far as access to economy, China has to have access to our economy. Over 40% of the goods that are manufactured in China are sold here inside the United States.
We have a huge trade deficit. We don't have to have access to China's economy to keep our economy moving. The reason why the Belt and Road Initiative exists is because just a short few years ago, 75% of the manufacturing goods in China was sold inside the United States.
What China is trying to do is diversify themselves by forcing other countries with the Belt and Road Initiative to do business with them by getting them in debt and forcing them to trade with them. The Belt and Road Initiative is a very big problem we have around the world. And you see countries that are pushing back because of the pressure that China is putting on them once they get them in debt. So you have two different things colliding here. Once again, what we're trying to do, what the republics are trying to do, working with President Trump is balance.
the unfair trade indifference that is going on, and the countries are taking advantage of us. And this, as I said before, Shannon, this is the perfect opportunity to do it because we have a business person that understands the market like we've never had before in the White House, and that's President Trump. Well, he seems to have a high level of tolerance for the risk, for the pain. We'll see how long this takes as this plays out. In the meantime, you all passed a budget early Saturday morning, the framework for budget out of the Senate.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says it would add nearly $6 trillion to primary deficits and adds this. Such a bill would be historically unprecedented in its fiscal irresponsibility, adding several times more debt than any reconciliation package or other recent piece of legislation. Now, a long list of Democrats, including our next guest, Senator Chris Coons, say you are doing this to give billionaires tax cuts at the cost of cutting things like education,
Medicaid and Social Security. Are there cuts to those programs in this Senate framework?
No one in Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security is losing any of their benefits that are due them. What we're trying to do is cut the waste and fraud out of any of those programs. President Trump has been rock solid on saying we're not cutting benefits. It's just talking points. And as far as the Democrats saying we're trying to get tax cuts to the billionaires and millionaires, we're extending the current policy that the American people are working underneath right now. So if we're just extending it, we're not changing it.
We have two options here, Shannon. Either it expires at the end of this year, and if it does, then every American, regardless of your working class, regardless of your status, will receive a $4 trillion tax increase across the United States. So everybody will carry that cross.
If we extend it, then the current tax policy stays in place. And what we are trying to do in the Senate, working with the White House and working with our friends in the House, is saying we don't want the tax policy to expire. We want to extend it and make it permanent. So businesses that are investing in us, families that are planning their taxes can understand that they don't have to worry about if it's going to expire in one year, two years, one month or eight years.
It's going to be permanent for long term. So how is it that I would ask my Democrats, are we giving billionaires and millionaires tax breaks when we're extending the current tax policy that they worked underneath the last four years with the disastrous economy that Biden had us in? OK, we got to go. But I really quickly want to ask you about this. The House budget chair on the other side of the hill, Jody Arrington, Republican, obviously said the Senate framework is unserious and disappointing. Quickly, how do you guys get on the same page?
Well, President Trump, the White House and the House and the Senate, we're working every day together. We're very close. We're wanting to deliver this one big, beautiful, glamorous bill that President Trump has been talking about for the American people so we can put the doge cuts in there. We can get
physical responsibility under control and we can look towards to balance our budget. And so Jody is a friend. We will work together and we will work the differences out. The good thing is it's a thoughtful conversation that both chambers, just like our founding fathers wanted it to have a different opinion. Eventually we'll come together underneath the leadership of president Trump and deliver the promises that we made to the American people is the reason why we're in power because of their trust in our leadership.
All right, we'll see how those differences get worked out across the hill. Senator, thank you for your time. Thank you. All right, joining me now, Delaware Democrat Senator Chris Coons. Always great to have you back.
Thank you, Shannon. Great to be on with you this morning. So while you guys wrangle over the budget and there were many amendments and fights as this thing went through the night, we also have this against the backdrop of Elon Musk and of Doge trying to cut what they say is waste in government. And I know that you have strong feelings about that. So I want to play something from Steve Davis. He's one of the executives who have left his family, left his business for a time to do this for free, to come try to root these things out. Here's what he said about why he and these other executives are doing it.
The reason I'm here, which is probably for many, is that I think the goal is incredibly inspiring. I think most of the taxpayers in the country would agree that in order to have the country going bankrupt would be a very bad thing. And therefore, the country going not bankrupt is a good thing that all of us are willing to kind of put our lives on hold in order to do. He's literally a rocket scientist. He's got a Ph.D. in economics. Why wouldn't we want people like that at the table trying to help?
Well, I have no objection to folks who are bringing their skills and talents to try and strengthen and modernize the federal government. The thing that I've been speaking out against is the way they're being untruthful, frankly lying, about the amount of waste, fraud and abuse in Social Security.
President Trump's own acting Social Security administrator, a man named Lee Dudek, just recently testified that less than one-tenth of one percent of all the Social Security payments made are erroneous or false or made in error. And President Trump, when he spoke to Congress, went on at great length about how many people are on the –
social security roles who are 200 years old, 250 years old. Elon Musk has called social security a Ponzi scheme. And the truth is nobody who is in the social security system of an age over 115 gets any payments.
And as Lee Dudek said, there are very, very, very few false or erroneous or wasteful payments. And so what I hear from Delawareans about Shannon is their alarm about these suggestions that somehow Social Security has to be cut because it's full of waste, fraud and abuse.
So if talented people are coming to help find waste, fraud and abuse, I'd like them to be honest about where it exists and to work in a bipartisan way to address those issues. OK, would you sit down with Elon Musk? We would be happy to broker a conversation. I know that you have real problems with things that you said haven't been truthful.
But do you see, I mean, no one is losing more money doing this than Elon Musk. Would you sit down in a room with him to say, here are my ideas, here's where I think you're getting it wrong, where can we find common ground? Because I know you work across the aisle and have strong friendships across the aisle.
I do. And look, I was proud to join a bipartisan bill this week led by Senator Chuck Grassley and Senator Maria Cantwell. Seven senior Republicans joined this bill to pull back the power to impose tariffs unilaterally. President Trump announced tariffs this week on almost every country on Earth, including many with which we have a trade surplus.
What my colleague Senator Mullen just said about how President Trump is rebalancing trade and he's going after those that have a trade surplus with us doesn't account for the fact that he's slapping tariffs on every country, including our closest partners and allies.
That's going to raise prices for middle Americans. They're going to pay more for fruits and vegetables, gas, cars, furniture, clothing. It's going to make America less affordable, not more affordable, which was a key campaign promise of President Trump. And I do want to get back to tariffs. But before we leave Doge, one more thing there, because you talked about Social Security and I get what you're saying. There are we're told millions of people with those, you know, 200 plus aged old people. You're saying they're not getting a payment. They're not getting payments. They may be there.
So there's another executive who is working to go through this with Doge as well. And he's put together numbers showing that there are 1.3 million people who are in the country illegally that are receiving some level of Medicaid. If that number holds true, is that a concern to you that you believe we should be cutting?
I'd be happy to look at that and to see what data they have. The other issue that I'm going to push back on my colleague, Senator Mullen, about is the House budget bill includes $800 billion in Medicaid cuts. But again, they say that's not just services. They say they hope that will be in fraud and waste. But the president and the speaker have committed to not cutting actual benefits for anyone. So fair to say that?
It would be great if they didn't cut benefits, but I don't believe the math works. I don't think you can find $800 billion in just waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid and not cut people's benefits. OK, so let's go back to tariffs because you were talking about that. There are a number of American industries and businesses who say they're actually happy about what's happening. They know there's going to be short term pain, but they say they've been throttled by what's been happening with foreign tariffs, including from some of our closest allies.
Here are some of those businesses. The UAW members, and I brought 20 of them with me. They're sitting right over here.
We support Donald Trump's policies on tariffs 100 percent. So, Mr. President, we can't thank you enough. Our hope here is that the president can use this tool to square up the deck and get us a little bit of a better deal with some of these trading partners so that we're not balancing the backs of these different trade balances on U.S. farmers and ranchers.
Okay, so some otter workers, some farmers, some ranchers, what do you say to them? They think that this is going to actually help them, that they've been at a very unfair disadvantage. I would say to them that targeted tariffs that are clearly focused on a few countries where we have bad trade practices, deep trade imbalances, can be smart economic policy and can help protect American farmers and ranchers and American manufacturers. That's not what Donald Trump is doing.
He's slapping massive tariffs on almost every country in the world, and it's hard to explain or justify some of the tariffs he's imposing. In the coming weeks and months, when millions of Americans see their 401ks dissolve, the stock market lost 10% just in the last two days of last week.
And when hundreds of millions of Americans pay more for everything that they need for daily living, the groceries that they buy and the food that they put on the table and the cost of housing, I think they're going to be upset. And I think we're going to see long-term, broad economic damage, not for a few targeted industries or companies, but across the entire American landscape. And if that happens, there may be a midterm price to pay for Republicans. So we will see.
Before you go, I want to make sure we get you to respond to this. You're a longtime defender of President Biden. You were co-chair of his national campaign. This week, we're learning something coming out in a new book. They have a lot of quotes from former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain talking about how much the president deteriorated during his term. He was tired, confused, didn't understand the arguments that President Trump was making on issues like inflation that he was, quote, out of touch. The Daily Beast says this.
Klain's new comments suggest that the longtime political advisor and other members of Biden's team were increasingly aware of the president's mental and physical deterioration, even as they continued to project outward appearances of confidence in his abilities. You co-chaired his campaign. Does that include you?
I was shocked at what I saw on the debate stage, the performance President Trump and President Biden had debating each other. I had frankly never seen what that quote suggests about President Biden's abilities. But frankly, Shannon, I haven't taken the time to read whatever's come out about this.
I've been very busy this past week. As you mentioned, we stayed up all night Friday night debating and voting against the Doge cuts, against the Republican budget bill, and speaking out against the tariffs. I'm happy to come back and do a future interview about whatever quotes come out in future books. But right now I'm focused a lot less on retired private citizen Joe Biden and a lot more on how President Trump's tariffs are going to hurt middle Americans. Okay. Senator Coons, come back soon. Always appreciate your time.
Thank you. All right. Attorney General Pam Bondi joins us exclusively to talk about the Trump administration's big win at the Supreme Court Friday night. But up next, the popular social media app TikTok gets a reprieve as talks over selling the Chinese-owned company break down. Our Sunday panel is here to take a closer look at how the president's top tariffs may be affecting that deal. What happens when one of the most
Today, teens can download any app from app stores without supervision. That's why Instagram supports federal legislation requiring app store parental approval and age verification for teens under 16. Learn more at Instagram.com slash parental approval. We do something like this because the Republican Party is in the vice grip of a group of very greedy billionaires. They have a billionaire bubble and they say, yeah, all this money from tariffs could help make our taxes lower. It's a disgrace.
So Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blasting President Trump's wide-ranging tariff rollout this week, a move that sent the markets plummeting. It's time to talk about it with our Sunday group. Axios Politico-Politics Reporter Steph Geith, Marie Harf, Fox News contributor and former State Department spokesperson, Heritage President Kevin Roberts, and Josh Kraschauer, Fox News Radio political analyst and Jewish Insider editor-in-chief.
Chief. So let's continue our tariff conversation. Wall Street Journal writes this Friday, the shocks threatened to undermine Trump's central appeal in last year's election. His vow to bring down prices is in jeopardy. The market fallout affects not only active investors, but also millions of Americans with 401k retirement accounts. Kevin, you heard Senator Coons talking about this. That was the promise. I'm going to make things better for you economically. And right now, that's the opposite of what's happening.
Well, we're a few days into this. No one wants the market turbulence, but I would expect an economic quarter or two of that. I think once the reciprocal tariffs, and I would emphasize reciprocity on this, would be paired with deregulation, which the administration is doing a good job of, and fiscal restraint and tax cuts, that by the end of this calendar year, you would begin to see, especially from the standpoint of the everyday hardworking American, that benefit. I think it's really important for us to look at this from the lens of the everyday American as opposed to looking at this through the lens of Washington.
So, Marie, do you give it objectively a little bit of time? How much time until GOP has to pivot? There are already Republicans who've signed on to this measure that Chris Coons mentioned. There are seven of them at last count and others publicly talking about joining. That would give them some power to override some of these tariffs. That's right. And Mike Pence called this the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history.
Noted liberal Mike Pence, right? Noted not fan of maybe President Trump. But look, Republicans are very nervous about this. We know if you look at economists across the political spectrum, small businesses will close because of these tariffs. The American people will pay more for almost everything.
Other countries are furious at us, slapping even greater tariffs on us. These are not reciprocal. But some coming to the table. These are not based on economic reality. This is a myth that these will create economic growth. And for a president who campaigned on average Americans paying less, we know.
that tariffs do the opposite. Some conservative estimates say that American families will pay up to $5,000 more a year. Don't look at your retirement account right now. So I think the American people are willing to give this administration a little bit of time to see if these tariffs do what they say they will do. But economists...
Republican, Democratic economists, people across the political spectrum absolutely believe that these will do the opposite, that Americans will suffer. They will have less access to goods. They will pay more for what they have access to. And you can see Republicans across the country getting very nervous about this. This is a tax hike on the American people. And the math coming out of the White House just makes no sense.
It is punitive and it is not going to do what they say it's going to do. And there will be political consequences for it. We shall see. Only time truly is going to tell on this. But one of the things that may have been impacted by the tariffs is this TikTok deal the president was really hoping to get done. The AP reports Beijing hits the brakes on the deal Thursday after Trump announced wide ranging tariffs bite dance. Representatives called the White House to indicate that China would no longer approve the deal until there could be negotiations about trade and tariffs.
Yeah, look, there's a battle between sort of the national security hawks in the Republican Party. Keep in mind that the ban on TikTok passed overwhelmingly in Congress. And the president is now saying he can indefinitely extend the negotiating time frame, which is not written in the law. No, that's not the way the Supreme Court works.
saw the law. Yeah. So there's going to be a big political test. There are a lot, there's a lot of concern. We know TikTok as run by the Chinese communists. They, it's been seen by a lot of, a lot of, uh, lawmakers on Capitol Hill as a tool to spread anti-American propaganda. Uh, there was hope that there could be a deal to bring it under American control. Uh,
It looks like the tariffs have stalled that process. But, look, this is going to end up becoming a clash between the people who worry about America's national security. There's a reason it had so much political support, the TikTok ban did. Trump is...
I think Trump likes TikTok because he views it as helping get him elected. There's a political self-interest at play. But, boy, there are a lot of national security officials in Washington that are very concerned that this is getting kicked down the road. And there's certainly a lot of legal implications to play as well. Well, but President Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday in part that he thought the tariffs were working to get this deal done. He says, we hope to continue working in good faith with China. What I understand is not very happy about our reciprocal tariffs.
But this proves that tariffs are the most powerful economic tool and very important to our national security. Do they come to the table and negotiate in a way that benefits us because they want this TikTok deal? I mean, that's the big question, right? And we seem to see that the tariffs are going to have wide-ranging impacts on how the U.S. deals with foreign countries in ways outside of trade, potentially. You look at the TikTok deal.
TikTok deal seeming to fall apart a little bit. It shows that nations may not be willing to come to the table because of these tariffs and the impact that it has on their economies. They may be less willing. They may have more leverage now to get their way out of these deals, as opposed to Trump having the leverage that he thinks he has in some of these negotiations.
Speaking of leverage, I want to touch on this point. There's been this showdown internally with the GOP about allowing members of Congress who have new babies to vote by proxy so they can stay out. There are those who are very worried about this, thinking that it's going to be abused. The president said on Air Force One, I think it's good if you want to stay home with a baby and call in your vote. Well, after that, Speaker Mike Johnson, who has opposed this idea...
tweeted the next day, said, thank you, real Donald Trump, for your leadership. Quote, Mike, you have my proxy on proxy voting. Kevin, how does this work itself out? Because everybody wants what the president's got, which is his approval on whether this happens or not.
Well, you have two goods that are colliding. One, of course, is the beautiful witness to motherhood that the female members of Congress are providing, but also this sticky thing called the Constitution, Article 1, Section 5, as you know well. And you simply can't have proxy voting in Congress. The speaker has been 100 percent right about that. Ultimately, with the president weighing in, I think there's going to be some compromise. There's going to have to be limited usage of it. Quickly, Marie, does the GOP risk missing a moment where they could appeal to the moms out there?
Well, we will see. They've done a lot of things in the past few months that I think are politically very questionable. So we will see how this plays out. But Donald Trump and his administration has found many ways to circumvent parts of the Constitution that they do not like. It will be interesting if on this one that would help working mothers, they suddenly are going back to the exact letter of the law. OK, well, a panel do not go far. We've got much more for you later in the show. Up next.
Our exclusive interview with Attorney General Pam Bondi. She's here live on the legal pushback from federal judges over the Trump administration's efforts to deport suspected gang members. She's next. Ever since they got direct... Every day, thousands of Comcast engineers and technologists like Kunle put people at the heart of everything they create. In the average household, there are dozens of connected devices. Here in the Comcast family, we're building an integrated in-home Wi-Fi solution for millions of families like my own.
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. The Supreme Court issues an unambiguous order and the president defies it. I think everyone agrees or certainly that's a definition that I would embrace. That would be a constitutional crisis.
So that's Jeffrey Rosen of the National Constitution Center weighing in about, in this debate, how or when the U.S. ever gets to the point of an actual constitutional crisis. It's a phrase that some in Washington and beyond like to throw around amidst a host of legal challenges to the new administration. Joining us now is the person at the helm of most of those legal fights, Attorney General Pam Bondi. Welcome to Fox News Sunday. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here with you.
Glad to have you. So let's start there. Is there any scenario in which the president gets an order or a final judgment from the Supreme Court in which he doesn't agree with it and he doesn't comply? The president is going to comply with the law. He was overwhelmingly elected by an overwhelming majority of the United States citizens to be our commander in chief. And that's what he's been doing. Shannon, just since January 20th, we've had over 100
170 lawsuits filed against us. That should be the constitutional crisis right there. 50 injunctions. They're popping up every single day trying to control his executive power, trying to control where he believes our tax dollars should be allocated. And saying he won by an overwhelming majority is so important because that's what the American people want.
what President Trump campaigned on and what he won on. And he's implementing that agenda at a rapid speed. None of us can keep up with him every single day. And so it's just we're going after all of these lawsuits. We're defending them all. We just got a great win and we'll continue to fight.
You did. Friday night, 5 to 4 at the Supreme Court. You got a win with respect to cuts to the Department of Education. But the court did go against you on issues of foreign aid being paid out. How do you think these issues of executive power, when they get to the court, ultimately on the merits, will go? Because you know the court has told...
know when it comes to things like student loans or recess appointments? Sure. I think we're going to be very successful on all these. So the one you just brought up, the DEI, that was Department of Education. So we represent all the various agencies and all of these 170 lawsuits have to do with
all the agencies across the board. This particular one, though, was very important because the court said that President Trump can control where our tax dollars go and what they're allocated for. And we do not have to spend them on DEI. And that's what was happening. So the ramifications of that are huge for our country. And that impacts every single agency. To give you an example of a case, Department of Defense.
So we had its military readiness, and that's one of the president's top agendas, as is Pete Hegseth. So in the district court, a district court in D.C. ruled against us on military readiness, meaning gender dysphoria ruled against us. We appealed that to the circuit court, and we won. The second we won, within minutes, Shannon, in California, they filed an identical lawsuit, and we lost.
So that's what we're up against. It's basically a game of whack-a-mole with these district court judges around the country who have a tremendous amount of power. They believe they do. But that's why we're appealing all of these cases, of course, up to the Supreme Court. Yeah, they're very busy. You have several things that are sitting there now. So while you had the win on Friday night, a lower court judge on Friday night ruled against you with respect to, and I'm going to read this because I want to make sure I get his name right, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. Okay.
who is somebody who was living in Maryland. He was under an order not to be deported because of fears or danger that he may face back in El Salvador. The government has admitted there was an error in deporting him. But this judge has said you've got a deadline midnight Monday to get him back from El Salvador. There have been allegations that he is a gang member, that he's involved in human trafficking. This is what the judge said. That's just chatter in my view. I haven't been given any evidence.
In a court of law, when someone is accused of membership in such a violent and predatory organization, it comes in the form of an indictment, a complaint, a criminal proceeding that has robust process so we can assess the facts. So...
Would it be helpful in making your case, not only to the court, but in the court of public opinion, to show what you have explaining these allegations against him? Yeah, and to explain to you, ICE has testified, members of ICE, that he is an MS-13 gang member. And...
The defense, his lawyers have argued, well, he should be here because he was studying to be an electrician. Well, let me give you a comparison. I was just in our home state of Florida this week where we arrested three MS-13 gang members.
These three had it was a cold case. Ten years old. They had are charged with violently, violently stabbing an individual over 100 times as part of their gang initiation. One was arrested in Fort Lauderdale. One was arrested. He fled to Minnesota. Great police work. FBI, all of the agencies together. Border Patrol even caught him.
One there and then the other, ready for this, was a drywall hanger in the villages in Florida.
Hanging drywall. So the argument that because these people are living among us, these illegal aliens from El Salvador, means they're not part of a gang. That's how they're hiding. That's how they're succeeding. Last week, the days all run together, last week we were in half an hour from here, from where we're sitting right now in Virginia, and arrested another extremely violent gang member. He was the leader for the East Coast, one of the top three leaders for our entire country. And
And this guy was living in Virginia in a nice neighborhood. There were wreaths on the door. There were children's bicycles outside his neighbor's home. That's so frightening. And that's how they insulate themselves. So we have to rely on what ICE says. We have to rely on what Homeland Security says. They're our clients.
And I firmly believe in the work they are doing and we're going to make America safe again. That was President Trump's directive to all of us. So Obrego Garcia, though, was not charged with any of these things, stabbings, murders, anything. He was never charged or convicted with anything. So is there a missed opportunity there for the government with this order to bring him back? Even if you could, if you did, would he then face charges again?
here. Well, and our jails are full of people. We want to send these people out of our country when possible. When we have charges of violent murder, we're going to keep the ones that are here. We're going to keep them here. We're going to charge them. We're going to prosecute them. The one in Florida I just mentioned, we have the victim's families in court with us and that gives them closure.
But the best thing to do is to get these people out of our country. And when that first plane left and landed in El Salvador, there were 261 reasons why Americans were safer. We have to look out for the safety of our country first and foremost. And that is Donald Trump's directive. And we're going to continue to do that.
Is there a reason that the attorney who argued this case on Friday has been put on suspension? Is it because you don't think he zealously advocated enough? Did he mishandle the case? I mean, he had to admit, as has been done in this pleading, the government made a mistake in deporting this guy. So it's a pending matter right now. He was put on administrative leave by Todd Blanche on Saturday. And I firmly said on day one, I issued a memo that you are to vigorously advocate on behalf of the United States.
Our client in this matter was Homeland Security, is Homeland Security. He did not argue. He shouldn't have taken the case. He shouldn't have argued it if that's what he was going to do. He's on administrative leave now. But yes, you have to vigorously argue on behalf of your client. As lawyers, we know that. That would be a defense attorney walking in, conceding something in a criminal matter. That would never happen in this country.
And so he's on administrative leave now, and we'll see what happens. Okay, I want to try to get to some other cases. The death penalty this week, you announced that you want the prosecution to seek that with Luigi Mangione, accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan. Politico reacted to that with this line, how Trump loses Gen Z.
I was in an airport a couple of weeks ago with a young woman that had on a sweatshirt with his face on it, and he was portrayed as a religious icon. There was a halo, kind of like a saint. What's your take on how the younger generation sees him as a bit of a folk hero and Politico's assessment that it may cost you politically? Okay.
Shannon, the president's directive was very clear. We are to seek the death penalty when possible. And, you know, it hadn't been done in four years. If there was I was a capital prosecutor. I tried death penalty cases throughout my career. If there was ever a death case, this is one. This guy is charged with hunting down police.
A CEO, a father of two, a married man hunting him down and executing him. Yeah, I feel like these young people have lost their way. I was receiving death threats for seeking the death penalty on someone who is charged with an execution of a CEO. We're going to continue to do the right thing. We're not going to be deterred by...
by political motives. You know, I've seen a protester walking down the street here, free Luigi. I mean, this guy's charged with a violent crime and we're going to seek the death penalty whenever possible. OK, another headline. There's chatter about President Trump seeking a third term. He has said, quote, there are methods. Is this just one of his epic trolls or does he or do you believe there is a method short of amending the Constitution by which he could seek a third term?
President Trump has served one full term. He's on his second full term. He's a very smart man. And I wish we could have him for 20 years as our president. But I think he's going to be finished probably after this term. Probably? Well, the Constitution. We'd have to look at the Constitution. It would be a heavy lift. And whether you get two-thirds of the Senate and House to go along with you, but is the concession that that's really the only way to do it? It'd be a heavy lift.
OK, Attorney General, we thank you for your time. We hope you'll come back soon. Thank you. OK, our panel back with a growing look at tensions between the U.S. and Russia as skeptics doubt Vladimir Putin has any intentions of reaching a peace deal. We'll discuss that next.
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That's Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev after meeting with the Trump administration about finding a path to end the war in Ukraine. We are back with our panel. Josh, word this work that the president was, quote, pissed at President Putin. And there are growing concerns about whether Putin wants the same thing that Americans want. Yeah, it doesn't look like it. I mean, we were supposedly in a ceasefire moment. And yet Russia continues to fire missiles at Kiev, at Ukrainian cities, killing children there.
It looks like Russia is having its way. And I think it's encouraging that the president is seemingly kind of aware of that and is trying to sound a little bit tougher. But boy, he is. I don't believe there are any tariffs imposed on Russia. I think that could have been a good moment to actually show that we're willing to
put some punitive measures on Russia. And I think the big test is when are we going to impose, you know, to have the Russian envoy into this country? I mean, that's a change from the previous administration. I think the administration could use a page from the Reagan playbook, trust but verify, and perhaps put some more tougher measures against Russia.
Yeah, and we have this where the Secretary of State's just been over in Brussels. There have been all these conversations with allies and other people who clearly have a stake in what's going on between Russia and Ukraine. The AP reports this Friday. European NATO allies and Canada on Friday said they are willing to ramp up defense spending but are cool on American demands for the size of their military budgets, particularly given U.S. President Donald Trump's readiness to draw closer to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Steph, that's the way much of the world views their relationship. Right. And now we're hearing that the president is upset with Putin. But earlier, we've really just seen his ire taken out on Ukrainian President Zelensky. And that whole fallout from the meeting earlier this year, the way Trump handled that has made a lot of our allies worried about the U.S.'s dedication to actually ensuring that Ukraine is protected,
Trump's willingness to push back on Putin. And even though we're hearing about this frustration with Russia, we're still not seeing the kind of response that Trump had towards Ukraine when he was upset with Zelensky. We're not seeing that same kind of language. And we also aren't seeing any real follow through, any real actions. To Josh's point, we're not seeing sanctions. Trump has floated this idea of sanctions on Russian oil. We'll see whether he actually moves forward with that. But
President Putin is actually acting in the way that Zelensky warned Trump about, that he's not someone to be trusted. He's not willing to come to the table. He's not really willing to end the war. He's not interested in that. So we'll see if Trump, you know, ends up reading the room and reads the actions Putin is taking and actually changes his strategy there. And Kevin, we do know there are a host of sanctions on Russia. There have been questions about actual enforcement of them across administrations.
That is correct. And we need to remember the only reason we're even having this conversation about bringing this war to a conclusion is because of Donald Trump. And I would speculate that the reason that tariffs have not been
put on Russia from last week's announcement is because President Trump and Secretary Rubio are trying to maximize the leverage they have over them. And it may be that part of that leverage, Shannon, is doing a better job than the Biden administration of enforcing those sanctions. I still expect this war to come to a conclusion in a way that's satisfactory for the everyday American, most importantly. But to the point about the Europeans, I just have to say,
If they want to stay in the American defense umbrella, they need to pull their own weight and stop wagging their finger about us spending our money that's hard-earned by the everyday American. And I'm really grateful to the Trump administration for resetting that. What do you say about that, Marie? I mean, you work for the State Department. You know how tricky it is to try to navigate these very complex international situations. The Europeans don't believe that an American defense umbrella exists anymore.
We see European NATO allies who are canceling contracts for American planes, for other weapons they were going to buy from American manufacturers because they do not trust us anymore. And I don't think there is any plan on the table that Russia will accept that will preserve Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Last night, Putin sending missiles, sending bombs to Kiev, to Zelensky's hometown, right? It is very clear what the Russians are doing here. And President Trump, who's talked about using tariffs as negotiating on a whole host of issues, put tariffs on uninhabited islands and did not put them on Russia.
He is the administration is deporting at least one that we know of Russian national activists who's opposed Putin. So this is part of a broader strategy, a part of a broader closing in of ties between Putin and Trump. That makes a lot of Republicans, or at least used to incredibly nervous. Negotiations are challenging, right? Ukraine will likely have to give something up. The question is how much Trump will push them to give up in the service of Vladimir Putin.
Well, we've got to get everybody back to the table actually having a conversation. So that's been in fits and starts. We'll see what this week brings. Panel, thank you very much. We'll see you next Sunday. Okay, up next, millions of Americans are dealing with this, the aftermath of deadly storms they've been going on for days. We're going to take you live on the ground in Nashville for an update.
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Destructive storms and floods have been ripping through parts of the South and Midwest for days, killing at least 16 people. Madison Scarpino is live in Nashville, Tennessee, with more on the aftermath. Hello, Madison. Hello, Shannon. Good morning. Out of all of the deaths that we know about so far, 10 of those happened here in Tennessee. And while the Nashville area was mostly spared over the last 24 hours, the severe storms hit other parts of the states very hard.
Torrential rain stalled over Memphis yesterday, causing severe flash flooding, water swamping parts of Interstate 40. There were several water rescues in the city, according to officials. And just north of Memphis in Dyersburg, Tennessee, people dealt with several tornado warnings. Many residents weren't taking any chances after days of daunting weather and were crowding into tornado shelters.
There's just been so many tornadoes lately. It's just scary. Devastation. We've had a lot of trees, big trees and things now. So I have to go pick up my mom and my two sisters for bring up here.
Over in Arkansas, Little Rock had its first ever flash flood emergency yesterday. The state also had intense lightning and nearly 80 mile an hour winds. Little Rock police found a five-year-old dead in a home because of this weather. In Kentucky, officials forced people in multiple towns to leave their homes yesterday because waterways were overflowing.
At least one building was seen floating down the Kentucky River. Authorities had to use boats to access several homes surrounded by floodwater to help with evacuations. And the severe weather hitting the South and Midwest, thankfully, is set to calm down today. But, Shannon, it's going to be a long cleanup process for those dealing with the impacts across several states. Back to you. All right, Madison, thank you very much for the updates.
And a quick note, new episode of my podcast, Live in the Bream, drops today. I talked with NBA player Jonathan Isaac about his faith and his clothing gear. He says it's aimed at spreading a positive message in a culture that doesn't always value that. Live in the Bream, wherever you like to get your podcasts. And a heads up, something special coming up. Fox News Sunday from the Heartland airs next Sunday. We are hitting the road. We're talking to farmers about the impact of recent tariffs and other moves by this White House. Some special guests tune in next Sunday. We'll see you then.
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