Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Sen. Mark Kelly, Rep. Mike Turner
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I'm Margaret Brennan in Washington, and this week on Face the Nation, the latest on the fallout following Friday's Oval Office brawl. And Americans say they want more action from the Trump administration when it comes to fighting inflation.

You don't have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards. It was a debacle seen and heard around the world as the meeting meant to solidify an alliance between the U.S. and Ukraine melted down into a shouting match featuring President Trump and Vice President Vance versus Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

U.S. and Ukrainian officials are now in full damage control mode, with European leaders racing to bring both sides back together and move towards a resolution to the war in Ukraine. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant crafted the agreement with Ukraine that fell apart during that meeting. We'll talk to him about that as well as the administration's plans to help the economy.

We'll also talk with Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly and two Republican members of Congress, Ohio's Mike Turner and Michigan's John James. And just before President Trump's first formal address to Congress, how do Americans think he's doing when it comes to tackling their priorities? It's all just ahead on Face the Nation.

Good morning and welcome to Face the Nation. We'll get to the ramifications of that meeting in the Oval Office in a moment. But we want to begin with the issues that are top of mind for most Americans, inflation and the economy. They may be at the top of their priority list for the new administration, but we are seeing a disconnect.

When asked what they think the administration is prioritizing, Americans see inflation and the economy taking a backseat to the border, the federal workforce, tariffs, and more. In fact, according to our CBS News poll, although people do approve of him on some of those other issues, there is a 50-point gap between people who say the president should make inflation a priority and those who say he is.

We want to welcome to the program Treasury Secretary Scott Besant. Good morning to you, Mr. Treasury Secretary. Good morning, Margaret. So let's dig in on this because it seems there's a bit of a perception gap there. Our polling also shows at least half the country reports concern about paying for food and groceries and housing. They continue to call the economy bad, even more so than last month. And 49 percent told us the economy is getting worse.

When can Americans expect to experience the benefits that President Trump said would be coming in day one? Yeah, well, you know, Margaret, what I find interesting is for the past year and a half and during the campaign, most of the media said, oh, the economy is great. It's just a vibe session. Now that President Trump's in office, there's an economic problem. And I'll tell you what the problem was. We were pretty straightforward on this program. Well, I haven't seen this program, but

But in general, this idea that working class Americans didn't know what they were talking about. They didn't know their lived experience. They didn't know what their pocketbooks were feeling. And I'll tell you, President Trump was elected. One of the reasons was the affordability crisis. And we are setting about doing that. So after four years, four years of disastrous policies, they were running these gigantic deficits that they...

that led to the affordability problem, massive government regulation. So what we had was a demand shock from the

government spending that was met by supply constraints with overregulation. So we are in the process of deregulating, which will free the supply side, and we are cutting back the government spending. It took four years to get us here. President Trump spent in office five weeks. And I can tell you, we're working every day. What I will point out

Interest rates, the 10-year bond, which I am focused on, have been down every week since President Trump was president. Mortgage rates have been down every week. So that's a pretty good start.

I hear you that sometimes the data lags reality, but when we are talking about people's perceptions of the economy, it's just how they're feeling right now. We see in our polling 52% of Americans say Trump's policies are making grocery prices go up.

They explicitly said that on this bar chart you see there. So it's an experience and a perception issue. When does that shift? When do we see the benefits of the planning you say is underway? I think President Trump

said that he'll own the economy in six or 12 months, but I can tell you that we are working to get these prices down every day, but it took four years to get us here and we've had five weeks. So, interest rates are down. That's a very good start toward housing affordability, toward auto affordability.

And we are tackling this. At Treasury, we are going to appoint an affordability czar. We are going to have an affordability council. We are laser focused on this. What does that mean?

What's an affordability czar? Someone who picks the five or eight areas where this administration can make a big difference for working class Americans. Okay. Well, one of the things that we hear the president talk about a lot is the plan to use tariffs. I know this falls under the purview of Commerce and the Trade Rep, but you have spoken a bit about it before.

If the president does roll out the 10% tariffs that he says are coming on China this week, the 25% on Canada and Mexico, how much do you think they will impact what Americans experience? The Peterson Institute says it'll cost households an additional $1,200 a year.

Look, a couple of things. I respect my friends at the Peterson Institute. I think they're a bit alarmist. I think a lot of their supporters are anti-tariff, so they take an anti-tariff position. And look, we have the experience of President Trump's first term where the tariffs did not affect prices.

And it's a holistic approach that there will be tariffs, there will be cuts in regulation, there will be cheaper energy. So I would expect that very quickly we will be down to the Fed's 2% target. So I'm expecting inflation to continue dropping over the year. So should we expect these tariffs to come March 4th?

Well, there's a series of tariffs. There's March 4th, and then there are the big, there's the big tariff program that's gonna be outlined on April 2nd by Commerce and USTR, and that's the president's notion of reciprocal tariffs. And that's gonna be very path dependent. We are going to show,

What are other countries' tariffs on specific goods? What are non-tariff barriers? What are the currency manipulation? What is manipulation of financing or labor manipulation? And what are these horrendous fines that the European Union's putting on our tech companies? And we are going to evaluate that.

and give them an opportunity to remedy that. So we could either see a ratcheting up in tariffs, or if our trading partners want to remedy what has been unfair trade, then we could see the tariffs come off. So it's going to be path dependent. And that's Europe in April, mainly? Well, that's across the world. OK. So when you say that Peterson institutes two alarmists with $1,200 a year on the average household,

What's the cost to the household? Do you think it's zero? - Well, we don't know yet because it's path dependent. But what I can tell you is that I'm not worried about China. China will pay for the China tariffs because their business model is exporting their way out of this deflation. They are the most imbalanced, unbalanced economy in modern times.

And the idea that because of a tariff, that they would lower their production is wrong. They are going to continue flooding the market. They will eat this price decrease. They will eat any tariffs that go on. So I saw you say on Bloomberg recently that Mexico has offered to match the US tariffs on China and that you would like for the Canadians to do so as well. You described it as a fortress in North America. Is that in the works?

I don't know yet. We'll see. The Mexican leadership has offered to do that. We haven't heard from the Canadians, but I think that'd be a very good start because... By Tuesday, potentially, to offset the potential punishment on them? By Tuesday, or maybe the tariff wall goes up and they...

And then we see what happens from there. But I can tell you that under the cover of COVID, China dramatically increased their export capacity and they are trying to export their way to prosperity. They are in an economic crisis. They have gigantic deflation and it's unacceptable for them to export that to the rest of the world. And I think North America would be a very good start for pushing back against this unfair trade policy.

Well, that would be a significant development. Very significant. Which would avoid tariffs that are supposed to go out on Tuesday. We'll see. Okay. We'll be watching that space. I want to ask you about Ukraine. You were in that Oval Office meeting that went sideways on Friday.

President Zelensky was told to leave the White House before he signed the minerals agreement that I know you have been working on. He said yesterday, though, he is ready to sign it. He called it the first step towards security guarantees. It's not enough. We need more than just that. A ceasefire without security guarantees is dangerous for Ukraine. Is the deal still on the table or has President Trump instructed you to drop the project? Margaret, it is impossible to have an economic deal without a peace deal.

The Senequanon for an economic deal is that Ukrainian leadership wants a peace deal. I thought this was a building block towards getting to a peace deal. Well, it was supposed to be, but President Zelensky came into the Oval on Friday

there were three things that were gonna be done. There was gonna be a press conference, there was gonna be a private lunch with 16 of us, and as you can see from Dan Scavino's post on his ex-account, we were already set up to sign the deal. So it's unclear now

President Zelensky has thrown off the sequencing. And Margaret, let me tell you the most tragic part of this. President Trump's idea for this economic arrangement was to further intertwine the American people and the Ukrainian people and show no daylight. To show the Russian leadership that there was no daylight and President Zelensky came into the Oval Office and tried to re-litigate in front of the world

the deal. And we were going, the place to have done it would have been in the private lunch. Okay. Well, it's news to me that this was, that the sequencing is shifting, that you were saying you have to agree to a peace deal before the minerals agreement. There aren't even negotiations for a peace deal underway. Well, first of all, it's not a minerals agreement. It's a general economic agreement. So calling it a minerals agreement is incorrect. And

I think we have to see if President Zelensky wants to proceed. What's the use in having an economic agreement that's going to be rendered moot if he wants the fighting to continue? President Trump wants a peace deal. Mm-hmm.

Vladimir Putin, it's unclear if he wants a peace deal, though. There are negotiations underway. The Secretary of State said that on another network this morning. Yeah, and President Trump has said that. President Trump is trying to move towards peace. He said repeatedly during that episode in the Oval, we don't know if we'll get a peace deal, but we've got to try. Okay.

Okay. Last Sunday, President Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, said on another network that the plan for negotiations was the so-called draft Istanbul protocol. The Institute for the Study of War says that this would leave Ukraine helpless in the face of future Russian threats or aggression. If that's described as the future of U.S. diplomacy and the framework, why isn't Mr. Zelenskyy

asking the right question when he says, how can I agree to a ceasefire with no security guarantees or even a minerals agreement or investment agreement without security guarantees? Well, I think the plan is for the European Union to provide this security, not NATO, the European Union. And again, the tragedy of Friday, and I don't know what President Zelensky was thinking. We had President of France Emmanuel Macron on a Monday saying,

Great meeting. We had Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday. Fantastic meeting. They were all on board the arc of the peace agreement. All President Zelensky had to do was come in and sign this economic agreement and again show no daylight, no daylight between Ukrainian people and the American people. And he chose to blow that up. So the deal is no longer on the table, just to be abundantly clear. Not at present.

Treasury Secretary Bessent, thank you for coming in today. Thank you, Margaret. Our social media producers tell us that as of this morning, we've had more than 100 million views on posts related to the meeting across our CBS News social media platforms. There is no shortage of Trump viral videos, but this one has spread around the world.

Mr. President, Mr. President, with respect, I think it's disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the President for trying to bring an end to this conflict. Have you ever been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have? I have been to... Count one. First of all, during the war, everybody has problems.

Even you, but you have nice ocean and don't feel now, but you will feel it in the future. God bless. You don't know that. God bless. You don't know that. God bless. You will not have the war. Don't tell us what we're going to feel. We're trying to solve a problem. Don't tell us what we're going to feel. I'm not telling you. Because you're in no position to dictate that. That's exactly what you're doing. You don't have the cards right now.

With us, you start having cards. Right now, you're playing cards. You're playing cards. You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War III. You're gambling with World War III. And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country, that's back to you far more than a lot of people said they should have. Have you said thank you once this entire meeting? No, in this entire meeting, have you said thank you?

Face the Nation will be back in one minute. Stay with us. Yeah, sure thing.

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Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or DSW.com. And we are back now with Republican Congressman Mike Turner. Good to have you back. Thank you. Appreciate you having me. So what were you thinking when you saw that Oval Office meltdown?

Well, I mean, the first thing, obviously, is, you know, we have to realize why this is important and really what was at stake here. I mean, this is important because Ukraine is important. This is about the fight between authoritarianism and freedom and democracy. This is the Ronald Reagan

you know, evil empire against democracy. So as we're watching this fight, we have to be concerned about what's crumbling here and what needs to be put back together. I think that's what we all felt in our stomachs and our anxiety as we watched what was at risk here. The second thing is really how inappropriate this was for Zelenskyy.

I mean, the context is this was a signing agreement. Zelensky had been negotiating with the United States on a minerals deal, an economic deal, as the Treasury Secretary said. He'd been doing so for weeks. I'd met with him with members of Congress in Munich. He had told us some of the terms that he wanted. He had a successful deal. The United States had conceded. He was flying here under the pretext that he was going to sign this deal. This should have been a win. As he's sitting in the Oval Office, he said, you know, I want...

You know, the president to stand with Ukraine in moments he was going to be standing with the president of the United States with a win that he had negotiated. And instead of taking that win, he turned it into a debate on American security guarantees during peace negotiations, on the peace negotiations, instead of taking that win and then from that going forward.

Well, it all went sideways after a Polish reporter in the room asked President Trump about his perceived alignment with Vladimir Putin. That's what the president reacted to. And then the vice president jumped in praising Trump's diplomacy. And that's when Zelensky said what he said about, well, what kind of ceasefire and diplomacy you're talking about. I've brokered deals with Vladimir Putin in the past.

Do you really think that this was all to blow it up or was it just people are talking past each other? What do you actually think happened? Well, I think fundamentally here, you know, again, the you don't fly, you know, a quarter across the world for a signing ceremony.

for a deal with the president of the United States and turn it into a debate on American security guarantees on peace negotiations that are unrelated to the mineral deal that you came, the economic deal that you came to sign. But you can't take things out of the context in the back, like treat them in a vacuum. Earlier in the week, President Trump had referred to Vladimir Zelensky as a dictator. Which he had retracted because the negotiations had...

And then he told people at the U.N. In Trump's way, he had taken back because the negotiations had gone forward in a way that was positive. But this isn't happening in a vacuum. Right.

It is within question, in fact, where America's alliances are. French President Emmanuel Macron told a newspaper overnight there needs to be a strategic dialogue with European countries that don't have nuclear weapons because they can no longer depend on the American nuclear deterrent. That's an incredible statement from a NATO ally. This is how this is heard around the world.

Right. And again, all of these things are really hysterics and way overstatements. But they're all coming from the crux here of that. That Zelensky has made. And I truly believe this is Zelensky. He has made a precondition of going forward with peace negotiations, American security guarantees. And what you saw was him enter into a very public debate with the president United States in.

In the Oval Office, I want, and you heard it, you actually yourself said it to the Secretary of the Treasury, I want an American security guarantee as a precondition for peace negotiations. No one is going to, no president is going to give him as a precondition to peace negotiations.

You do the peace negotiations, then you determine what security guarantees, what arrangements. Right, but he also referred back to failed peace negotiations and failed diplomatic agreements brokered by Europe that had no American guarantee that failed. So it's a what's different this time. But you don't continue a war for it. I mean, you got to hear President Trump. I mean, he engaged by saying, you know, people are dying. We need to stop the dying. We can't have, we can't go into World War II.

and imploring him to let's go forward with the peace negotiations and then we'll determine what security arrangements need to be made around the peace negotiations. The fact that Zelensky has it backwards, the cart before the horse,

I want a security guarantee to go into peace negotiations is really what has caused the impediment. Are you comfortable with the U.S. diplomatic outreach and the decision to no longer isolate Vladimir Putin because he has not said anything about making any kind of concession? Vladimir Zelensky is being asked to do that publicly.

Well, actually, no, he has not. But the Russians showed up. I mean, I'm very comfortable that Marco Rubio, as our secretary of state, in the lead with these negotiations, is very confident. Is he in the lead with the negotiations or is it Steve Witkoff? He is in the lead with the negotiations. I'm very confident of his strength. He has commenced the negotiations. I believe that Zelensky needs to trust him.

and he needs to not have this precondition of American security guarantees, which are not coming. Remember, Ukraine has been before every president since Clinton. Clinton, in the issue of the Budapest when they were giving up their nuclear weapons, Obama,

you know, Bush, everybody has had Ukraine before them. Every American president has declined to give American security guarantees as a precondition to any negotiations. Which is why Zelensky is saying, give them to me now because nothing stopped them before. The peace negotiations need to occur. And then we need to look at the construct of what security guarantees need to be and what is that construct that needs to be put in place. I want to ask you something because of the position you have on the issue.

on Armed Services, CBS has confirmed these reports that Defense Secretary Hagseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to temporarily halt cyber operations and planning against Russia.

The Washington Post reports that that's as long as the negotiations continue. There are no negotiations underway. Does this concern you? Have you been briefed on this? I can't. I don't know. I'm not aware of that. I don't believe that that would be. There are too many certain considerations there for that to be an accurate statement. So blanket.

But they have ordered Cyber Command to halt cyber operations. Considering what I know, what Russia is currently doing against the United States, that would certainly not be an accurate statement of the current status of the United States operations. You are confident that the United States... I'm confident, considering what Russia is currently doing against the United States, the United States status against Russia would not be that accurate.

considering what we are facing from Russia operations, yes. All right. Thank you very much, Congressman Turner. We'll be right back with a lot more Face the Nation. Stay with us.

President Trump will be addressing a joint session of Congress this Tuesday. Be sure to join us for that. Our network coverage of the speech starts at 9 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday night. But CBS News 24-7 special coverage begins at 5. We'll be right back with a lot more Face the Nation, including Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, Michigan Republican Congressman John James, and our own Anthony Salvato joins us with more from our CBS News poll. Stay with us.

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We go now to Senator Mark Kelly in Tucson, Arizona. Good morning to you, Senator. Good morning. You were one of the lawmakers who met with President Zelensky prior to that Oval Office meltdown. Senator Lindsey Graham later told reporters he had warned Zelensky, quote, don't take the bait. Do you think Zelensky took the bait? Is that how you understand what happened?

I think he was cornered and he was bullied in the Oval Office. And Margaret, that just makes us look weak. You know, I think Donald Trump was trying to look tough. J.D. Vance was trying to look tough.

the only winner in that exchange is Putin, who's a criminal, who's killing hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians. So it was a sad day for our country. It was a dumpster fire of diplomacy. It should not have been done. That kind of negotiation should not be done in public, in front of cameras. When we had our meeting earlier in the day with Zelensky, he

He has this habitual gratitude. He was very thankful. And the chairman of the Armed Services Committee kicked the cameras out of the room before we started to talk. That's the way this should be handled, not what Donald Trump did. Well, the Treasury Secretary who was just with us said you can't get an economic deal without a peace deal first. So it seems the dynamic is changing in terms of what the Trump administration is putting forward here.

What was your understanding of what Volodymyr Zelensky's concerns were? Well, I mean, his concern is that he doesn't have a security guarantee and he's being asked to give up minerals, that this is a business deal. Margaret, we're about to celebrate our 250th birthday as a country, and I didn't think we were just in it for the money. I mean, we are a country of values and principles. We stand with our allies.

He needs security guarantees. Yeah, I understand this concept of an economic deal and a ceasefire, but the economic deal comes after the ceasefire. None of that makes sense. They need to get in a room, including with the Russians. I mean, have the Russians given any indication that they want peace? Our Treasury Secretary questioned whether Zelensky wants peace. Of course he does.

He has his population being murdered, raped. Children are kidnapped. He wants out of this situation. But he's having a hard time, obviously, negotiating this in public. By the way, I mean, his English is not the best.

So this is hard for him to corner him in the Oval Office on that kind of stage was wrong. And it makes us look weaker as a nation and it makes us less safe. You've been to Ukraine a number of times. Our last guest, Mike Turner, has been to Ukraine a number of times as well. Neither the president nor the vice president have at all. J.D. Vance, the vice president, said to Zelensky, those are propaganda tours. Is that what you did? Did you go on propaganda tours?

No, I mean, I went into Patriot batteries and, you know, talked to the troops that every night are defending themselves from incoming ballistic missiles and cruise missiles trying to keep their population alive. I met with soldiers, you know, some of which are, you know, amputees at this point who've just, and soldiers that just came from the front lines to talk to me in person about what the situation on the ground is. I met with pilots.

there who were about to get their F-16s and we talked specifically about, you know, how can you use this airplane in combat? Yeah. I think J.D. Vance, the vice president, with all due respect, it sounds like he's watching videos on the internet. And to say to Zelensky, you're not being thankful enough?

I mean, Zelensky thanks the American people all the time. And I got to say, Margaret, if we can end this, and I want this to end as much as anybody, but it has to end in a way that the Russians are going to respect. And what was in the Oval Office yesterday was a demonstration of weakness. And I could tell you, Putin does not respect weakness.

I want to ask you about the U.S. border. The number of migrants crossing the southern border illegally in President Trump's first full term and first full month in office plunged to a level we haven't seen in 25 years. This is according to data reviewed by CBS. This seems like this is good for your state. Do these numbers prove President Trump's theories right?

Well, I think the numbers being down, that's a good thing. What we need long term is a negotiation with the Republicans on longstanding border policy. What the administration is doing, especially with ICE raids in schools,

with flying, repatriating people who often aren't only criminals in military airplanes for intimidation, talking about housing people on Guantanamo. That's for intimidation. I am, it's good the numbers are down. That's a positive thing. We need a border security agreement. We need legislation. We also need immigration reform.

Talk about my state for a second. We've got a lot of dreamers. They deserve a pathway to citizenship. We need some, we need a plan for farm workers as well. Secretary of Defense Hegseth is sending another 3,000 troops to the border, including an aviation battalion and striker vehicles, CBS has confirmed. Now these soldiers aren't allowed to intercept migrants.

Do you understand the mission, the intent? You have oversight over armed services. So I wonder how you feel about this. Well, I don't feel good about it. The way this should be handled is if we could work together within the United States Senate, Democrats and Republicans, get the Border Patrol more money, hire more Border Patrol agents, give them more resources to do the job they're supposed to do. When you do it with troops, that affects their readiness.

This isn't what they're trained to do. Then they don't get to train to do that striker battalion doesn't get to train to do the job that they may need to do one day. I don't want to see us in a conflict around the world anywhere.

But what prevents that is for our allies to realize that they're not going to win in a fight. And when they see us doing things like this, police actions with the military, that also is showing the rest of the world that our military is less capable and we are weaker. And that affects everybody's safety.

Lastly, because you sit on the Intelligence Committee, I want to ask you about something President Zelensky said. He said in Munich, Ukraine has intel the Russians are sending troops to Belarus to use it as a launch pad militarily into perhaps not just Ukraine, but other European countries. Are you concerned about that?

Well, I am very concerned about what Putin will do next if he comes out of this and thinks he got a good deal and this was worth his time and effort and loss of life. He doesn't care about Russian soldiers. He obviously doesn't care about the Ukrainians.

Yeah, that would be very concerning for me. I was in the Baltic nations, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania earlier this year. They are very concerned. That would be a staging ground for them to attack the Baltics. Understood. That's why we're watching it so carefully. Senator Kelly, I appreciate your insight. We're going to turn now to Michigan Congressman John James. Good morning to you, Congressman. Good morning, Margaret.

I want to ask you about what's happening in your state with the economy and tariffs. But just staying on the theme for a moment, I know you have a lot of Ukrainian-Americans in your district. You voted in support of last year's Ukraine supplemental. Are you comfortable with the Trump administration's decision to stop recognizing that Russia started the war in Ukraine?

Russia is the aggressor. Putin is a war criminal. And Vladimir Zelensky also fumbled the bag pretty hard. All those things can be true at the exact same time. We absolutely must stand by our allies at the exact same time. We also need to make sure that we are giving transparency and accountability to the American people. Under the Biden administration, billions of dollars were given away with very little accountability and no mission, no end state. I'm a combat veteran and

My soldiers expected from me that I would be able to articulate objectives, a mission and an end state. And the commander in chief last time couldn't do that. President Trump is doing everything that he can to get a lasting peace and enduring peace in Eastern Europe and throughout the world. He's already ended one war in the Middle East. I think we should give him a chance in one in Europe.

Well, I think there's developments on the Mideast front that throw that into question, but we'll keep tracking that. Let me ask you about tariffs in Michigan, because you are really in a unique spot in the middle of the auto state. This Tuesday, expect tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. That's what the president said. On March 12th, 25 percent tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum. No exceptions for trading partners. Auto tariffs in April.

What is your district bracing for?

Look, America is open for business, but we are not for sale. Michigan remembers what NAFTA did to us. And over the past 30 years, Mexico's built 11 major automotive plants to only one in the United States. Michigan remembers 900,000 automotive jobs over back in the 90s to 600,000 now. That's over 300,000 lost manufacturing jobs in the automotive sector. Michigan remembers the Great Recession where 50%

percent of all the jobs lost in all of America were lost in Michigan alone and Michigan remembers the harmful EV mandates that have forced compliance rather than actually allowing a regulatory environment that permits innovation. We've lost jobs to Mexico and China. Right now my district as you mentioned the number one manufacturing district in all the nation overflow production is not going to Sterling Heights it's going to Saltillo Mexico. When you look at the opportunities that are missing us when you look at the fact that uh

Michigan is seeing its opportunities pass by. Enough is enough. Margaret, the status quo is not good enough for Americans, which is why Donald Trump got elected. He's putting Americans first. And frankly, even our allies have not been playing a fair game. Look, fair trade is the objective, but fair trade.

Yeah, the specific tactic here, because you brought up Sterling Heights. The Republican mayor of Sterling Heights, Michael Taylor, your district, says the president's tariffs are the, quote, single biggest threat to our local economy. He's expecting it to be devastating and staggering. This is a Republican saying this about the impact on your district. What's he missing?

What's devastating and staggering is the fact of the matter that we have been taken advantage of for decades. The president, under his original tax plan, lowered corporate tax rates from 35 to 21 percent, and he's offering lower tax rates to 15 percent for those who build

in the United States of America. We're also looking at energy independence. We're also looking at lowering the regulatory burdens for folks to succeed and excel. But what Democrats are doing is they're going to actually make it more difficult when they vote against these tax reforms for small businesses to excel and for entrepreneurs to get their feet under them. And so regardless of what it is, when you take a look at the EV policies that Joe Biden put in place that actually exacerbated the inflation, just look at work trucks.

Work trucks five years ago were $15,000 less expensive than they are right now. SUVs, $8,000 less expensive than they are right now. Did you tell the mayor he's wrong? That inflation was caused by terrible Democrat policies. And that is, what's that? So you're telling the mayor he's wrong? I mean, the Ford CEO said in an investor conference last month, a 25% tariff would blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we have never seen.

Well, you know what? Memory is kind of short because when you look at the OECD nations, they're already talking about leveling 15 percent tax on anything in businesses that are making $750 million or more. Everybody should be looking at the impact that makes on top of the tariffs that are already imposed on goods that are made in the United States of America. No one is talking about this, Margaret. And all these economists, we expect that these are going to be honest brokers, but they're not. We are not operating it. You know,

You can go talk to the CEO of Ford, but what I'm dealing with is people I'm talking with when I visit factory floors each and every single day. I am an automotive supplier in the United States of America, and I feel this pain. We've seen it for too long. And like I've said, we've been taken advantage of for years, and we need to level the playing field. When you're not playing fair with America, then we have to do what we can to make sure that we can compete on a fair playing field. And, Margaret, I think that fairness is what we should be pursuing. And I don't think that's wrong to ask for out of our allies and our partners.

The global supply chain, I know you know it well, is complicated here. And the production goes back and forth across- Yes, I have a master's in it, Margaret. I understand it. And I'm also in the automotive industry. Yes, go ahead. Right. And what I'm trying to say is that the cars go back and forth across the border multiple times. So what is the construction of the tariffs that you think is actually going to be beneficial here?

You know what also comes across the border? Fentanyl coming in from Mexico when China is sending in precursors. And as a result of these negotiation tactics, Mexico surged 10,000 of their own National Guard troops to the border. And just as you were mentioning in the last segment, I think it was great that border apprehensions on the southern border have plunged to the lowest levels this century. You know, this is working. Mexico is paying for the border security. They're extraditing drug lords to be prosecuted in the United States of America.

And these are the types of things that we're looking for. 84% of those in the terror watch list and the FBI terror watch list are apprehended on the northern border. And we're getting Canadian cooperation, which would have never happened under the previous administration and only started when President Trump started playing hardball and talking about these things. We have a number of levers, diplomatic, economic, and military. And diplomatic levers haven't worked. We're using

economic levers to secure our borders and to make sure that we have fairness across our economy. All right. Thank you, Congressman James. We've got to leave it there. 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.

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President Trump's approval rating in our poll is 51%, still in positive territory, but by a smaller margin than he had a month ago. And on his approval on the issues, it's a mixed bag. A slim majority of voters approve of his handling of the border and the economy, while a slim majority disapprove of his handling of inflation. And we're joined now by our elections and surveys director, Anthony Salvato. You asked about a host of issues, Anthony.

Before this explosive Oval Office exchange, you did ask Americans how they're assessing the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. What did you learn? Yeah. Morning, Margaret. You know, you can look at Ukraine and Russia and the conflict and then see a wider worldview that Americans have. So let me start with this. Aid to Ukraine specifically divides the country, divides the country.

Divides it along partisan lines, and it has for a while. Democrats more in favor, Republicans more opposed. But then you ask people, OK, who do you support in the conflict? Just over half say they support Ukraine and the rest say they're neutral, that the U.S. should stay out. Now, where this comes back to the administration is the people who say they're neutral are more approving of how Donald Trump is handling all this.

The people who say they back Ukraine, in addition to supporting aid, feel that Trump's actions have favored Russia in this conflict. Now, let's take a look at views on Russia. And the big majority calls Russia either an enemy or unfriendly. It's a little less so among Republicans. But then widen out to how the U.S. should act on the world stage. Views of our European allies.

By and large, Americans call them allies or at the very least friendlies, Great Britain, France, Germany, et cetera. Now, what should the U.S. actually do? The big majority is cooperate with allies on the world stage. Those folks tend to be less approving.

of the changes that they see Donald Trump making to U.S. foreign policy. So back to the key issue, the economy. How are Americans perceiving what the president is doing on that, as well as his cuts to the federal workforce? Well, on the point about cuts, we'll start with this sort of central premise about is there waste in the federal government?

By and large, Americans agree that there is. The difference is, where does it come from? If I ask people, is it poor spending choices? Is it fraud? Well, you get more Democrats saying it probably comes from poor spending choices, Republicans saying it comes from fraud. And then that goes into a split.

on the changes he's making in the federal workforce. That divides the country. And you start to see people looking at and wondering about what the implications of this might be. So I ask, is this going to have an effect? There's a lot of people who say yes, it will have an effect on cutting services that they like, an effect on

on their local area, but there's also just as many who say it's going to save taxpayer money. It's going to eliminate waste. And when I see that wide span of answers, what my sense is, is people are anticipating a lot of things. They're unsure at this point, but they are definitely looking and waiting to see what they believe will be an impact. Anthony Salvato, thank you very much. Thank you. We'll be right back.

Our Imtiaz Tayeb reports on reaction from Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelensky's warm welcome at 10 Downing Street couldn't have been more different than his reception at the White House. He and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer later signed $2.8 billion worth of loans to Ukraine.

ahead of today's summit of presidents and prime ministers from across Europe convened by Starmer. European countries have to do more and provide a security guarantee, but I've always been clear that that is going to need a US backstop.

Oleksandr Merezko is the chairman of the Ukrainian government's Foreign Affairs Committee. The issue of Ukraine is a crucial key issue for European security. Let's not forget that the final goal of Putin is not only destroying Ukraine, but also dominating the whole Europe. The spectacle of an American president and vice president berating the leader of a war-torn ally has left Ukrainians reeling and European leaders scrambling to respond. It has also triggered delight from the Kremlin.

And I thought that Mr. Trump can play the role of new FDR. Yes. But now we can see that we need to think about European role as a leader of the free world. There's obviously another player here, and that's Russia. What do you think the mood in Moscow is right now? I'm sure that they rejoice. Putin counted. He couldn't imagine that something like that, that such a gift can happen.

But now things have changed and it emboldens him. He thinks that he is right and he can destroy Ukraine. That's why it's so dangerous. A dangerous war which shows no sign of letting up. Overnight, there was another massive Russian drone attack in the eastern city of Zaporizhia that left a residential neighborhood devastated.

The free world needs a new leader, said the EU's top diplomat, Kaya Callas, following that Oval Office meeting. We spoke with her Thursday about what Europeans are doing to help Ukraine.

We are coordinating and of course the message is there are several layers. One is that the fight that Ukraine is having is not only about Ukraine's sovereignty, but it's much, much broader. It's about freedom of the free world, really. It is about the world where international law applies and the world where might does not make right.

It is clear that Russia attacked Ukraine. There's one aggressor and one victim. But the Trump administration has decided now not to say that explicitly, arguing that the president needs negotiating room. Do you think that that's persuasive to Vladimir Putin?

Well, it is certainly, you know, a very strong Russian narrative that they want to run to really push, saying that, you know, "Oh, it's a conflict between two equal parties." It is very clear. One country attacked another country very brutally with force and is bombing Ukraine every day. I mean, President Trump says that he wants the killing to stop. I don't think that anybody wants the killing to stop more than the Ukrainians.

So why do you think acknowledging who is responsible does matter? We have the United Nations Charter where we have agreed how countries are interacting with each other. And it says very clearly that you can't attack sovereignty, territorial integrity of another country. And if you do, there are consequences. And why is it important?

It is important for small countries in the world, for whom this is the only thing that protects them. If we don't really defend this principle, then we're going to see all these developments that we don't want to see, because all the countries who are afraid of their neighbors will want to go for nuclear weapons, because this is the only thing that protects them. It's not the international law anymore.

That's it for us today. Until next week. For Face the Nation, I'm Margaret Brandon. Today's guests were Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Ohio Congressman Mike Turner, Michigan Congressman John James, and the European Union's top diplomat, Kaya Callis. The senior executive producer of Face the Nation is Mary Hager, and the executive producer is Ann Hsu. This broadcast was directed by Shelley Schwartz. Face the Nation originates from CBS News in Washington.

For more, we're online at facethenation.com and on YouTube. We're also rebroadcast on our CBS News 24-7 streaming network at 1230 on Sundays, and we're available through our apps, CBS News and Paramount Plus.