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>> top officials at some federal agencies pushing back against elon musk's latest ask of federal workers. the ask justify their job in five bullet points by midnight. or they could get fired. >> plus, later this hour, president trump and french president emmanuel macron take more questions from reporters. and this comes after really a critical oval office meeting that showed, in some cases, the strained dynamic between the two leaders over ukraine, russia, peace talks. and how did a conservative podcaster with no experience at the fbi become the second in command at the bureau? well, we're going to take a look at the unlikely rise of dan bongino to fbi deputy director. we're following all of these major developing stories and many more coming in right here

to cnn news center. >> president trump is now weighing in as some of the heads of u.s. federal agencies push back on an ultimatum from elon musk. there's a midnight deadline for all federal employees to submit five accomplishments they've achieved in the last week. but there is a growing list of agencies defying those demands. leaders at the department of justice, the pentagon, the fbi, state department, homeland security and the department of energy are all telling employees not to respond individually to the email. just moments ago, president trump had this to say. >> about the last email that was sent, where he wanted to know what you did this week. you know why he wanted that, by the way. i thought it was great because we have people that don't show up to work, and nobody even knows if they work for the government. so by asking the question, tell us what you did this week. what he's doing is

saying, are you actually working? and then if you don't answer, like you're sort of semi fired or you're fired, because a lot of people are not answering because they don't even exist. there was a lot of genius in sending it. we're trying to find out if people are working. and so we're sending a letter to people. please tell us what you did last week. if people don't respond, it's very possible that there is no such person or they're not working. >> no evidence that there is a widespread affliction of nonexistent federal employees. we should mention we have cnn's rene marsh tracking all the latest developments here. how, rene, are federal employees navigating this? >> i mean, they're struggling. there is a lot of confusion, lots of chaos at the department of health and human services. they were first told to respond then. then the agency reversed course and said not to respond. then there are individuals who i've spoken to who are federal employees today, who said that

their agency told them to respond, but their union is telling them not to respond. but yet the union says you should respond. if your manager says you should respond. it's very confusing for these employees. we can tell you that at this point, some seven agencies, including the department of defense and the fbi, have told employees not to respond due to the sensitive nature of the work that they do. trump. trump ally fbi director kash patel telling the workforce in a very clearly worded email that the fbi, through the office of the director, is in charge of all the review processes. so for now, they should just pause in any responses. but it is worth noting that elon musk, not an elected official, not senate, confirmed to run any agency across the government and is asking employees to report outside of their chain of command. clearly not something that some of these agency heads are willing to go along with, but it's also something that the unions are saying are just not legal. and so they are amending a lawsuit to push back legally against this request

that came via email from elon musk. over the e-mail over the weekend. we should also note there are some agencies in which employees have not received any guidance, so they're unclear what they should do here. so, brianna, lots of confusion amongst the federal workforce. many of them saying that, you know, when you put in the full context that they're dealing with mass firings, paid leave, this is just another layer here leading to the mental anguish. and perhaps in many ways, that is what elon musk wants. people who just get fed up. this is an uncomfortable place to work, and they may leave without any fight. and that might be what he wants. brianna. >> yeah, maybe the ones who have other alternatives, for sure. that could be a lot of talent lost rene marsh. thank you so much for the report, omar. >> well, brianna, a lot to discuss. i want to bring in rob shriver. he's the former acting director for the office of personnel management and is now a senior advisor at democracy

forward. thanks for being here. okay, let's let's start with that email because it's titled what did you do last week? um, you don't have to tell me right now, but it came from your former office. have you seen the email? i mean, what was your reaction when you saw it or heard about it? >> well, it all began as it usually does with a post on x from elon musk announcing to the federal workforce you should expect to get this email soon. if you don't respond, you will be deemed to have resigned your position. and then the email came and the email didn't have that resignation threat. but it did ask folks to respond to this new government wide email from opm about five bullet points summarizing what they worked on last week. this is just another ill conceived, poorly executed stunt to torment federal employees. omar. >> and, you know, part of how elon musk justified the ultimatum, which we'll call it, that, um, he posted, quote, the reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so

little work that they are not checking their email at all. and he says, in some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. we also just heard that from the president in the oval office answering questions as well. i mean, you were acting head of opm here. what do you make of that claim? is is that something that's even possible? >> it's an absurd claim, and it's why this email system that they've set up is, is such a poor solution. because agencies have information on their employees. agencies execute payroll. there are processes for employees to report their time to get credit for their time to take leave. and the agencies have all of that information. it's the agency email systems that are up to date. maybe this new government wide system put together, apparently by some of these tech folks. maybe it's not as good as what was already in place at the agencies. if they're having those kind of problems. >> and, you know, some of the

people who got these emails, i mean, there are a lot of them, a lot of people in the federal government, um, you know, i know you've heard from a lot of these people, and many of them are literally in a state of limbo right now, either hearing their jobs going away and it hasn't happened yet, or at the very least, unsure about whether their job or position could go away at any point in the near future. what are you hearing from the federal workers you're in contact with about maybe their their state of state of mind right now? >> they're just so confused and so stressed out by all of this because, look, it's a normal thing for somebody's supervisor to ask them, hey, let me know what you worked on last week. i'd like to see how you're doing, how it matches up with my performance expectations. that's actually a good management practice. but to have this be announced on x and then have this email come out through this government wide email system, and then you have multiple agency heads telling their workforce, don't respond. we don't want you to respond to that. it's just creating so

much stress and confusion for everybody. federal workers are rule followers. they just try to come in every day, do the job that they're hired to do, try to make a difference for the american people. and so all of this confusion and drama stirred up on x is just undermining their ability to do the job for the american people. >> and look, you know, the last 30 days, i think with the amount of pressure that's been on a lot of federal workers, there are a lot of people, i think, who are learning about what office of personnel management is. for the first time, they haven't heard opm this much, probably in their entire lives. unless you work in the federal government. um, but at this point right now, look, you want to see if people are productive. is there a process through opm in which that happens, or is that something that can really only happen at an agency specific level, for example, and a leader at the justice department might determine, okay, this person isn't pulling their weight. is is is opm typically involved in that type of evaluation? >> no, omar. there are 2.2

million federal employees who work around the world. 85% of them work outside the washington, dc area. it would be hard, even at the agency level, to track with specificity in individual employees performance. we talk all the time in the hr community about having supervisors, front line managers, be really engaged with their employees that they understand what the organizational requirements are and priorities, and that they align what the employees are doing day to day to those priorities. it's just not feasible for opm and agency of some 3000 people, most of whom process retirement benefits to track performance for 2.2 million people. >> uh, rob shriver, really appreciate you being here and explaining to, i think, many what opm actually is. thanks. thanks for being here. we still got a lot to come, including how did a right wing podcaster become second in command at the fbi? we're going to take a look at dan bongino and how he got the job. and growing concerns.

the trump administration's cuts could be compromising national security. we're going to tell you what the cia is doing to see if the president's cost cutting moves might have risked exposing people who work undercover. plus, president trump's white house is taking on the associated press, and its journalists are fighting back. we're going to have the details on the legal battle ahead today, plus much more coming up on cnn news central. stay with us. >> welcome back. >> have i got news for you? news saturday on cnn. >> i don't play for money. my ambition is to play big, to help and inspire others. that's why i joined sofi. they help people earn more and save more so they can realize their ambitions. sofi, get your money right. >> repair safelite replace. >> sadly, windshield chips. can turn into windshield cracks. but at least you can go to safelite. com and schedule a fix in

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march 9th on cnn. >> welcome back everyone. today we are learning new details about about what may have led to president donald trump's selecting dan bongino, a right wing podcaster and former secret service agent, as the new fbi deputy director. now, the role is traditionally held by a career fbi agent and fbi director. kash patel had previously told agents it should stay that way. so what changed? it appears to be a recent standoff between interim fbi leadership and the justice department over demands for names of agents involved in the january 6th and trump related investigations, but there's a lot more to it. cnn senior justice correspondent evan perez joins me now. so, evan, what more are you learning about how we got here? >> right. everything was set for robert. he is the head of counterterrorism in new york for the fbi. and he was brought down here as part of the interim leadership before patel got named as a nominee. and everything seemed to be fine

with him. and brian driscoll, who what is still the the head of the new york newark fbi office. and then there was this confrontation, which happened a couple of weeks ago, where emil bove, the acting deputy attorney general, was demanding these names of everyone who touched these january 6th and trump related investigations. and that's where things seem to go awry. so we now know, obviously, from the weekend, uh, social media posts from the president that he is instead gone in the direction in the direction of dan bongino, who is a very public supporter of the of the president. he's somebody who obviously would not necessarily stand up to the justice department if he's asked to do something he doesn't necessarily like, because everything that comes from them will probably be something he supports. so, you know, i think that's part of the issue here. if you saw the fbi agents association of the week and also said that they had been promised this job would remain a career agent position. so the question is, what makes what was

what changes? now when you have someone who is this politically attuned to the president with this job. >> and again, not someone that needs to be confirmed by the senate in any way as deputy director. so, right, the impact will be felt pretty immediately. right. evan. evan perez, thank you for being here. really appreciate it. brianna. >> we're going to turn now to someone who used to be deputy director of the fbi, andrew mccabe. he is cnn's senior law enforcement analyst. what is your reaction to hearing of this appointment? >> well i'm stunned. i think, brianna, in the same way that i would expect most fbi people, current and former, are really shocked. i've heard from many of them in the last 24 hours. and, and this, this departure from 117 years of, of history and tradition is really remarkable, not because it's historic and that's a reason for continuing, but because the demands of the job are so

unique. they are so, so broad of such immense scope and responsibility that it takes people an entire career. 15, 16, 17, 18 years before. typically, they're ready to fill this role. so a deep understanding of the fbi, its mission, how it accomplishes that mission, the different tools that are to that to be used, the capabilities of the workforce, all those things go into it. so to bring in someone who has no connection to that whatsoever is really, uh, stunning. and, uh, dangerous, i would add. >> sources say this hiring of bongino happened after a week long standoff between acting deputy attorney emil bove and the acting fbi deputy director, robert cassini. beauvais had demanded the names of fbi agents involved in the january 6th and trump related investigations. cassini resisted bove's demands. cassini had been expected to get the job. so when you look at that, um, do you think that could have

contributed to this? >> it certainly could have. you know, i don't know the internal machinations of how this played out, but there's no question that cassini, driscoll or the two people that the trump administration chose from within the ranks to run the fbi. but what they showed during that brief period was they were not blindly loyal to the dictates of doj, specifically emil bove. they acted to protect the people, the the agents and analysts and all those fbi folks who did the right thing, who complied with the law and with fbi policy and working on the cases, the january 6th cases to which they were assigned. um, and that sort of, um, adherence to duty and, uh, and honor, uh, is not something that is valued by the current administration. and so they had to go. >> how can you explain to us sort of the interactions

typically between a deputy director and an fbi director and how you think the sort of, uh, nontraditional picks here with dan bongino and kash patel are going to impact that? >> yeah. so the fbi deputy director basically runs the day to day operations of the fbi. you've got 37,000 employees, 12,000 of which are agents, all of whom carry guns, you know, across the country and around the world. it is an immense organization involved in many, many different types of investigations. uh, everything from a daily run of the mill stuff to like super sensitive national security cases. and so the fbi director is responsible for all of the fbi's intelligence collection and. investigations operations. it it is almost impossible for me to imagine doing that. i know better than or as well as anyone what it takes to do that job. and the idea that you would try

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undercover. cnn's katie willis is here with the details. katie, bo, can you just tell us what we're learning right now? >> yeah. >> omar. so earlier this month, the cia sends this highly unusual email to the white house. it's trying to be responsive to one of president trump's executive orders about downsizing the federal government. and it's sent over a list of probation, probationary employees listed by first name and last initial to identify them for potential cuts. the problem was that they sent the email over an unclassified network, potentially exposing the list to foreign government hackers. current and former officials told us that this risked not only making it impossible to send some individual officers into undercover roles, it also risked exposing the jobs themselves as cia jobs and a lot of cases. the cia publicly disguises its jobs as state department roles in foreign embassies. and so if a foreign government was able to learn that a given role was actually a cia role, they might be able to reconstruct who had met with past occupants of that role,

potentially endangering those people. so now what we've learned is that the agency is conducting a formal damage assessment to determine the potential harm that could take place if this information were to be hacked or exposed in any way. it really underscores the kind of the the depth of concern from at least some current cia officials that trump's move fast and break stuff approach to cutting the u.s. government might be creating some unique counterintelligence risks when applied to the cia. >> and as i understand, that's just one of the concerns here, because obviously, given the nature of the work to some of these deep cuts, officials could also be worried about disgruntled workers, which, of course, could provide opportunities for foreign adversaries. what do we know on that front? >> that's exactly right. we've already seen an effort by the trump administration to mass fire some members of the agency. and so we do know that there are some officials on the agency's seventh floor that are quietly discussing how the buyouts and those mass firings risk creating

a group of disgruntled former employees who might be motivated to take what they know to a foreign intelligence service. unlike most other fired federal employees, anyone fired by the cia has had access to classified information about the agency's operations and tradecraft. as one u.s. official put it very bluntly to me, you take whatever number of employees who are going to get cut loose, and if they have knowledge of sensitive programs, that is by definition, an insider risk. >> katie bayless, appreciate the reporting as always. brianna. >> pay down the debt or send out stimulus checks. it's been a hot debate since president donald trump said he's considering a plan to give 20% of savings identified by elon musk's department of government efficiency back to taxpayers, according to the proposal. if doge hits its target of 2 trillion in total federal savings, taxpayers could see a refund check of up to $5,000 each. but some argue that all the money saved by doj's cost

cutting should be used to pay down the $36 trillion federal debt, and that sending out those checks could also worsen inflation. with us now to discuss is james fischbach. he is actually the person who originally proposed this doge dividend plan that is now under consideration. okay. so let me ask you about this. you said that this will incentivize people to report waste, fraud and abuse in their local communities. i wonder about that though. can you give me an example of what that would actually look like? >> absolutely. >> i grew up in florida. >> brianna. >> and i saw after. >> hurricanes, fema waste. >> and abused taxpayer money. and so now you're giving folks the mechanism with doge. but more importantly, the incentive. >> okay. but like be more specific. >> sure. so for example, these ready to eat meals after hurricanes over ordering them and throwing them in dumpsters, that's a really big problem. and so that's collectively millions of dollars of taxpayer funds that are being thrown out and abused. if you see that, you

call it in. why do you call it in? because the more that doge saves under president trump's leadership, the bigger your doge dividend check is. >> you saw that in dumpsters yourself. >> as a kid growing up in florida. a lot of hurricanes. >> yeah. so how would you scale that? do you think that would actually be a very, very large source of savings? >> i think so. i think look, the truth. is the truth is the government was spending $4.5 trillion a year in 2019 on its budget. it's now spending $6.5 trillion a year. that's an increase of 45%. to your viewers at home right now, is life in america 45% better with all of that spending? >> would that save? >> what's a good question? we have to find out. we have to deputize, as president trump said, 100 million people give them the incentive to report waste, fraud and abuse when they do that. doge saves more and the doge dividend is even bigger. in economics, we learn. show me the incentive and i'll show you the outcome. there's no incentive right now for american taxpayers to report waste, fraud and abuse. with the doge proposal

like this, there is. >> you could also find that people crowdsourced stuff that actually isn't waste, fraud, and abuse. and now you're wasting resources sifting through it. >> there's always going to be some element of folks overreporting things that aren't actually worth it. we have to cast a very wide net. we're going to find it. there's going to be a process. >> your concerns that sizable checks could add to inflation. >> no concerns. and there are a couple reasons why. the first is recency bias is really powerful. the last time we thought about stimulus checks was under president biden during covid. a lot of things were happening then that aren't happening now. we had the biden lockdowns, we had the biden mandates, we had the biden supply chain disruptions. those things aren't happening today. the second thing is this idea of sending out checks to millions of americans is not new. we do it every tax season. 120 million americans last year got a tax refund check at an average of about $3,100. >> james, you can't say this isn't new. >> well, it's certainly a new idea, but we send out money all the time. back to america is new money. >> so you can't conflate the two.

>> and i. >> don't. think there. >> is money. i think it's their money. it's their money. taxpayers will spend $270,000 in their lifetime sending money to d.c. doge exposed waste, fraud and abuse like sesame street. it's time to pay restitution back to the taxpayers. they were defrauded. >> it's their money. it is. but it's also their debt. it's all of our debt. it's actually. and james, as you're well aware, it's our kids debt and it's our grandkids debt and our great grandkids debt. and they will have the benefit of paying it back with more interest than we will. so why take out the 20%? >> take out the 20% for one big reason. we have to incentivize americans for doge to even save more. there's two states of the world, briana, the first of which is doge and trump and the engineers keep finding stuff. it's been really good. the second state of the world is having 100. you're going to. >> make it. they're going to make. >> that because we're going to have 100 million americans deputized to report waste, fraud and abuse. it's the largest

snitch network against government fraud. and it should absolutely happen. we are going to make it back. we also need to pay restitution to the american people for all of this abuse. >> you said with inflation, there are things that are not happening now that were happening before. there's also something happening now that was not happening at that point in time, and that is that inflation is at 3%. and as you're aware, it is actually just gone up the biggest monthly increase since august of 2023. inflation hasn't been this high since last summer. how can you not have concerns about inflation and infusing that kind of new money? the money? if you're talking about a rocky sesame street and there's a debate to be had about that, i'm not going to have it with you. but that's money that was going to another economy. now you're bringing it into the american economy. that is new money that would stimulate the american economy. some people would say, great, but that is money that would add to inflation. >> so it depends on how they actually spend the money. i want to read from some americans here

who actually tweeted at me. i asked them, how would you spend a $5,000 doge dividend check? deborah augustine i'd use it to pay off debt. enrique gimenez pay off accrued debts. caitlin brennan pay off my all my current debt. paying off debt is not inflationary. it's deflationary. it matters how they spend the money. if you want to go to louis vuitton and go to the movie theater and go out and get haircuts, that's one thing. but if you want to pay down the debt that you had to take on because biden printed too much money and put us in the worst inflation since a guy named paul volcker had to break the back of inflation in the 1980s. that's a different story. it's how the money is spent. and secondarily, it's the greater context. oil prices are down 8% since president trump took office. drill, baby drill means more oil oil production, and it means lower energy prices across the board. you know that that filters through to the economy. >> i think it's lovely that some people tweeted that at you. we cannot use that as any sort of indication of how they'll actually spend their money. past shows us that's not. but then let me ask you this about. >> well, that was that was covid.

>> james, let me ask you this because we have a limited amount of time. if you're talking about paying down the debt and being fiscally conservative here, we just need to be clear about what this is, because i think a lot of people think a check would be nice. who doesn't think that? right. but when you're thinking about fiscal concerns, because this is certainly being marketed as if you're paying people like 20% of a surplus that you have. but that's not what it is. it's really like if you had a $36 trillion credit card bill and you had enough money that you'd save to pay off maybe something modestly more than the minimum payment, but you decided to take 20% of what you could pay and pocket it. that's really what it's more like. and i don't think people understand that. >> where is this newfound focus on fiscal responsibility at cnn? with all due respect, are you opposed to sending ukraine new money because we're a national debt as well? >> i'm asking you a question about fiscal conservatism right now and the budget. >> sure. but but i'm just curious, are you opposed. >> to all new funding? i've asked many questions about it. >> no, i know, but are you opposed to all new funding, like

ukraine, for example, since we're at $36 trillion of debt as well? the american people deserve restitution with doge has uncovered. >> i. >> think is waste, fraud and abuse. >> james, we've had many people on to have conversations about ukraine and how money should be spent and whether there is there should be some sort of process. that's a conversation that should definitely be had. and those are questions i would definitely ask. so then let me ask you again. instead of pivoting to ukraine, will you please answer my question? >> what is your question? >> are you serious? okay. my question was it's like you had a $36 trillion credit card debt. >> yeah. who owns the debt? who owns the debt? american people. we hold the debt. so what we are saying is we want an advance payment on the debt because the government's defrauded us. we want. >> advance money. that's more debt. money? >> we want an advance payment. >> children are on the hook for. >> our children are on the hook for the absolute abuse under the biden-harris administration, 7 trillion. >> going to be on the hook for this too.

>> look, at the end of the day, what we need to do is incentivize the american people to actually report fraud. >> and we've talked about that. um, but this is a conversation we could continue. unfortunately, we are out of time. >> but debate is good. >> i do appreciate the discussion. james fishback, thank you so much for being with us. thank you. and moments from now, president trump and french president macron will be holding a press conference. we saw them in the oval office just a short time ago. they'll be taking more questions here as europe is pushing for a seat at the table in negotiations to end the war in ukraine. stay with us. we'll be right back. >> with. >> cookbooks, corporate fat cats, swindling socialites, doped up cyclists, then? yes, more crooked politicians. i have a feeling we won't be running out of those any time soon. >> a new season of united states of scandal with jake tapper, march 9th on cnn. >> let's get started. >> bill. >> where's your mask? >> i really. >> tried. >> sleeping with it, everybody. but i'm done struggling now. i

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>> we'll send. >> you a free book to answer. >> questions you may have. >> call now. >> and we'll. come to you. >> 821 4000. >> and we are standing by for breaking news at any moment now. president trump and french president emmanuel macron will be holding a joint press conference at the white house. >> let's bring in cnn's kaitlan collins, who is at the white house. caitlin, can you just set the stage for what we expect to hear in just a few moments? >> yeah, we saw the two leaders. >> gathered in. >> the oval office earlier on this third. anniversary of. russia's invasion of ukraine. we just got the notice that they should be here inside the east room in any moment. they've been meeting behind closed doors to. talk about what, of course, is at the forefront of trump's second term in office right now. now that he's a month into to returning to power, which is this effort to bring this war to an end. and we heard from president trump earlier in the oval as he sat next to the french president saying that he believes this war could be over within weeks and that he could be visiting moscow as soon as potentially this spring, obviously, which would be a notable moment, making him the

first u.s. president in some time to visit russia since president obama was in office in 2013, i believe. but the real question here is how that war could come to an end and what that looks like. and you saw the stark differences laid out even though they were being friendly and speaking in friendly terms earlier, as these two leaders were sitting side by side, trump refusing to call president putin a dictator, which he referred to president zelenskyy as last week, something he said he does not take lightly. as you listen to the french president sitting next to him, president macron saying that russia is clearly the aggressor here and repeatedly turning this conversation back to russia's responsibility for invading ukraine on this day three years ago. and so a very high stakes meeting between these two world leaders, where they were discussing other issues like china as well, and their joint efforts on that. but the real question is going to be what this effort looks like going forward and just how divergent the paths are that the u.s. and europe take when it comes to this. there was a remarkable moment that i will point out to you inside that oval office meeting earlier, where the

president was characterizing europe's nature of support to ukraine as alone, effectively saying that they are going to be paid back for all of the money that they have sent or aid that they have provided to ukraine. the french president quickly interjected, he's someone who knows donald trump well and has interacted with him on multiple occasions over the years to correct trump and say that that that characterization, because of the billions of dollars that they have hundreds of billions in frozen russian assets that they have, saying that that is not exactly going to be a loan, that they are not getting that money back. it was a remarkable moment. that also shows you just how frank these conversations can be in front of the cameras, but also behind closed doors as well. yeah, caitlin, they seem to have a very good rapport, which may give macron some latitude in that kind of thing. but at the same time, trump is certainly someone who does not like to be corrected. yeah. well, the question is how much latitude that is. this is a world leader who, unlike some others, including the british prime minister, who will be visiting here in a matter of days, has interacted with trump and negotiated with him and been

behind closed doors and had extended handshakes with him on many occasions before. and so, yes, they do know each other quite well, and he understands trump's style. the question is whether or not europe can have real influence on president trump's thinking here. his argument has been that the way that they have handled this the last three years has not brought this war to an end, and that he is here and he can change that and that his tactic may be better. it is notable, though, that this comes as you saw what happened at the united nations this morning with the the u.s. abstaining from one resolution and voting against another, condemning russia for its invasion of ukraine, just to speak of how the different tactics that they are trying here. but this is a test for all world leaders, is how they interact with the u.s. president, what those interactions look like. and yes, it was jovial at times there in the oval office. and it did speak to to the nature of the relationship that the french president felt that he could interrupt trump and talk about that aid to ukraine and what that looks like. the question is what those tangible results look they come out here in just a few moments to take reporters

questions and talk about these closed door meetings with their delegations, i will note the french delegation is in here. so is the u.s. delegation as well, which means we should expect to see the world leaders at any moment. >> and, caitlin, just just for process, because we are expecting to see these leaders at any moment. we've heard the president talk about, as he has many times, that this war would not have happened if he were in office at the time. now, three years ago to the day, but also as he was led by questions that at some point he does look forward to and hopes to meet with president putin at some point in the future. do we have a sense on how he is expecting to frame the united states efforts, not just to french president macron, but even to the uk prime minister when he comes later this week as well. >> well, that's the question in two, in terms of how they negotiate with him and what that looks like, because trump has made quite clear, he believes having a conversation with the russian leader is the way to go. here. he talked about the fact that president biden, president putin, had not spoken directly

after russia invaded ukraine. of course, biden had his own summit with putin, which some of his own advisers advised against when they met in geneva. trump himself has sat down with putin before and very much has made clear he plans to do so again. the question is when and how and what that looks like. they have said that any meeting when it comes to this negotiation to end this war would happen in saudi arabia. we've spoken to white house officials about this, and really it depends on, on on the progress of these talks and how this is going. one other key part of this has been that minerals deal that we have been reporting on and talking about. the treasury secretary said in the oval office earlier. he believes that deal is essentially on the one yard line. that comes after those comments that we heard from president zelenskyy over the weekend, talking about how he essentially believed it was an unfair deal to ukraine, of how much money they were going to have to invest in that fund to the tune of half a billion, $500 billion. and what that would look like for his country when it comes to how much they have been given between the united states and europe and what that path would look like going forward. that's a real question

of if that deal gets signed and what it looks like going forward. and now here comes the president and the french president. >> well, thank you very much, everyone. great honor to be here with my friend. i'm delighted to welcome president macron back to the white house. we've been together quite often, but not that often in the white house. we honored the president and first lady of france. not so long ago. it was a beautiful evening and we will not soon forget. it was a beautiful day and evening and many fond memories. i also want to thank emmanuel for hosting me in paris last december after a historic

election win to witness the reopening of the spectacular notre dame cathedral, where you did an outstanding job in bringing it back together. that was a sad day. watching that burn, and five years later you had it up and it was a, they say, more beautiful than it was before. so i think that's a great achievement. it was not easy. france is america's oldest ally. our cherished partnership has been a force for freedom, prosperity and peace from the very beginning. we are now working on some very interesting developments. one in particular, as you know, the war between russia and ukraine in the american revolution. french support helped us to seize our destiny as an independent nation. and the first and second world wars. our citizens shed blood together on the battlefields of europe. and i'll never forget joining president macron six years ago in the 75th anniversary of d-day. that was some day. the purpose of our meeting today is to end another

battle, a really horrible one, a war, something that we haven't seen since the second world war. that is ravaging european soil. the deadliest and most destructive conflict that one can imagine. i've seen the pictures, i've seen the satellite photos and and lots of other photos. and it's a horrible thing that's happening. thousands of people are dying a week this very day is the third anniversary of the invasion of ukraine, which would never have happened if i was president. that was not going to happen. the horrors of this gruesome and bloody war can scarcely be overestimated. hundreds of thousands of people, russians and ukrainians in particular, have needlessly died. an entire generation of ukrainians and russian men has been decimated. 1000 year old cities have been turned into rubble. those beautiful spires that you used

to see there, they were most beautiful in the world. they say are lying in heaps of rubble. blasted to smithereens. and it's time to end this bloodletting and restore peace. and i think we're going to do it. we've had some great conversations, including with russia, since my return to the white house. we've made more progress toward that goal in one month than occurred in the past three years. and i've spoken with both president putin and president zelenskyy. and again, a lot of a lot of good things toward peace are happening. moving it, i think, pretty quickly. last week, secretary of state marco rubio national security adviser michael waltz and special envoy steve witkoff. conducted successful talks in saudi arabia with the delegation from russia. and i'd like to thank the kingdom of saudi

arabia and the king and mohammed. are great people. they're really working hard to get this done. our focus is on achieving a ceasefire as soon as possible and ultimately a permanent peace. my meeting with president macron today was another important step forward in that in that sphere, because he's been very much involved right from the beginning in trying to get it over with, and we're going to get it done. i believe that emmanuel agrees with me on many of the most important issues, chief among them is this is the right time. it may be the only time you know, that's a very interesting and horrible situation, and that could evolve into a third world war. we're not going to let that happen. should have never started, but it did. and what a mess. what a horrible, bloody mess. i'm also pleased that president macron agrees that the cost and burden of securing the peace must be borne by the nations of europe, not alone by

the united states and europe must take that central role in ensuring long term security of ukraine, which they want to do. and that's not a very big step. a big step is what's going to happen over the next few weeks. the united states has put up far more aid for ukraine than any other nation. hundreds of billions of dollars. we've spent more than 300 billion, and europe has spent about 100 100 billion. that's a big difference. and at some point we should equalize. but hopefully we won't have to worry about that. we have other things happening that maybe take that out of the realm of necessity. and while we've given vast amounts of military aid and money in form of grants, much of europe's contribution has been economic relief, structured as loans for which they will be repaid. like the europeans, i believe that taxpayers and the united states also deserve to

recoup the colossal amounts of money that we've. sent the previous administration never even thought of that. they didn't think of a lot of things, like, why did they let it start in the first place? that is why we must have an agreement with ukraine on critical minerals and rare earths and various other things as security. and i think that that's happening. i think we've made a lot of progress. i had a report just given to me before walking in that we've made emanuel a great deal of progress toward getting that. i've been elected by the american people to restore common sense to washington and indeed to the world. and i believe strongly that it's in the best interests of the united states, the best interests in europe, the best interests of ukraine, and indeed, the best interests of russia to stop the killing now and bring the world to peace. my administration is making a

decisive break with the foreign policy failures of the past administration and frankly, the past. i ran against a very foolish foreign policy establishment, and their recklessness has led to the death of many, many people under our administration, we're forging a new path that promotes peace around the world. and when i left office for the first administration, first term, we had no wars. we had no problems. we didn't have october 7th with israel. we didn't have russia and ukraine going at it. we didn't have the problems in other parts of the middle east. we didn't have inflation. it was a whole different world. and you know what else? we didn't have millions of people pouring through our borders, many of them criminals released from other nations and put right into our land murderers and drug dealers, gangs. we didn't have any of that. it's a different time. but now we have it and we're fixing it. we'll fix it all up. we'll get it done as quickly as possible, and we've

made a great deal of progress. people are saying it was the best month for a president in our country's history. i hope that's right. but i feel it's right. we've we've done a lot of things in a very short period of time, four weeks. as i've said before, it's my hope that my greatest legacy, however, will be as a peacemaker and a unifier. i want to bring peace, not war. i thank president macron for joining us today in this urgent work we're doing. we have some wonderful people up front right here that have worked so hard. steve witkoff, thank you very much. and michael waltz, thank you, scott, thank you very much. and jd, thank you. they've really done a they've really done a job. they worked very hard. it's like it's a real passion to get this war ended. and i'd like to now invite emmanuel to say a few words and then we'll take questions. and again, emmanuel, it's a great honor to have you with us at the white house. thank you very much. please.

>> thank you. thank you, mr. president. thank you. donald. ministers. ladies and gentlemen. mesdames and messieurs. >> ladies and gentlemen, i'll be saying a few words in french. thank you very much, mr. president. dear donald, for your hospitality and for this visit. as you mentioned, we have had the opportunity to meet over the past few years. since your first term, we have been able to discuss matters in paris and also here at the white house. and it has always been a great joy to do that. and i would like to commend you and thank you, mr. president, for extending this friendship to france and taking part in the ceremony at notre dame that you mentioned before. it was a great honor for the french people to reopen the cathedral to the rest of the world. and your presence was a testament to that friendship. as the president said, this

friendship dates back to the revolutionary war. since the beginning of the united states. and whenever we've needed to, we've been able to come together and be on the right side. we have been able to be united to defend peace and sovereignty, namely, in the two world wars that marked the 20th century. from lafayette to pershing and to the many americans who landed on omaha beach. and we spoke earlier before, and you mentioned that one of those gentlemen was able to visit you here, one of the veterans. this is part of history which puts us in the world that we are in today. and as the president just said, there are many challenges in this world. and over the past few days. we have one main