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>> 821 4000. >> this might get tricky. right now, the uk prime minister is at the white house with a critical but short to do list. can keir starmer convince president donald trump to include europe in key negotiations on ukraine? the two set to speak to the press just minutes from now. plus, you have 15 minutes to gather all your stuff and get out. we're live outside the usaid headquarters where fired staffers are retrieving their personal belongings as doge keeps getting even more federal agencies. >> and. oscar winning actor gene hackman, his wife and dog all found dead in their new mexico home. we'll have details on the investigation. we're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to cnn news central.

>> breaking news. this hour we are watching a high stakes meeting at the white house between president donald trump and british prime minister keir starmer, who's on a critical mission today to persuade trump to maintain u.s. support for ukraine as part of any peace deal with russia. that's something that trump has not yet committed to. >> hours before talks were set to begin, we had confirmation that ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy will be meeting with trump tomorrow here in washington to potentially sign a deal that would allow the u.s. to access kyiv's prized rare earth minerals. a senior u.s. official says it does not include any specific security guarantees for ukraine. and for his part, zelenskyy says only a framework agreement has been hammered out at this point. cnn's jeff zeleny is live for us at the white house. so, jeff, this is trump's second sitdown here with a key u.s. ally this week. talk to us about the significance of this meeting today. >> it is highly significant. there is no question about it. and the two leaders are in the

oval office right now, beginning their series of meetings as they were walking into the white house, reporters asked the president if he believes a peace deal can be reached. he said, yes, we can. we will release it, reach it with a russia. but the question is, what role will europe play in this? and one question, after all of these meetings is what are the security guarantees? the united states is offering the european allies, and as of now, the trump administration, the president himself have offered very few, if any, they there is no question the british prime minister, as he was flying to washington, he told reporters aboard his plane he is looking for a backstop from the u.s. offering some type of a reassurance. if the french sends in troops, if a great britain sends in troops and other allies, will the u.s. offer a backstop if russia invades again? and the answer to that question is going to go a long way to determining how the next chapter of ukraine and russia is

going to unfold, but also the u.s. relationship with its western allies. so the outcome of this meeting, certainly high stakes, likely the highest stakes of any united kingdom leader here since the end of the second world war. so that frames the history and the gravitas of this. but as the french visit from a french president, emmanuel macron, on monday indicated, yes, there was a lot of back and forth. but president trump made no assurances about security guarantees. so they are meeting right now. and then we'll have a press conference later. one early word we're getting from reporters in that oval office meeting is that one of the first things that the the prime minister did was give the president a letter from king charles inviting him to visit the united kingdom. and we know from the first administration, the president is very, um, he likes the pomp and circumstance of those meetings. we all remember him meeting with the

queen. so that was the very first offering from the prime minister, inviting him to the u.k. on behalf of the king. boris and brianna. >> a significant early glimpse as we get more details about this meeting. we are again going to monitor those details as they come in. jeff. pivoting to what we're anticipating tomorrow, this meeting between trump and president zelenskyy of ukraine. what have you learned about where those negotiations stand right now? because we're hearing two very different things. >> we are. and that is often what you, uh, what happens at the end of a negotiation. but it is unclear if we are at the end point of the negotiations. now, it's it's clear that the president would not be inviting or welcoming the ukrainian president zelenskyy here if there was not some type of a deal. but it is unclear what exactly the outlines of those are, because even as late as yesterday, the president and the cabinet meeting here at the white house, he was essentially saying the u.s. would still profit from some of the rare

earth mineral deals, getting a hold of some of the some of those very valuable minerals to essentially pay back the united states. zelenskyy has said that is a nonstarter. so there is an agreement in principle in terms of a an investment fund, but we do not believe that they have fully reached a deal yet. we'll perhaps see and learn more about that later today. but security guarantees, again, are at the heart. and the bottom line of all of this. >> jeff zeleny, live for us at the white house. thank you so much. a lot of news on the international front and also on the domestic front. for the first time, the nation's highest court is weighing in on president trump's efforts to overhaul the federal government, namely, the deep cuts across government agencies. now, last night, chief justice john roberts paused a district court's order that would have forced the trump administration to release $2 billion in frozen foreign aid. that money would have gone to programs funded by the state department and usaid.

>> and this is a pause that is coming. as a wednesday court filing shows, the trump administration terminating more than 90% of u.s. aid's foreign aid awards and retaining more than 500 others that amount to about $57 billion. joining us now to discuss is cnn legal analyst carrie cordero. and carrie, there's this deadline noon tomorrow. aid groups who are suing the administration have to respond to roberts temporary freeze. what will the court be looking at after that? and then what are the next steps? >> well, so i think this order by the chief justice to pause things should not be necessarily taken as an indication of which way he actually would rule in it. so in this case, he's just providing a very little bit of amount of time, you know, just a couple of days here for the parties to come in and brief and explain whether or not he should go forward. i think this is going to be a real challenge in terms of whether or not the supreme court is going to be looking at this very, very

narrowly with respect to just usaid and these particular groups that are going to be arguing, knowing that there is this bigger picture of this is just one example. and so whatever the court does in this case is going to affect all the other cases, potentially, um, that are at issue because this isn't just about usaid. this is about the doj's efforts and the trump administration's efforts more broadly to significantly draw down the whole scope of the federal government, as you know. >> to that point, what will you be looking for in a decision that would sort of illuminate to you how the supreme court views the relationship between the executive branch and some of these other branches of government, namely congress, who is supposed to hold the purse strings, who's allocated this money to be spent? and yet doge has come and said, no. >> right. and that's the big question, is how the court is going to navigate this line. so congress has passed, for example, the impoundment act decades ago, that that limits

how supposedly the executive branch is able to reallocate or not go forward with funds that have been appropriated by congress. and so this really we are living in an era of constitutional lawmaking where these fundamental checks and balances are taking place. and really even more important than the question of how the court rules in this particular case, whether it says the administration has to provide these funds or not. i think the big picture issue here is whether or not the administration abides by whatever court decision ends up coming out. >> well, to that point, because in the appeal, the trump administration telling the court it takes seriously its constitutional duty to comply with the orders of federal courts. when you listen to some of the public comments, that's not what you're getting, though, right? the rhetoric about how, you know, impeaching judges, questions of whether you should defy court orders. i wonder how you see that rhetoric. and we will say it's not unusual for there to be a

difference in a legal strategy. and then kind of a public affairs strategy, if you will, in trump world. but why is it significant? still the rhetoric. >> so i was i think well, first on the piece that they put into the legal pleading, i think that's important because what's important for the trump administration lawyers who are arguing for the court is their credibility is on the line, too. and so i think that was important from their perspective to communicate to the court in a formal pleading that they intend to abide by court orders. different members, as you point out of the trump administration, have made different messages about courts and judges and so forth. however, i will point out that president trump did in the press conference he had last week, the one that elon musk was in the oval office with him. he said, we abide court orders. and so i'm looking at that statement and hoping that that is an indication of even though they will push as far as they possibly can and they are going to appeal every single the administration will appeal every

single opportunity that they have to achieve what their goals are here, that at the end of the day, when the supreme court rules if it is adverse, they will follow what the president said last week, which is to abide the court orders. >> carrie cordero, thank you so much for your insights. we appreciate it. and right now, usaid workers who have been fired or placed on leave by the trump administration, they are making this walk. final trips into their former offices in washington, and they have a very short period of time, just 15 minutes, to gather all of their personal belongings and get out. >> and as you can see, they are being supported there by onlookers. cnn's arlette saenz joins us now live from outside usaid headquarters. what is it like out there? arlette? >> well, for the past five hours, we have seen a steady stream of usaid workers exiting the headquarters here in washington, d.c. this is one of several entrances and exits that are being used by these staffers who have come to collect their

belongings. each department is being provided with a certain time window, and then they're being told to collect their belongings within 15 minutes. we saw one department out here that decided to all gather together to go in. we saw many tears as they prepared to go clear out their offices. there are people who have carted out suitcases and boxes, as well as tote bags of their personal belongings when they've exited. they then been greeted by these supporters over here, offering applause for their service. i spoke with one young woman who was impacted, who was part of the presidential management fellowship program here at usaid. that fellowship was actually terminated by president trump via executive order just last week. and here is how she told me she's feeling in this moment. so what was it like coming back here today? >> heartbreaking. um, walking in the building and seeing all the pictures of our projects being taken that were taken down? um,

work, like getting children vaccines or providing food aid. things that really matter. um, being treated as if they're nothing. it's really hard to see. >> and i want to show you one visible sign of protest that we've seen this morning. when we arrived here, there was actually black tape. as you can see, the remnants still there covering the usaid logo here outside of the headquarters. i spoke to one terminated usaid staffer who participated in taking that tape off. she believes that the mission of usaid still exists with so many workers, and is holding out hope that there can be some type of assistance like this provided down the road. but this is certainly a very uncertain time for many of the workers here at usaid who are facing termination, layoffs, and administrative leave at a time when there are major cuts to the agency itself. >> yeah. arlette saenz outside usaid headquarters in d.c. thank you so much for that report. still to come. with republicans majority on the line, president

trump wants to play kingmaker in the 2026 midterm elections by opening up his war chest of campaign reserves. plus, house speaker mike johnson brushing off backlash at republican town halls over doge cuts. >> and later, legendary actor gene hackman, his wife and his dog all found dead. what we know about the investigation. you're watching cnn news central. we'll be right back. >> amid upheaval and sweeping changes. >> the president of the united states. >> trump, heads to capitol hill to share what's next. follow cnn for complete coverage and in-depth analysis. the presidential address to congress tuesday at eight on cnn. >> like a relentless weed. moderate to severe ulcerative colitis symptoms can keep coming back. start to break away from you. with tremfya with rapid relief at four weeks. tremfya blocks a key source of inflammation at one year. many

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dismissing the blowback. watch this. >> does the videos you saw of the town halls were for paid protesters in many of those places, these are democrats who went to the events early and filled up the seats. if you had if the videos had panned out, they were. >> paid protesters, though, mr. speaker. >> many of your republican. >> acknowledged they were his constituents. >> uh, one republican acknowledged they were constituents. that's fantastic. okay. but they had democrats come and fill the seats early. >> speaker johnson insists the doge effort cutting thousands of federal jobs and services is what the republican party is all about and what americans want. let's discuss with republican chris sununu. he's a former governor of new hampshire. governor, thank you so much for being with us. uh, what did you think of johnson's statement there? do you think that these folks who are upset about these cuts are paid protestors? yeah. >> well, they're organized. absolutely. >> look.

>> it's it's similar to any time you do a controversial vote in a statehouse. all the organizations show up, all the advocates against something show up. you know, they try to i don't want to use the word intimidation, but they try to have their voices heard and effectively scare some of these congressmen out of doing what they know they should be doing, which is, you know, approving and moving forward on a lot of these doge initiatives. so, no, that's that's nothing new. it's whether they're paid or organized, however you want to put it. it's very strategic to kind of put pressure on these folks to kind of push back against the doge effort. but at the end of the day, america sees something happening. doge isn't perfect. they're going to make mistakes. they even say that. but this is what we have to do. guys, this is not politics. this is math. somebody owes 36 trillion because a lot of really bad administrations and lazy congressmen and women refuse to do their job for the past 25 years. and when you have something like usaid. look, sometimes we're not getting rid of vaccine programs. we're not getting rid of of food programs. the state department is simply saying there is a more accountable and more efficient way to to distribute this stuff,

as opposed to billions and billions of dollars being just funneled out there with no accountability. >> so to your point about the $34 billion that are owed, and i just want to point out there is a distinction and a connotation when saying that someone is a paid protester versus, you know, an organization that decided, as you said, to make their voice heard. when it comes to the cuts, specifically, speaker johnson is in an interesting spot, right? he says that he plans to follow donald trump's edict to not touch social security, medicare or medicaid. yet, as you acknowledged, balancing the budget does require some kind of reform, likely entitlement reform. do you think republicans can get there and keep that promise of not touching those very expensive programs? >> yeah, i don't think they have to touch the entitlements anytime soon. i think probably within the next 5 to 8 years they do. and the way you balance the budget is to say, okay, we've we've they're going to get a huge chunk of these efficiencies and cuts in the next, let's say, 18 months, right. doge has an 18 month

existence, so to say. and then there'll be a growth model here, and then there'll be some natural changes to to the entitlements likely way down the road. it's nothing president trump has to worry about or touch. it's not even anything congress has to touch. i'm a believer in the balanced budget amendment so that whatever is done today, all this hard work that the president and doge is doing, all these arrows that they're taking, right, they're doing the hard work today. so it lasts into perpetuity. and that's what the american people really want. we don't want another administration coming along and printing more money and creating more inflation and putting us back into debt after they've done all this hard work. so the best thing they could do is a balanced budget amendment that simply says, over the next ten years, we will design the programs to get us there. but, you know, for those who are scared of entitlement reform and all that, i don't think it's nearly as scary as it needs to be, but it's probably nothing that has to be touched today. but ultimately, everybody knows that that's going to have to be on the table in in the long run. you don't have to affect anybody's benefits today. by the way. social security, let's talk about this social security. if nothing is done to it, benefits

get cut to about 83% of what they are today. by law, that's already in law. about ten years from now when it goes bankrupt. so who's going to fix it? who's going to protect the benefits so that reform has to happen is my point. because otherwise everyone watching today, if you're on social security, your benefits are getting cut. if congress doesn't do anything in the next eight years. >> so any kind of entitlement reform comes with political risk because it means less spending on those entitlements. donald trump is a lame duck, at least in theory. he can't run for another term. do you think it's incumbent on him to do the politically unpopular thing and put the nation on a path to avoid bankruptcy? do you think he should bite the bullet politically? essentially. >> yeah, i don't think you. so the answer is yes and no. i don't think as politically risky as people think. and he doesn't need to do it. this is what i would do. i'd say you guys are going to live in a in a new balance, but with a new balanced budget amendment, we're going to codify that into

perpetuity. we're going to set up a commission in the next that over the next two years with and you don't do it alone. you don't do it with just republicans. republicans and democrats come together. i bring in aarp. i bring in a lot of the advocacy groups that are concerned about entitlement reform. let them be part of the process. let them design the solution. so to say, because medicare goes bankrupt, guys, social security goes bankrupt. that's reality. in about 8 to 10 years. so it has to be fixed somehow. it doesn't need to be fixed today. but he would get a lot of credit, not political bullets, so to say, but a credit for starting that process and forcing america to live within its means. it would ensure that america stays on top of its game economically and on the on the world stage, into perpetuity. and that's an amazing win. it's not going to be easy, but even just starting that process doesn't hurt the president. it helps him. >> i do want to ask you, before we go about doge in itself, because after the election, you talked about wanting doge to create lasting change beyond

making just recommendations to congress. but we are hearing from republicans on capitol hill as well as cabinet secretaries and folks at the top of these agencies concerned about the way that doge has conducted some of its work, these firings and then rehiring and the freezing of funds, they want more transparency and more involvement in the process. there's obviously a lot of unanswered questions, and you could argue that there should be accountability for, for example, getting rid of the folks that oversee the nuclear arsenal only to rehire them later. do you think that doge needs to slow down? >> so i think what you're going to what's going to happen is this doge has come in hard and fast for the first couple of months. while some of these agency heads aren't even confirmed yet, most of them are there and they're just kind of getting in there. their teams are just getting in there. so doge is going to go hard and fast and kind of clear the decks, almost whiteboard a lot of this out. then, as the agency heads come in over the next six months to 12 months, they're going to start saying, okay, this program was cut by doge. so if we really want it back, we

have to justify its existence and they can bring it back with maybe a new mission, more accountability, more efficiency that doge is looking for. so doge is doing kind of the hard work up front, clearing the decks. this new administration will come in the new leadership. they're literally just getting into their offices this past couple of weeks, and they'll take 6 to 12 months to kind of build things back up in a much more efficient way while clearing out all of the fat. so it's a process. it's not going to happen overnight. and with those teams coming in, those individual agencies will then drive a lot of the decisions, a lot of the communication to congress and a lot of the the additional transparency, the receipts. right. we talk about where's the receipt for this, where's the receipt for that? they said that this many people are getting, you know, social security benefits. prove it to us. well, now we have the time and the teams in there that are more in place. i think a lot of people still forget we're not even two months in, like we're not even two months in. it's really incredible. so doj's job is to go hard, fast. they'll take all the the political arrows, so to say, and then let the teams do the cleanup. >> governor chris sununu, we

have to leave the conversation there. look forward to the next one. thanks. >> you bet. anytime. >> from the birdcage to the firm and the conversation, jake gene hackman was a hollywood heavyweight. ahead. we're going to look at his life and legacy and what we know about the circumstances surrounding his death. we're back in just moments. >> harakat al-muqawama al-islamiyya cookbooks. >> corporate fat cats, swindling. >> socialites, doped up cyclists, and yes, more crooked politicians. i have a feeling we won't be running out of those anytime soon. >> a new season of united states of scandal with jake tapper. march 9th on cnn. >> one a next level clean swish with the whoa of listerine. it kills 99.9% of bad breath germs for five times more cleaning power than brushing and flossing alone. get a next level clean with listerine. feel the. whoa! >> empower. >> so handsome. >> oh. >> i, i can't buy this. >> whoa, whoa. your empower investment account has grown. you earned it. so get good at

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small businesses. >> closed captioning brought to you by. facebook.com. >> if you or a loved one have mesothelioma, we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have. call now and we'll come to you. >> 821 4000. >> what do you think i mean? >> well, i don't know. >> you're the risk taker. you think i'm talking. >> about breaking the law? >> no, i'm just trying to

figure out how far you want it. >> bent as. >> far as you can without breaking it. >> in other words, don't risk an irs audit. >> i don't give a about an audit. they just better not win. >> oscar winning actor gene hackman found dead in his new mexico home, along with his wife and one of their dogs. the oscar award winner was 95 years old. deputies discovered the bodies during a welfare check requested by a neighbor. their causes of death to this point, though, have not been confirmed. >> cnn entertainment correspondent elizabeth wagmeister is following this for us. elizabeth, can you tell us the latest? >> yes, we are just getting new details into this. >> investigation. >> into a. >> truly tragic but also. >> truly bizarre. >> set of circumstances. as you said, the legendary gene hackman was found dead alongside his wife and their dog. now, earlier this. >> morning, we had. >> heard that a gas company was assisting in the investigation. but now, according to a source, a search warrant affidavit that we have obtained, authorities in

santa fe, new mexico, say that they did not locate any signs of carbon monoxide or a gas leak. so that obviously adds to the mystery here. now, i want to read you something directly from the search warrant. authorities say, quote, the circumstances surrounding the death of the two deceased individuals is suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation. so obviously, a lot more questions than answers right now. this investigation remains ongoing, but authorities have said that they do not believe that any foul play was involved. now we got some more information from this search warrant. number one, both gene hackman and his wife appear to have been deceased for a few days. according to this search warrant, also, gene hackman and his wife were found in different rooms in their household. his wife was found in the bathroom with a bottle of pills and pills scattered. so again, just a tragic story, but a legendary,

true hollywood great. and the tributes are pouring in for gene hackman this morning. yeah. understandably so. elizabeth, thank you so much for that report. let's go now. moments ago at the white house, uk prime minister starmer, visiting president trump. >> keir starmer in the oval office. it's a very special place and he's a special man. and the united kingdom is a is a wonderful this is a wonderful country that i know very well. i'm there a lot and i'll be going. i'll be going there. and we expect to see each other in the near future. we'll be announcing it. but, uh, we're going to be discussing many things. today we'll be discussing russia, ukraine. we'll be discussing trade and lots of other items. and i think we can say that we're going to be getting along on every one of them. we've had a tremendous relationship. and frankly, the prime minister and i have met twice before, and we we get along very famously, as you would say. and, uh, i look

forward to it very much. we look forward to the day and the meeting. we'll be having a luncheon after this. and then another work session. and i believe we're going to have a press conference at the end. so i look forward to it. and mr. prime minister, thank you very much. thank you. thank you, mr. president. >> can i say thank you for your hospitality, for your leadership? we have met a number of times. we've talked a number of times, um, and we have had a very constructive conversation. i'm sure we will, um, today. and of course, our countries have been bound together for a very long time now. um, the closest alliance, i think, of any two countries when it comes to prosperity and security. and i know that together we will strengthen that even further. and on issues like ukraine, thank you for changing the conversation to bring about the possibility that now we can have a peace deal. um, and we want to work with you to make sure that peace deal is enduring, that it

lasts, that it's a deal that goes down as a historic deal that nobody breaches. and we'll work with you to make sure that that absolutely happens. um, and it is my pleasure to bring, um, from his majesty the king. um, a letter he sent, his best wishes and his regards, of course. but he also asked me to bear this letter and bring it to you. so can i present the letter from the king? >> thank you very much. am i supposed to read it right now? >> yeah. >> please do. >> i will do. >> i've got to tell him what your reaction is. i need to know. i need to know. >> he is. he is a great gentleman. a great, great gentleman. oh, that's swell. well, that is really nice. i must make sure

his signature is on that. otherwise, it's not quite as meaningful as it is. and that's quite a signature, isn't it? a beautiful he's a beautiful man, a wonderful man, and we appreciate it. i've known him, gotten to know him very well, actually. first term and now second term. uh, perhaps you'd like to say what that very important paragraph. >> yes. so this is a letter from his majesty the king. um, it's an invitation for a second state visit. this is really special. this has never happened before. this is unprecedented. um. and i think that just symbolizes, uh, the strength of the relationship between us. so this is a very special letter. i think the last state visit was a tremendous success. it was his majesty. the king wants to make this even better than that. so this is. this is truly historic. an unprecedented second. visit.

wants to talk that through with you. >> and that says at windsor, that's that's really something. >> yes. well, i haven't got yet. is your answer. yes. i do need to. >> the answer is yes. half of our wonderful first lady, melania and myself. the answer is yes. and we look forward to being there and honoring the king and. honoring, really your country. your country is a fantastic country. and it will be our honor to be there. thank you very much. >> well, thank you very much, mr. president. i shall happily take that back to his majesty. thank you, thank you. >> thank you. i'm going to keep that one. >> you'll keep that one. >> mr. president. president trump, andrew and tristan tate landed in florida today on a private jet after being released from custody in romania. they are accused rapists, human traffickers, not thought of as good people in many circles. did your administration pressure the

romanian government to release them? and if so. >> i know nothing about that. uh, i don't know. you're saying he's on a plane right now? yeah. i just know nothing about it. we'll check it out. we'll let you know. >> well. >> the president. >> i do. look, obviously, this involves, um, there's an english element here, so obviously it's important that justice is done. and human trafficking is obviously, to my mind, a security risk. and so we'll catch up with the story in due course. are you aware? >> i didn't know anything about it. yeah. where were you. >> when you. >> make up 30% of the federal workforce? are you tracking how many veterans have been fired so far? >> yes we are. >> doge. >> we are. and and we take good care of our veterans. and we're watching that very carefully. and we hope it's going to be a smaller number as possible. but we are having great success in slimming down our government. it's been really very successful and some took pay outs and buyouts and others, uh, took

other things. and some people were finding out don't even exist. we're finding that we have a lot of people that don't exist that people thought that did. we will be making a statement on that. but we're taking care of our veterans. we love our veterans. we're going to take good care of them. >> mr. president, president xi. >> is the uk prime. >> okay, please. >> mr. president, could you be persuaded as part of a peace settlement in ukraine to provide air cover, a backstop security position to the contributions that europe might make as well? >> well, so, president zelenskyy is coming to see me on friday, friday morning, and we're going to be signing really a very important agreement for both sides, because it's really going to get us into that country. we'll be working there. we'll have a lot of people working there. and so in that sense, it's very good. it's a backstop. you could say, i don't think anybody's going to play around if we're there with a lot of workers and having to do with rare earths and other things, which we need for our country, and we appreciate it very much. and i look forward to seeing him. we'll be talking

about it. and we'll also be talking about that today with the prime minister. >> yeah. i mean, we as you know, we've already indicated that we'll play our full part in making sure that any deal, if there is one and i hope there is. and i think this is a historic moment to make sure it's a lasting deal. and we about to have a discussion about how we can make that work. >> but i have to say this, as i said yesterday, you know, you're talking about peacekeeping force. we have to make a deal first. right now we don't have a deal. we have russia. we have ukraine. i think we're very well advanced. uh, i think russia has been acting very well. we have representatives steve witkoff and scott and marco and jd were all involved. every one of us. and and a lot more. but i think we're very well advanced on the deal. but we have not made a deal yet. so i don't like to talk about peacekeeping until we have a deal. i like to get things done. i don't want to give it the the bad luck sign. we don't want to do that. but we've had very good talks with

russia and we've had very good talks, as you know, with ukraine. yes, sir. >> mr. president and. >> mr. prime minister. >> i have to choose a closer relationship with the eu as he is seeking and a good trade relationship with you. which one should you go for? >> well, i think we have just a great relationship. we actually had a good relationship before we met a couple of times, and i'm very impressed with him and very impressed with his wife. i must say, she's a beautiful, great woman. >> and i said, and. >> i said, you. i said, you're very lucky. he's very lucky. and no, i we've had a very good relationship. you worried about britain. >> potentially undoing some of the benefits of brexit by seeking a closer tie with the eu, who you said was set up to screw. >> don't worry about that. i don't. i thought, you know, frankly what they did was the right thing at the time. and i think that will probably prove out over the centuries. you have a long time to go, but i think i predicted that was going to happen. and it did happen. and it will work itself out. it's i think it's already worked itself out.

>> mr. president. >> can i ask. >> mr. president? >> keir starmer has signed a deal to give away the chagos islands to mauritius. will you approve that deal? >> well, we're going to have some discussions about that very soon. and i have a feeling it's going to work out very well. they're talking about a very long term powerful lease, a very strong lease about 140 years, actually. that's a long time. and i think we'll be inclined to go along with your country. yeah, i think it's. it's a little bit early. we have to be given the details, but it doesn't sound bad. yeah. please. >> mr. president. >> you obviously can do business with our prime minister, keir starmer. you said yesterday that the eu was constructed to screw the u.s. when it comes to trade. what can our prime minister say to you to persuade you not to impose tariffs on the united? >> yeah. did i use the word that you said that bad word? >> i think, sir. sorry. >> well, i think that the eu. yeah, i've had problems with

the eu because and we're not talking about we happen to have a great relationship with you. but we did have and we do have problems with the eu because they've tariff tariffs us. they do it in the form of a vat tax, which is about 20%, and many other taxes. they sue our companies. they sued apple, got 16 or $17 billion, which was, i think, totally a ridiculous decision. and they're suing google for a lot of money. they're suing a lot of other companies, and we don't like the way they're treating our people now. we don't like the way they're treating our companies. they sell us cars. we don't sell them cars. they don't take our cars. they don't take our much of our agriculture. and we have a deficit with them of about $350 billion. so i wouldn't say it's been such a great relationship personally, but other people did, because it's politically correct to say that it's been good, but it hasn't been good. and we're going to change that, and we are going to have

reciprocal tariffs. we're going to have tariffs will have reciprocal whatever they charge us, we're going to charge them, which for many years, foolishly i would have done that. but then all of a sudden we had covid and we had other things to think about. so it took me a little while to get that on. and we but we had in my first four years, we had the greatest economy in the history of, i think, the world, but certainly in the history of our country. i think we're going to have that again. but the eu was very, very tough on us. and from the standpoint of trade, then you could take it a step further and go into nato. and that was a very tough situation for us. i mean, that's been a very tough situation because we were paying a disproportionate share and, uh, it wasn't good. so as you know, they paid hundreds of millions of dollars after i got involved. and they evened it out a little bit, but not very much. and then if you look at the war, we're in for $300 billion plus and they're in for 100 billion.

they get their money back. and now we'll get our money back also. but under biden you wouldn't have done that. biden did a terrible job. i have to say i hate to say that about somebody that sat here just before me, but he did a terrible, terrible job. that war should have never happened. the war between russia and ukraine, frankly, october 7th should have never happened. israel, that should have never happened. what happened there should have never. inflation should have never happened. afghanistan should have never happened. the way they got out, not getting out, but the way they got out. so but i can say that as far as we're here for a different reason, we're talking about a very different place. and this is some place that i, i have investments there. i have i own turnberry, i own aberdeen, and i own a great place called doonbeg in ireland. so, you know, i have, uh, i have a great warm spot for your country. >> on our trade obviously is fair and balanced, and in fact you've got a bit of a surplus. so we're in a different position

there. and obviously we've contributed hugely in relation to ukraine and taken together with europe, as about 50%, it'll work out in. >> it will work. >> it's going to work. >> the president. on a personal level the. >> president thank you. so does. >> that mean. >> there won't be any sanctions on the uk then? >> well, i have to take a look. i mean, we're going to have a good discussion today and we have some very talented people on the other side, and we have some people that probably aren't as talented to them, but they're pretty good. marco, what do you think? ah, people are pretty good. and now we're going to have a good discussion and we'll be talking about that. >> mr. president. mr. president. >> the border. >> mr. starmer. >> the prime minister has. said that he believes that vladimir putin would be at risk of invading ukraine again without a sufficient backstop. do you think that vladimir putin would be likely to invade again in the event of a peace deal? >> i don't think so. i think when we have a deal, it's going to be the deal. i don't think if if i didn't win the election, i don't think we'd be even talking to putin right now or anybody else. i think it would

just, you know, i don't know if you're looking at the stats, but thousands of people are being killed a week. soldiers, mostly because the towns have been destroyed. but thousands of soldiers. this was a very bad week, by the way. i get i get the stats and you're talking about human life. number one, i want to see that. and it doesn't involve american soldiers, but it's russian and ukrainian soldiers. and i can think i think i'm speaking for both. >> yeah, yeah. >> number one we want to see that stop. and number two, i want to stop paying the kind of money that we're talking about. you know, we're helping and we're helping nato, but we're helping a lot more than anybody else by far. and i want that to stop. also. >> mr. president. >> the ukrainians. >> jeff. >> go ahead. >> thank you sir. you talked about trade tariffs this morning on your. social media site. just a question about china. 10% tariffs has already been implemented on china. are you planning to. >> do. >> additional ten above. >> the. >> ten will be an additional ten above. and is there from the

talks with canada and mexico so far, are you not seeing the progress that you wanted in order to? >> i don't see it at all. no, not on drugs. we've done a great job. if you look at tom homan, he's been incredible. and christie, they've done a great job in terms of the border. but the drugs continue to pour into our country, killing hundreds of thousands of people. we're losing substantially more than 100,000 people, i mean, dead, they're dead. the families are destroyed after that happened. so it's you know, it's not just that that's the ultimate, but the families are absolutely destroyed. the drugs come in through mexico. they come a lot of them. not all of them, but a lot of them come from china. and that's why we did that. it's ten. it's ten plus ten. was there confusion on that? >> there was sir. >> yes. okay. ten plus ten. it's a second ten. and i think you'll, uh i think you're going to see eventually you're going to see drugs stopping because the country should not be allowing those drugs to come into the united states of america, and we're not going to

allow it to happen. so that goes on. on the 4th of march. and then on the 2nd of april, we have reciprocal tariffs. that's reciprocal where we charge countries what they're charging us. and nobody should have a problem with that. we have a reciprocal reciprocity. it's something that i think, uh, everybody i've spoken to said that's fair. and it is if somebody charges us 25%, we charge them 25. if somebody charges us ten or 15 or 30 or 70, we charge them an exact like amount. and it's pretty simple, but it's reciprocal tariffs because the united states has been taken advantage of by many, many different countries, including our friends, friend and foe, and in many cases, our friends took bigger advantage of. and when you talk about the eu, we're talking about the eu. the eu has been really a very bad to us in terms of trade and i'm a different kind of a

president. i can't let that happen. >> thank you, mr. president. you said just now. please, ma'am. go ahead. >> mr. president, would you be willing to do if vladimir putin did not stick to the terms of any deal on ukraine? >> if you know. >> what, he did not stick to the terms of any deal on ukraine because he has a history of not sticking to his word when it comes to international agreements. >> i think he'll keep his word. i think i think he's i've spoken to him. i've known him for a long time now. you know, i've known him. we had we had to go through the russian hoax together. that was not a good thing. it's not fair. that was a rigged deal and had nothing to do with russia. it was a rigged deal with inside the country. and they had to put up with that, too. they put up with a lot. it wasn't just us. they had to put up with it with a phony story that was made up. i've known him for a long time now, and i think he will. i don't believe he's going to violate his word. i don't think he'll be back when we make a deal. i think the deal is going to hold now. they're going to have security. you're going to have security. you're going to have soldiers. i know france wants to be there. he's, uh, the

president has has said he wants to have soldiers there. i don't think we're going to even be necessary, but i don't think there'll be any problem with keeping the deal with the security. >> we're going to. >> discuss. >> that, please. >> you want to say something? >> no, i'm just going to say i mean, the deal if we get it is going to be hugely important. i don't think it would have happened if the space hadn't been created for it by yourself. um, but if there's a deal in, we've got to make sure it's a deal that lasts. that is not temporary, that lasts. and that's why we need to make sure that it's secure. and we've went in and said, we'll play our part and we've talked and we will talk about how we work with yourself, mr. president, to ensure that this deal is something which is not violated, because it's very important that if there is a deal, we keep it. >> and there. >> will be. >> and i think i can say that will be the easy part. that's the part we look forward to, because putting security there, that's the part we all look forward to. that's easy. the difficult part is getting the deal made. so but i think we've come a long way. did you have something? he's got such a nice

face. he's he's smiling. but watch he'll ask a total killer. >> question. >> those are the. >> words a long time. >> yeah. the ones that get, you know, he looks like a nice guy. >> mr. president, what do you get on most? what's your common ground with. >> sir keir starmer? >> because you're both from different political backgrounds. >> it's true. i think, uh, i can say this because we've known each other now. really, for a little while. this is not our first meeting. as you know, he loves his country, and so do i. that's our common, uh, our common theme. he loves his country, and i love our country. and we also have two countries that have gotten along, uh, for the longest period of time. number one ally on each side. and we have good france and australia. we have a lot of good ones, but we've had a long time relationship, a long time, hundreds of years. and, uh, we like each other, frankly. and we like each other's country. and we love our country. and i think that's our common thread.

>> okay. mr.. >> mr. president. >> the europeans. yeah. please. on tariffs, you just said with china. >> who are you with? >> i'm with the independent. oh that's good. it's on tariffs. you just said with china. yeah. thank you. we charge them. we charge them as and we charge china. but the tariffs are paid eventually by american importers and consumers. >> no they're not. no i think they're paid for by the country. but you know look we can get into that. i had i put a lot of tariffs on in my first term, and we made tremendous amounts of progress because of those tariffs. uh, china paid us hundreds of billions of dollars, billions we never had because they took advantage. and president xi is a friend of mine, but he knows he knows better than anybody. he took advantage of our country. he took advantage of presidents that didn't know what they were doing. and they expect him. they actually expect him. the smart countries expect them from me because they know me and they know our country. but they got away with they got away with murder for, for decades. and we

just can't let that happen anymore. behind you. please. >> it sounds as though one of you completely trusts president putin, and one of you doesn't trust him an inch. have i got that right? and why do you trust him? >> look, you know, it's trust and verify, let's call it that. and and i think we both can be that way. you have to verify because you never know what's going to happen. i know i know a lot of people that you would say no chance that they would ever deceive you. and they're the worst people in the world. i know others that you would guarantee they would deceive you. and you know what? they are 100% honorable, so you never know what you're getting. uh, no. i have confidence that if we make a deal, it's going to hold. >> mr. president. president. >> the fentanyl. >> mr. president. >> less than 1% of all fentanyl that comes into the u.s. is apprehended at the canadian border. so why use fentanyl as a reason? >> they should be apprehending much more. they're only apprehending 1%. you're right about that. it's a little more than that. but they should be apprehending much more because a

lot comes through canada. and as mexico gets stronger in terms of the border, it goes up to canada and a lot of drugs are coming in through canada. we can't have that. >> mr. president. >> mr. president. >> yeah. go ahead please. in the back. >> is there anything you can say tomorrow to president zelenskyy to reassure him that his country's war hasn't been in vain and its sovereignty is not going to be threatened by any deal with russia? >> well, you know, he's coming, uh, perhaps he's already on his way, and we're going to be signing the deal together, probably in front of the media, and we're going to be having a good conversation. no, we want to work with him. president zelenskyy, zelenskyy, she said before, we want to work with him and we will work with him. i think the president and i actually have had a very good relationship. it maybe got a little bit testy because we wanted to have a little bit of what the european nations said, you know, they they get their money back by giving money. we don't get the money back. biden

made a deal. he put in $350 billion. and i thought it was a very unfair situation. >> we're not getting all of ours. i mean, quite a bit of ours was, was was gifted. it was given, um, there were some loans, but mainly it was gifted, actually. >> mr. president, the europeans. want a ukraine to be part of nato as part of this deal. are you willing to budge on that at all or is it a firm? >> well, i could be very nice and say, oh, well, we'll work to it. look, it's not going to happen. it's just not going to happen. that's what started this whole thing. biden. biden said that, and all of a sudden the gun started. that was one of the primary reasons this started. and this was long before president putin. they never said it was an impossibility. so we can say, oh, gee, well, we'll try, but that's something that's just not going to happen. and then the other question you ask is about the land. will you get your land back? well, they fought long and hard on the land. and you and i will be discussing that. and we're going to certainly try and get as much as we can back.

but on the nato, it's just not that's not going to happen. yes, please. >> mr. president. >> you talked about. >> having common ground with keir starmer, but there are things you disagree on as well. you described zelenskyy as a dictator. he describes president putin as a dictator. do you see that as a problem? >> the relationship between president zelenskyy and president putin is not a good one. you've noticed, right? it's not a good one. it's not a good relationship. and, uh, we'll have to try and work something out. sometimes that happens. uh, i get along with both. i have a very good relationship with president putin. i think i have a very good relationship with president zelenskyy. and now we're, you know, we're doing the deal, and we're going to be in there. we're going to be actually in there and digging, digging our hearts out. and hopefully, you know, we need the rare earth and we have some here, but we don't have enough. we're our our economy is very strong, and we

need a lot of things that in some cases we don't have here. so, uh, i think we're going to have a very good relationship. but the relationship between them is not the best. >> i think that mr. zelenskyy is a dictator. >> um. >> did i say that? i can't believe i said that. next question. >> sir. >> are you be. >> discussing the order, sir? >> yeah. please go ahead, sir. >> the financial times. >> can you see any situation. where u.s. forces. >> could be. >> deployed as a backstop in a peacekeeping operation. >> in direct confrontation. >> with russian forces? >> well, there is a backstop thing. you know, first you have to have european countries because they're right there. we're very far away. we have an ocean between us. but we want to make sure it works. so i don't know when you say backstop, you mean a backstop psychologically or militarily or what? but we are a backstop because we'll be over there. we'll be working in the country. so we're going to be that's a great thing economically for them. because, you know, when you talk about economic development, we're

going to have a lot of people over there. so we'll be working in the country. so i don't i don't i just don't think you're going to have a problem. i think when we have an agreement, you can say whatever you want about security, who's going to do it? and that's going to be a very pleasant conversation. the hard conversation is will we have an agreement? and i think the answer is yes. i think russia will agree. and i think that i really believe ukraine will agree also. >> discuss all. >> this as well. >> just just to point. >> off on that, if british troops are in ukraine keeping the peace and get attacked by russia, will you come to their aid.? >> if the british people are in ukraine and they get attacked, you know, i've always found about the british, they don't need much help. they can take care of themselves very well. you know what? no, it sounds like it's evasive, but it's not evasive. you know, the british are have been incredible soldiers. incredible military, and they can take care of themselves. but if they need help, i'll always be with