democracy. >> looking to contact your members of congress? well, c-span is making it easy for you. with our 2025 congressional directory. get essential contact information for government officials, all in one place. this compact spiral bound guide contains bioand contact information for every house and senate member of the 119th congress. contact information on congressional committees. the president's cabinet. federal agencies. and state governors. the congressional directory costs $32.95 plus shipping and handling. and every purchase helps support c-span's nonprofit operations. scan the code on the right or go to c-span shop.org to preorder your copy today. >> earlier president trump and elon musk who is leading the department of government efficiency known as doge met with members of president trump's cabinet. this was the first full meeting

of the cabinet. president trump: thank you very much. we appreciate you being here. we have put together a great cabinet. we have had tremendous success. been given a lot of credit for having a very successful first month. and we want to make that many months. and years, actually. we'll have many good months. we'll have many good years, i hope. solve a lot of problems. we are doing very well with russia, ukraine. president zelenskyy will be coming on friday. that's now confirmed. we are going to be signing an agreement which will be a very big agreement. i want to thank howard and scott for the job you guys did. putting it together. really did an amazing job. that will be on rare earth. and other things. as you know we are in for probably $350 billion, europe is in for $100 billion.

that's a big difference. we are in for probably three times as much. yet it's very important to everybody. europe's very close. we have a big ocean separating us. it's very important for europe. they hopefully will step up and do maybe more than they are doing. maybe a lot more. the previous administration put us in a very bad position, but we have been able to make a deal where we are going to get our money back. we'll get a lot of money in the future. i think that's appropriate. because we have taxpayers that are -- shouldn't be footing the bill. they shouldn't be footing the bill at more than the europeans are paying. it's all been worked out. we are happy about it. and i think that very importantly we are going to be able to make a deal. most importantly by far we are going to make a deal with russia and ukraine to stop killing meme. they'll stop killing young russian soldiers and young ukrainian soldiers, and other people in addition in the towns

and cities. we'll consider that a very important thing. and a big accomplishment. it was going nowhere until this administration came in. they hadn't spoken to president putin in two years. so we'll keep you advised. before we begin the cabinet, i'd like to have scott and a couple of people say a few things. but most importantly where are you? this is a gentleman who is going places. the head of h.u.d. he's going to say, you all know him, going to say grace. right. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. let's pray. father, we thank you for this awesome privilege, father, to be in your presence. we thank you that you have allowed us to see this day and your mercies every morning. father god we give you the glory and honor. thank you god, for president trump, for appointing us, father, god, thank you for anointing us to do this job.

father, we pray you'll give the president and vice president wisdom. father god, as they lead, pray for all our colleagues that are here around the table and in this room, father god we pray that we would lead with the righteous clarity. father god, as we serve the people of this country and every perspective agency, every job that we have, father, we would humble ourselves before you. and we would lead in a manner you have called us to lead and serve. father, the bible said blessed is the nation whose god is the lord. father, we today, honor you and in your rightful place, father, thank you for giving us this opportunity to restore faith in this country and be a blessing to the people of america. god, today in our meating, we pray you will abe glorified in our conversation. in jesus name, amen. president trump: very good job you did. you have done that before, haven't you. [laughter] scott turner is a terrific young guy.

he's heading up h.u.d. heal make us proud. >> thank you, mr. president. petroleum: gray -- president trump: great job. in one month, illegal border krozzings have plummeted by numbers nobody has seen before. much more than 100%. we have unleashed american energy at levels that will soon be reported, but we think we are going to get it going very quickly. we have incredible people in the energy front. i think we have really great people on every front. i'll let you know if they are good. i think they are. we are fighting every day to get the prices down. the inflation is stopping slowly. but part of the reason it's stop is because of high interest rates and other problems that we inherited. but we have to get the prices down. not the inflation down, the prices of eggs and various other things. eggs are a disaster. the secretary of agriculture's going to be showing you a chart that's actually mind-boggling what's happened. how low they were with us, and

how high they are now. i think we can do something about it. i think you are going to do a fantastic job in that position. one of the most important initiatives is doge. we have cut billions and billions and billions of dollars. we are looking to get it maybe to $1 trillion. if we can do that we are going to start getting to be at a point where we can think in terms of balancing budgets, believe it or not. something you haven't heard in many years. decades, actually. and whether it's this year or next year, think wile be very close to balancing budgets. and the doge is very important. elon is here, too. give you a summary of what's happening. some of the things they have found. some of the horrible things they found. some of the theft and fraud and -- call it waste and abuse. a lot of fraud. probably some fraud that we are not going to be able to prove is fraud. when you hear the names and places where this money's going,

it's a disgrace. but we have requested that a lot of people -- we want to make sure the people are working. letters were sent out. i think everyone at this table is very much behind it. if they aren't, i want them to speak up. they are very much behind it. letters were sent out to people just to find out if the people exist. do they work? who do they work for? where are they? where have they been working? have they been working for other companies or other entities? being paid by the government. so they have two jobs when they are supposed to have one. and the letter asks some simple questions like what have you done lately. and they can answer that. i can. i can tell you everything i have done for the last long period of time. more than a week. and in many cases we haven't gotten responses. usually that means that maybe that person doesn't exist or that person doesn't want to say they are working for another company while being paid by the

united states government. a lot of interesting things. very unique. we have a very unique situation because we have a lot of people that were scamming our country. a lot of dishonest people. a lot of people that took advantage of a lot of different situations. we are not going to let that happen. i'm going to ask if it's possible to have elon get up first and talk about doge because it seems to be of great interest to everyone. i will say that there is a large group of people in this country that have such admiration for what we are doing. i got elected with a tremendous vote. winning every swing state. winning the popular vote. winning the counties by thousands of counties. i think it was 2,800 to 500. 2,800 counties to 500 counties. think of that. so we have a mandate to do this. this is part of the reason i got elected. i got elected based on taxes and based on many things, the

border, also based on balancing budgets and getting our country back into shape. this is a big part of it. so elon, if you could get up and explain where you are. how you're doing. how much we are cutting. it's an honor to have you. been tremendously successful. guy is really working so hard. he's got businesses to run. in many ways how do you do this? sacrificing a lot. get ago lot of praise, i'll tell you. he's also getting hit. and we would expect that. and that's the way it works. i'd like to have elon musk please say a few words. elon: thank you, mr. president. i actually point myself a tech support here. this is actually as crazy as it sounds, that is almost a little express of the work that the doge team is doing. helping fix the government computer systems.

many of the systems are extremely old. they don't communicate. there are mistakes in the systems. software doesn't work. we are actually tech support. it's ironic but true. the ultimate goal here with the doge team is help address the deficit. we cannot sustain as a country $2 trillion deficits. the interest rates -- just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the defense department spending. we spend a lot on the defense department. we are spending over $1 trillion on interest. if this continues, the country will become de facto bankrupt. it's not an optional thing. it is an essential thing. that's the reason i'm here. take ago lot of flak. get ago lot of death threats, by the way. if we don't do this, america will go bankrupt. that's why it has to be done.

i'm confident at this point, knock on wood, knock on my wooden head, the -- a lot of wood up there. that we can actually find the savings. that would be roughly 15% of the $7 trillion budget. i have only begun with the support of everyone in this room. i'd like to thank you all for o the support. thank you very much -- for your support. thank you very much. this is -- it's really -- doge, that's a full function for the president and the agencies and departments to help achieve those savings. to effectively find 15% in reduction in fraud and waste. and we bring the receipts. is this real? just go to doge.gov. we line item by line item we specify each item. and i should say we will make mistakes. we won't be perfect. but when we make mistakes, we'll

fix it quickly. so for example, with usaid, one of the things we accidentally canceled, very briefly, was a convention. so we restored the convention need immediately. there -- immediately. there was no interruption. we do need to move quickly if we are to achieve a trillion dollar deficit reduction in 2026. it requires saving $4 billion per day every day from now through the end of september. but we can't do it -- but we can do it and we will do it. president trump: you have any questions of elon while we are on the subject of doge? we'll finish with that. and if you have any questions, please ask -- you could ask me or elon. go ahead, please. >> thank you, mr. president. thank you, mr. musk. just wanted to ask you president trump put out a truth social today saying everybody in the cabinet was happy with you.

i just wondered if you had heard otherwise. if you had heard anything about members of the cabinet who weren't happy with the way things are going, if so what are you doing to address those dissatisfaction? president trump: let the cabinet speak for a second. anybody not happy? if you are, we'll throw them out of here. [laughter] president trump: anybody unhappy? [applause] president trump: they have a lot of respect for elon that he's doing this. some disagree a little bit, will i tell you for the most part i think everyone's not only happy they are thrilled. go ahead. elon: president trump has put together i think the best cabinet ever. literally. i do not give false praise. this is an incredible group of people. i don't think such a talented

team has ever been assembled. i think it's the best cabinet the country has had and i think people should be appreciative of the people in the room. >> mr. president, thank you, mr. are there -- about half of the government employees so far appear to responded to requests for what they have been doing over the past week. is there a time line in place for being being fired? seeing the results of that? elon: yes. i that email was interpreted was a performance review, but it was a pulse check review. do you have a pulse. [laughter] you can reply to an email if you have a pulse. i think not a high bar is what i'm saying. anyone can accomplish this. what we are trying to get to the bottom of we think there are a

number of people on the government payroll who are dead, which is probably why they can't respond, and some people who are not real people. they are collecting a paycheck. somebody's collecting paychecks on fictional individuals. we are trying to figure out are these people real, are they alive, can they write emails. which i think is a reasonable expectation. the american public would have at least that expectation of someone. >> mr. musk, roughly a million employees have responded so far to this email. does that mean that the remaining one million or so federal employees now risk being terminated? is it yourunder standing and expectation when you post a directive on x that the cabinet secretaries will follow that order? several agencies have instructed employees that this is volume voluntary or not to respond. elon: so, i guess -- last week

president encouraged via truth social to be more aggressive. i was like, ok. yes, sir, mr. president. we'll keep you that. i do what the president asks. can we send out an email to everyone saying what did you get done last week? the president said yevment did that -- said yes. did that. we got a partial response. we are going to send another email. our goal is not to be capricious or unfair. we want to give people every opportunity to send an email. the email can simply be what i'm working on is too classified to describe. that would be sufficient. i think this is just common sense. >> what is your target number for how many workers, employees you are looking to cut total?

elon: we wish to keep everyone who is doing a job that is essential and doing that job well. if the job's not essential, or they are not doing the job well, they should not be on the public payroll. president trump: wait a minute. i'd like to add that those million people that haven't responded they are on the bubble. i wouldn't say that we are thrilled about it. they haven't responded. maybe they don't exist. maybe we are paying people that don't exist. don't forget we just got here. this group just got here. those people are on the bubble as they say. maybe they are going to be gone. maybe they are not around. maybe they have other jobs. maybe they moved and they are not where they are supposed to be. a lot of things could have happened. i wouldn't say that biden ran a very tight administration. they spent money like nobody's ever spent money before. wasted money. the green new scam.

all the different things they spent money on. you have seen that. you have seen that with some of the things that i read in speeches. i read them and people can't believe when i read them. 20 million here. 30 million here for a little educational on something. circumcision. $20 million to inform the people of such and such a country. on other things and other things other than that. yeah, those people are -- right now we are trying to find out who those people are that haven't responded. there will be some agencies like marco and his people within state right now doing very classified, very confidential work. we understand that. we are being a little more surgical. and marco is doing a lot of things himself. some of the secretaries are. we are going to be going to them. we'll be talking about it today. we'll ask them to do their own doge.

in other words, they'll look in their group. i spoke with lee zeldin, he thinks he'll be cutting 65% of the people from environmental. we'll speed up the process, too, at the same time. a lot of people that weren't doing their job. they were just obstructionists. a lot of people that didn't exist. we found a lot of empty spots. people weren't there. they didn't exist. and i think education will be one of those. you go around washington you see all these buildings with the department of education. we want to move education back to the states where it belongs. iowa should have education. indiana should run their own education. you are going to see education go way up. right now we are ranked at the very bottom of the list. but we are at the top of the list in one thing, the cost per pupil. we spend more money per pupil than any other country in the world. yet it's denmark, norway, sweden. i hate to say this, and we get

along very well with china, but it's a competitor. they are at the top of the list. they are among the top 10 usually. and they are a very big country. we can't use that as an excuse. because we are a very big country, too. we were ranked last time under biden ranked 40 out of 40. 40 certain nation that is they have done for a long time. it seems to be 40 for whatever reason. and we are ranked number 40. a year ago we were 38. we were 39. we hit 40. and so we are last in that. we are first in cost per pupil. i would say that's unacceptable. largely -- >> mr. president, the competition, and i know it's early. which department are you are most impressed with? [laughter] that's the first one. mr. musk, which department have you received the most resistance from? president trump: both those

questions, sir. a little bit -- are you a pretty controversial guy. it's very early. right now. i think impressed im-- i'm impressed with everybody. some just got here. they just got approved two days ago. i'm very impressed with everybody. so far happy with all of the choices. i think that elon has done incredibly with some groups. some groups are much easier than others. it is true. state is a very difficult situation. right now negotiating very success 234reu i think with -- successfully with russia and ukraine. we have a lot of countries involved. we have to be a little bit careful what we do and who we are terminating. but marco is doing that. i think he'll be very precise. we are cutting down government. we are cutting down the size of government. we have to. we are bloated. we are sloppy. we have a lot of people not doing their job. we have a lot of people that don't exist. you look at social security as an example.

you have so many people on social security where if you believe it they are 200 years old. what we are doing is finding out are checks going out for that and somebody chashing those? who is maybe 35. there is a lot of dishonestly, fraud. i think at this moment i'll take elon off the spot, i think he's impressed. he said it very well. better than i can say it. impressed with the people in this room. very impressed. i am, too. it's too early to say. i think everybody's onboard. they all know we want to balance the budget. we want a balanced budget within a reasonably short period of time. maybe by next year or the year after. maybe even sooner than that. >> mr. president, your number one issue was the board. we have new information they are docking federal agents. they are putting their personal information out there these activists. so you got -- what are you going to do about the activists?

president trump: a lot are acting illegally. we'll give that to our attorney general and she'll take a look at that very strongly. we also have a tremendous support from border patrol, from i.c.e. i.c.e. agents have been unbelievable. border patrol. their leadership at border patrol has been incredible. they are working very well. as you know, i saw you reporting it this morning, actually, we set records on the least number of illegal aliens coming in. migrants coming into our country that we have had in more than 50 years. we did this within a period of weeks. we took over a mess. the world was pouring in. remember, they were come interesting from -- coming in from jails and prisons and mental institution, and gang members and drug dealers. anybody who wanted to come in -- not just from south america. from all over the world. it's amazing what they have done.

kristi and jon the job they have done has been amazing. we want people to come into our country. but they want to come in they have to come legally. i want that to be understood. we want people in our country, but they have to come in legally. >> can i follow on that, mr. president? about the trump bowl card idea you unveiled yesterday. i need more information. but the question is, does this reflect of you on your part that the american immigration system has never been properly monetized as you feel it should be? president trump: not so much monetize t it hasn't been properly run. i get calls from -- as an example, companies where they want to hire the number one student in the school. person comes from india, china, japan, lots of different places. and they go to harvard, the wharton school of finance. they go to yale. they go to all great schools. they graduate number one in

their class. and they have job offers but the offer is immediately rescinded because you have no idea whether or not that person can stay in the country. i want to be able to have that person stay in the country. these companies can go and buy a gold card and they can use it as a matter of recruitment. at the same time, the company is using that money to pay down debt. we are going to pay down a lot of debt with that. i think the gold card is going to be used by not only for that, used by companies. i could see apple, i have spoken with tim cook, he's going to make a $500 billion investment in the country. only because of the results of the election. and i think because of tariffs. he's going to wouldn't to be in the country because of tariffs. if you are in the country there is no tariff. if you are out of the country you have to pay tariffs. that will be a great investment. i know it's going to be a great investment. we have to be able to get people in the country. we want people that are

productive people. and i will tell you, the people that can pay $5 million they are going to create jobs, spend a lot of money on jobs. they have to may tax -- pay taxes on that. they are going to hire people and bringing people in and companies in. i don't know, maybe it will sell like crazy. i happen to think it's going to sell like crazy, it's a bargain. i think howard and scott, a few of you, really are responsible for it. howard, if you want to discuss that for a couple minutes i think i'd like to have you. i think it's going to be a very successful program. this is commerce. >> so the eb-5 program which has been around for many years, had investment of $1 million into projects in america. and those projects were often suspect, they didn't work out, there wasn't any oversight of it. and so for $1 million investment you got a visa and then you came into the country. and ended up with a green card. it was poorly overseen.

poorly executed. then you had our border open where millions of people came through. so the idea is we will have a proper business. we will modify the eb-5 agreement. kristi and i are working on it together. for $5 million they'll get a license from the department of commerce. then they'll make a proper investment on. eb-5. and we think scott and i will design the eb-5 investment model because we are the best people together to do that. this is joint -- this is exactly the trump administration we all work together. we work it out to be the best f we sell just -- just remember 200,000. there is a line of eb-5 of 250,000 right now. 200,000 of these gold green cards is $1 trillion to pay down our debt. and that's why the president is doing it. because we are going to balance

this budget. and we are going to pay off the debt. under president trump. >> to qualify do you have to promise and make economiesments to make a certain number of jobs in the u.s.? president trump: not all these people will be job builders. they'll be successful people or people hired from colleges like paying an athlete a bonus. apple or one of the concompanies will go out and spend -- they'll buy five of them and get five people. i have had the complaint from a lot of companies where they go out to hire people and they can't hire them out of colleges. you know what they do? they go back to india or country where they came and open up a company and they become billionaires. they become -- they are employing thousands and thousands -- there are a lot of examples. some really big examples where they were forced out of the country, they graduated top in their class at a great school. they weren't able to stay.

this is all time you hear. the biggest complaint i get from companies other than overregulation, which we took care of, but will have to take of here a lot was put back on by biden. the biggest complaint is the fact that they can't have any longevity with people. this way they have unlimited longevity. also with the $5 million that's a path to citizenship. that will be -- a green card plus. it's a path to citizenship. we'll call it the gold card. and i think it's going to be very treasured. i think it will do very well. we are going to start selling hopefully in about two weeks. just so you understand, if we sell a million, a million, that's $5 trillion. howard was use ago different number -- using a different number. that's $5 trillion. if we sell 10 million, which is possible, highly productive people coming in, or people that we are going to make productive, they'll be young but talented, like an athlete, that's $50

trillion. that means our debt is paid off and we have $15 trillion above that. and i don't know that we are going to sell that many. maybe we won't sell many. i think we'll sell a lot because i think there really -- there is no other country can do this. people don't want to go to other countries. they want to come here. everybody wants to come here. especially since november 5. >> all these people will be vetted, ok. >> can you talk a little bit about what type of security guarantees you are willing to make? president trump: i'm not going to make security guarantees beyond -- very much. we'll have europe do that. we are talking about europe is the next door neighbor. we are going to make sure everything goes well. as you know, we'll be making -- we'll be partnering with ukraine in terms of rare earth. we very much need rare earth. they have great rare earth.

we'll be working with secretary burgum and with chris. you'll be working on that together. and we are going to be able to have tremendous -- this gifts uf it here. we have some but not that much. we need a lot more to really propel us to the next level of -- we are leading right now with a.i. we are leading with everything right now. we have to -- we need resources. we have to double our electric capacity. we have to do many i things. we have to triple, if you think of it, the elk trick capacity from what we have right now. the deal we are making gets us -- it brings us great wealth. we get back the money that we spent, and we hope that we are going to be able to set this out. we want to settle it. we want to stop -- i'm doing it for two reasons. the number one reason by far is to watch all these people being killed. i see pictures every week, i

assume satellite pictures mostly, some pictures on site of thousands of soldiers that are being killed. decimated. because equipment today, military equipment, is so powerful and so devastating. number one, i want to see people stop. they are not from here. they are from primarily two other countries. by the way, talk about the middle east. we have to solve that problem, too. that's come a long way. we are doing very well on that also. a lot of things are happening on that. i'm watching soldiers being killed. ukrainian and russian soldiers being killed. my number one thing is to get that stopped. i don't want to have to pay anymore money. biden spent $350 billion without any chance of getting it back. now we are going to be getting all of that money back, plus a lot more. and we provided -- we provided something very important. we'll be working with ukraine. and -- because we'll be taking -- we'll be taking what we are entitled to take.

now, they spent $350 billion. and europe spent $100 billion. does anybody really think that's fair? then we find out, remember a while ago, not so long ago, few months ago, i found out that the money they spent, they get back. but the money we spent we don't get back. i said we are going to get it back. and we'll be able to make a deal. and again president zelenskyy is coming to sign the deal. it's a great deal for ukraine, too. they get us over there. we are going to be working over there. we'll be on the land in that way. it's automatic security. nobody will be messing around with our people when we are there. we'll be there in that way. europe will be watching it very closely. i know that u.k. has said and -- answer france said they want to put, so-called, peacekeepers on the site. that's a good thing. >> you mentioned the high cost of eggs. we have seen consumer confidence

this week have a sharp drop from last month. biggest dip in three years. why is that the case? president trump: i think the consumer confidence, if you look confidence in the nation, it's the biggest increase in the history of the chart. went up 42 points. in peeferred like days -- in a period of days after the election. since the election. since the election the confidence in our nation, including right track, wrong track, first time it ever happened where we are on the right track. this country's been on the wrong track for a long time. so the confidence in business, confidence in the country has reached an all time high. we have never reached levels like now. >> mr. president, you have been very clear in saying as long as you're president iran will never get a nuclear weapon. is it also your policy that as long as you're president china will never take taiwan by force? president trump: i never comment

on that. i don't comment -- because don't want to ever put myself in that position. if i said it, i certainly wouldn't be saying it to you. i would be saying it to other people. maybe people around this table. very specific people around this table. i don't want to put myself in that position. but i can tell you i have a great relationship with president xi. i have had a great relationship with him. we want them to come in -- so many things saying we don't want china in this country. that's not right. we want them to invest in the united states. that's good. that's a lot of money coming in. we'll invest in china. we'll do things with china. the relationship we'll have with china would be a very good one. i see all of these phony reports that we don't want their money, anything to do with them. that's wrong. we are going to have a good relationship with what they did to biden was -- he didn't know what was happening. he didn't know what he was doing. the administration didn't know what they were doing. it was very sad to watch.

but wear going to have a good relationship with china and russia and ukraine and the middle east. we're doing things that, look, when i left, we had no wars. we had defeated isis totally. we had no inflation. we didn't have the afghanistan withdrawal, the worst withdrawal anybody's ever seen. i think that's one of the reasons that president putin looked at that, he said, wow, these guys are a paper tiger. we're no paper tiger. don't forget. we got rid of isis in three weeks. people said it would take five years. we did it because when i came in, i let them do what they had to do and the man that headed that operation is now going to be your chairman, right? chairman of the joint chiefs. i liked him right from the beginning. as soon as i heard his name, i said, that's my guy. any other questions? reporter: decreases in crossings at the border for you to continue the pause on tariffs against mexico and canada and if not -- president trump: i'm not stopping the tariffs. no.

millions of people have died because of the fentanyl that comes over the border. reporter: 90% drop in border crossings, though, last month compared to a year ago. president trump: they've been good but that's also due to us, mostly due to us. right now very hard to come through the border. but, look, the damage has been done. we've lost millions of people due to fentanyl. comes mostly from china but it comes through mexico and it comes through canada. i have to tell you that, you know, on april 2, i was going to do it on april 1, but i'm a little bit superstitious, i made it april 2. the tariffs go on, not all of them, but a lot of them. and i think you're going to see something that's going to be amazing. we've been taken advantage of as a country for a long period of time. we've been tariffed but we didn't tariff. now, i did when i was here. i tariffed, we took in $700 billion from china. $700 billion. not one president in the history of our country took in 10 cents from china.

at the same time china respected us. now, when covid came in, that was a different deal. i used to call it the china virus. i guess i could call it the china virus again. but, you know, it's an accurate term. i won't do that out of respect to china. [talking simultaneously] reporter: immigration enforcement. reporter: on gaza, i just wondered if there's any progress towards a second phase of the ceasefire? president trump: i'm very disappointed when i see four bodies came in today. these are young people, young people don't die, ok? young people don't die. these are young people. four bodies came in today. they think they're doing us a favor by sending us bodies. so, look, that's a decision that has to be made by israel, by bibi. but israel has to make that decision. we got a lot of hostages back but it's very sad what happened to those people. you had a young lady with her hand practically blown off.

you know why? because she put up a hand to try to stop a bullet that was coming her way. and it hit her hand and blew off her fingers, big part of her hand. this is a vicious group of people. and israel's going to have to decide what they're doing. phase one is going to be ending. think of it. today they sent in four bodies. bodies. and i will say one thing, though. i've spoken to a lot of the parents and of other people involved. they want those bodies almost as much and maybe even just as much as they wanted their son or their daughter. amazing. please, my son is dead, but they have his body, please, can you get it for news is it's the biggest thing -- for us? it's the biggest thifnlgt it's incredible. the level, they want the bodies of these people, they're dead, they're dead. when i saw the ones that came in two weeks ago, they looked like they just got out of a concentration camp. then the following week, a group came in and they weren't as bad.

in as bad of shape. but israel's going to have to make a decision. you're right. phase one and now phase two is starting. today we got some very -- we knew they were dead, by the way. we knew they were going to be bodies as opposed to people that were living. but very sad situation. at some point somebody's going to say, we got to do something about this. reporter: you were just talking about afghanistan and the botched withdrawal. are have all the command involved in that been fired or relieved of duty? president trump: that's a great idea. i'm not going to tell this man what to do. but i will say that, if i had his place, i'd fire every single one of them. [laughter] that's a very good question. >> it's a question we've thought a lot about. we're doing a complete review of every single aspect of what happened with the botched withdrawal of afghanistan. and plan to have full accountability. it's one of the first things we announced at the defense

department for that reason. general raising cane was not a part of that. instead he was a part of leading effort against isis by untying the hands of war fighters and finishing the job properly. and then bringing our troops home. so we're taking a very different view obviously than the previous administration. and there will be full accountability. president trump: i don't see big promotions in that group. [laughter] i think they're going to be largely gone. i know the man on my left, i think they're going to be largely gone. that was a horrible display and i've dealt with the parents and the family of the 13 that were killed but nobody ever talks about the 40 that were so badly hurt, with the arms and the legs and the face and the whole thing. the missing arms and legs. it was so terrible the way that was handled and it should have been gone through bagram. we have a big base with big fences and nobody can get in. you have hundreds of acres. instead of a little local airport where the whole place went crazy. that was so badly handle and i would think most of those people

are going to be gone. reporter: are we going to take bagram back? president trump: i'll tell you what has bothered me very much, very, very much. we give billions of dollars to afghanistan. nobody knows that. nobody knows that. you know we give billions of dollars to afghanistan? and yet we left behind all of that equipment. which wouldn't have happened. you know, we were getting out under me. i'm the one that got it down to 5,000 people. we were going to get out but we were going to keep bagram because of china. because it's exactly one hour away from where china makes its nuclear missiles. so we're going to keep bagram. we were going to keep a small force on bagram. we were going to have bagram airbase, one of the biggest airbases in the world, one of the biggest runways, one of the most powerful runways in the sense that it was very heavy concrete and steel, could you carry about anything, you could land anything on those runways. we gave it up and you know who is occupying it right now? china. china. biden gave it up. so we're going to keep that and

we're going to have a withdrawal and we're going to take our equipment, we're going to do it properly. we're going to do -- we were going to keep the equipment. well, they ran out, what happened there was -- in fact, you know, in all fairness to putin, when he said that, he said, well, this is our time to go and go into ukraine, i guess. because it was the timing seemed to be about right. but we send them billions of dollars in aid, which nobody knows. if the american public knew that, they know it now, and if we're doing that, i think they should give our equipment back. and i told pete to study that but we left billions, tens of billions of dollars worth of equipment behind. brand new trucks. you see them displayed every year, little roadways someplace where they have a road and they drive -- waving the flag and talking about america. beautiful equipment. top of the line stuff, brand new

stuff. now it's getting older. we should pay. they i think we're getting a lot of that equipment back. afghanistan is one of the biggest sellers of military equipment in the world. they're selling the equipment that we left. we're first, they were second or third. can you believe it? they're selling 770,000 rifles, 70,000 armor-plated, many of them, trucks and vehicles. 70,000. if you think of a used car lot, the biggest one in the country, if i would say, j.d., if somebody had 500 cars, that would be a lot. this is 70,000 vehicles we had there. and we left it for them. i think we should get it back. simultaneous reporter: the spending bill that passed last night aims to cut $2 trillion. can you guarantee that medicare, medicaid, social security, will not be touched? president trump: i have said it so many times, you shouldn't be asking me that question. read my lips. it won't be read my lips anymore. we're not going to touch it.

now, we are going to look for fraud. i'm sure you're ok with that. like people that shouldn't be on it. people that are illegal alien and others, criminals in many cases. and that's with social security. we have a lot of people, you see that immediately when you see people that are 200 years old that are being sent checks for social security. some of them are actually being sent checks. so we're tracing that down and i have a feeling that pam is going to do a very good job with that. but you have a lot of fraud. but no, i'm not -- we're not doing anything on that. [talking simultaneously] reporter: a part of your mission has been. thank you, i'm sorry. part of your mission has been to restore executive control over the executive branch. is it your view of your authority that you have the power to call up any one or all of the people seated at this table and issue orders that they're bound to follow? president trump: oh, yeah. they'll follow the orders, yes. they will. reporter: no exceptions? president trump: no exceptions -- well, let's see, who do you think? she'll have an exception.

[laughter] of course, no exceptions. you know that. reporter: can you clarify that canada, mexico tariffs, you had put that 30-day pause but you referred to -- the 25%. when does it go into effect? president trump: april 2. reporter: from canada and mexico. president trump: and for everything. >> we have the fentanyl-relatedded is a pause. if they can prove to the president they've done an excellent job, that's what they first do in 30 days. reporter: you have seen any change? >> the overall is april 2. so the big transaction is april 2. but the fentanyl-related things, they're working hard on the border, at the end of that 30 hey hao prove to the president that they've satisfied him to that regard. if they have, it will give them a pause, or he won't. it's up to him. president trump: we lose 300,000 people a year to fentanyl. not 100,000, not 59,000, not 60,000 like you read, you've been reading it for years.

we lost in my opinion over the last couple of years on average maybe close to 300,000 people. dead. and the families are ruined. when they lose a daughter, whether they lose a son, the families are never the same. you're never going to be the same so you're talking about a million people. but when the daughters die, i see daughters die and the sons die, because of fentanyl, and in some cases they don't even know they're taking it. they're buying something else and it's laced with fentanyl and they end up dying and i know many people who have lost children to fentanyl and for other reasons. fentanyl, such a big killer. those people are never the same people. i've seen people that for the rest of their lives, they're not the same people. they're so different. it's not even believable. dynamic people, happy people that are -- they die a miserable death. and that's because of the crap that comes in through china and through mexico and through canada. a lot of it comes through

canada. canada, look, we support canada, $200 billion a year in subsidies one way or the other. we let them make millions of cars. we let them send us lumber. we don't need their lumber. we're going to free up our lumber. lee's going to do that. head of environmental. we're going to free up our lumber. we have the best lumber there is. we don't need their lumber, what do we need their lumber for? when you look at the -- we subsidize them $200 billion a year. without us, canada can't make it. you know, canada relies on us 95%, we rely on them 4%. big difference. i say canada should be our 51st state. there's no tariffs, no nothing. and i say that, we give them military protection. they have a very small military. they spend very little money on military. on nato they're just about last in terms of payment.

because they say, why should we spend on military? that's a tremendous cost, most nations can't afford to even think about it. why should we spend on military? the united states protects us. and i would say that's largely true. we protect canada. but it's not fair. it's not fair that they're not paying their way. and if they had to pay their way, they couldn't exist. when i spoke to -- called the prime minister rather than the governor, but when i spoke to him, i said, why are we giving you $200 billion a year? he was unable to answer the question. i said, why are we letting you make millions of cars and second sendthem in? he was unable to answer the question. justin trudeau. nice guy, i think he's a very good guy. i call him governor trudeau. he should be governor. because the fact is if we don't give them cars, we don't have to give them cars. tariffs will make it impossible for them to sell cars into the united states. the tariffs will make it

impossible for them to sell lumber or anything else into the united states. and all i'm asking to do is break even or lose a little bit. but not lose $200 billion. and we love canada. i love canada. i love the people of canada. but honestly, it's not fair for us to be supporting canada. and if we don't support him, they don't exist as a nation. ok? [talking simultaneously] reporter: mr. president, you have made a decision on what level you'll seek on tariffs in the european union? president trump: we have made a decision. we'll be announcing it very soon. and it will be 25% generally speaking. and that will be on cars and all of the things. european union is a different case than canada. different kind of case. they've really taken advantage of us in a different way. they don't accept our cars, they don't accept essentially our farm products. they use all sorts of reasons why not. and we accept everything of them and we have about a $300 billion

deficit with the european union. i love the countries of europe, i guess i'm from there at some point a long time ago, right? but -- indirectly. pretty directly too, i guess. but i love the countries of europe. i love all countries, frankly, all different. but european unions, it was formed in order to screw the united states. let's be honest. the european union was formed in order to screw the united states. that's the purpose of it. and they've done a good job of it. but now i'm president. reporter: what will happen if these countries or the e.u. retaliate? president trump: they can't. i mean, they can try. but they can't. reporter: china did. reporter: they're pledging tariffs. >> china's retaliatory tariffs on the 10th of february. has there been any impact? president trump: that's right. no, they can do it and they can try, but the numbers can never equal what ours -- because we can go off. we are the pot of gold, we're the one that everybody wants. and they can retaliate but it cannot be a successful

retaliation. because we just go cold turkey. we don't buy anymore. and if that happens, we win. reporter: are you talking to erik prince about privatizing deportations? president trump: no, i haven't. reporter: you're in litigation with cbs news. is this a case you'd like to see go to trial or are you open to -- cbs, the "60 minutes." president trump: well, cbs did something that was amazing. kamala was unable to answer a question properly. and they took the question that they asked and they inserted an answer, they gave her an answer. this was two days before the election, right before -- the sunday night before the election. and they wrote out -- they put her words from another question that was asked about half an hour later, and they put that in to the question. nobody's ever even heard of it before. nobody's ever heard of anything like this before. but they then did it, they say on numerous occasions.

and the f.c.c.'s looking at it very strongly and everybody's looking at it and -- but nobody's ever seen anything. think of it. they took her answers and they changed them and i don't mean they changed the word or two or they cut off a half a sentence or they cut off a couple of words. i mean, i've had that happen too. then they say, well, we want brevity. we wanted -- they took out her answer and they inserted an entirely different answer that made her sound confident. and they did this and nobody's ever -- i thought i've heard of everything when it comes to that stuff. i've never heard of it. nobody's ever seen it. so we sued and we are in discussions of settlement. reporter: what's a number that you would think would be appropriate? president trump: i think it's a lot. [laughter] i mean, it probably did effect the election. i mean, we won by a lot. as i said, too big to rig.

but it probably did effect the election. probably could have won by more. but i could have lost the election because of that. we have to get to honest elections. we have to go back to paper ballots, we have to go back to voter i.d. one day election ideally or short-term. not these 48-day and 61-day elections where boxes are put in a room and oh, let's move the boxes because we're putting in a new air conditioning system. then you see the boxes move and then you say, well, where are all the boxes? what happened to the boxes that never came back? our elections are extremely dishonest. we're the only country in the world that has mail-in voting and all of these different things that we put in. no other country in the world has it. you know, france went to -- they had some of the things that we had and they went to same-day voting. all paper. and you know paper's very sophisticated. it's a very sophisticated form

of voting right now. it's a very safe form of voting. you know, the other things for the governors, i wish the governors would to it because the paper ballots cost 9% of the machines. and they're 100% -- you know, nothing's fool proof. but they're as close as you get. so we'll see what happens. but on the 60 minute $thing, nobody's ever seen anything like it. reporter: will you link the s.e.c. action to the litigation? president trump: i don't think it's linked but probably the lawyers look at it, you know, because i know it's going along. f.c.c.'s headed by a very competent person and have some very competent people on the board so i think they're looking at it very seriously. reporter: of all the deals you've done in your life, all the people you sat across from and negotiated with, is president putin distinct in any way? president trump: he's a very smart guy. a very cunning person. but i've dealt with some people that -- i've dealt with some really bad people. but i will tell you, as far as this is concerned, you have to

understand, he had no intention in my opinion, of settling this war. i think he wanted the whole thing. when i got elected, we spoke and i think we're going to have a deal. i can't guarantee you that. a deal is a deal. lots of crazy things happen in deal, right? but i think we're going to have a deal. if i didn't get elected, i believe he would have just continued to go through ukraine and over a period of time, a lot of people, a lot of people would have been killed, would have lasted for a period of time and the reason that ukraine, and i have great respect for the ukraine as fighters. great fighters. but without our equipment that war would have been over in a very short period of time. if you remember, i gave the javelins and the javelins are the things that knocked out those tanks right at the beginning of the war. they said that obama at the time gave sheets and trump gave javelins. i was the one that did that.

but i want to see it come to an end. reporter: will he have to make concession, president putin? president trump: yeah, he will. he will. he's going to have to. and i think -- i believe that because we got elected, that war will come to an end. and i also believe if we didn't get elected, if this administration didn't win the election by a lot, that that war would go on for a long time and he would want to take the whole thing. the big question i had is does he want to take the whole thing? but the reason -- and the ukrainians are good fighters. i have to say. but without the equipment, without our equipment. we have the best equipment in the world. we have the best military equipment in the world. without our equipment, that would have been over very quickly. reporter: what concessions would you like to see? president trump: i don't want to tell you right now but i can tell you that nato, you can forget about. i think that's probably the

reason the whole thing started. and i think j.d., we can say that, do you have a statement on that? you've been very much involved. vice president vance: maybe the hardest question. we're not going to do the negotiation in public with the media. he's going to do in private with the president of russia and the president of ukraine and with other leaders and i think that's how this has to go. i think the -- i just want to push back against some of the criticism i've seen in the administration on this. because every time the president engages in diplomacy, you guys preeveryonetively accuse him of conceding to russia. he hasn't conceded anything to anyone. he's doing the job of a diplomat and he of course is the diplomat in chief as the president of the united states. reporter: can you talk more about the vet prague ses -- vetting process? president trump: the process is being worked out right now and we're going to be very careful. reporter: will there be restrictions on, for instance, chinese nationals can get one?

president trump: we're probably not going to be restricting too much in terms of countries but maybe in terms of individuals. we want to make sure we have people that love our country and are capable of loving the country. reporter: there's a measles outbreak in texas at the moment in which a child is reported to have died. do you have concerns about that and you have asked secretary kennedy to look into that? president trump: why don't we -- bochy, do you want to speak -- bobby, do you want to speak on that? >> we are following the measles epidemic every day there are 124 people who have contracted measles at this point. in a county in texas. mainly we're told it's a mennennite community, there are two people who have died. but we're watching it and there are about 20 people hospitalized mainly for quarantine. there was a post on it yesterday and we're going to continue to follow it.

incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year. in this country last year there were 16. so, it's not unusual. we have measles outbreaks every year. reporter: you sound a little under the weather yourself. >> i have a permanently bad throat. reporter: you were coughing. reporter: would you send u.s. peace keepers to support the europeans, would you do any sort of u.s. -- president trump: we're going to support europe, yeah. reporter: how would you do that? president trump: we have a great relationship with europe. you could ask -- you could talk about france, could you talk about any of them. we have a great relationship with europe. reporter: how will the united states do sna would there be boots -- do that? would there be boots -- president trump: i hope we have that problem where we can worry about peacekeeping. we have to get there first. i hope we have the problem of worry being peacekeeping. that will be the easiest problem i think that we've ever had. [laughter] reporter: a deal presumably that the ukrainians would want --

president trump: peacekeeping is very easy. it's making the deal that's very tough. again, nobody was speaking to russia at all. and probably a million and a half soldiers have been killed. close to a million and a half soldiers. not to mention -- i will tell you. the thing with that horrible war that should have never started, would have never started if i were president, and it didn't start for four years and it was not even thought about starting, but the thing with that war is that you're highly underestimating the number of people that have been killed. far more people have been killed in that war than you talk about. you like to talk about numbers like a million people. well, they had much more than a million soldiers killed. but you have a lot of cities that have been knocked to the ground and demolition sites, literally demolition sites. every single building is knocked do the ground. and a lot of people were killed in those buildings and you'll hear a report, two people were minorly injured or just injured

a little bit. no. no. people were killed by the thousands and there are a lot more people killed in that war than the media wants to talk about. because biden did a horrible, horrible job. he should have prevented that war. he could have prevented that war. putin would have never gone in. i'll tell you one thing, he would have never gone in. that war would never have taken place if i were president. reporter: i think what people are trying to understand is how would the united states -- what would you be willing to do to support this european peacekeeping effort? would there be -- president trump: again? you're asking me the same question? how many times do you have to answer? you're talking about -- after we make peace. let me make peace first. once we make peace, i'll give you all the answers you want but how many times can you ask the same question? [talking simultaneously] reporter: is loosening of sanctions on russia a potential option as part of an overall deal? president trump: no. we have sanctions on russia. no, i want to see if we make a deal first but i think we will.

i've had very good conversations with president putin. i've had very good conversations with president zelenskyy. and until four week ago, nobody had conversations with anybody. it wasn't even a consideration. nobody thought you could make peace. i think you can. [talking simultaneously] reporter: to keep the land that was claimed by force, if the russians get to keep the territory that they claimed by force, doesn't that send a dangerous message let's say to china about taiwan? president trump: you try and take it away, right? we're going to do the best we can. [laughter] we're going to do the best we can to make best deal we can for both sides. but for ukraine, we're going to try very hard to make a good deal. so that they can get as much back as possible. we want to get as much back as possible. reporter: just to bring this full -- president trump: we'll cut it out after maybe this question. unless it's a bad question. [laughter] always like to finish on a good one. reporter: they want you to negotiate with them instead of president putin. [laughter] reporter: back to a question about the --

president trump: more about the peacekeepers. you have a lot of confidence in us because you assume there's going to be peace. it's a possible it doesn't work out. there is a possibility. but i hope it does for the sake of humanity. because if you look at the pictures that i've looked at, you don't want to look at them. go ahead. reporter: i have a question back on these cuts to the federal workforce. you mentioned you're interested in doing another round of this email. when would you like to see that? what would be the deadlined and would it be mandatory? president trump: i think elon wants to and it's a good idea. the people are on the bubble. you got a lot of people that have not responded so we're trying to figure out, do they exist? who are they? and it's possible that a lot of those people will be actually fired. and if that happened, that's ok. because that's what we're trying to do. this country has gotten bloated and fat and disgusting and incompetently run. i think we had the worst president in the history of our country. he just left office. i think he's a disgrace what he's done to our country. by allowing millions of people to come into our country like

that. and all of the other things, the inflation, which he caused because of energy and stupid spending. to spend hundreds of millions, trillions and trillions of dollars on the green new scam, a total scam. i have the best energy people, the best environmental people in the world around this table. and they can't even believe he got away with it. and then in leaving office, to send $20 billion here and $20 million there and $10 million and $5 million and they couldn't spend the money fast enough. let's get it out before trump gets in. let's just get it out to anybody. this is a disgrace to our nation and you don't write the fair thing, but, look, you know, the good news is people see it and that's why we won the election by so much. thank you, everybody. >> thank you, press. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025]

reporter: sir, how many piece peacekeepers are you going to send? [laughter] president trump: this guy's making a fortune. he never had it so good. >> former 2024 republican presidential candidate vivek ramaswamy -- we'll have the full oral argument tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span. it's also available on c-span now, our free mobile video app. and online at c-span.org. ♪ >> on tuesday, march 4, watch c-span's live coverage of president trump's address to congress, the first address of his second term. and less than two months since taking office. c-span's live coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern with a preview of the evening from capitol hill. followed by the president's

speech which begins at 9:00 p.m. eastern. and then watch the democratic response after the president's speech. we'll also take your calls and get your reaction on social media over on c-span2 you can also watch a simulcast of the evening's coverage followed by reaction from lawmakers, live from capitol hill. watch president trump's address to congress. live tuesday march 4, beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, our simulcast live on c-span2, or on c-span now, our free mobile video app. also online at c-span.org. c-span, bringing you your democracy unfiltered. >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store. browse through our latest collection of c-span products, apparel, books, home decor, and accessories. there's something for every c-span fan and every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. shop now or any time at c-spanshop