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maria: welcome back. jp morgan has spent more than $3 billion building a new headquarters, a skyscraper, it's expected to be ready this year maria: welcome back. and jamie dimon wants to make good friday morning, everybody. sure it's filled saying he will thanks so much for joining us this morning. i'm maria bartiromo. not tolerate employees working it is friday, february 14, happy from home for much longer. valentine's day, 70:11 on the cheryl casone with details now. >> you caught me looking at i east coast. india's prime minister visiting it's 1,389 feet, it's super the white house yesterday for a tall, it's going to be on park whwide ranging discussion with avenue. anyway, i was looking at the president trump on trade, schematics for the building. defense, energy and technology. i'm glad you brought it up. the president announced new military and energy sales to yes, jamie dimon has a message for his employees who oppose india. watch. >> the u.s., india compact for returning to the office full-time after around 1400 the 21st century is a historic workers signed a petition for the company to allow them to initiative that will deepen keep their current hybrid every aspect of our partnership schedule. so he says during a meet, quote, and our friendship. don't waste time on it. i don't care how many people starting this year we'll be increasing military sales to signed that blank petition. india by many billions of starting in march, employees of the company are going to have to dollars, we're also paving the way to ultimately provide india work in the office five days a week and as you mentioned

with the f35 stealth had they're building this new super tall office tower, 1,389 square fighters, the prime minister and i reached an important agreement feet, it's going to be on energy that will restore the something. i want a tour. united states as a leading the chicago teachers union is supplier of oil and gas to raising alarm bells about the india. it will be hopefully their nomination of linda mcmann's number one supplier. confirmation to education the ground breaking development secretary, issues like federal for u.s. nuclear industry. funding cuts, dismantling of the maria: president trump and department as a whole among the prime minister modi agreeing to list of what the union is new trade negotiations aiming to highlighting as the union is going through contract boost bilateral tried negotiation, also during her $500 billion by 2030. confirmation hearing mcmann, trump explained the imbalance former chief of wwe said cutting between the countries. down the doe would require watch. >> the u.s. trade deficit with congressional action. we'll keep you posted on her movement. india is almost $100 billion and and then there's this, several hollywood stars resigning from prime minister modi and i agreed their appearances or roles at that we'll begin negotiations to the kennedy senator after president trump named himself the new chair of the kennedy address the long-running disparities. senator and he appointed a whole new board to oversee it. india's been to us just about the highest tariffed nation stars like shandra rhymes anywhere in the world. they've been very strong on tariffs. it's very hard to sell into india because they have trade speaking out. here's what she said in her story on instagram, barriers, very strong tariffs,

unfortunately due to what i and we are right now reciprocal believe to be infringement on the values that sell braille nation. we are going to if it's india or celebrated allartists of all bai if it's somebody else with low tariffs, we're going to have the same. decided to cancel my appearance. whatever india charges, we're the new board includes the charging them. maria: both leaders agreed to second lady, suzie wiles and her collaborate on artificial mother will be at the new board intelligence and immigration enforcement. on the kennedy senator. modi said india will accept illegal immigrants deported from danielle sasoon resigning the united states. thursday after the department of modi now the fourth foreign justice ordered the case against leader to visit trump in one new york city mayor eric adams month following israel's benjamin netanyahu, japan's be dropped, several hours later prime minister and jordan's king three other lawyers in the unit also resigning as well as two washington officials. abdullah the second. this as the white house lots to talk about here but of course trade one of the most important issues for president reportedly terminated nearly a dozen u.s. attorneys this week trump. michael, your reaction? and maria, it's normal that if >> it's really so important here you have a change in an that with china being so administration especially a change in party that maybe some aggressive in the south china of those u.s. attorneys that sea where 50% of all shipping were, say, appointed, confirmed worldwide goes through, it's under the biden administration essential to be able to push that they would leave. back on that. it's a little rare to have them so the india, u.s., use tray yaa terminated. this is a report in nbc news. and japan alliance is crucial to we're working to confirm more

details. maria: on the jp morgan provide stability and security building, there are estimates in the area and push back in the that the price was as high as 1 south china sea, huge impact 10 billion. the floor is 3 billion, it was having this close relationship with india. an incredibilitiy expensive maria: the president made a point of saying that india has the highest tariffs against the building. the order to drop eric adams' united states. we just had an exclusive case has lots of conversation interview with the treasury secretary, scott bessent, who underway. michael, your reaction to mayor adams here and his slow creep made it clear trump is serious about imposing these tariffs. into the republican party. here's the treasury secretary a >> i think at this point in moment ago with me. watch. >> you should take him at his time there are very few options for the mayor in terms of his word. this is not theater. electoral process, he's got to the april 1st deadline is for try to get a republican nomination. a study that the commerce him showing up on fox and department is doing on global friends and talking with tom homan, that's seismic. tariffs that apply to u.s. when would you ever think you would see that? products, country by country, but i think for the public, for and also we're not just looking new york city, how will they at tariffs but we're looking at react if in fact you reduce nontariff barriers, the local content and we're also looking the number of migrants, reduce at c currency manipulation. the amount of money you're spending on these programs, you bring law and order back from that perspective, how are they the u.s. has a strong dollar policy. going to respond to that? because we have a strong dollar policy doesn't mean that other that's going to be the question.

countries get to have a weak maria: great question. john. >> i think the voters would currency policy so we're going to come up with what is the respond positively if you reduce equivalent of an index. the number of illegal immigrants maria: so are you expecting the in new york city, if you reduce president to institute crime. come on. how else might they respond? reciprocal tariffs in april? i guess the question is that if >> if he needs to, he will implement them and as he said in these voters are moving to the the interview yesterday, this center, what does that mean for the city council? can be a big revenue source for what does that mean for these the u.s. government. left wing progressives that maria: cheryl, he also said yes wield so much power in new york to the committee on responsible city. are they eventually doomed as budgets work, they said specifically to china 10% the new yorker voter finally wakes up? additional tariffs on imports maria: what do you think, cheryl? will raise 20 billion in revenue >> i think new york wants its city back. we want our hotels back. through the rest of this year and 200 billion through fiscal [laughter] s. ha>> that's what i think.i thie year 2035. >> part of the treasury secretary's answer ties back to that meeting between president safe, they w are frustrated. trump and modi yesterday because if you look at how new york we did a breakdown on the tariffs and what donald trump voted, the city of manhattan, how it voted. said is absolutely correct. the lower east side voted for india's tariff, it's 15.3%, donald trump not kamala harris. that's the most recent data we what does that tell you about how fed up people are here, the have available.

that's far above any other subways are still not safe. country. as far as the currency goes, we the streets are still a mess. have seen these moves. i was happy to hear him say come on. maria: i think there's a similar dynamic actually in that. we've seen moves from the saudis california where some people and from china and even from think california is going to go india to be clear, guys, we red because they are sick and looked at the video about maybe tired of the policies underway. them doing their deals, their everything goes back to policy. financial deals and their bad policy results in bad exports and imports with each outcomes. other with other currencies that i've sta said that a million tis are not the u.s. dollar. that needs to be the world's on this program. a dynamic winter storm is set to reserve currency and needs to slam the eastern third of the stay that way, maria. as far as reciprocal tariffs, we country this weekend. are you ready. have time and i think that's the fox weather meteorologist craig biggest thing here is that we're herrera with an upit. going to study this but a fair update.>> this comes with everg playing field is something that americans should demand and from the chance of severe storms should expect. maria: that's what president trump is demanding. for the south, mississippi, john, your reaction. >> well, you know, mentioning alabama, we could see ef-2 the fact that we could get $20 billion from t the impositin tornadoes saturday evening to sunday morning. we have flooding rain for tennessee, most of tennessee to of tariffs on exports from kentucky could deal with flash flooding that we need to watch china. through the weekend. $20 billion is a small fraction north of there, snow once again, of a $1.8 trillion budget a couple of inches for places like new york, the big winners deficit. maria: yes, true.

>> $20 billion, hardly stands will be maine, vermont, new hampshire, and we are going to up to u.s. gdp that now see snow over portions of the midwest, chicago getting another 2 to 3 inches of fresh snow. approaches $30 trillion so big not going to make up for the deal. maria: yeah. >> you know, outside of deficit but every inch of snow we can get we'll take. national security concerns, i that's coming out of the rockies think everybody benefits as we and that is the storm that came try to get tariffs and maybe right through california with flooding concerns there, high even nontariff barriers down to sierra snow, that's going to be our weather maker this weekend. zero. i mean, india's economy would be maria: thank you, craig. craig herrera. better off if indians had a quick break and we've got a big hour coming up right here. better access, less costly uhyou're watching "mornings with access to goods produced in the united states because that would uhyou're watching "mornings with maria" livle se on fox business. stay with us. pressure indian companies to become more efficient and become more productive and so on and the economy eventually benefits. maria: yeah. it's a great point. we are just getting started this hour. we've got a lot coming up. meta is winning over wall street journal street while the rest of big tech struggles, rumors are on the rise meta could buy its first chip company. we're on it with the word on wall street panel coming up. don't miss that. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. we'll be right back on a friday

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we got this. fifty years of helping you invest for every chapter. maria: welcome back. time now for the word on wall street. top investors watching your money. joining me now is former gartman letter editor and university of akron endowment fund president, dennis gartman. also with me is john lonski. i want to kick off on the reciprocal tariff conversation. we want to know how much the president is thinking about the tariffs are going to raise, it's actually -- is it actually going to make a dent in the $36 trillion in debt that we have? the president just signed that new executive order with plans to impose worldwide reciprocal tariffs on u.s. trading partners and i spoke with the treasury secretary, scott bessent to find out what kind of revenue we're talking about. watch. do you have an estimate in terms of what you're looking at, the kind of revenue you would expect from these tariffs? >> well, again, maria, it's

going to depend on our trading partners' responses, how quickly they do it, how much they do it over time. so i could tell you that these could be very, very substantial if they don't want to take their tariffs down because we will match them the percent for percent, dollar for dollar. maria: the committee for responsible budget says president trump's tariffs include a 10% additional tariff on all imports from china and they say that tariff will raise $20 billion in revenue through the rest of this calendar year and $200 billion through fiscal year 2035. do you agree with those numbers? >> that's just for the china tariff. maria: right. >> that could be approximately right. i haven't seen the exact numbers. we're still working on those. maria: john lonski, your reaction? i know you said that's a drop in the bucket when you look at the overall picture here.

but do you think this is president trump's way of getting our add adversaries and friendso eliminate their tariffs? >> i think it is. it's a negotiating tool. maria: yeah. >> trump is doing whatever he can to provide a level playing field for u.s. manufacturers. that's terribly important. but does that mean that these reforms will be enough to put a dent in the u.s.'s current federal budget deficit of, what is it, $1.8 trillion, will it do much to reduce the trade deficit, right now it's in excess of $900 billion. i don't think so. one of the reasons why we have this trade deficit is because the dollar has such a high standing in the world economy. i mean, when you look at it from that perspective, the trade

deficit for the united states is a complement for the u.s. economy. it reminds us of just how strong the u.s. economic fundamentals are relative to the rest of the world. maria: yeah. for sure. and dennis, all this uncertainty has people buying up gold. gold hitting a new high this week,. i know that -- wait a minute. are you out of gold? >> actually, i'm out of gold. i've been bullish of gold for a long, long time. i'm a little worried about the fact that the party has become too terribly joined by people who had been denigrating gold for a long period of time. i think gold has gotten overbought on the upsite. take a look at the relationship between gold and bitcoin. i'm not a fan of bitcoin but a month and-a-half ago i took 42 ounces of gold to buy one bitcoin, now takes 32 ounces of gold to buy a bitcoin. gold has gone up almost 30% in rail view relative to bitcoin in

the past month and-a-half. that's too steep for my liking. as i said many times on the show, there are times when you're to be bullish of gold there, are times when you need to be neutral of gold and times when you are to be bearish of gold. i think this is a time instead of being bullish to be neutral. i think gold falls 100 to $150 an ounce over the course of next month and-a-half or two and i'll be back to being a buyer. yes, i'm out of gold, the first time in years i've actually gone to the sidelines so that's a big change for me but it's just because the trade has become far too crowded. gold has gone far too far in a very short span of time and i'm a little leery of the participation at this point. maria: oh, my god. okay. oh, my god. wow, wow, wow. dennis gartman is out of gold. i mean, you know, when i was reading your notes this morning i thought no, no, no, can't be. but yes, you have sold your holdings in gold. when you -- you sold in the highs, then, you sold 59 all atl

time highs. >> i sold some last friday, sold some monday and tuesday this week. it's gone up another $30 an ounce since i got out. but it's been a long run, a real ride and again, i'm long-term bullish of gold but i think in the short-term gold can fall 100 to $150 an ounce from its highs. too many people who denigrated gold becomin becoming enamored d it bothers me. maria: it's a crowded trade for you at this point. >> crowded trade, nothing more than that. maria: we'll see if it level falls to the environment you want to get back in. thank you for that. that's big news for the "mornings with maria" team. john, i want to talk about tech and whether or not you need to get out of tech at this point as well. now meta is outperforming the rest of the group so far this year, meta is up, look at this 24 and-a-half percent the others were either negative or up just a fraction. meta will reportedly become the chip maker arm's first customer

as it develops a new product to compete with many of its customers, john. your reaction to now its plans with chips. >> you know, that is quite a story, that stock. i mean, my goodness. last year it was up 65% versus a market gain of 23%. walt rolled his 401k accounts into an empower ira this year it's up 24% versus a market increase of just 4%. quite a story and what's going for it would be the reputation of meta a.i., that's supposed to be the strongest artificial intelligence open source program out there that i know of. also they've done very well in terms of advertising revenue and it's helped that meta has been successful thus far with and

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stay with it and there's more than simply momentum that has been driving the share price of meta higher. maria: so what do you want to do if you're a holder of all of these tech stocks, john? >> well, you know, you want to go -- i think nvidia is going to come back, that is a very richly priced stock compared to some others. they're still going to be a market leader. maybe the only one that you might question, two you may question, one might be tesla and the other would be apple. will apple continue to come up with hit product after hit product? that's hard to do sometimes. maria: all right. we will leave it there. gentlemen, great conversation. dennis is out of gold. that's my headline. wow. all right, dennis, we're watching your work on that one. you've been pushing gold now for years, i want to follow your work. dennis, good to see you. john, you're with us all morning. we appreciate it. quick break and then president trump calls for denuclearization

talks with russia and china as the munich security conference kicks off today with vice president jd vance in attendance. congressman guy ref reschenthals here with reaction. you're watching "mornings with maria." we'll be right back. ♪ ichi, ni, san, shi... (1, 2, 3, 4...) ruri never thought she would live out her dream. then one day, she did. you were made to chase your passions.

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>> as we learned with president trump you should take him at his word many this is not theater. the april 1st deadline is for a study that the commerce department is doing on global tariffs that apply to u.s. products, country by country, and also we're not just looking at tariffs but we're looking at nontariff barriers. maria: are you expecting the president to institute reciprocal tariffs in april? >> i am expecting that we will get this report and we will see how our trading partners choose to respond but i can tell you that if he needs to, he will implement them. maria: the committee for responsible budget says that president trump's tariffs include a 10% additional tariff on all imports from china and they say that tariff will raise $20 billion in revenue through

the rest of this calendar year and $200 billion through fiscal year 2035. do you agree with those numbers? >> that's just for the china tariff. maria: right. >> so that could be approximately right. i haven't seen the exact numbers. we're still working on those. maria: that's treasury secretary scott bess ept joining me earlier in the program, explaining the new executive order on reciprocal tariffs, looking to adjust tariff rates to match how other countries charge the united states on imports. joining me now is pennsylvania congressman guy reschenthaler. good to see you. your reaction and the impact on pennsylvania. >> good to see you. thanks for having me on. i think the tariff% a good thing. if you come to my districts and go through the monn valley you can see steel mill after steel mill that's shut down. it's because former administrations have allowed aluminum and steel to flood in from places like china and russia, undercut us and as soon as our market goes down these

other countries raise the prices so i think it's a good thing. also, these tariffs are a tool to achieve policy objectives. for example, with canada and mexico, threatening tariffs in order to get compliance on the border i think is a good thing and has thr led to a good resul. we have illegal crossings down by almost 65%, you have the number of got aways down over 90% and a lot of that is because we're finally getting cooperation from can d.a. and cd mexico. maria: we spoke with tom homan the other day, he said border crossings are gown 933%. jd vance is calling on nato to boost defense spending, he's set to meet with ukraine's zelenskyy later today. the vice president told the wall street journal is the u.s. is considering new sanctions on moscow on potential military action to push vladimir putin into a peace deal with ukraine. the president called on russia and china to cut defense

spending and meet for denuclearization talks while adding moscow should be added back to the g7. where is this going? does the president want to cut defense spending or increase defense spending? >> at the end of the day we have to give the administration, president trump, vice president vance, the latitude to negotiate all of this. when it comes to nato, it needs to come to an end where we have nato paying 2% or sometimes under 2% of their obligation but a lot of that is going to military pensions for example. we need to make sure they're spending 2% on actual war fighting capabilities. and then when it comes to negotiating for the future of ukraine for example, i think that this president will draw red lines, he'll make assertions and statements and he'll actually stand behind those and that will really help president putin and other adversaries around the world when president trump says something in negotiations he means what he says and is capable of following through, unlike president biden,

unlike president obama, who drew red lines and didn't do anything and dictators walked all over the red lines with impunity. maria: here's the treasury secretary with regard to sanctions on russia with me just a few moments ago. watch. >> it will depend on how president putin comes to the table. if we believe that taking the sanctions regime up to a maximum threshold level will help us achieve negotiating leverage and as you know, no one understands negotiating leverage better than president trump and that will be his decision and treasury will implement it. maria: all of this after the deal to free pennsylvania history teacher marc fogel from russia. thanks for all of your efforts. you worked to bring fogle home. what do you make of president trump's foreign policy and the fact that mr. fogel was able to

get released in all of this? >> well, i'm absolutely ecstatic about the release of marc fogel. mamarc fogel, a history teacher from pennsylvania, was given zero attention by the last administration. he languished for over 1200 days. biden administration didn't put him on wrongfully detained status, making him eligible for prisoner swap, until after president trump won the election. if you compare marc fogel's treatment with the treatment of others wrongfully detained in russia, like brittney griner, similar circumstances yet she was put on that status and brought how many quickly. mamarc fogel got very little attention from the administration. president trump got the release of marc fogel. it shows you that president trump in the first tea weeks of office has done more than joe biden has done not only in his four years as president but probably his entire political

career. that's how quickly and effective president trump is moving. maria: yeah. and of course we're talking about an increase for money for the budget, an increase for money for defense, house republicans advancing the budget plan out of committee last night, the one track bill competing with the senate's two track approach to fund the president's agenda and the resolution provides a minimum of 1 and-a-half trillion in spending cuts over 10 years and maximum of 4.5 trillion in tax cuts. where are you with this at this point, congressman? year in go>> we're going to hae what happens, if we run the senate's budget or the budget that came out of the budget committee early y earlier year e week. we're ge going to get it done wh 218 republican votes. i think no matter which course we choose it's going to be really good for the american people and really supportive of president trump's agenda. maria: yes, so can you commit to saying you're going to have a

bill on the president's desk by april to sign? >> i can't commit to that but i will tell you that whatever product that is put in front of us, tom and i will whip it and we'll get the votes to make sure it gets done. maria: all right, congressman, we'll be watching your work. thanks so much for being here this morning, sir. quick break and then my next guest is telling us how he plans to reshape and improve the department of veterans affairs. new va secretary, doug collins, is with me after being confirmed. wait until you hear what the secretary has to say. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. ♪

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employees yesterday, a personnel move expected to save more than $98 million a year. the department plans to redirect all of those resources back toward healthcare benefits and services for va beneficiaries. joining me now is veterans affairs secretary doug collins. mr. secretary, it's great to see you. congratulations to you and thank you for being here. >> good morning, maria. good to see you as always. maria: i've got to tell you, veterans love the veterans affairs department. my father was a veteran and every time i said to him, dad, go to this hospital, go to that hospital, we need better care, he would say no, maria, i'm going to the va. he always want todded to go to e va. they gave him such an incredible funeral ceremony. i was so proud of him to have been a veteran. so i want to get your take on what needs be done at the va. how can you increase the quality while reshaping and improving the department? >> maria, that's a great question. what you said about your dad, there's a whole generation that they depend on the va just like

they do right now and we're here for all veterans of many generations but as we look forward into the future we're going to have to continue to raise the quality especially for older veterans coming through the system now but we have a lot of issues with younger veterans, myself included, the iraq, afghanistan, global war on terrorism veterans as they're coming through the system i they're not used to the old style of the v and we're looking at the community care program that allows them to get care in the va and outside. we have to set the standard very high, make sure we focus on what our mission one, and i said this from day one, mission one at the va is the veteran, not the agency itself, the agency is too tool that we use to serve the veterans to se serve the countr. maria: veterans are proud patriots and that's who my father was, a proud patriot. he didn't want to go anywhere else. he want todd be with the va

because he trusted the va. the white house says you will become the interim head of the office of government ethics and the office of special council. while the trump administration reorganizes both agencies. how do you look at that in terms of reform? >> i look at it as help the administration have an interim head while we wait to get a permanent head of the agencies. president trump came in and made it clear it's a new day in washington, d.c. and i've been here a long time. i've not seen this kind of reaction in the agencies and also if you want to know really where it's effective, look at those who believe that big government is the better option, the other side, the other party is yelling because all of a sudden the government is not the controlling entity. the people are. and president trump who won a mandate back in november to do this is seting that standard so for me where i can help the department and help the administration in these times that we're making sure that we're getting the right people at the right places, that's what we're going to do. maria: how did you decide who

should leave? all of those people that were laid off or fired, however you want to look at it, what were the metrics that you used in terms of deciding how to cut staff? >> that's a great question. the biggest measure we've had in this, whether the decision if they wanted to take the chance to leave the department on the retirement process laid out by the administration or in this, we scrubbed the list of all employees making sure that mission critical and front-facing workers were not eligible for that. they were exempt from this process. we exempted over 300,000 positions because we were not going to make -- the changes we would make would not affect quality care in healthcare, benefits and cemeteries were not going to be affected. the veteran will she higher care, better care, we'll do it more efficiently. we looked at those areas where we could make that as it's been said before, we were looking to areas to trim and make sure

we're still doing our mission to put more money back into serving our veterans. there's a lot of misinformation, a lot of things coming from the hill and members of senate and the house who are making statements like benefits are getting cut, all these other things. that's just not true, maria. that is the fear factor here that they're trying to do to make sure that we -- i think to interfere with the idea that the bigger government is better. i believe a leaner, better government is what we need to look at. maria: i mean, thank you for that clarification because it's really the democrats out there trying hard to criticize doge and i want to get into where the waste is at the va because the department has canceled $178,000 in subscriptions to political pro. ah, these bills are crazy. she this comes after the trump administration revealed the federal paid $8 million to politico in subscription fees over the years and this was part of this move from elon musk and doge to look at all of these agencies to see where the money

has gone. i mean, they also found that money was going to reuters. why is money from the federal government going to media operations? tell us about the va and the politico subscriptions. >> well, i would love to. this is the inherent part that is the unwritten secret in d.c. that nobody wants to talk about. it's the intertwining of newsletters and media to -- that just get tangled up in agencies and look, we're simply look at it saying as i go back to mission one, mission one is the veteran. how is the veteran served boy $178,000 spent on politico pro, when if anybody wants to read politico there's a free newsletter that they can get every day. i'm for efficiency. that 178,000 is going back to where it needs to be and that's in our benefits and healthcare but it goes back to a deeper sense and that is the sense that this is a -- the trump administration brought in to a new perspective what is the fundamental role of government.

and our government any part of our positions is to serve the people of the united states. and if we're not doing that in the most efficient, effective way then we're going to trim that out and we're going to make sure it's going to the tax dollars that people send in are going to the right places. maria: and what about job creation for veterans? what can you tell us about the agency working with the private sector? i'm always impressed when i see major banks or corporations saying we've got a va program, we want to hire veterans. they come out of their service with massive discipline, with so many skills that actually can be applied to high paying jobs in business. >> exactly. look, this is something that the secretary of defense, pete hegseth and i have talked about because i believe that our part of it and his part of it from the beginning to the end the veteran has a singular significant role in our society and that is serving our country when they transition out, they

transition into the veterans affairs, va side of it and we're there to make sure the transition goes so they can continue to be productive. that's some of the most exciting things i've seen. we have a lot of veterans who work in the va. we make sure they have the skills and the tools to transition to civilian life so that they can then be product productivein their post militarr and that builds up everybody. this goes back to retention, it goes back to recruitment and goes back to the finalization of making the veteran for the service they give, the benefits they earn are not going to miss a beat. maria: and anything you want to say about the veterans hospitals and improving the care there? >> that's going to be -- that's one of my biggest issues right now, one of the largest. most people don't realize we're the largest nonmilitary agency in the federal government, the va is, we have 470,000 employees even with what we talked about this morning and the vha, the healthcare system is one of the largest healthcare systems in the country so we're looking right now to see how can we use

what congress is given through the mission act, through the community care program, the va hospitals, clinics and i've told this to the senate when i was confirmed. i believe that va care is va care that will always be a va system for the veteran who wants it and always going to be va care for what congress has asked for and that's the flexibility for the veteran to go in the community, no matter where it is, there's a high standard for what we ask for, for our veterans care, because i made it very clear, if you hurt one of my veterans, if you're taking my veteran, hurting them in healthcare or not goating their benefits processed quickly then you have no place in the va and we're going to continue to force that. maria: you've got to manage this two-step plan of modernizing and getting certain areas of the va better and improved situation while also cutting out waste. are you expecting to work with elon musk and doge to cut out more waste? >> we are. i think the thing, this has been an administration and we talked about this, president trump ran on this, we have a va employee

our doge liaison who helps us look at contracts. there's more news coming that i think is going to be -- people are going to be stunned at what contracts and stuff that were never looked at. the modus operandi in washington, d.c. is get along to get along and the next person hands off and we don't ask questions. it's time we ask questions about the operations and how we do it and does it fit the mission. that's what we're doing at the va and my person i have working in that is doing an excellent job of looking at it, while at the same time, i want to emphasize this again for any detractors on the hill or media, it's not affecting healthcare or benefits. i want to brag on the benefits folks. they processed more benefit claims last week in single days, they were making records every day. we're doing what we need to do. and all of this that we're doing right now is simply putting the money back where it belongs. maria: great conversation, mr. secretary. always a pleasure. thanks so much for joining me this morning.

>> thanks, maria. take care. maria: va secretary doug collins there. quick break and then the doj's order to drop charges against new york city mayor eric adams now prompting resignations in new york and washington. wait until you hear this. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. we'll be right back. ♪ maria: next week on "mornings with maria," monday president trump giving hamas a saturday deadline to release all hostages. former pentagon official brent sadler on the consequences. tuesday, she says only elon musk has been able to expose the department of government corruption, miranda devine will join me with more.

wednesday, he's taking on china with a package of new bills aimed at the communist nation, senator james langford with the details. thursday, the word on wall street is here as america's top retailer walmart reveals its latest quarterly earnings. friday, attorney general pam bondi says her top priority is keeping america safe, alabama attorney general steve marshall with me friday. it's all right here on "mornings with maria." hi! ♪ chocolate fundraiser. ♪ with the chase mobile app, things move a little more smoothly. ♪ deposit checks easily and send money quickly. [coins clinking] ♪ that's convenience from chase. make more of what's yours.

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