maria: welcome back. good thursday morning, everybody. thanks so much for joining us this morning. i'm maria bartiromo. i'm is thursday, february 20, 7:00 a.m. on the east coast. walmart earnings are crossing the tape right now and the stock is plummeting. cheryl casone with the numbers. >> the company has beat but it's about the forecast, maria. so they came in at 66 cents a share on an a adjusted basis, 180.55 pill180.55 billion on re. it's the forecast that's actually what's got the street's

attention. this could be a tariff story. we're trying to dig into the report to find out if there's detailsings if it's not going to be in that, it's going to be on the conference call. customers they go to walmart and executives said this in the past that they go to walmart, don't care where the product is coming from, they want a low price on the product. they had put 350 billion down for more sourcing from the united states, there's a particular brand, great value, and that -- 70% of those products are coming from china so the company is likely trying to as best they can at this point, maria, start to scale down that exposure with the threat of tariffs but we're probably going to get more commentary on the call than from the company right now. real quick, they're taking 50 points off the dow, to let you know. e-commerce sales were up 16%, u.s. comp sales were up 4.6%, ex-fuel up 4.9%. it's not about the results. it's about the forecast, maria. maria: it looks that way.

cheryl, thanks very much. couple of dead lines for everybody to remember, march 5 we'll see 25% tariff on mexico and canada, 10% tariff on canada energy, march 12, we could see the 25% tariff on steel and aluminum, april 1st is when the america first trade policy memo comes out, they're studying what reciprocal tariffs will mean. that's when we could see april 2 and 25% tariff on pharmaceuticals, auto and semiconductors. we're watching this. it will impact markets for sure. let's get to the word on wall street, top investors watching your money. with us is mall walter todd ank tepper. we kick it off with your reaction to walmart earnings this morning and stock down 7% right now. >> so walmart's a victim of its own success here. it's done so well over the past two years that the expectation level got pretty high, trading 39 times earnings, so the

guidance being disappointing as referenced earlier. we'll have to see why the guidance came in below, whether the u.s. is dollar has been very strong since the last quarterly report, that will impact them. there's a 10% tariff in china that's impacting them will be interesting to hear the comments from management about what went into the guidance number. the current quarter as was said was actually pretty good and this is a case where a lot of companies that have reported this year, the current quarter good but the guidance is challenged. maria: do you worry about the impact of tariffs elsewhere? if you're going to see walmart stock take this serious of a hit because of guidance and that guidance is the unknown of what the impact of tariffs will be or the unknown if all the sales momentum can keep up for 2025, are we in for some selloffs in the future? >> yeah, i mean, the market overall has been incredibly resilient in the face of the

headlines, the s&p up 5% so i think we're in for more volatility as we potentially get the tariffs coming online, we have the budget, potential government shutdown in mid-march as well. walmart is down 5 to 10% but probably warranted given the run it's had. maria: on top of the tariff worry wife you've got the intet rate worry. mortgage rates are still up there. the index hit a five month low on the tariff concerns. you say this decline is the number one reason inflation is stickier than we would like. >> when you look at shelter cost, that makes up 35% of cpi or inflation so it's certainly an issue and we saw in the most recent print, i mean, i think it was going in at 5% annualized run rate which is too high. that's one of the main reasons inflation is going to stay high. if you think about it, we're in a housing crisis right now. it's a housing recession but for young people this is a crisis because when you think about the

average age of a first time home buyer, back in 2010 it was 30 years old. today it's 38. so people have to wait longer and longer and longer to be able to afford homes which presents quite the problem and that's obviously because mortgage rates are high after biden's inflationary policies over the course of the last four years, and there's a real shortage of affordable housing. toll brothers yesterday said they're doing okay on the high end of the market from a home building standpoint but there's not enough affordable houses out there as far as inventory goes and the home builders don't want to start building them until mortgage rates come down so it's the chicken or thing, which comes first. maria: that's why president trump one of his first executive orders was more supply in housing, right? >> you've got to have that. you've got to have more supply and have to figure out how to get mortgage rates to an affordable level. someone making 80,000 a year, the median household income in the united states, there needs

to be a path for them affording a $250,000 house in a respectable area with decent schools. maria: yeah. apple unveiling its cheaper iphone, the 16-e model, powerful enough to support the apple intelligence feature, looking to boost overall iphone sales after falling 1% last quarter. microsoft revealed the first quantum computing chip, won't be available through microsoft's azure cloud but it opens the door to future models with greater capacity is what the company is telling us. how important is this, mark? >> i think the microsoft quantum chip is very important because jensen huang of nvidia a month or so ago said he thought quantum computing, the actual computecomputers we were decadey and microsoft's response is we're actually only a few years away. apple has become really no different from a box of cinnamon

toast crunch. it has become a consumer staple. they're no longer innovating. this most recent iteration of the iphone did not do well and i really don't expect this to do much better. maria: it's a commodity. commodity prices go down. walter, how do you want to allocate capital in this uncertain environment? >> i think you want to be patient here. i think we're going to continue to have headlines that are going to move the market around, it's going to give you towns buy good companies at cheaper prices. i think interest rates are very attractive here on the fixed income side, 4 and-a-half to 5% or more on corporate bonds so i think a balanced allocation and diversified allocation and wait for your opportunities. maria: we'll leave it there. walter, good to see you. thanks so much. mark, you're with us all morning. we're grateful for that. we're just getting started this hour. quick break and then president trump takes further action on illegal immigration and the dangerous gangs and cartels who have breached the u.s. border, we're talking about it when we come right back.

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it comes to welfare programs and benefits, this comes as the state department declares mexican drug cartels, tren de aragua and ms13 gang as terrorist organizations, enforcing an executive order signed january 20th. and team, when you actually have these gangs deemed terrorist organizations, that opens up the abilities for law enforcement to take them down. >> right. maria: what does that do when you're deemed a terrorist organization? >> first of all, i have to say biden never manned up to say that tren de aragua and all of these cartels should be designated as terrorist organizations and it took president trump to come in to protect americans. when you're deemed a terrorist org. no says, -- organization, you're stopped at the border and there's criminal actions that law enforcement can take. tren de aragua was coming through the border under custom agents and border patrol and we

weren't able to do a thing about it. i visited the border. i actually saw illegals were crossing, border patrol threw their hands up and said we don't have law enforcement, we don't have the law behind us. it took president trump to sign the order to protect the american citizens today. i find it appalling and astounding. maria: i too witnessed it at the border. >> the fact that these organizations are basically in a gray zone conflict with the united states, bringing in fentanyl, you know, they're killing americans with what they bring across the border. they are in fact terrorist organizations. this is a situation that existed for decades. here is donald trump sits there and says i'm going to change the game. you're now a terrorist organization which means it's not just law enforcement, it's also the intel community, the military. you can use all these resources to go after the gangs themselves and go after their money too. maria: a federal judge is waiting to decide whether to dismiss corruption charges

against new york city mayor eric adams. adams has been accused of accepting more than 100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and luxury gifts from a turkish official. he's pled not guilty, refusing to resign. governor kathy hochul is considering whether to remove him from office,. what are your thoughts here? is she going to take him out? >> i don't think so. maria: i don't think so either. >> the city charter and the laws that relate to this, talk about an inability, doesn't talk about the fact you want to work with another branch of government. it's really kind of absurd itself but unfortunately the government is in an unwinable situation. the left is saying you've got to remove him because he's working with president trump and moderates on the right are saying you can't take out a person that was elected and there's a primary election in june so let the voters decide what they're going to do. don't subvert this whole lek

electoral process. maria: you know what she's thinking, andrew cuomo is right behind him because he is. cuomo is going to run for mayor and when he runs for mayor he could win and he's going to try to take kathy hochul out and run for governor. >> he's probably got a bad taste in his mouth after he was booted and she was named the replacement. maria: whatever move she makes with eric adams will be a check mate move with cuomo. >> she has to worry about her political career. if she takes out adams, that's not going to be a good look. the american people have spoken in this last election. they don't like lawfare and these charges were rubbish, bogus charges. i mean, the big guy, there were no charges filed against him from taking money from china. >> what happened to innocent until proven guilty? that's the fundamental issue we're missing today. charges were dropped by the doj and it was dismissed without

prejudice which means the doj could re-evaluate and bring charges back. why is kathy hochul trying to eliminate him? we saw this countless times in america. americans aren't going to stand for it. innocent until proven guilty. we saw it under president trump and he prevailed. i think mayor adams will do the same thing. maria: my next guest is leading the push to make u.s. military bases in eastern europe permanent to deter america's adversaries like russia and china. pat fallon is here with more on that. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. we'll be right back.

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maria: welcome back. washington cleaning house, the irs reportedly set to lay off roughly 6,000 employees today. targeting recent hires made by the biden administration. the department of homeland security says it is saving $50 million after firing 400 probationary employees, the pentagon sending lists of the probationary employees to doge as they're looking for 8% in cuts to offset the budget. doge found $230 million in cuts at the social security administration. elon musk now says doge could audit all the money the u.s. has sent to ukraine.

president trump said this. >> the united states has spent $200 billion more than europe and europe's money is guaranteed. they get their money back. it's a form of a loan. on top of this, zelenskyy admits that half of the money we sent them is missing. they don't know where the money is. he said we don't know where half of it is. maria: president trump backing a plan to pass doge savings onto taxpayers, joining us now is texas congressman pat fallon. congressman, thank you very much for being here. what is your take on the cuts coming to the defense department? >> well, i think we have to really look at cuts, maria, across all federal agencies including the military, because the pentagon, nobody ever accused them of operating at maximum efficiency eemplet we want to make sure we have funding for the troops and any new weapons systems we have to make sure that they're funded. but you know, administrative

costs and things of that nature, we can look at cuts. and some civilian employees that maybe are excess, certainly those can be found for cuts as well. maria: you're trying to get the defense spending numbers up in the reconciliation package and you are also hearing president trump talk about things like modernizing the military and coming up with an iron dome type situation for america and yet on the other happened you're hand g and trying to cut out the waste. you sent a letter to defense secretary pete hegseth and marco rubio urging them to make u.s. bases in eastern europe permanent, saying it will deter russia, china and other adversaries. tell us about that. >> well, yeah. we're looking for more beef in the military and we want to cut the fat. as far as the eastern european bases go, we need to deter russia. it's very handy to reposition

troops and supplies and equipment in europe because if there's something even in the middle east that were to kick off it's good have those supplies, you would rather have them in eastern europe than in nebraska, for instance. it also does act as a deterrent because nato with article 5, an attack on one is an attack on all, is a deterrent and it puts teeth on in if we have troops in romania, bulgaria and poland and i would look to beef up our presence in the baltic states. maria: beefing up our presence, means spending more troops? >> more troops, more equipment, more supplies. we're not going to defend russia with 5,000 troops in a baltic state. it's merely defensive. it's obviously defensive. it's telling russia we want to peaceful eco exist. we always have. you're the one that invaded a sovereign nation and launched the largest military operation europe's seen since world war

ii. maria: you think this will act as a deterrence to our adversaries? >> i certainly think so. maria: you've got chinese nationals snooping around military bases. what's that about? >> well, okay. so you look at the numbers with the biden administration and president trump's first administration, there were about -- given the year, 2 to 5,000 chinese nationals who would coulds the southern border illegally under president trump. that numbered ballooned to 54,000 one year under president biden. you're going to tell me all 54,000 are not loyal to beijing? of course there's sleeper agents. if they cross the taiwanese straits, is the national infrastructure threatened? are reservoirs he threatened by trained operatives? that's one of the reasons why president trump won, people want the border to be secure. maria: that's what i'm saying. you've got chinese nationals who were caught in our military

bases, you know, in several different places over the last several years under the biden administration. this is not exactly a touristy thing to do, go to u.s. military bases. so what are they doing and are they being directed by xi jinping? >> i personally think so. they're not -- they weren't there just taking pictures with the family when they're in sensitive military installations and have no reason to be there. there's no other tourists around. these aren't tourist attractions. the preponderance of the evidence is they were snooping around for beijing. it's harder for us to gather intelligence in china because it's an authoritarian state. but president trump is committed to keeping americans safe where joe biden stuck his head in the sand and took the ostrich approach. maria: it's incredible what doge is finding out and the latest bombshell revelation is that the doge agency exposed a

shocking level of federal spending abuse with the government having 4.6 million active credit cards in circulation, processing a staggering $90 million in transactions, it's justifies call 2024. -- just fiscal 2024. some of the credit cards were at the defense department. >> look at. we found the news broke about the $59 million for fema spending money on luxury hotels for illegal immigrants. what i loved is that this administration already canceled 29dei contracts that the department of education signed saving $101 billion and $185 million over hhs for administrative costs and one of them was the national institute of health has a museum and they were going to have a fivey fauci exhibit. that got canceled. the federal government gave

money to the new york times and ap and they canceled subscriptions from politico. there's a lot of save toss be had out there. maria: it's incredible the department of defense having 2 and-a-half million individual accounts and all these credit cards. president trump signed another executive order stopping all federal benefits for illegal immigrants directing the agencies to identify and cancel programs providing them, trump threw support behind the house's budget budge resolution plan. the senate is looking at their plan today. it doesn't include the tax cuts. where are you on this and do you worry that in fact you all go down the route of two plans that you don't get to the tax cuts before year end? >> well, that's why i think the president is correct in the one big beautiful bill he says, we need to extend the tax cuts. you know what? the private sector needs security and they need stability so they can plan. there's trillions of dollars on

the sidelines, we need the investment. that will grow revenue for the federal government and that's terribly important for our economy moving forward. maria: all right, congressman, we'll be watching your work. thanks so much for being here this morning. >> thanks, maria. god bless. maria: and to you. jd vance gives a stern warning to ukrainian president zelenskyy about bad mouthing president trump and the united states. kt mcfarland weighs in on that when we come right back. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. ♪

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>> the only thing he was really good awas playing joe biden like a fiddle. he played him like a phi dem fiddle.that's an expression we . zelenskyy has to move fast or he won't have a country left. that war is going in the wrong direction. in the meantime, we're successfully negligence other negotiating the endof the war w. maria: president trump slamming ukraine's president zelenskyy, vice president jd vance also warned zelenskyy to stop bad mouthing trump and the u.s. after zelenskyy accused president trump of living in, quote, russian disinformation space. joining me is former trump national security advisor and cpac board member, kt mcfarland. i know you're coming from cpac. tell us your thoughts on what's going on with this new fight between trump and zelenskyy.

>> come on. i mean, zelenskyy wouldn't go to the negotiating table. biden won wouldn't go to the negotiating table. their reasoning was we can't trust putin, we can't trust any deal he'll agree to so we won't meet with him. what's the plan? we're going to win. president biden says we'll give you as much as you want, as long as it takes. president trump says you're not winning the war. let's end the war. let's sit down. you don't do a deal unless you're talking to the other side. and that's what's really exciting. people are talking about it, do you think donald trump is going to bring peace? yeah, i do. maria: where does this go? because trump also said ukraine broke a deal over the rare earth minerals after zelenskyy ignored treasury secretary scott bessent when he traveled to kyiv. we talked about what president trump wants. he wants 50% of the revenues from the rare earth minerals extracted. here's what he said about kyiv,

watch. >> and then scott bessent actually went there and was treated rather rudely because essentially they told him, no, and zelenskyy was sleeping and unavailable. to me, he traveled many hours on the train which is a dangerous trip. we're talking about the secretary of the treasury. he went there to get a document signed. and when he got there, he came back empty. they wouldn't sign the document. maria: kt, your reaction? >> you know, the united states has kept zelenskyy and ukraine alive and you would think would be happy to do an agreement with us for the development of rare earth minerals. not only as gratitude but thinking of the future. if united states develops ukraine's rare earth minerals, it's a guarantee that the russians aren't going to attack ukraine again, they're not going to go across the border and kill american whose are developing at mines, that are developing rare

earth minerals so for two reasons zelenskyy should be thrilled about a deal that president trump is offering him. maria: i mean, look, you know, it's -- is this a commitment for more aid or is this payback for the aid that biden sent him? 50% of all revenues from the extraction of rare earth minerals, that's a lot of money. >> right. yeah, i mean, look, i think at this point they're negotiating the terms of the deal, is it 50%, is it 30%? president trump will always go in and ask for the higher number and maybe part of the negotiation is finding the right number. i hope that's what they're doing because if president zelenskyy is going to walk away from this and say i'm against any deal with russia, against any deal with america. really? how does he plan to keep his country safe for the next 20, 30, 40 years. maria: let's talk israel. the bodies of four israeli hostages including the bebis family have been returned by hamas ending months of uncertainty for their lived

ones, kefir, ariel and sheri were taken during the october 7th attacks. they were murdered. the heart breaking transfer happened in gaza. hamas displayed coffins along side propaganda images blaming the united states and israel for murdering this family. israeli officials confirmed six more hostages could be freed saturday as part of this deal. kt, this cease fire deal, i mean, we don't even know how many more hostages are alive. your thoughts? >> and that they're killing babies, you know, how do you even talk to that? how do you answer that? there are a number of freed hostages who are here at cpac, i met with them last night and the stories they've told are just horrible. you can't imagine the barbarity. we sent out a resolution that we all agreed to saying we condemn it and we want israel to finish

the job, destroy hamas so it can never again rise from the ashes as it has done every single time. finish the job. destroy hamas. let the region live in peace and prosperity. maria: do you think as part of that israel should destroy iran's nuclear capabilities or, you know, the pursuit of a nuclear bomb? president trump said they cannot have one. should israel go in and destroy it? >> well, president trump said they can do a deal. we can do this on paper or we can do it in another way. getting rid of iran's nuclear program. israel has done us a lot of favors. they destroyed hamas, well, most of hamas, they destroyed hezbollah, taken out missile defense batteries that would have prevented any kind of aerial attack on iran's nuclear facilities. so iran is now naked. it is defenseless. at the same time, president trump's energy policies are going to bring down the price of oil and then iran is bankrupt

and the president's going to put back sanctions on iran so that iran can't sell the oil even at a low price. iran is going to be in a desperate position very soon so maybe we could solve this without going to war. iran's nuclear program should not be -- every president has said no, no to iran's nuclear weapons. nobody else had a plan to stop the program. i think president trump does. working with israel. maria: for sure. let's talk cpac, kicking off today in washington. vice president jd vance is set to speak later. you're a board member of cpac. what are you hearing on the ground there? tell us about the conversation this time. >> it's enormous enthusiasm because -- you know, a couple years ago, this was a pretty bleak conference because president trump had been denied in 2020, all of the dreams seemed to be dashed and crashed and now it's like we've all been revived. it's like a resurrection. and the other things that's really fascinating, maria --

this is the umbrella for all conservative groups, social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, national security conservatives, second amendment people. we're all here. we are all conservatives. the thing that was missing was a lot of the tech people, the tech world. they're here now. they're showing up. ththey're probably libertarian more than anything. they love president trump's approach on tech and cryptocurrencies. they're showing up with big numbers and big bucks. maria: young people as well within that tech space. >> yeah. yeah. and amazing enthusiasm. the other thing we're noticing is that countries around the world, europe, south america, asia, they're sending delegations now because they're all coming to cpac and saying how did you guys do that? we're w conservatives in our own country. we're seeing revival of conservative common sense values. we want to know how did it, how have the conference. we're having conferences all over the world, cpac hungary,

brazil, japan, korea, we want to spread the message not just in america. how do you do it in america? how do you do it in the world? this is not just a five shift in the united states. this is a five shift forward. maria: kt, what do you want to hear from the national security advisor, what's most important from a foreign policy perspective in terms of the trump administration today? >> i want to hear several things. what i want to hear is a status report on ukraine, how are the peace talks going. i want to hear what's the story with china, are we going to get tough with china, and i guess i want to hear most of all is how we're going to develop our energy security which is our national security. if we develop the energy, not only is it great for the american economy but it bankrupts russia, bankrupts china, gives europe a lifeline to say use american natural gas, don't use russian stuff and puts us in a position of globally really energy dominance as president trump says the best. maria: and that's why he signed

all those executive orders around energy. kt, good to see you. thanks so much. >> thanks, maria. maria: kt mcfarland joining us in washington. quick break and then president trump deals a fatal blow to new york city's congestion pricing but governor kathy hochul is not going down without a fight. she's wants the congestion pricing to stay after trump killed it. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. ♪ so, what are you thinking? i'm thinking... (speaking to self) about our honeymoon. what about africa? safari? hot air balloon ride? swim with elephants? wait, can we afford a safari? great question. like everything, it takes a little planning. or, put the money towards a down-payment... ...on a ranch ...in montana ...with horses let's take a look at those scenarios. j.p. morgan wealth management

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maria: welcome back. the trump administration has terminated the new york city congestion pricing program, not even two months after going into effect. fox business' gerri willis with the details now. >> good morning, maria. that's right. this is all happening, though, kathy hochul, the governor of new york, trying to lance the budget first, announcing plans to fight the department of transportation's termination of new york city's controversial congestion pricing plan. in a press conference, she called out the president in no uncertain terms. listen. >> i'm here to say new york

hasn't labored under a king in over 250 years. [cheers and applause] >> we sure as hell are not going to start now. >> the d.o.t. terminated the approval of the program, rescinding the agreement signed under the value pricing pilot program. in a letter to governor hochul, transportation secretary sean duffy saying this, new york state's congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working class americans and small business owners, every american should be able to access new york city regardless of their economic means. it shouldn't be reserved for an elite few. congestion pricing started in january with cars being charged 9 bucks to enter manhattan below 60th street with the ability to increase the cost of that toll over time. now, the landmark initiative was designed to reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality and raise funds for much needed public transit upgrades. critics of congestion pricing

have said it's just one more unfair cost to commuters who drive to fund the mta. new jersey governor murphy among them personally thanking the president for the news saying in part i want to thank president trump and secretary duffy for their efforts to halt the current congestion pricing program in manhattan's central business district, the current program lines the mta's pockets at the compensat expense of newy anns. president trump said congestion pricing is dead, new york and all of manhattan is safe, long live the king. the fight looks like it's far from over. i guess people will have to continue paying it until hochul's lawsuit is resolved. maria: wow. it's not just commuters outside of new york who don't like this, gerri. thank you, gerri willis. if you live in new york city like i do and you pass 60th street, there you go, $9 is recorded. so it's not just if you live outside of the city, even if you

live in the city but you drive past 60th street. >> absolutely. think about all of the businesses too, think about truckers that are carrying goods. we're increasing the pricing of goods as well. who gave hochul the authority to continue tolling like this. >> we have to look at americans today. we can't keep getting our pockets hit. when you see the subway, kathy hochul has given you no choice. she's telling you to get on a subway where a woman was burned to death. this is not safe. she allowed illegal immigrants to creep into the city and top of that say pay more if you want to use our roads. maria: that's a good point. it's so commen expensive it puss people to go on the subway. the subway has massive problems. you're afraid to stand by the tracks. someone could push you into the tracks. >> they're going to upgrade the subways so it's nicer for the criminals? from an economic standpoint, most of us heard jamie dimon

talking about work from home versus back to work and how he disapproves of it. from an economic growth standpoint, it has become crystal clear that there's less productivity out of employees working from home. you want them to go back to the office and now you're going to charge them 9 bucks to go back to work to make an honest living to help to drive productivity and efficiency for the company they work for which grows the tax base for everybody. maria: at the same time, i mean, let's face it. you know, right now new york needs money. >> yeah. maria: okay. and they are facing massive debt and deficits as well because so much money is going to the illegals. >> exactly. >> that's part of the problem. maria: what mismanagement. >> you know, when secretary duffy talks about the whole program, he harkens back to the fact that the federal highway administration built these roads and they were designed to be toll-free. you had to have a toll-free option. that's now being eliminated. you can't get in new york city without a toll-free option. he said that is anti-thetical as

to why they invested in the infrastructure. this is going to be a fight for a long time because the mta has always really struggled and they have to find some kind of way and you know, duffy didn't say you couldn't charge anything. it had to be actually worked through what would be the number to reduce congestion. and that's not what it's -- it's tied to a fiscal target by the mta, what they need, not what it takes to reduce the amount of cars. >> looks like tolling on federally funded roads cannot happen without congressional approval. maria: that's a good point. okay. so she's overstepped. >> yeah. >> she's overstepped and she stopped curbing illegal immigration. we are paying more to pay for housing in new york city. who is paying? taxpayers and others who are residents here. maria: we've got weather to report as well. a polar vortex grips most of the country with bitter

temperatures, it is cold outside. fox weather meteorologist britta merwin with an update there. >> i get it. it is february so it is supposed to be cold but this is a different level. when polar air takes over the u.s., we have feel like temperatures that drop as low as negative 50 trees. that's what we're waking up to across the northern plains. the cold air gets down to the soft. we have cold weather warnings that extend from border to border. there's not one missing county from north dakota all the way to the state of texas. this goes over the mississippi river and to the east coast. 234 million americans are below freezing today. so when does this break? when do we finally get a break from this bitter, bitter cold air? the good news is, there is light at the end of the tunnel, maria. we have a warmup that starts on sunday. but get this, by monday, wichita, kansas, they're waking up in the negative this morning. they're going to be in the 60s by monday, a huge upgrade. maria: well, that's good. i'm glad the warmer weather is

coming. thank you. we'll have to get through the next couple days. stay with us. quick break and then we've got a big hour in the 8:00 a.m. hour. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. we'll be right back. ♪

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maria: welcome welcome good morning. thanks for joining us this morning. i am maria bartiromo. i hope you are having a good thursday morning thursday, february 20 it i just before 7:00 on the button east coast we kick off with a hot topic of the hour president trump is prioritizing every american dollar with a new executive order on illegal migrants benefits as elon musk doge team find more wasteful government spending brooke singman now with the latest, brook. >> good morning, maria, that is right president trump onboard with idea sending out dividend checks to taxpayers using the money saved by

department of governmenters, listen to this. >> -- >> proposing -- beginning -- to americans, based on what doge is finding, do you. >> i love it 20%, dividends so to speak for money that we are saving, by going after waste, fraud abuse all other things that are happening i think a great idea. >> how much money do you think. >> a lot, 20% give back a lot of money to the taxpayer. also, incentive for the taxpayer to go out and report things. >> trump speaking on wasteful spending alleged widespread fraud doge found. >> we are also finding tremendous abuse waste and fraud in social security, social security, is what is happening there, is going to be one of the great potential scandals in history. on the program there over