democratic politicians are saying in regards to the trump tax cuts, the trump tax cuts increased tax revenue if by 50%. so we do want to extend those because when tax rate as are lore, economic activity improves, and you have a lower tax rate on a much larger base. maria: absolutely spot on. tiffany. >> yes, as a democrats fear among per, doge is doing some really amazing things for the american people, cuttingwater, fraud and abuse -- cutting waste, fraud and abuse. democrats, republicans, independents alike. sort of reminds me about 20 years ago when we actually had a balanced budge with bill clinton and newt -- budget with bill clinton and newt gingrich. maria: cheryl. >> my co-op does not allow chickens. [laughter] maria: that's all you're going to say. that's it, period. all right, thank you so much, tiffany miley, mark tepper, cheryl ca ca a sony. "varney & company" picks it up now. stu, take it away.

stuart: good morning, everyone. confusion among federal workers. elon musk is rattling the bureaucracy is. the office of personnel management now says the demand that this each worker report their activities is a request and that a response is voluntary that. if the president at the white house says if workers don't respond, then they could be 'em-fired or fired -- semi-fired or fired, his words. after that miss manying said, okay, they get -- musk saying, okay, they get a second chance to respond. members of the cabinet are pushing back on doge. confusion reigns. a deal is possible within weeks on the ukraine-russia war. at the united nations, america voted with north korea and china that russia was not the aggressor in ukraine. there's talk that a putin-trump summit could come very soon. our president is moving heaven and earth to get a deal.

let's get to the markets. some investors not happy with trump's statement that that tariffs are coming on schedule. there's some worry about nvidia's earnings due out tomorrow as well. however, in the early going nvidia's up a fraction, but the cu dow and the s&p are slightly higher, the nasdaq this morning down about 23 points. look at bitcoin. there's the news. it's broke well below $90,000 a coin, you're at 88,7 as we speak. interest rates, heir holding at lower levels -- they're holding at lower levels, 4.3on the 2-year treasury, expect 10-year is at 4.12%. those yields are down. the gold price around 2951, still nowhere near $3,000 an ounce. oil, $700 a barrel -- 70 a barrel. gas, $3.14 for regular on average nationwide, diesel as $3.if 68. that's the market. on the show today, a direct

threat to i.c.e. agents engagedded in criminal alien deportations. posters appearing in los angeles giving out tear picture, home addresses and phone numbers. just in recent days fox's bill melugin reports the arrest of a migrant rapist and drug dealer in los angeles. mayor karen bass says she will protect the immigrant community. lee zeldin joins us. what happened to the $2 million slush fund linked to stacey abrams a, and bret baier on his ground breaking interview with emmanuel macron. newt gingrich joins us on the difficulty of getting tax cuts if the house when the republicans have only a one-vote majority. well, actually, it's about two two -- three seats, as a matter of fact. they can only afford to lose one. wall street's getting nervous about those tax cuts. it is yet another big day in donald trump's tumultuous second term thement. february, tuesday the 25th,

2025. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ tell me why this is the land of confusion. ♪ this is the world we live in ♪ stuart: watch we got? genesis. they disappeared kind of, didn't they? they were really -- >> phil collins is having some severe issues. i don't know if that's the reason, but phil's getting older. stuart: thanks for -- >> way to kill the buzz. song is land of confusion, and that leads into your theme. stuart: you've got it right. is it raining out there? i think it is. no, i don't' any umbrellas. let's get going. we're starting with the latest from muskif doge. we have only -- musk and doge. we have some confusion surrounding the e-mail sent by

the office of personnel management and elon musk. at the request of president trump, musk is offering a second chance to government employees who didn't pond to his first e-mail -- respond to his first e-mail. but if they fail to respond a second time, he says, this will be no third strike, they will be fired. federal employees have amended a priest lawsuit. they claim -- previous lawsuit. they claim only the agencies the employees work with for can fire them. meanwhile, trump is praising musk for the whole idea. >> so i think it was actually, there was a lot of geniuses in sending it. we're trying to find out if people are working. so we're sending a letter the to people, please, tell us what you did last week. if people don't respond, it's very possible there is no such person or they're not working. i think everyone thought it was a pretty ingenius idea. we have to find out who these people are. if you don't respond, we assume you're not around. stuart: well, it appears at least for the time being, the two -- the musk and trump -- are

publicly moving in lockstep. todd piro joins me this morning. all this confusion, does that mean that musk loses momentum in his quest to get rid of wasteful spending? >> let me be abundantly clear, nobody loves the idea of doge more than me. i love it for the reason that donald trump just stated. i love the fact that we can get rid of these potential no-show jobs. i love the fact that my if taxpayer jobs that i and all my friends and family work very hard for are not going on the wasted if doge ultimately does its job. but it's that word confusion. and if you bill yourself as the department of government efficiency, confusion does not lend itself to efficiency. i have full faith and confidence that the courts are going to allow doge to continue its work even if it gets to the supreme court level. i have full faith that they are going to root out all the waste, corruption and fraud in our government. but with i am not so sure is

that this recent e-mail -- even though i love the fact it could unearth these no-show jobs -- is the best way to go about doing it because of the confusion that it creates. and, oh, by the way, i'm not so sure that putting something on a tweet has the full force and effect of manager that can lead to a firing -- something that can lead to to a firing or termination of employment. stuart: a new poll puts trump's approval rating at a, what is it, 5 2%? okay. listen to what a he had to say about that. >> well, i was honored by it. it was a big poll, and it's usually a poll that leads the other side of the world, so to speak. but the harvard poll is a respected poll, and it has us not only leading, but leading by a lot, and leading on every single issue that we've talked about. as i said, we've become the party of common sense. we've moved very rapidly, so i

was honored by that that poll. stuart: can trump maintain a strong the approval rating with all this confusion over musk? >> i think it's a very justifiable concern because a lot of of that is tied to things like border enforcement. you've seen those numbers plummet so low, trump get a record number of nominees in his cabinet, record time. all that's good, but you and i both know that the money stuff is going the take more time whether it's the doge savings or inflation. it's not like donald trump can snap his fingers and eggs are going to go to $a dozen dub $1 a dozen tomorrow. so as the inflationary pressures continue the linger and as confusion reigns in doge and they don't have more reporting of, hey, we got to our number of a trillion, i worry about that a for the number. that said, doge, keep pressing on and you'll accomplish your mission, and that approval rating will go up because the american people want these cuts. stuart: stay with me for the hour, please.

this, from the president, he says the tariffs on canada and mexico are coming on schedule. more on that, please? lauren: no confusion with that, right? if the tariffs are set to take effect one week from today. >> -- are going forward on time, on schedule. this is an abuse that took place for many, many years. and i'm not even blaming the other countries that did this. i blame our leadership for allowing it the happen. all we want is reciprocal. we want reciprocity. we want to have the same is. so if somebody charges us, we charge them. it's very simple. but it'll be very good for our country. our country will be extremely liquid and rich again. lauren: for mexico and canada the rate would be 25%, 10% for canadian energy. but yesterday there's still opportunity for a deal. mexico's president said before trump made those remarks that

he's working to reach an agreement with the -- working to reach an agreement with the u.s. to a stave off the tariffs by this friday. get another deal, you prolong the discussions, and you prolong the effect of the tariffs. stuart: it's all about negotiation. lauren: kick the can. one constant negotiation. stuart to stuart thank you, lauren. check futures, please. i see some green on the screen. here we go. the dow is up 800 points, but the -- 80 points, but the nasdaq expect s&p down ever so slightly. david nicholas joining me this morning. what does the market think about tease upcoming tariffs many i know we can't be precise who and when they're going the hit, but the idea of tariffs, is that still a threat to the market in. >> stuart, it's just not. the market is completely shrugging off, i think, any type of tariff threat, and what's been encouraging is the market hasn't sold off more in the face of discouraging news. walmart's earnings were subpar, fear for the consumers. four straight the inflation

increase reports, it's -- you would have thought the market would have been freaking out because of that. inflation, with tariffs and the market still positive year to date, stuart, the market is focusing more on trump's pro-growth policies than it actually is this tariff threat. stuart: okay. nvidia reports tomorrow. the numbers come out after the bell. where do you think that stock is heading in the next 12 months? $130 now, where to in 12 is the months? >> yeah. i think we see 170, stuart. that's about a 30% increase from here. there's lower expectationses going into this report, but i think the market is discounting the stock. you're getting it at 20 the times -- 29 times forward for a stock that's growing its revenues 90% plus. so so i think you're going to see volatility post-earnings, but i think the trajectory's still higher, stuart. stuart: be a buyer now on the expectation of $170 later, correct? >> yeah. look, if i don't own the stock

today, yeah, i would probably wait post-earning. i think we see a little volatility in the stock. but it you're a longtime buyer like me, you've been buying the dip like i've been clear on, i think you still buy. you may have a better opportunity to get in later this week, stuart. stuart: got it. thanks, david, see you real soon. what we have coming up, democrats have launched an onslaught of legal challenges against elon musk and trump. could they go all the way to the supreme court? counselor to the president, alina if habba, will be here to respond if. after his meeting with president trump, french president macron says he's willing to do more in ukraine. >> first, we'll have a truce. i think it could be done in the weeks to come. we are ready to take our fair share of the burden. it's in europe. we are engaged. stuart: it was a ground breaking interview. bret baier and emmanuel macron. but first, democrats are unifying in the house of representatives.

the republicans have only a -- they can only afford to lose one seat. [laughter] very tough to get the tax cuts extended in the face of a unified democrat party and a razor thin majority if the gop. newt gingrich on that next. ♪ don't rock the jukebox i wanna hear some jones ♪ if you're like most americans, the concern about not having enough money to retire the way you want to. or worse yet, running low on money during your retirement is a genuine concern. safe money iq is dedicated to helping you retire forever. and best yet, we don't charge a fee to show you how to get there. go to safe money iq.com. if you're interested in retiring forever, safemoneyiq.com.

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♪ stuart: this week the house is preparing to vote on the budget resolution which has been endorsed by president trump. minority leader hakeem jeffries

sent a letter the house democrats urging them all to vote no p. former speaker of the house newt gingrich joins me now. newt, the democrats are united, apparently. republicans can only lose one vote is. two republicans have already said they plan to vote existence this bill, so so how do republicans get the tax cuts through, newt? >> well, it's going to take, i think, a real effort by president trump following up on the extraordinary hard work of speaker mike johnson. look, when you only have a one or two-rote majority, you have to really work -- two-vote majority, you have to really work hard for the last vote. the principle is very simple. there are a couple of republicans that don't realize trump's now president. they were used to saying no when biden was president, used the finding an excuse to being against it, and that's fine if you're in the op opposition. now we're in the governing party, and they need to find a reason to vote yes. this is a very important test of whether or not republicans in the house and senate are capable of being a majority and

governing. and i think mike johnson has done an extraordinary to be job with a pathetically small margin and, hopefully, with president trump's help today the they'll find -- they're not going to get all three of the ones currently holding out, but i hope they can get two of the three and get this thing through. this is only the beginning. they have a second vote on this budget, then a couple months from now they have to vote on the big reconciliation bill. every ten of the way the house republicans -- step of the way the house republicans are have to find a way to to get together rather than split apart. that's' the key to being a governing majority. stuart: is it possible to get any democrat support? after all, if you vote no to extending the tax cuts, you're voting in favor of a tax increase. >> well, i personally think that president trump should plan to spend about ten weeks barnstorming just before the reconciliation bill. finish i think there are 13

districts in which do democrats have been elected that trump carried, there are 21 districts the democrats hold where trump got within 5% of winning. if he goes into those districts and has 50 or 100,000 people per district at a rally, the sheer pressure from back home -- this is how reagan won. reagan did it from an toal office a address, but reagan switched 72 votes with one speech because suddenly people back home started calling in and saying you've got to vote with president reagan. if trump goes into those districts, my prediction is you're going to see 10 or 12 or 15 democrats vote yes on the reconciliation bill. this is a much cheaper no vote. the reconciliation bill, you're exactly right, will be a vote to have a huge tax increase. when that becomes clear, i suspect a number of democrats will break and decide to vote with the president. stuart: there's a good deal of confusion if over musk's attempts to slim down the

federal bureaucracy. a good deal of confusion. will the confusion if clay his wasteful, his -- delay his wasteful, his cut program in. >> sure, he's a very smart guy. he did this at twitter, and it worked very well for him. the big challenge for musk is he's a entrepreneur. he's used to doing things his way. governing is a team sport. you have to have the secretary of treasury agree if you're going to be in treasury, the secretary of defense if you're going to be in defense, and musk is going to have to learn -- which will be very hard for him -- that he's got to be a team player. he's not the president. trump doesn't have to be a team player. trump is the leader. but everybody under him, and musk, in a sense, is just senior staff. he's not even confirmed by the senate. so he has to have some sense of respect. trump has put together a very strong cabinet of very competent, powerful people, and they're not going to get run over. they will collectively take musk

on if they have to. the i think most of what elon's doing is brilliant, he's maybe one of the smartest entrepreneur in history. i admire deeply the work he's done in the private sector, and i think on balance doge is going to really teach us how sick, how corrupt and how inefficient the government's been, so it's a good idea if in general. sometimes many if history these details kill you, and so he ought to learn a lesson from this, go slightly slower and have the whole team with you with. don't rush ahead and have the team biting you. stuart: we don't want to see a split if between musk and trump the at this point. newt gingrich, always a pleasure to have you on the show. come back soon, please. yes, sir. mention key's -- mexico's president, claudia sheinbaum, i believe she's addressing the issue of tariffs right now. trump's tariffs. lauren: she aims to close a deal with the white house by next tuesday to avoid that 25% if tariff. so she says her government is talking with the u.s. government on security and and trade with

one week to go. as we talk about tariffs and the cautionary if tone that we're hearing from walmart and this morning from home depot, higher prices of goods that we import, for home depot if you're talking about mexico, it's hand tools, it's power tools, it's appliances. they will get factored through eventually to the consumer. so everybody is worried about this including our companies right here in the united states. stuart: and new york stock exchange coe. negotiation -- and mexico. negotiations continue. >> stuart, what did you literally say within the last 10 minutes? if everything is a negotiation. that's exactly what this is. and yet you see the hand-wringing, so many other networks -- i'm obviously not going to name names -- oh, this is going to destroy the economy. this is a negotiation. and, look, yes, they paused it by 30 days to come to an agreement, and look what's happening at the last moment, stuart. we could be coming closer to an agreement. that's what this is all about. he wants the security guarantees for our nation, and he's using tariffs as a means to accomplish that. if they don't go along, that's

when we get the tariffs, and we potential could have some income tax relief from that. so it's a win-win the way i look at it, but, you know -- stuart: it's going to be tense and messy. >> it is. stuart: thank you, todd. check futures, please. six and a half minutes to go before the market opens. no change for the s&p, down 19 on the nasdaq. dow up 68 points. there you go. the opening bell's next. ♪ ♪ -- dancing with strangers. ♪ waiting for superman to pick her up ♪ if

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so why not with your stock market investments? we can help you see opportunities you may be missing. at hennion & walsh it only takes a second to schedule your free second opinion. so what's there to lose? speak to hennion & walsh. the second opinion people. stuart: three minnesota toss go. not that much price change. dow up 30, nasdaq down 40. daniel newman joining me now, i want to talk -- welcome back to the show -- nvidia. they report tomorrow. are their earning, would you say that they're make or break for the entire market? if -- and/or the magnificent seven? >> yeah, good morning. thanks for having me back. right now with all the a consternation and uncertainty in the marketplace right now, if nvidia if misses in any part, especially on their guide, i think this could really be the moment that the market really

capitulates. we'ved had a rough few days, stuart. the way i see it right now, the whole world watching this to see if the a. i. trade is holding up. stuart: you got to wait for the call. you get the numbers first right around health care, shortly thereafter -- 4:00, then you get the call where the ceo spells out where he thinks things are going that. 's the point of great danger. that's what you think. >> yeah. look, the last several quarters it's been about how big was the beet, and then it was how big was the guide up -- the beat. the last few quarters it's been a little bit less last quarter with. you saw that td cowan note yesterday, everybody looking at microsoft and saying is the a.i. trade falling apart, are they stepping away from the. demand. they refuted it, stuart. but the bottom line is this is the first time in eight a quarters that i'm starting to really hear rumblings from some of the bulls that they are concerned that this a.i. momentum continues. it's all a riding on nvidia.

stuart: what's your opinion? come on, you're on the pot. what do you expect to see and hear -- you're at great risk, i understand that. >> new york i'll take my shot. $325 billion of cap-x commitses, stargate, france, china all committing to big a.i. project. no company benefits more than nvidia. the only concern, stuart, that i have is even if they guide up and guide up big, people see -- till want to to see an even bigger raise each and every time. stuart: because we've raised expectations so consistently that if they're disappointed one time, down you go. >> yeah. a lot of parts of the market just haven't done that well, so everybody's kind of looking for that catalyst right now, what is that excitement to say we are still on track. and this is that that chance for the market. if they do well, we could be off to the races again. stuart: but if not, we're not. [laughter] >> it could be bad. stuart: you're an honest man, daniel. thank thanks for joining us this

morning. the opening bell is ringing and we have opened the market. we started off with a gain for the dow, about a quarter percent higher, 102 points, 43,500. look at the dow 30. clearly, more buyers than sellers. a lot of green on that screen at this moment. as for the s&p 500, i'm expecting dead flat. that's' exactly where it is. [laughter] look at that, down .01%. and as for the nasdaq, something similar is, pretty flat. down about a quarter prosecutor there, down 55 points. -- quarter percent. big tech, here we go. apple the only winner. it is up $1.70. microsoft if is really -- now close to testing the $400 level again. down slightly this morning. amazon, 211. meta, 6763. alphabet, 1 is 77. let's get back to nvidia. morning, taylor. >> morning. stuart: earnings out tomorrow. tell me about this increase in their orders for the h20 the chip. >> yeah. we're hearing that orders are

increasing a lot particularly from companies like tencent,ally baa pa if be -- alibaba, bytedance. they're not subject to the export controls the way some of the newer chips are to china. now, there are rumblings that trump could be looking at putting those also on the export maybe sanctions list, so part of this is ordering ahead of that. part of this is also massive demand for deepseek, and everyone wants to use it so they're ordering chips. stuart: the big deal is the calling as daniel newman just said. watch out for what they say on the call. bitcoin, $88,600. what is going on? if. >> similar to what a daniel said, right? this has been a fragile market. we've had a rough couple days. and as we know, when things are great, bitcoin does great. went you're starting to take some of the inflation, the big balloon deflated out of the market, bitcoin is clearly that risk-on asset class, and it's getting hit along with everyone else as we sort of reevaluate

crypto, a.i., rest key assets. stuart: 88,6 at the moment, long time since we saw that. >> it is. stuart: eli lilly cutting the price of their weight loss drug, zepbound. how much and why? >> now's our chance. now it's affordable. they're cutting it by about a $50 a month. the small, 2.5-milligram dose cannage -- stuart: for 500 milligrams per month, it's now $500? >> for 2.5 milligrams it's 350. they're cutting it by $50 a month if because there's a lot of competition from the cheap aer alternatives. so if -- cheaper alternatives. so if you're this brand name out there, you're going to have to cut. again, if you don't have insurance, you're doing these little vials that are easier to get. you just inject them yourself. people feel like they can use the zepbound brand name instead of the cheaper alternatives. stuart: the market likes it.

i guess they figure there's more revenue coming in. $902 on eli lilly. hims and hers, they're in this market -- >> they are. okay, so ises this is an interesting story. revenue grew about a 95% to $481 million, but the big miss here was margins and guidance going forward. plus, with the right loss drugs, bear with me, they said that they may not be allowed to sell the compounded version of these weight loss drugs. they can sell a compounded version when those brand names that we just discussed are on the shortage list. once they're off the a shortage a list, which they are, you then can't sell those compounded versions. that's why hims and hers is saying we may not if be able to sell it again because the fda says we'll come after you because there's not the shortage a anymore. stuart: 20% downturn today alone, how about that? if paypal. they've laid out a new strategy for venmo? tell me more. >> the strategy is they want to reach about $2 billion in

revenue by 2027. the last time that we got revenue from venmo specifically was back in 2021. they did about a $900 million. this is interesting, venmo, as we know, is a part of paypal. there's been a lot of competition on these peer to peer payment aps. zelle is one, catch app is one -- cash app is one, they want to make sure the market and the street knows venmo is in the running and is a real competitor. stuart: okay. a lot of guests have been recommending home improvement stocks like home depot and lowe's. home depot reported earlier this morning. i take it they're doing well if they're up 2.8%. >> yeah, this is interesting. guidance disappointed going forward. consumers are still really cautious on spending, particularly with large ticket items. think remodels of kitchens, flooring, the big ticket items. that's where consumers are still pulling back. but the ceo did come out and say they are confident in the medium to long term. even though there's pressure in

the short term, the story's very much intact going forward medium and long term out. the market likes those comments. stuart: and then we have super micro. way down. 3.7%, they're down. >> this is the day we've been talking about for six is month ors seven months, eight months. this is the day we have to get by the end of the day today the annual filing that was delayed from last june when the auditor came in. remember, it was ej, they pulled out -- ey. smci got a new auditor, bdo, to come in. they said we don't see fraud despite a lot of the allegation as. in order to avoid a delisting by the nasdaq, we needed to get that annual filing that they got an extension for by today, that is the day. so this is really the moment we've been waiting for. and i will say investors up until this point have been excited. they actually think, and we've talked about some of the updates from executives at soup super micro, that they are going to

make this. stuart: hindenburg, the short list guys -- >> out of business. imagine that. [laughter] stuart: going to see you on "the big money show," 12 the nooned today. hanks for being with us this morning. coming up, a hamas leader now now says the october 7th attack on israel was a mistake. we'll see what the incoming ambassador to israel, mike huckabee, has to say about that. anti-i.c.e. activists now actively posting the names and faces of i.c.e. agents. it's putting them at risk. we're going to take that on for you. remember this? environmental a groups backed by stacey abrams received $2 billion from biden's epa. now lee seld, the current -- lee zeldin, the current epa administrator, he wants to take the money back. he will join us and tell us how that effort's going. we'll be back. ♪ ♪

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stuart: 11 minutes into the trading session. nice gain for the dow, that's .41% on the upside, over 170 points. nasdaq though down 79 -- 89 points now. the epa has discovered $2 billion stashed away by the biden administration. the money was ear parked for a stacey abrams-linked climate group. look who's here now, administrator lee zeldin. i didn't see any media coverage of this. i can't explain that. but can you get any of the money back? >> this is something that is now being worked through between the justice department and citibank. i have a lot of problems with this entire scheme, parking $20 billion of tax dollars at this outside financial institution. as it relates to this $2 billion, they were one of eight a primary recipient withs of

this entire pod of $20 billion in inflation reduction act climate change grants. now, this organization linked to stacey abrams received only $100 total in 2023. it's a new ngo. but then they received $2 billion in 2024. page 1 of the grant agreement with this ngo says that they have the 1 days to distribute -- 21 days to distribute the entire $2 the billion, and on a page 7 of the grant agreement it says that the ngo has 90 days to complete a training called how to develop a budget. if they don't know how to develop a budget and they need that simple training, they should be taking that a training before spending a dollar, and if they certainly shouldn't be given $2 billion and only three weeks to get it out. stuart: can you get the money back? if it was committed by the biden administration before biden left office a, it was committed to this group, can you get it back? >> that's something that a we're

working through right now with the justice department. they're the engaged with citi the bank. here's one of the problems is that deliberately, the way the biden epa a drew this up, if i do a notice of exclusive control to the bank, it actually gives the ngos more power, not less. they can respond if by telling the bank now i want you to end by $2 billion to this other external bank. so this -- the financial agent agreements, the account control agreements which, by the way, e were getting amended up to just days before inauguration day, it's something that we are working through because the biden epa put this in writing to make sure not only are they tossing these gold bars off the titanic, their words, not mine, but they're trying to make it difficult to recover, but we're not going to rest. stuart: this is exasperating. let's change the subject. you want to period if up the permitting process for companies investing in america. when we talk about the permitting process, i think of oil companies who want to drill for oil and gas.

how's it going, speeding up the process? >> oh, it's going great. and it's something that the president launched a national emergency -- national energy dominance council two fridays ago at the white house. working with doug burgum, the secretary of interyear, chris wright, the secretary of energy and other secretaries and departments. we need to work together to bring this timeline down. it's top of mind for president trump. we speak about it multiple times a week. it was the all over his call when he first asked me to take this position. we need to make sure that the processes are running concurrently between different agencies, that there is less red tape, that we are limiting the time where things just end up with uncertainty taking years and billions of dollars at times with no known end that you go through this entire process that you're going to get approval on the other end. start to finish we're looking at a everything to be able to bring the that timeline down to reduce

costs and to make sure it's more consistent and predictable. stuart: can you reduce it from years to months? >> yes. stuart: how about weeks? >> you know, we're -- [laughter] well, it depends which process we're talking about. but, you know, our goal right now is to be able to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes for permitting, to drastically reduce costs and to massively increase predict if evident and consistent -- predictability and consistency. there are so many companies overseas that want to invest in the united states. my first call with mark wayne mull, the senator from oklahoma, told me about one company overseas wanted to spend billions of dollars in oklahoma, they wanted to build a 700,000 or so thousand square foot manufacturing plant, but it would take years, cost an unknown amount of money, and they didn't even know if they would get a permit on the back end. so we need to address all of that. and, you know, for president

trump, he's not going to rest. i told him about one thing we're going to cut from 90 days to 30 days, he says, that's great, let's cut it down to 15. that's his mentality. stuart: you've had thousands of to expa staff return to the office -- epa staff return to the office. how did you do it? because they probably didn't want to come back. >> we had thousands of people return yesterday. president trump came into office a, he signed act an executive order for people to return to work, and the people who were returning yesterday are people who are not part of any if union or collective bargaining. the next date for us is march 10th. that's when we're going to have the next bulk of employees coming back. these are people who are in a union, and hopefully everyone returns because we need everyone in the office being productive, collaborative, and we need to make the american public proud to justify. for all agencies to be able to justify our mission and their investment, the american

taxpayers' investment in us. we need the rest of everyone to come back on that a next date. stuart: you can sic doge on them. lee zeldin, great to have you back. thank you, sir is. now this, you may remember when jamie dimon ranted about getting his workers back to the office. made a lot of headlines. how's it going? lauren: by next month, 90% of employees will be back at their desks five days a week. stuart: he did it. lauren: yes, he did do it. chief product officer does not like what he's seeing so far in the office. not because the employees aren't showing up, but because they're not actually engaging when they are showing up. he reportedly blasted out this e-mail to 25,000 chase employees saying, look, you need to, quote, hoe more hustle and -- show more hustle and scrappiness. he asked for feedback on an, official intelligence product, and he got fewer than five responses back. i think employees are saying i

could have given you feedback from my couch. [laughter] stuart: probably would say that. thanks. coming up, doge is under attack from inside the administration. confuse reigns. i cutting the bureaucracy is popular are, yes, it is. what voters don't want is the appearance of insider fighting that a gets in the way. that's going to be my take at the temperature of the hour. president trump seems to be bending over backwards to get a deal done between russia a and ukraine. watch. >> i'd love to meet him. we'd meet at the oval office. so the agreement's being worked on now. they're very close to a final deal. [inaudible] meeting with president putin also, yes. stuart: we're going to to see if senator eric schmitt is happy to see president trump do just about anything to get a deal done. that is next. ♪

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♪ if. stuart: president trump says we can have a deal done between ukraine and russia within weeks. a member of the senate armed services committee, senator eric schmidt, joins me now.

mr. senator, welcome to the program. are you happy with trump doing just about anything to get a deal done? for example, a minerals deal with ukraine and maybe a minerals deal with russia? if a u.n. resolution saying russia was not the aggressor in ukraine? are you okay with anything to get a deal? >> well, i think president trump's the only person literally on the planet that can bring peace to that region. joe biden didn't have the ability, the credibility or the desire to do this. if they kept funding this war. it's a war of attrition at this point, stuart. hundreds of thousands of people are dying. president trump ran on the idea of ending the war. i think he's going to do that. and i also think it's a pivot to american realism. our foreign policy's passenger changing -- policy's changing, i applaud that. the homeland, the euro pacific, our european allies need to step up. so to the idea that we're going to get some of our money back, hopefully all of it, the $25200 billion plus -- 200 billion plus we end to ukraine, i applaud

that. stuart: they're talking about a deal within weeks and maybe a summit within a week. what are you hearing? >> yeah, i think that's right. i think the tea leaves are that -- i don't know if you want to say it's imminent, this is still a negotiation, but i think it's being brokered by the right people. president trump, again, has the credibility with all parties to actually deliver on this. the american taxpayers are sort of tapped out of this war. t it's become, like i said, sort of a war of attrition at this point, so i think both sides coming to the table ending this thing is good, and president trump may just end up with a nobel peace if prize if at the the end of the day. stuart: they gave a nobel peace if prize to barack obama simply because he was not bush. who knows what might happen with trump. [laughter] >> that's right. stuart: i suspect though, is sir, the odds are against trump getting a peace prize. >> yeah. the european elites aren't big fans of president trump, but the american people are, thank goodness. stuart: congressman -- i'm sorry, senator schmidt, thank you very much. it's always a pleasure. come back soon.

>> good to be with you. stuart: todd, what can you say to trump putting an end to the war? for everything? >> i'll make it quick. we had a guest on who said very unlikely. he's a military guy. but when it comes to trump finish, never if say never. stuart: thank you. still ahead, counselor to the president alina habba on how far legal challenges against doubling could go. incoming ambassador to israel, mike huckabee, on the delay of releasing palestinian prisoners. where do we go from here? and wisconsin congressman bryan steil on republicans, do they have the discipline to get that one big, beautiful bill passed? the 10:00 hour is next. ♪ i'll keep you my dirty little secret. ♪ don't knell anyone or you'll be -- tell anyone or you'll be just another regret ♪

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