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longtime trump adviser, joins us in a few moments. president trump is giving the media exactly what they want, plenty of access, unprecedented access, constant the access the oval office, in the east room, by the helicopter, on air force one. virtually every day journalists get to question the president on all sorts of issues and you know donald trump, he makes news. he doesn't mince words, he doesn't pull punches. so instead of having to to rely heavily on anonymous sources, reporters get to to ask the boss, a stark contrast with joe biden who mostly avoided them. and more availability than any other president. but that that doesn't mean trump has softened his view of the news business as he made clear with sean hannity. >> you're both aware, you have to be keenly aware, that the media and the punditry class -- not that, you know, i think you've proven if they have no power anymore. because they threw everything they had at you, and they didn't win. and that was, you know, the new york times, washington post,

three networks, every late night comedy show, two cable channels. they just -- they a threw everything, lawfare, weaponization -- >> sure. they're actually bad at it. if they were good at it, i'd never be president. i think nobody in history has gotten more bad publicity than me. i could do the greatest things. i get 98% bad publicity. outside of you and a few of your very good friends, it's the craziest thing. howard: well, i don't know if it's 98%. there are some journalists who try to be fair. but clearly, the vast majority of the coverage has been negative, especially with president trump and elon musk imposing deep spending cuts and massive layoffs. the president also a talked about his least favorite networks. >> when i watch msnbc, which i don't with watch much, but you have to watch the enemy on occasion, the level of arrogance and cheating, they're just

horrible people. >> they lie. >> these are horrible people. cnn, likewise. i mean, i watch them asking questions with, you know, hatred. howard: now, cnn would certainly deny that its journalists hate trump, and msnbc would insist it doesn't engage in cheating. by the way, msnbc is canceling joy reid's prime time show which has been filled with harsh, racially-charged rhetoric and has lost half its audience and replacing her with weekend hosts michael steele, alicia menendez and simone sanders townsend according to variety and the new york times. but bottom line are, the same president who lashes out at major news organizations also spends a lot of time talking to them to get his message out. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." ♪ ♪

howard: the media are intensively covering elon musk who with, strangely, wielded a chainsaw at the cpac conference and doge's sweeping budge cuts often by spotlighting the impact on hard a-hit individuals. >> andrew eleven announce -- lenox was fired from if his supervising program at the v.a. medical center in ann a arbor, michigan. >> as i packed up my office a, it's anger, you know, because i was terminated for my performance. i haven't even had a performance review. >> that includes ariel cain. up until saturday, she was working at the center for medicare and medicaid innovation. >> it really makes me sad because i know the work we are doing is so important, and i thought it was bipartisan. >> more than 8,000 usaid a employees were sent home by the administration if. >> they're not looking for competency or if you're good at your job. they're looking for pure loyalty

tests, and if you don't give it, you'll be punished. >> it's like being in a room and there's target, the wall, the roofs and the floor are all targets. so you can shoot in any direction. [laughter] you can't miss, you know? >> they're exposing the left. and all of the money, the wasteful spending that we all work hard for, our tax dollars, and what it's going to. it's going to all these dei programs and other countries. that's' not what americans want. >> the way they talk about it, it's like the dnc is being audited. and in a way, they're right because everybody that works in the government is a democrat. howard: and there's no shortage of critics. >> part of its purge of government employees, elon musk and his merry band of young doge axe men unilaterally fired 350 workers at the agency responsible for safeguarding nuclear arms components. >> the government wants you to believe that the person putting thousands of people out of work making them rethink their entire

lives, families, technically he has no power to do what he's doing. howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage in gnash april, tomi lahren who hosts the tomi lahren show on outkick, fox news contributor, and here with me, tim hogan, former strategist for hillary clinton. tomi, what do you make of this media approach focusing on one person who lost his or her job or one person whose program was shut down? >> so, listen, i want to be compassionate to anybody who loses their employment. that's got to be a difficult thing whether i think their jobs were necessary or whether i agree with the way they're going about it or not. doesn't matter. i feel badly for their personal circumstance. however, howie, because this is a media show, i just have are to point out that back in the years of 2020 the through, i don't know, 2023 when the covid era was all the a range and people were losing their jobs and businesses were being forcibly closed and you had to choose

between employment or a vaccine that you didn't want, i never saw these media folks bringing folks on talking about the heartbreak of them losing everything that they had. similarly are, howie, i'm from south dakota. on day one president biden shut down the keystone xl pipeline, effectively terminating about 12,000 plus jobs in the first hours of his presidency is. i didn't see any of those pipeline workers on msnbc or cnn getting their moment to to cry. so is whereas i understand losing your job is a traumatic thing, i think the media coverage here is imbalanced to say the least. howard: well, i think there was a lot of coverage of people who lost their jobs during covid but not necessarily tied to president biden. tim, the impact on actual human beings clearly is part of the story. but at the same time, is there an unspoken assumption that this federal employees should have tenure for life? >> no, i don't think so. i think there is a way to go about cutting federal work even

if you wanted to -- i mean, the clinton the administration did it in the '90s. they saved taxpayers $100 million, but they did it in the right way. federal workers, i think, are just people in d.c. who push paper around a, 80% are out in the country, 30% of the federal work force are veterans. and you're firing people who are trying to stop bird flu, firing people who are firefighters in rural communities. i mean, these are important jobs. and the problem is the way that doge is going about this is they're just sending out e-mails. some people are saying you haven't performed, well, they haven't had a performance review or they've been given good marks, but they're being fired. not the way to do it. howard: southwest airlines just cut its work force by 15, and i don't see reporters going to interview those people. tomi, tim sort of anticipated my next question, they're now hiring -- scrambling to hire

back the bird new and nuclear weapons experts. would you agree that elon musk's approach is kind of cut first and ask questions later, or are they moving too quickly? >> well, listen, elon musk is an unconventional kind of guy. the way things have been done for the last 30 years apparently has not worked which is why we have such bloated government and waste, fraud and abuse. again, you might not like the way he's doing it, there might be some mistakes made along the way. that's understandable in my eyes, and i think they're working to correct any mistakes very quickly. i would also point out, you know, this uproar over the nuclear waste folks. okay. during president biden's wonderful tenure, my democrat friends, you had someone in charge of nuclear waste that was stealing ladies' luggage. again, when we're talking about the federal work force, you don't just get a job and keep it for life. the private sector has to do this all the time. i agree, elon musk is going in quite literally with a chainsaw and an axe a cutting things. it might make you uncomfortable,

but the american voters wanted uphe'll and wanted things to actually happen, and things are happening. howard: who would have thought that the chainsaw would become a major political symbol. and now, tim, "the washington post" says that that even some people who have gotten glowing performance reviews got fired. especially if they were promission their employees which means they've been there for two years or less. and maybe as many as 200,000 of them being let go. that's going to have an impact. >> it's going to have a huge impact. when you look how doge is categorizing some of these cuts, at lot of them don't make sense. today claimed $1.9 billion from cutting an i.t. account there there the -- contract in northern virginia that was canceled under the biden administration. they claim they canceled $ 20220 million, they -- 220 million, they actually saved $500,000. it's going to be a $4.6 trillion

to extend the trump tax cuts, a bun of that have concern dun -- bunch of that money going to go to the wealthy. they're playing this game where they the pick out little items and say doesn't this sound terrible? at the end of the day, it's going to be a disaster for the federal budget. howard: tomi, some republican lawmakers, and i'm sure you know this, doing it on the senate flukier talking to reporters, behind the scenes, but while they support president trump's efforts, they're saying, well, you've got to spare in this program, nih grants, because that affects my state. you've got to spare the food program that helps farmers in my state. doesn't that underscore how hard it is to cut the federal budget? >> it's hard to the make cuts, let's just be honest. it's not an easy thing to do. but this is exactly why many americans support what elon musk and doge are doing and the courts have upheld. if we rowed congress to do this -- allowed congress to do this, they don't want to cut anything. everybody gets a kickback.

everybody gets a pet project. and by the time you get to the end of it, they cut nothing. there's no cut of waste, fraud and abuse with. everybody gets their pork. so i understand there are going to be republicans, there are going to be democrats and people in the middle that are not going to like the cuts that are coming. but if we're honest and serious about what abouting to re-- wanting thing to the reform government, sometimes tough9 cuts are going to need to happen. it's going to make folks uncomfortable, but get comfortable being uncomfortable. this is the era of trump. howard: get comfortable being uncomfortable, interesting. so the press, of course, is calling this hypocrisy because they're trump budget cuts, and isn't this, tim, sort of a version of not in my backyard in. >> yeah, shul. this is what members -- absolutely. this is what members of congress do. just to put a face on this once again, we're hearing from disabled veterans at the v.a. is where their job is to make sure that wait times are shorter for people who need services. this is not just fat, they are cutting muscle, and that is why

some gop members of congress are writing letters,. howard: they're doing more than writing letters. >> they've completely neutered themselves. they're writing op-eds, seven sending letters. their constituents are going to to hold them accountable, swing seats in wisconsin, people are pisssed because they are starting to see and feel the effects of in this, and this is going to be bad in 2026 because they're going to own this like they a did in to 189 -- 2018. howard: that was always going to happen which, you know, you do it on a whiteboard, it's one thing. when the political pressure starts to rise, of course, members of congress get yelled out of town meet. a couple of top trump officials have been beat up on the media, tomi. pete hegseth, the decorated veteran and former fox host who is now the secretary of defense made a video saying the legacy media distorts good news stories and often gets them wrong.

kash patel just confirmed as new fbi director says much of what's written about him is fake, malicious, slanderous and defamatory. keep it coming, bring it on. so it's not just the president who is very unhappy and being more aggressive toward the news business. >> yeah, listen, legacy media, i don't think president trump or anybody in his orbit has got thr credibility. they've done it to themselves. over the course of this campaign season, that was quite evident whether you have selective editing or changing of things in kamala harris interviews or whether you have the mainstream media who for four-plus years covered up for president joe biden's obvious mental decline. it's not president trump that's going after the media and now they're losing credibility. they lost that credibility, and now that you have a trump presidency, you're going of to have people in his orbit that are quite naturally pointing that out. this is not because of president trump, this is in spite of

president trump. they did it to themselves, and in my opinion, they deserve the criticism that they're getting. howard: interesting how legacy media has become such a loaded phrase. well, when we come back, the media on fire over president trump's comments on ukraine. and later, trump adviser jason miller. (shower water runs) (♪) (orange is peeled) (♪) (shower turns on) (children laughing) (♪) (shower turns on) (shower water runs) (child laughing) (♪) (♪)

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howard: president trump has enflamed the world's media by with escalating his rhetoric about scott myrrh zelenskyy, blaming the ukrainian president for russia invading his sovereign nation three years ago. >> think of it, a modestly successful comedian, president

zelenskyy talked the united states of america into spending $350 billion to go into a war that basically couldn't be won, that never had to start. a dictator without elections, zelenskyy better move fast or he's not going to have a country left. howard: as american and kremlin officials were about to meet to negotiate a settlement, zelenskyy responded with frustration. >> i will never accept any decisions between the united states and russia about a ukraine. if never. and our people, never. but there is no leader in the world who can really make a deal with putin without us, about us. >> both presidents know for a fact that putin is a thug, he's killer -- a killer, he's committed genocide inside of ukraine, that all the casualties that are out there are a result of an unprovoked attack on ukraine. president trump doesn't talk about it in those terms because i think he believes in personal

diplomacy. >> but it's extremely sad that this has all happened. but now trump has to get the best deal that he can, and that won't happen if he does what biden did and just insults russia and keeps funding failure. the truth is we're broke, period. >> was incredible is that president trump -- what is incredible is that president trump, the president of the united states, is now echoing talking points that vladimir putin has pushed repeatedly. >> donald trump blamed ukraine for starting the war which began only when russia invaded ukraine. that is exactly like blaming poland for starting world war ii. howard: tomi, whether you agree with the war or not, the media a are quick to point outta that there's one person to blame for launching the invasion aimed at wiping ukraine off the map and making it part of russia, and that is vladimir putin. >> yeah, i agree with that assessment. i would also say secondary to that would be president joe

biden whose weakness and ineptitude also allowed this to happen. again, i don't think this would are have happened under president trump, but here we are. and i understand that the media anytime if donald trump puts manager if out on truth social, there has to be this eruption of outrage. oh, no, you called him a comedian, you called somebody a name. haven't these folks caught on to the program by now? he's been doing this, and he's been doing, i would add a, quite successfully from his first term all the a way through. and, by the way with, he doesn't just do it with people like president zelenskyy. he does it with little rocket man, lying ted cruz, ron desanctimonious. this is how president trump operates. again, it makes some folks uncomfortable. but from what we've seen thus far and i believe we're going to see, it's going to be effective. you know, just right before this program we had a maria what bartiromo talking about how they're going to make a deal for rare earth minerals. that's probably going to be having rather soon. again, underestimate the man, don't like the way he tweets or

truth socials, but if the results are there and we get an end to an endless war, i think that's a win. howard: tim, it goes beyond just insulting zelenskyy went you call him a dictator without elections. well, he did postpone elections last year under his constitution because the country's at war. hard to hold elections in that situation. brian kilmeade did press president trump on this repeatedly. what's your take on the coverage of this situation? if. >> i mean, i think what we are seeing is the american president using betrayal as a foreign policy tool. the argument is that he is using exactly the russian talking points that were the pretext for the war to begin with. and like you said, he's calling him a dictator. he's saying his approval ratings are at 4%. yes, they are not holding elections right now, and that is part of the ukrainian constitution. it's not some suspension -- howard: by the way, his approval ratings are not at 4, but go ahead. >> right. the point being it's not just the media and democrats who are

alarmed by this. you're hearing consistently from republicans, people like, you know, chuck grassley, thom tillis, senator if thune, others. i mean, you are hearing confusion from his own team, marco rubio, pete hegseth, keith kellogg. they're not on the same page a because this is what trump does, he just goes to the podium and says whatever he wants. i think what he is doing is actually softening the ground for an end to the conflict that actually gives more to russia and is trying to get public opinion to be okay with that. howard: well, we'll have to wait and see on that. tomi, you make the point if he is able to broker a reasonable deal, the fact that he's not constantly attacking russia might be a factor. there are a number of conservative media outlets as well as republicans who flatly disagree with the president. you can pivot to joe biden if you want, but the president blaming zelenskyy for the foolishness of allowing his country to be invaded by russia.

>> yeah. again, i don't blame president zelenskyy for the russian invasion. i think it was supposed to be just a small incursion according to president joe biden. but i will say this, again, i understand why some folks are really enflamed by this. there's a lot of folks that benefit from an endless war, a military industrial complex paycheck. i understand that. you don't like the way the guy talks. but what i believe president trump was trying to convey is, president zelenskyy, you will no longer be getting a blank check from the taxpayers of the united states of america. this might, again, make you uncomfortable, but you're going to have to come to the table. president trump and his team are doing whatever they can to try to to bring lasting peace and prosperity to ukraine, also build up their economy. and, again, if president zelenskyy wants to show boat and do interview, that's fine. that's not going to to help his country. come to the table. let the united states help you but now more blank checks. howard: tim, "wall street journal" editorial page reminds us that a putin goes after civilian casualties. he bombs apartment buildings,

train stations. i'm not saying trump shouldn't talk with him, but this is who here dealing with. >> he's a murderer and actually a dictator, right? that is the appropriate term for him to be referred -- and the issue is not how trump is necessarily talking about it and making peel people uncomfortable, it is the pretext as it looks now for appeasement that could encourage putin in the future to do something similar like this. we would not like that. howard: that is certainly the concern around the world and in europe. up next, new york city in chaos really as mass resignations follow the eric adams case.

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trump justice department. meanwhile, a federal judge in manhattan pressed a top doj official on the reason for banning the case such as saying, well, adams is running for re-election, but the charges were brought last september is. tim, how can the city function when these deputy mayors are really running day-to-day and the latest front page nudes? >> yeah. it's a -- news if. it's a terrible situation for new york city to be in and also a for the governor to be in. this is a serious decision if she were to remove him or does she put in place some legal guardrails, which she has -- howard: governor kathy hochul has the power to remove the mayor but has declined to do it. >> has put in things like monitoring the municipal purse and have people be able to sue if the trump administration, add a also a decides not to. but it's a dual crises, confidence in the payor's ability to do his job but also at the doj with numerous people resigning including

conservatives, including some who work with john roberts, and there's a big crisis of government as a result of this. howard: tomi, the justice department admits it did not look at the evidence, that that a it's making sort of procedural arguments. and at the same time, the judge who delayed the decision probably has limited ability to reinstate the case against eric adams. >> yeah. it's all a really a mess. it's a lot of chaos. i think new york city is pretty used to that, you know, at this point. i would say they have a lot of problems to tackle there. i will say this, there are a lot of conservatives who give mayor adams credit because he's willing to work with tom homan to get rid of illegal aliens. i think that should be a baseline, expected thing that that a mayor should want to do, but this is causing chaos. i also wonder why governor kathy hopinging isn't able to make -- hochul isn't able to make decisions on her own, why she needs to bring in the likes of al sharpton to help her decide.

i'm glad she's getting her consultation from somebody as noble as that. howard: tim, how does eric adams a run for re-election when he's got the media against him now? city council president against him and ousted goverr andrew cuomo is far ahead in the polls and about to jump in? >> yeah. my very short answer to that is i have no idea. i don't know how you run for re-election in a situation like that. everything is stacked against you by the decisions you have made. but i will just say also it is so concerning that we had -- that tom homan was sitting with the mayor on this network saying i'm going to be up your butt, was the phrase he used, if if you don't follow our agreement x. that a dangling over adams' head is just dangerous. howard: right. whether to explain there was an agreement even though tomi rightly point9 -- points out that mayor adams was against -- his city, rather, was receiving a lot of illegal migrants, and he has been criticizing the biden administration for a long time.

but that's one of the things that that will play out here in this case. new york city if is a mess, tomi, but he's the first sitting mayor to be dieted. -- indicted. thanks so much. next on "mediabuzz," trump adviser jason miller on the president's tumultuous first month in office. your new bike is officially protected by america's #1 motorcycle insurer. we can now safely go wherever the wind takes us. [ engine revs ] let's ride. [ tire squeals ] it was one of those books that smelled bad, but in a good way. you know? nah, man. -oh. -didn't think this through, -did you? -no. you go in without me. the owner and i aren't on speaking terms. apparently the refills are limited. -kay...? -it's not okay.

howard: joining me now here in washington, jason miller, senior adviser to the trump transition team. the president, as you know, has gotten absolutely hammered not just by liberal journalists, but by national review and the "wall street journal" editorial the page for blaming russia for the invasion -- blaming ukraine, excuse me, for the invasion. how can you defend that when the kremlin sent troops and missiles into a sovereign country with the aim of wiping it off the map? >> howie, let's take a step back for a minute.

i don't think national review is emblematic of what regular americans are thinking. here's the bottom line. we have had so many people who have been killed or wounded in this conflict with ukraine and and russia that we have to stop the killing. did you know that over a million people have either been killed or wounded in this conflict? howard: i did. and we all a want to end the war. >> but, howie, ukraine is in such bad shape right now that the average age of their soldier is over 43 years old. you take the tens if not hundreds of thousands of ukrainian troops that have been killed, between 800,000 and a million ukrainian women who have left the country along with children, you're going to have literally a lost generation. president trump has forced the sides to the table to stop the killing and come up with a peace deal. for the last several years, joe biden sat there completely incompetent doing nothing but fueling and funding more killing and death. we should be trying to stop the killing, not trying to keep it going. howard: you're making an argument to end the war which i

think a lot of people, most people would agree with. i'm talking about the beginning of the war. the new york post cover, if we can put it up, says, president trump, this is a dictator, with a big picture of putin. the fact checkers say, look, zelenskyy is not a dictator, as president trump said, wartime leaders like win store churchill that -- winston churchill have postponed elections during wars. how do you respond to that? >> joe biden has a lot of blame to go with this. number one, we saw the disastrous withdrawal from afghanistan. we completely lost all sense of deterrence as a nation. but also with joe biden continually pushing for e.i. expansion, pushing for -- e.u. expansion, nato expansion, of course they're heading toward conflict. the fact of the matter is we have war, conflict, and it's happening right now. howie, we talk so often about the casualties, exactly how many people have been hurt. let's also not forget how much american money has been spent. over hundreds of billions of

dollars -- howard: and i understand that debate. >> and we have to stop that. we can't go on. president trump had an interesting point yesterday, i'm not sure if many folks caught on to it, when he talked about a his legacy. he said he hopes his legacy really will be as a peacemaker. keep in mind that putin invaded ukraine under obama, putin invaded ukraine under biden. he didn't dare do it under president trump. not only did president trump have no new wars, he's going to stop the killing in ukraine. he's gotten to the peace a deal -- a ceasefire in the middle east, but we have to stop the killing, howie. howard: conservative mark levin, who's a fox news host, says this is sick. ukraine didn't start this war. what were they supposed to do, roll over and play dead? they're just trying to survive. so you very skillfully have not answered the direct question which is why is president trump blaming zelenskyy for the beginning of the war? >> well, zelenskyy has a lot of blame. i think that would go to this as well.

but again, howie, you want to look in the past. i want to look into the future, what we do to save live, and that's exactly what president trump is doing. zelenskyy right now is trying to hang on to power. everybody in washington, everybody in brussels is trapped in this, essentially, this circular firing squad of trying to figure out how do we keep the conflict, how do we keep it going of president trump is the only one saying let's stop the killing, let's stop the wasteful spending, let's go and try to help ukraine. and, by the way, we had scott bessent on with maria bartiromo if talking about the minerals deal that i think the u.s. is going to come to which, by the way, is genius. finally, we're going to have somebody pay back some of -- howard: i got it. most people don't want to keep the war going. let's move to budget cutting, elon musk, doge. when he's cutting bird flu experts and trying to hire them back, cutting those deals with nuclear weapons and trying to hire them back, isn't it fair for the press to say they're

moving too fast, their breaking the china and asking questions later? >> no. you've got to separate the media noise, essentially the freakout because the media's not in control, from the actual good work that's being done. by the way, people love the fact that president trump and people who work for him like elon musk are getting it done. when president trump first came down the escalator in 2015 and all through his win in 2016 and all the way to where we are now in to 2025, a big part of his success is because he ran on an indictment of the failed policies of both democrats and republicans. republicans have a lot of a blame to go at the as well. only in washington, this is a really warped place, only in washington do you have democrats say let's go and spend $so 0 million, republicans say, no, no, let's spend $50 million. they come together in a bipartisan fashion, they compromise to spend $150 million. howard: but what you're describing as media noise is also known as pointing out facts, mistakes that the doge

every -- it doesn't mean that what they're doing isn't valuable work or that there knost a lot of waste, fraud and abuse that we would like to get rid of, but they've made mistakes. >> oh, no one's going to bat a thousand, but i think they're doing a pretty damn good job. look what they've cut out with the wasteful usaid, funning trans plays in colombia and all this nonsense. you look at the double billing, the double payments going on, they're going to the save so much. here's the other thing that's important for people to keep in mind. in addition to joe biden cutting off the drilling and stopping energy exploration beginning back in 2021, the other thing that a launched this massive inflation was the out of control spending, these massive spending bills. so the fact that president trump with his team are going to go and claw back some of that green new scam money that'sing being spent, the fact that they're cutting out all this wasteful spending, this stuff is absolute nonsense. people are glad. the the only people who are freaking out right now, howie, are people inside the beltway. around the country people love the chainsaw.

you know what, elon? howard: well, you know who doesn't love it? republican lawmakers who are protesting to the administration, please don't cut the nih program, please don't cut the food for farmers program. doesn't that a make a your job more difficult? >> no, not at all, because we can be way more efficient. just the fact that we saw the freakout over the weekend of elon saying tell us what five things that that you did this past week to justify your existence, if you can't name five things that that you did last week, then you should not be on the government payroll. howard: all right. more with jason miller right after this. i had the worst dream last night. you were in a car crash and the kids and i were on our own. that's awful, hon. my brother was saying he got life insurance from ethos. and

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howard: and we're back with jason miller. president trump told reporters i think we should govern the district of columbia, make it shul, flawlessly beautiful. the district has large ally had home rule for half a century. crime, a lot of problems cities have. is the president planning to end home rule in. >> i'll leave that up to the president, the administration, and i very much like mayor bowser. i think she's -- howard: i think we should govern the district of columbia -- >> hold on, howie. here's the thing, if president trump is going to put pressure if on people to get results, we saw him do it this week with elon musking, he's definitely going to do it with mayor bowser or anybody else. we have to get our cities back on track within this country. again, d.c., other big cities, this was a massive, i think,

part of the reason why president trump won because he said he was going to the clean up our cities to make them safe. of course he's going to put pressure on the district of columbia. now, whether or not the administration takes the next step, i'm going to leave that up to them. but, of course, he's going to to say we have to get d.c. cleaned up and on track. again, i think mayor bowser's done some really good things particularly on the stadium deal and other things. howard: i'm hearing this is a warning signal. the president says he will protect medicaid, the federal and state the program for the poor as well as medicare and is social security, but he supports the house budget which would slash medicaid in part to pay for the tax cuts. so which is it? >> well, i think people are getting a couple of things con complainted here. you can definitely remove the waste, fraud and abuse. you can also a talk about how you're going to deliver services more effectively without going and necessarily reducing benefits to be people. what the president has made clear is that we have to go and reup his tax cuts. no tax on tip, no tax on social security, no tax on overtime, reduce the corporate rate down to 15% if you're making your

product here in america, but we have to streamline and make more efficient the federal government. this is really the theme, howie. for years people have been ticked off that leaders have not done anything about it. he's going to get it right. howard: the house's budget could consistent as much as $88 80 million from medicaid dub 880. why does the president keep talking about canada as the 51st state? it sparked a wave of patriotism and anger at america. and in reality, it's never going to happen. >> to oh, well, howie, first of all, the president's having a little bit of fun with it. he's also a making some very serious points. the u.s. does subsidize canada effectively running about a $63 billion trade deficit, i think it was $64 billion the year before -- howe it's just a fact of life. >> hold on. also when you look at why is canada so safe? >> it's because of the united states. it's because of the u.s.' protection. remember the monroe doctrine? the reason why canada is safe is because of the united states. and there are a lot of aspects

of the usmca while much improved over nafta, still need to be fixed. definitely need more cooperation from the canadians -- howard: he keeps talking to justin trudeau. is he not getting -- >> well, because trudeau's the still in charge for now. howard: for now. >> i think he's on his way out there. but, no, president trump is going to use political pressure only the way that that he knows how, but the i think he's having a little bit of fun. howard: so with the president teasing crowds about whether he'd run for a third time, saying, oh, this'll make news -- barred by the constitution, by the way -- is he just trolling the press? >> of course he's going to push the press' buttons. what's actually the says is he's changed american politics i think forever going forward. people are going to look for a different level of accountable, of moving fast and getting things done. i think president trump is setting up for what he calls the golden age of america. four great years. howard: will it only be four? >> that's what the constitution says.

howard: all right. he's going to abide by the constitution? >> we're going the a fabulous four years, and i think his impact is going to keep going in perpetuity. and because of president trump, you're paying less taxes, everybody's paying less taxes, the economy's going to be babb on track. this neighborhood where we are here in d.c. is going to be safer. we're going to stop the killing in ukraine and, guess what? the border is now secure. howard: nice pivot there, jason. jason miller, thank you so much. still to come, don trump, james -- donald trump, james bond, elon musk and greg gutfeld. seriously.cl r. it changes how you eat, how you feel, and how you enjoy life. clearchoice network doctors have changed over 150,000 lives with dental implants. because a clearchoice day changes every day. finance your new smile for as low as $148 a month per arch for qualified patients. schedule a free consultation.

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♪ howard: the associated press remains banned indefinitely from many white house events, and no question that that comes from the top. >> the associated press just refuses to go go with what the

law and what has taken place. it's called the gulf of america now. now, the associated press, as you know, has been very, very wrong on the election, on trump and the treatment of trump and other things having to do with trump and republicans and conservatives. howard: now the a a p has sued three white house officials saying the ban violates the first amendment and was given no to prior notice. this after the white house correspondents' association protested if a letter signed by 40 news outlets including fox news saying news organizations must be free to make their own editorial decisions without fear of government intrusion. the white house called the suit frivolous and demented. the whole move seems to me to be pretty petty over a name. grimes, the singer who had a 5-year relationship with elon musk and three children, has gone public about a medical

crisis is. i am sorry to do this publicly, but it is no longer acceptable to ignore the situation, he wrote in a now-deleted post on x. he won't respond to texts, calls or e-mails and has skipped every meeting, and our child will suffer long-term impairment if he doesn't respond asap. days earlier a woman who knows elon musk claimed her baby was his 13th child. to public response from elon. -- no public response from elon. >> i add admire your luck, mr.-- >> bond. james bond. >> mr. bond, i suppose you wouldn't care to raise. >> i have no objections. howard: the james bond franchise, six decades old, is getting a new owner. amazon is taking creative control of the master spy and womanizer, this after jeff bezos' company aa quired the mgm studio.

bezos now crowd sourcing the question who should be the next james bond. my question, will amazon change him for the digital age? greg gutfeld, whose nighttime comedy show beats stephen colbert, seth meyers, or jimmy fallon and the rest of the gang, has landed on the cover of variety. you know how often the mainstream media have been willing to do a major, favorable cover story about someone at this network? never? well, hardly ever. >> is tinseltown finally coming around? this week's variety cover story features a guy you might recognize, huh? [cheers and applause] no, that's not mel gibson, but i get it a lot. howard: variety says hosting a celebrity-free show devoted to hot button issues and cracking jokes with a withering sarcasm,

gutfeld is an unlikely king of late night. greg attributes his success to paying his dues off citizen when he hosted the show red eye at 3 a.m. red eye was on so late at night and the adults weren't watching, i got to do a thousand episodes. so is that meant i went from sucking to just being awful, to being not too bad, to the being 50/50. it was the best training ground. i wasn't up that late. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. thanks for watching. you can subscribe to my daily podcast, media buzzmeter, where we have a lot of fun talking about the day's top stories. i'm out of time. see you next week. ♪

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