shirt from but we are going to burn it. eddey from alabama, shame on you for not paying johnny and of tobias suit. i will have him dressed like zelenskyy next time and see how he does. kim, the only mistake you can make would be... he's a keeper. he actually responded to my email about his 5 bullet points of accomplishment so he stays. cliff from montana, you can lead a liberal to waters but you can't make them think. joe from old bridge new jersey, my daughter says you have raise ... a little wrist action, what about that. hannity is up next with vance, i'm watters and this is my world.

>> sean: welcome to hannity. tonight we are back in the washington swamp, the sewer as we love to call it. and we are here to give you all an inside look into the incredible first few weeks of donald trump's second term. just a few hours ago we were at the eisenhower executive office building just across from the white house for an exclusive interview with vice president j.d. vance. that interview was only moments away. we will also be joined onset by white house press secretary karoline leavitt. we will get our white house briefing and the u.s. attorney general pam bondi, talk about epstein and a lot more. breaking tonight, the united states is pausing all military aid to ukraine until the country makes a commitment to good faith peace negotiations. this after the ukrainian president zelenskyy proclaimed that piece is still very far away. to keep in mind that zelenskyy has already been given many opportunities to team up with

the u.s. on a peace deal. and according to my numerous sources, he's now asking to come back to the white house and he would now finally sign off on what he should have signed off on last week and that is the rare earth minerals agreement. that would bind our countries together but it's not going to happen when the president of ukraine seems to want war in perpetuity, a war without the u.s. and without european money he could never even fight. on truth social, president trump called the recent comments the worst statement that could have been made and america will not put up with this much longer. this guy doesn't want there to be peace as long as he has america's backing. don't forget the rare earth mineral deal, that would be just phase 1 of president trump's peace plan. the deal would put u.s. business interests on the ground in ukraine which itself would provide a significant deterrent to vladimir putin. it would also help ukraine pay

back the debt to the united states while also ensuring that u.s. funding continuous and provide massive amounts of money that the country will desperately need to rebuild their country. this keeps going, there's noco to be a country to rebuild. phase 2 would be cease-fire agreement and phase 3 would be the negotiated settlement. this would be the hard part and apiece hopefully in europe as a result. zelenskyy can't even bring himself to sign off on phase 1. last week's tents meeting at the white house in spite of what the media mob is telling you is not an ambush. it was supposed to be a show of unity. it was supposed to be celebrating what was a done deal. it was supposed to be mostly ceremonial in nature. in fact, it was the third time zelenskyy was supposed to sign off on that very same deal before trying to relitigate the agreement in the oval office at the last minute. of course the hysteria and anti-american sentiment in

europe is now spiking. good luck on their own. 1 major gas company vowed to boycott our u.s. navy, refusing to refill our ship, really? norway stepped in and aren't promising that will not be the case. on next only moments after the contentious meeting at the white house multiple european leaders posted their unwavering support for zelenskyy seemingly endless war. than they hosted him for a meeting where they showered him with praise. as lindsey graham said if euro wants to take them on all thes this on all by themselves they are free to do so. as donald trump pointed out, europe in the meeting that had with zelenskyy stated flatly they cannot do the job without the u.s. probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against russia. what are they thinking? president trump raises a great question. what is europe thinking?

the united states spends nearly $1 trillion annually on defence. all of the countries in the european union spend just about 326 billion combined. when it comes to funding ukraine the same disparity continues. the u.s. has been carrying far more of the financial burden than ukraine's actual neighbours in -- on their continent. to top it off europe is actually sending more money to russia, buying oil and gas than aid to ukraine. the e.u. bought a whopping $22 billion in fossil fuels from russia in 2024 alone. europe is making potent filthy rich so he can continue to feed his war machine. america, we should be supplying europe with all of their energy needs and hopefully under donald trump's plans that will soon be the case as we move towards energy dominance. if you want to know how prudent is funding his war, look no

further than the european union. trump gave angela merkel the white flag of surrender after germany did that multibillion-dollar energy deal with putin. so if europe once this war to continue with no end in sight, they are going to end up being on their own and it's not going to end very well. i'd like to see the killing stopped, i'd like to see the destruction stop and i'd like to see the rebuild of a country before it's too late. but as president trump stands ready and willing to make a deal, earlier tonight i asked vice president j.d. vance about this and so much more. here's part 1 of our interview just a couple hours ago. >> sean: inc. you for being with us. let's go back to the oval office friday. your spirit -- your prospective. >> great tv. as the president said. it's funny, we have a 45 minute press conference and the president normally does this where he likes to bring the media in and have a conversation but answer questions with the

press. he's very open with orders. for the first 25 or 30 minutes he tried to bend over backwards to be gracious and kind to zelenskyy. even when he was needling him and saying things that i thought were untrue. the president tried to be diplomatic. that's his natural instinct in that situation. than when it really went off the rails is when i asked -- a polish journalist had asked a question... something about my answer set him off. he came at me and than i went back at him and what i tried to do originally was try to defuse the situation a little bit. we are having this meeting, there are 100 television cameras here. let's try to have this conversation private. than the president as we kept on going back and forth, i tried again to say maybe we should

have this conversation in private and the president was like actually i don't want to have it in private anymore. i want to have this conversation for the american people to see. i think there was a certain sense of there was a lack of respect. a sense of entitlement. most importantly we can look past all that stuff but the president has sent a very clear goal for his administration, he wants to killing to stop. i kids important that present zelenskyy and president putin, they both got to come to the negotiating table and that's where things broke apart. i really don't care what he says about me or anybody else but he showed a clear unwillingness to engage in the peace process that president trump has said is the policy of the american people and of their president. that's the real breakdown is i think he wasn't yet there. and i think now still isn't there but i think he will get there eventually, he has to. >> sean: my understanding is he tried to stay a number of times and then made numerous calls to come back, is that

true? >> they certainly made at least 1 request to come back and continue the conversation. the president was like first of all they were disrespectful. second of all what are we going to talk about? they show an unwillingness to discuss this peaceful settlement that president trump is trying to bring to the situation. a lot of americans, it's useful to step back and ask ourselves what is the actual plan here? you can't just fund the war forever. the american people won't stand for it. if you look at european opinion polls, the europeans aren't going to stand forever for it in either. we need to bring this thing to a peaceful settlement. the president was trying to do that. he will continue to try but you've got to have 2 to tango. you've got to have a partner in the ukrainians who recognize of course they have their views and of course they are not always going to agree with us but they've got to participate in the conversation. they weren't willing to do that on friday so the president said send them home. >> sean: he expects...

i don't know where he's going to get the money to fund that war. i have my doubts that europe will fund it to the level that biden and harris were funding it. the issue has come up whether or not this administration will continue to offer money and arms for those to continue. without america i would argue that the president was right in saying they have no cards. >> i think our european friends are being really -- they are doing a disservice to the ukrainians because their own populations are saying we're not going to fund this war indefinitely. the american people are saying we don't want to fund the war. the only thing that is in the best interest of america, of russia, of your -- ukraine and europe is to bring this thing to a close. you have zelenskyy who goes to europe at a lot of our european friends puff him up. they say you are a freedom fighter and you need to keep fighting forever. fighting forever with watch? with whose money and whose ammunition and with whose lives. the president is taking a much

more realistic perspective in saying this can't go on forever. we can't fund this thing forever, the ukrainians can't fight forever so let's bring this to a peaceful settlement. >> sean: he wouldn't give me direct answers. i asked him about the mineral deal to pay the u.s. back, to me there's 3 phases in this. my understanding was a friday was supposed to be relatively ceremonial. and it was supposed to be the mineral deal, that's part 1. part 2 would be a cease-fire. part 3 would be the hardest part, the negotiated settlement with boudin. correct me if i'm wrong he said he's willing to talk peace with trump. >> he said he's willing to talk peace and we trust but verify. we want to have the conversation and don't want to assume that anything is true. that's what we want to engage in this conversation. you are right, when ukrainians came to washington on friday it was supposed to be ceremonial. there had been had been some public back and forth's and some disagreements and some words spoken in public and the president was like let's have

this moment, we give some credit to the brave ukrainian fighters and it's a very brave army that they have in ukraine. let's sign this deal which importantly does 2 things. it allows the american people to get some of their money back but it also shows the ukrainian people that america has a long term investment in their sovereignty. you do those things we will sign this thing, have a moment and than we will get to the tough talk of negotiating peace. we couldn't even get the ukrainians to a point where they can talk about the peaceful settlement. in some ways i get it, i get the frustration and the rage, if their country it's not our country. but you've got to accept cooler heads have got to prevail. this thing cannot go on forever. this is the important point. i'd say this to our force and the americans who are watching, but people all over the world, when you talk to leaders in private whether they are ukrainian or european, when you talk to people in private they will tell you this cannot go on forever.

there aren't enough ukrainian lives, there isn't enough american money and there isn't enough ammunition to fund this thing indefinitely. the only realistic pathway to bringing this thing to a settlement is president trump's pathway. we encourage both president zelenskyy and president putin to follow that path. >> sean: hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent and this came up in the discussion friday. the biden administration called prudent every name in the book. they've been trying to get the president. it depends if it's a minor incursion. let's go back to that moment. but i go back and i think about this and biden spent all of this money, all these names, the media and the democrats they want donald trump to call him names. the president -- he supposed to call him and say vladimir are you ready to talk peace now? that's not going to work. >> its diplomacy 101. you have to have a reasonable relationship with somebody to be

able to be even start the conversation. we have to remember ukraine, half of the country, a third of the country is totally destroyed. the economy is depressed. you've got hundreds of thousands of dead ukrainians. a lot of dead russians as well. the president wants to negotiate a settlement, how can you negotiate if you can't even talk to somebody? that's what he said. he's not saying -- nobody is suggesting that we give the nobel peace prize to vladimir putin. what we are saying is its important for president trump to be able to have a conversation. that's not well served by standing up at a press conference and calling the guy every negative name in the book. president biden called wootton every single name in the book. what did it lead to? it led to war, destruction, a lead to conflict. president trump is trying to bring this thing to a close. you have to talk to somebody to do that. >> sean: president trump said

friday he can come back if he wants peace. is that door still open today? >> he has said clearly and consistently is of course the door is open so long as zelenskyy is willing to seriously talk peace. you can't come into the oval office or anywhere else and refused to even discuss the details of a peace deal. this is not going to make anybody happy. the russians are going to have to give up stuff, the ukrainians will have to give up stop, you can't come to the oval office and say give us security guarantees we won't even engage with you about what we are willing to give up. that's been the posterior. not changes, when they are willing to talk peace i think president trump will be the first person to pick up the phone. >> sean: they are probably rethinking a jamaica of european leaders and there voice of solidarity this weekend. lindsey graham who had been very supportive of ukraine in his conflict, he was livid to. he said if they want to defend their own continent let them do it.

good luck to them. >> my message to ukrainians and present zelenskyy is win you've lost lindsay graham that means need to come to the negotiating table and recognize donald trump is the only game in town. he's the only person who i think has a meaningful plan to save that country. here's the problem with the europeans. a lot of these guys are our friends and allies. we -- the president has a great relationship with a lot of european heads of state and so do i. but the need to be realistic. the craziest part about this is that sometimes you have european heads of state who in public will pop up their chest and say we are in it with president zelenskyy for the next 10 years and then in private they will pick up the phone and say this can't go on forever. he has to come to the negotiating table. i don't care whether europeans say in public. what i care is what they say in private and what they need to be saying to president zelenskyy is this can't go on forever. the bloodshed, the killing, the

economic devastation, it's making everyone worse off. the only pathway back to peace and prosperity is what the president is trying to accomplish. >> sean: we see joe biden was beginning to understand that the patience of the american people was running thin. hundreds of billions of dollars for a nation with nearly 40 trillion in debt. >> i was a united states senator for the last 2 years of the biden administration. i liked his job a lot better. i certainly like the president a lot better. when you would talk to the biden administration officials, it's another example of a terrible situation... when you ask them what's the plan, we're going to spend tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars in ukraine, what is your plan and they would tell you we're going to send them weapons for as long as we can and hope eventually they can turn the tide. hope is not a strategy. throwing money and ammunition at a terrible conflict, that is not

a strategy. the only guy with a strategy is the president of the united states, everybody needs to follow his lead. >> zelenskyy, how many more lives are good to be lost, he's not going to have a country to save. the minerals deal would've provided the money to rebuild their country and a strong u.s. presence and maybe european troops as well. >> the president knows that if you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that vladimir putin does not invade ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give americans economic upside in the future of ukraine. that is a way better security guarantee then 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn't fought a war in 30 or 40 years. the security guarantee and also the economic guarantee for ukraine is to rebuild the country and ensure that america has a long-term interest. if you come to the oval office

and insult the president and refused to follow his plan for peace. >> sean: if he called tomorrow and said i'm ready to adopt your plan for peace. he can come back to? >> if he called and had a serious proposal for how he was going to engage in the process. are details that really matter that we are working on with the russians. we talked with some of our allies, he needs to engage on the details. i think once that happened than absolutely... >> sean: are you convinced that they are willing to meet them halfway, they're willing to do their part to achieve a negotiated settlement? >> am i convinced? no. you have to trust but verify. you have to engage in negotiation and see what steps people are willing to take. obviously i'm biased because i really love the guy but when the media attacks president trump as somehow on the side of putin, 2 big problems with that. the only president in 20 years

where you haven't had the russians take a bunch of territory was under the first term of donald j. trump. the second part of that is you've got to actually accept that president trump, he's not just assuming that everything the russians tell him his true, he's negotiating with them. there's a give-and-take, there's a trust but verify. that's called diplomacy. we used to have some respect for that in washington, d.c.,. >> sean: coming up more of my exclusive interview with the vice president j.d. vance. i ask him about his speech in munich. it did ruffle a few feathers. also about donald trump's address. and much more straight ahead.

's

>> sean: we continue tonight from washington, d.c.,, here's part 2 of my interview with the vice president j.d. vance. >> every time he talks about tariffs is the media and democrats that anger and, have you not figured out that means let's negotiate and they seem not to want to understand that part. you said at the munich security conference, i want to quote it directly. biggest threat to europe is not russia or china, you talked about the retreat of europe from fundamental values. the threat is from within and you went on to talk about digital censorship and cancelling elections. that was a powerful condemnation of what is really happening there. >> it's also a condemnation of what the biden administration was doing. this is 1 of the things that the europeans didn't appreciate about the speeches. the biggest driver of mass censorship in the last 5 years actually was in the europeans, they were the victims of it in a

lot of ways. it was coming from the biden administration. this crazy left-wing idea that we are not allowed to debate ideas, we are not allowed to discuss things, that we have to silence people and censor them, throw them in jail for silently praying outside an abortion clinic. these ideas are going to destroy western civilization. they will destroy europe and the united states of america if we allow them to fester. thank god we have a president who believes in free speech. the danger is still there. of the danger is there in europe and in the unites states of america. we have to ask ourselves the questions as leaders, are we willing to defend people even if we disagree with what they say. if you are not willing to do that i don't think you are fit to lead europe or the united states of america. >> sean: you are running in fear of your own voters there's nothing american can do for you. >> there's nothing we can do for you if you are terrified of your own people. you see this every single day. what are some of the biggest drivers of violence in these european societies?

it's mass migration, it's people who haven't assimilated into the european societies who are driving cars into christmas festivals, killing tons of innocent people and very often the european response to that is not to say well maybe we should get control of our own borders. the response is to try to silence and shut down their own citizenry. that is a danger in europe, it was a danger under joe biden in the united states of america. of course china is a major threat. it's a major competitor over the next few years and decades. but i have no doubt that america and europe can take on whatever threats so long as we are strong internally. it's that weakness internally, that's what we have to fix. >> the democratic party want long wars, the democratic party championing men to play in women's sports. putting the rights of illegals over the safety of americans. and defending what will be hundreds of trillions of dollars

in waste, fraud, abuse, corruption. how does that and for them? >> very poorly. the american people are a lot smarter than the democrats give them credit for. you cannot shut up your fellow citizens, forced biological men to play in sports with girls which is just insulting to the girls, it's actually dangerous. title ix, and some of these sports are very violent. you don't want to have biological men against women, it's crazy. the democrats, there is this crazy idea in the democratic party that if you just repeat insane ideas, eventually the american people are going to believe them. we think the people are smart and we should listen to them rather than preach at them and i think that's the court right now of the president's political strength. >> sean: tomorrow you will be sitting in a very prominent seat. you've decided about your seating chart for the state of the union? >> i'm excited about the speech. it's going to be unusual to have a camera on me for an hour and a

half and every reaction that i have. but i think the thing that i've learned is people always say when you are on camera try to be stoic and try not to show your cards. i'm going to have fun tomorrow. because the president of the united states is going to make a lot of good arguments. talk a lot of the successes that we've had in these first 45 days. is also going to be himself which means he's going to poke a little fun and we are going to have a good time tomorrow so i'm going to try and enjoy it. >> sean: it seems like you sunk in. you now know that -- now know you're the vice president. were always generous with your time, we really appreciate it, thank you so much. >> sean: i said hundreds of trillions i meant hundreds and hundreds of billions of waste, fraud, and abuse. i apologize. when we come back the mayor of boston being criticized after offering condolences to the family of a man that was trying to stab to people and was shot and killed by an off-duty

officer. we've got the disturbing details next and the attorney general pam bondi is live right here in studio and will explain house she's shaking things up and what happened with the epstein files straight ahead.

ok guys, instead of getting weathertech, i saved a few bucks and got some cheap, foreign made floor mats. but they really stink, so put these on. ♪ really, gary? mom, i'm thirsty. don't settle for cheap, stinky floor mats. at weathertech we make our floorliners and cargo liners

here in america, out of pure non-toxic american materials. dad, next time get weathertech. they don't stink! i'm on it. find out everything we have at wt.com.

's

>> sean: the boston mayor epitomized what is wrong with the woke left when it comes to crime. on saturday night a man with a knife chased to individuals and was fatally shot by an off-duty police officer who was witnessing the incident. according to the commissioner the officer identified himself, told the suspect to drop the weapon. when the suspect did not comply the officer discharged that weapon to stop the threat but when it was time for the boston mayor to speak she expressed sympathy for the knife wielding

suspect. but not the individuals who were nearly stabbed. >> my condolences and all of our thoughts are with the family of the individual whose life has been lost. i'm also thinking of all the people who were impacted here today and 1 of the busier parts of the city. with this tragedy. >> when asked about the backlash following her statement she actually doubled down on stupid. >> it's unfortunate to politicize being at the seam of a tragic incident. our officers are an extremely difficult and dangerous situations every single day keeping our residents safe. i express condolences along with

our police commissioner and district attorney because every loss of life is a horrible tragedy. president trump is making major headway on crime all across the country. trumps tariff threats on mexico and not -- are now forcing the mexican government to crack down on organized crime, forcing cartels to shut down fentanyl production and they are going into hiding. u.s. attorney general pam bondi continues investigating the epstein files and attempting to get a hold of the files that were never handed over from the fbi bureau in new york. the attorney general joins us now. it's great to see you. >> great to see you. >> sean: are you drowning yet? how money weeks in. >> just a few. >> sean: let me start with the epstein case because there was an expectation that this was going to be bigger. you had the same expectation. >> we all did.

the fbi handed over a couple hundred pages of documents. i gave them a deadline of friday at 8:00 a.m. to get us everything and a source had told me where the documents were being kept. thousand -- southern district of new york. we've got hopefully all of them. thousands of pages of documents. i have the fbi going through them and now that we have cashier it's a game changer. he is going to -- director patel is going to get us a detailed report as to why the fbi withheld all of these documents. >> sean: want to be clear because i think people got frustrated because they were expecting more. you were expecting more and you didn't find out less than 24 hours before the release you've got a whistle-blower with a confirm that there were way more documents that they had -- were supposed to turn over and then you found out just before that. >> you are looking at these documents going these aren't all

the files. there were flight logs and names and victims names but where's the rest of the stuff. that's what the fbi had turned over to us. a source said all this evidence is sitting in southern district of new york. so based on that i gave them the deadline friday at 8, a truckload of evidence arrived. it's now in the possession of the fbi. they are going to get me and himself a detailed report as to why all these documents and evidence had been withheld. we are going to go through it as fast as we can but go through it very cautiously to protect all the victims of epstein because there are a lot of victims. >> sean: you identified in phase 1 over 254. is that the only thing that would be redacted? will everything else be made public? >> fbi hasn't -- they haven't looked at the thousands of pages of documents that they've just received friday. they have a team going through them and it's always about

protecting the victim. we believe in transparency and america has the right to know. the biden administration said on these documents no 1 did anything with them and why were they sitting in the southern district of new york? i want a report on that. these people don't believe in transparency but i think more unfortunately, i a lot of them don't believe in honesty and it's a new day, a new administration and everything is going to come out to the public. the public has a right to know. americans have a right to know. >> that's the same with the jfk files. >> absolutely. >> maybe some people don't need -- don't understand the need to redact. in the case of a victim that should be obvious. what are other things he would have to redact? national security? >> national security and some grand jury information but we will see. let's look through them as fast as we can, get it out to the american people because the

american people have a right to know not only on that but on kennedy and on martin luther king at all these cases that the biden administration has just sat on for all these years. so it's not sad, it's infuriating that these people thought that they could sit on this information but they can't. it's a new day and we believe in transparency and it's going to come out. when we redact things what we are going to do is not just pull pages out like they used to do. if something is redacted you will know the line and why it's redacted. victims name, identifying information. >> sean: let's talk about the doj prior to your arrival. i believe it was weapon iced. how do we prevent that from ever happening again? i believe that once the fbi, once the world's premier -- premier...

i believe the same with our intel community. how do we restore these institutions to their former greatness? >> first and foremost we got rid of the jack smith team. those people are gone, we are trying to find out -- there are a lot of people in the fbi and in the department of justice who despised donald trump, despise us, don't want to be there. we will find them because you have to believe in transparency. you have to believe in honesty and right now we're going to to root them out. we will find them and they will know blunt -- no longer be employed. we're starting at every level of the justice department and getting rid of the worst of the worst but there are a lot more people that shouldn't be there but there are a lot of good people who are out there now risking their lives every day making these cases. today we made a huge case involving a guatemalan, and illegal from guatemala, 1 of the largest human trafficking rings

in the country. 20,000 people being smuggled into this country from guatemala. that was made in california. last week and illegal was arrested in new york for isis -- funding isis. we are going to get out there and arrest the bad people, take them off the streets and restore the justices -- justice department to what it was me to do, fight violent crime. >> sean: are you at all shocked at how things were running before you got there? >> shocked. we talk about this all the time, we knew it was bad. we never knew how bad. and especially on the criminal side and on the people who were in there, you've heard the story of course. i was visiting the floors, i walk up to the seventh floor and i couldn't get in there because it...

but my detail managed to get me in there. they still had a picture of joe biden on the wall and kamala harris. that's how bad it was. so i personally took those off-the-wall. that's the tip of the iceberg. >> sean: what about when you talk about people in the doj that have an awful lot of power and may be what they did to joan trump was unprecedented, the valuation of mar-a-lago, the double standard with the raid, russia lie and dirty misinformation dossier signed 3 times by a former fbi head. are these all on the table to get to the bottom of overtime? >> everything's on the table. we are going to look at everything. the jack smith team gone. that was low-hanging fruit really. get rid of them, get rid of the people that rated the presidents home at mar-a-lago. everything is being looked into. and right now we are hiring great lawyers, great people

around us who we can trust. right now the numbers are very small. but now that we have kash patel it's made it a lot easier. he's dealing with what we are dealing with. the great men and women of... the u.s. marshals, we're all working together to fight violent crime. it's a shame that a few people have given them such a bad name as well as the department of justice. >> sean: it sounds like a massive list, doesn't sound like you are going to be sleeping a lot in the next 4 years. >> none of us will but it's worth it. it's worth it to fight for the american people and to keep america safe. >> sean: thank you for coming end. good to see you. when we come back president trump has only been in office 6 weeks and wins continuing to pile up. the hannity white house briefing with press secretary karoline leavitt straight ahead.

oh, it makes me want to tear up. i swear to god, there ain't no way i would be here without tik tok. i got really good at tearing motors apart and putting them back together, and the car still worked. i received so much support for that, and it made me feel like, okay, maybe i can really, really, really do this. (♪) my business has tripled in the last year because of me sharing my videos on tiktok. i wouldn't be able to support the families they'll work for me now without tik tok. without the increase in sales. (♪)

>> sean: president trump has been in office for only 6 weeks but he continues to rack up a win after win, adding 2 more major victories today according to a report. honda will produce the next civic in indiana over mexico. that's a win. earlier today president trump announced a 100 billion-dollar investment in the u.s. from a taiwanese semiconductor chip giant called tsmc. this on the heels of nissan deciding to build their plant in the u.s. instead of the plan of mexico and apples $500 billion for your commitment to build a massive plant in texas that will create tens and tens of thousands of high-paying jobs.

meanwhile president trump is sent to deliver his address to congress tomorrow night. the theme of which fox news has learned will be the renewal of the american dream. here now with our washington briefing, our very own white house press secretary karoline leavitt. it's great to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> the only good reason to be in the swamp is to see you and j.d. and pam. this is major news, everyone wants to talk about tariffs, bad, bad bad. why don't people understand that he's a never-ending negotiator. >> it's the art of the deal. but also the president has proven as he did in his first term that tariffs can bring good paying jobs back here to the united states of america. they protect critical industries here at home and president trump is serious when he says he wants to make america the manufacturing superpower of the world. we have the ability to do it.

we have the best resources and the best people. we've been ruled by a political class that has sold us out for far too long. we've allowed other nations to rip us off. your audience should be aware that tonight tariffs on mexico and china are going into effect and another 10% on china, 25% on mexico, 25% on canada. the reason is because we cannot continue to allow fentanyl to pour into our country and kill our people. i bet you every single person watching your show tonight knows somebody who has died at the hands of chinese fentanyl that has come through our northern or southern border and 1 american life is 1 too many. these tariffs are necessary to continue to put the pressure on these countries to secure our borders. >> sean: did you see that is a big move by mexico to allow us -- by handing over some of these cartel leaders, is not the way of saying, please don't put the tariffs on us and the president

is saying you have to do everything. >> we've seen an increase in cooperation. but over the past 4 years under the previous administration they allowed thousands of pounds of chinese produced fentanyl into our country. last year alone through the southern border, 4.8 billion people could have died for the amount that came through our borders. at the northern border there was enough to kill 9.8 million people. that's up at 2050%. since 2023. 2050% increase. these countries have to be held accountable for that. fentanyl is the leading cause of death in this country from ages 18 to 34. if you talk to the families and the parents who have lost their children at the hands of this deadly poison, they will tell you they are grateful for the president finally taking strong action to end this app -- epidemic and crisis in our country. >> sean: you were in the room when president zelenskyy was there, what was her take?

>> it was my take that he unfortunately was ungrateful to the american taxpayer and frankly putting aside my job as president trump's spokeswoman, as an american citizen it was incredibly profound to watch our president actually stand up for us. for the taxpaying american, law-abiding citizen who is sick and tired of seeing hundreds of billions of dollars go out the door every single year 1 we have real problems and -- in our country here. president trump wants to end this war. he talked about it at every single rally across the country. unfortunately president zelenskyy is not in the mind-set to negotiate peace. i think it was incredibly refreshing to watch the president and the vice president stand up for america and to have that be before the world to see. the world was able to finally watch what president trump and his team have been dealing with behind closed doors. which is a hardheaded notice

from president zelenskyy and the ukrainians and negotiating a true peace deal with russia. >> you are the youngest white house press secretary in history. i want you without any notes at all and the ease with which you deal with some people that we both know are pretty hostile towards president trump and you do it with a smile and ease where -- were you always that eddies with public speaking which happens to be most people number 1 fear. >> i think god gives everybody unique gifts and skills and i guess public speaking is 1 of mine. but i do work for a great boss who makes my job quite easy because he says something and he does it. there is no spin, it's all truth, we have the facts on our side. most people would run away from that argument but we have the truth and the statistics and effects on our side and everything the president does...

>> sean: the president it seems like almost on a daily basis is giving more access in 6 weeks than joe biden has given in 4 years. is there any level of appreciation from the media, today not know that they were shut out? >> they will tell you off the record if you talk to them. they may not admit it because it doesn't fit their brand. >> they will tell you that they greatly appreciate the access that they have been given to the president of the united states. they were -- they are able to ask him questions every single day on an array of topics, whatever is on their mind. even today the president announced a major investment in america, $100 billion from a taiwanese chip company. more jobs coming back home. than he opened it up to questions. he also took questions on the news of the day. on ukraine and on tariffs and other topics as well. >> sean: unlike joe who is

like it let me call on ap. >> we don't tell president trump hooted to questions from and he wouldn't listen. >> sean: we appreciate you coming in. when we come back more hannity straight ahead. tracey from lillie's of charleston will watch 60 contestants eat 60 hot wings all covered in lillie's hot sauce oh honey, don't touch your face

will be in this ad 60% of the time great job, bob!

♪ ♪ >> sean: programming note tomorrow night will -- we will be right here back in d.c., after the presidential address to congress we will be on right afterwards. we have a great lineup. and my interview with the one and only jillian michaels wait until you hear about her life's toilet -- story it is unbelievable. that is on foxnation.com. please set your dvr so you never miss an episode of "hannity" thank you for making this show possible and let not your heart be troubled greg gutfeld is next to put a smile on your face. have a great night