a royal rebuke. president trump facing growing backlash after calling himself king on social media, while doge sets its sights on defense spending. we're live in d.c. with the new cuts reportedly on the way. and a war of words between the u.s. and ukraine. president trump calling president zelenskyy a dictator, while ukraine's leader hits back over disinformation. how the heated standoff could impact ukraine's war against russia. another tragedy in the sky. two single-engine planes colliding over arizona. the renewed safety concerns after the latest fatal aviation accident. a frantic race to save a snowmobiler trapped under an avalanche in colorado. the incredible rescue caught on camera, as another winter storm swirls across the country. solid, liquid, gas and microsoft? the tech titan unveiling a scientific breakthrough many experts did not think was possible. it's thursday, february 20th. "early today" starts right now. and a very good morning to

you. i'm richard lui. we are entering day 32 of the second trump administration, and the pentagon may be the next target for terminations. nbc news learning that defense secretary pete hegseth is considering firing military generals and some senior officers. two defense officials and three congressional sources say most of the people targeted were closely associated with former defense secretary lloyd austin. the pentagon says hegseth is looking to cut 8% out of next year's budget, totaling around $50 billion. alice barr joins us from d.c. last night the president continuing to defend efforts to shrink the federal government. >> reporter: yeah, president trump is praising the work of elon musk's department of government efficiency or doge. last night he floated the idea of passing some of the savings on to american citizens. >> there's even under consideration a new concept where we give 20% of the doge savings to american citizens and

20% goes to cutting down debt, because the numbers are incredible, elon. so many billions, it's hundreds of billions. >> reporter: however, some cost-cutting claims from doge are not standing up to scrutiny. the group shared receipts online that only represent a fraction of the billion dollars in savings they say they've achieved. the list includes some noticeable errors. one line item claims $8 billion in savings found in a homeland security contract, but the contract was for $8 million. musk has acknowledged that his team will make mistakes and correct them. meanwhile, the white house is moving forward with a plan to kill the traffic congestion program in new york city. that's a program that charges drivers to enter parts of manhattan. the money would be used for mass transit projects. president trump posting congestion pricing is dead, long live the king. a white house account shared an a.i. image showing president trump in a crown, drawing sharp criticism from democrats. new york's governor responded by

saying we'll see you in court. one of the most powerful rebukes of the president came from illinois governor jb pritzker. in his state of the state address, the governor said he is watching what is happening in our country with a foreboding dread. >> my oath is to the constitution of our state and of our country. we don't have kings in america. and i don't intend to bend the knee to one. if you think i'm overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this. it took the nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. and all i'm saying is, that when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control. >> reporter: trump administration officials have smissed concerns about the president exercising too much control, saying he is keeping the promises that got him

elected. richard? >> alice, thank you so much. now to the war in ukraine. tensions escalating between president donald trump and ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy. ukraine's leader accusing the president of livg in a russian disinformation bubble. mr. trump firing back, calling zelenskyy a dictator. several republicans disagreeing with m mr. trump's comments but not criticizing the president directly. for more, let's bring in megan fitzgerald, and good morning to you, megan. >> reporter: richard, good morning to you. look, we've seen president trump falsely claim that ukraine started the war when we watched three years ago russia invade without cause. he called zelenskyy a dictator. keep in mind we're talking about a democratically-elected president who won elections in 2019 and then imposed martial law during the war, which suspended elections, which isn't an unprecedented move. but look, there's no doubt about

it, we are seeing quite a dramatic turn by a sitting u.s. president. under president biden the u.s. was incredibly aligned with ukraine, delivering hundreds of billions of dollars in aid, something that donald trump has been quite critical about. i want you to take a listen to his most recent comment. >> president zelenskyy talked the united states of america into spending $350 billion to go into a war that basically couldn't be won, but a war that he, without the u.s. and trump will never be able to settle. they'll never settle that war without our involvement. i love ukraine, but zelenskyy has done a terrible job. >> reporter: as he mentioned, several republicans have disagreed with president trump's comments over the last few days, including lindsey graham, senator susan collins, john kennedy. important reporting, courtney

kube spoke to several intelligence agents who say that vladimir putin isn't interested in a real peace deal, more of a cease-fire for troops to regroup, but he still has the same goal he had at the start of the war, which is to take over all of ukraine. richard? >> megan, thank you. breaking news, hamas has turned over to israel the bodies of four hostages who died in captivity. among them are shiri bibas and her two sons who were just 4 years old and 9 months old respectively when they were captured on october 7th. the fourth body is that of a journalist and activist taken from the same kibbutz. hamas claims all four were killed in israeli airstrikes. six living hostages are set to be released saturday. new this morning, the president saw his anti-immigrant agenda blocked in court again. the ninth circuit court of appeals turned down a justice department request to immediately reinstate his executive order ending birthright citizenship.

the three-judge panel said the doj has not made a, quote, strong showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of this appeal. the ruling sets up a potential emergency application to the supreme court. and then just last night, president trump signing a new ecutive order imposing restrictions on undocumented immigrants and their access to federal benefits. happening today, the senate is set to vote on whether to confirm kash patel as director of the fbi. patel has a history of being intensely critical of the agency he could soon lead. he's expected to be confirmed today along party lines despite concerns from democrats about his qualifications. delta now offering each passenger in that crash in toronto where a plane flipped upside down on the runway, $30,000 each in compensation. a delta spokesperson says the payoff has no strings attached and will not affect rights. it comes the same day as get another incident that left at least two people dead in

arizona. nbc's jesse kirsch has the details. >> reporter: this was the scene in rural arizona, charred debris littering this airport outside tucson after a deadly midair crash. >> small aircraft were involved. >> reporter: just before 8:30 a.m. local time, two small planes were flying near a regional airport when they collided midair. two people were on board each aircraft. and while federal investigators say the cessna landed uneventfully, the lanceair crashed, catching fire. two people are dead. both planes were flying over what's known as an uncontrolled field, that has no air traffic control tower. >> small airplanes go in and out of uncontrolled fields frequently. they depend on radio positions to tell each other where the planes are and also visually to watch out for other airplanes.

you look outside to make sure you don't hit anything. >> reporter: this has been a troubling year for american aviation. last month 67 people were killed on an american airlines jet and a chopper colliding over washington, d.c. then a delta airliner flipped over as it landed at toronto pearson international airport monday. at least 18 people were injured. officials say efforts have begun to remove the plane from the runway, which should improve traffic delays at one of north america's busiest airports. jesse kirsch, nbc news. in idaho, a judge has refused to toss out key evidence in the case against bryan kohberger, the man accused of murdering four college students in 2022. his legal team argued that police should have gotten a search warrant when they went through his family's trash for a dna sample. the judge rejecting that request which would have invalidated much of the evidence collected afterwards. he is set to go to trial this

summer. the white man who shot a black teen has died. lester shot then 16-year-old ralph yarl in 2023 when the teen mistook his house for where he was supposed to pick up his siblings. >> yarl was grazed in the head and shot in the arm but survived. a fierce snowstorm, plus a brutal blast of arctic air delivering a dangerous double doozy for millions in the midwest and mid atlantic. icy roads creating hazardous conditions. a snowplow in topeka, kansas mangling a suv, hurting both drivers in one incident. the heavy snow is stretching into virginia where residents are urged to stay home. and the cold is here to stay with more to come. meteorologist angie lassman has all of that for us. and it is a lot.

>> it is a lot. the weather has been very busy and we continue the trend through the next couple days. notice the 42 million still under winter alerts. we're seeing the system exit. we've got cold winds on the backside of that. that means that we're dealing with lake-effect snow. we would see accumulating snow across the northeast and appalachians here. maybe 5 inches here is the highest amount downwind of the lake. otherwise, we have a whole lot of folks under cold weather alerts. bitter cold settling in and moving far south. dallas this morning, 15 degrees, feeling like 1 below. minneapolis feeling like 15 below. when we look ahead to these afternoon temperatures, not a whole t better. but we'll take what we can get. 9 degrees for des moines, little rock into the 20s. teens for wichita. tomorrow dallas in the early morning hours, 22 degrs ee for

falls. single digits for fargo and omaha. denver has 20s this afternoon. and that's a look at your forecast, richard. back to you. >> thank you so much. up next, the brand-new iphone with the dialed-down price tag. and the next phase for matter. a new scientific breakthrough that could be a game changer for tech. could be a game changer fr tech.

♪ [tambourine by eve] ♪ ♪ ♪ okay, y'all, i heard mielle's kalahari melon and aloe vera line is changing the game. up to five days of moisture and no wash days in between? let's see about that. can you believe this is day five? imagine what you could do with up to five days of moisture. there you have it. bill nye explaining what we all learned in school. there are three states of matter, solid, liquid and gas.

but now after nearly two decades of work, microsoft saying it's created an entirely new state of matter. a feat many experts did not believe was ever possible. and it could be a quantum leap in quantum computing. let's get to cnbc's karen gilchrist for details on that. good morning to you, karen. a new state of matter? >> good morning, richard. yes, pretty major tech advancement announced by microsoft, which has unveiled a new chip, which it says shows quantum computing could be years rather than decades ago. it is like a new era of semi conductor. and it is powered by what is known as the topological conductor. they have created difference from solid, liquid and gas. it would allowor developments in medicine and a.i.

it is seen as the new frontier with the likes of google and ibm pointing to developments in their space. elsewhere in tech news, apple has announced its new low-cost model, the iphone 16e, which would retail for around $599 when it goes on sale later this month. now looking at a couple of the features, it will not have a fingerprint sensor or home button. it will instead use apple's face i.d. and the a-18 chip which will allow the use of some of the same apps and apple intelligence. but it will have a single-lens camera, so maybe n not one for e influencers out there. >> there will be a bunch who will not use it. and she's halfway to an egot, now that cynthia erivo returns to the award show where

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most-watched series in apple tv plus' five-year history. it comes a little over a month after the sci-fi thriller announced its new season. it surpasses ted lasso. >> watch the last episode of season one before you watch season two. >> because you don't remember? >> i did exactly that. up next, an update on the health of pope francis, and oreo's celebrating its 113th birthday with two new flavors on the way. with two new flavors on the way. bundle, jake from state farm? that's right jan if this were home and this were auto, the bundle move could bring home the real victory, savings. that's a weird analogy, jake...here we go. whoo! yes! this is a great moment for bundling. bundling. just another way to save with the personal price plan.

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promise for treating pancreatic cancer. pancreatic cancer was thought to be a poor candidate due to unique markers. but the study shows the therapy may be more effective than expected. volkswagen is recalling 32,000 vehicles for a camera problem. they include audi q3 suvs. oreo is celebrating its birthday with two new flavors. birthday with two new flavors. okay, y'all. i heard mielle's kalahari melon and aloe vera line is changing the game. up to five days of moisture and no wash days in between? let's see about that. day two, headed to work, but i feel like i'm about to drop a hit single. all the cuties are at the run club. good thing these curls are curling. can you believe this is day five? i think i could go even longer. up to five days of lasting moisture.

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caught on body camera after a snowmobiler was buried during an avalanche in colorado. evan krugle from our affiliate in denver has that story. >> reporter: this was the scene rescue crews arrived at monday after two people on snowmobiles triggered an avalanche west of vail pass. one of them called 911 and told dispatchers their friend had been buried. >> you know, we were all just expecting the worst, really. and it had been an hour plus that the slide had happened. >> reporter: dave wandell and the summit county deputy started making their way up the hill. >> out of the corner of my eye i could see a coer of orange in the snow. i thought it might be trash, something might be broken off of the snow mobile. sure enough, there was a pack and the guy attached to it.

the guy could hear us. he told us he was okay. and we proceeded to dig him out. so, yeah. pretty amazing. >> reporter: by that point, dave says the man had been under three or four feet of snow for more than an hour. >> yeah, obviously, he had a full face snowmobile helmet which really helped protect his airway, so snow wasn't packed into his mouth. and i think the air bag, you know, just poking up out of the surface a little bit, you know, allowed a little more air coming in to his face. >> reporter: dave has been a member of the summit county rescue group for 15 years and has responded to dozens of avalanche rescues and recoveries. he says this one might be the most remarkable. >> probably so. yeah. yeah. just because it was such a great outcome, unexpected for sure. >> evan krugle, thank you for that report. the s.s. united states leaving harbor in philadelphia,

beginning its final voyage. the historic ship is being towed to mobile, alabama where it will be remediated. built in the 1950s, it's the largest ocean liner entirely built in the united states and the fastest on record to cross the atlantic. it will be sunk off the coast of florida as a scuba diving destination. remember the viral photo? that photo is now ten years old. and we speak with the buzz feed manager who set the internet on fire. thanks for watching "early today." i'm richard lui. have a great thursday. ve a grea.

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