game. >> available in 30. >> plus states. >> including california. >> and texas. >> prize picks. >> for your game. >> good to be with you. i'm katy tur. he is a private citizen. no one voted for him. no one confirmed him. and yet elon musk and doge, empowered by. >> president donald. >> trump, are attempting a hostile takeover of the federal government. in the two weeks since donald trump has taken office, musk has demanded and been granted access to sensitive government databases. he's gone into the treasury department's payment system. he's trying to gut the u.s. agency for international development, u.s. aid posting yesterday that he, quote, spent the weekend feeding usaid into the wood chipper. he has eyes now on the department of education. three sources tell the washington post that d.o.j. employees are sifting through data from the department while

placing dozens of employees on leave, as sources tell nbc news, the white house is preparing an executive order to eliminate the department. eliminate it. yesterday, white house press secretary caroline leavitt couldn't answer a question on whether musk had received a clearance or a background check, even to operate within the federal government. and while donald trump says musk has him to answer to that, he does answer to him. it's not clear how involved the president is in what musk is attempting. so far, republicans in congress aren't signaling any discomfort, but democrats are. in fact, they are calling this a break glass moment. >> it's impossible to overstate that this is playing with fire. the bureau of the fiscal. >> service. which oversees. >> these treasury. >> department payments. >> executes over 1,000,000,000

billion transactions a year, worth $6 trillion. >> if these. >> payments were. >> ever intentionally or even. >> accidentally halted or. >> manipulated. >> it could paralyze our. economy if we're not careful. >> the system that makes sure that your granddad gets his social security check, the system that makes sure that your mom's doctor gets a medicare payment to cover her medical appointment, and the system that makes sure that you get the tax refund that you're owed has been taken over by elon musk. and every organization from your state government that uses federal money on that bridge project to the local head start that takes care of little kids while their mommies and daddies go to work, is now at the mercy of elon musk. maybe you get paid, or maybe you don't, because now it appears that all of us work for elon musk. >> they are depending on some sort of sense of swagger and

inevitability to storm into buildings and take over the servers and to run the databases and to relieve. people of their duties. like this is some hostile takeover of a tech company. this is your government, and you can hate parts of it and love parts of it and be neutral. >> about other parts of it. >> but it's still your government. >> it's barely been three weeks. joining us now from capitol hill. nbc news white house correspondent vaughn hillyard. also with us is columbia law school professor of legislation richard briffault. all right, vaughn, let's begin with what exactly trump is in the loop on here. he says that elon musk answers to him that he can't do anything without donald trump's authority. but how in the loop is donald trump on the nitty gritty of what elon musk is attempting? >> right. and i think that that's what we're trying to report out, because the white

house has been so far from transparent about elon musk that, i mean, you could say that you're looking through the cloudiest of windows here. this for elon musk. >> for the. >> first two weeks of this administration, it was not clear whether he was a. government worker. it wasn't confirmed by the white house that he was serving in this special government employee role until just yesterday afternoon. and as you noted, they're still not able to wholly say the extent to which he has. security clearances, let alone those that are working for his d.o.j. entity inside of the executive office of the president. and i think that that is where these republican members up are on capitol hill, are so in such intriguing figures here, because for as dark as the press are about what is happening, the members of congress on the republican side have expressed little concern about elon musk and the role that he is playing, unlike any private citizen unconfirmed by the senate that we have ever seen here in washington, d.c. and i want to let you listen to just one of

those exchanges that our friend and colleague ryan nobles had with senator josh hawley. >> nicholas isn't the responsibility of congress to, if you want the next budget to zero out usaid aid, isn't that. your job? that's not the executive branch's job? >> well, yes. >> but listen, i. >> mean. >> the executive has. >> enormous authority. >> i talked to senator john kennedy, who told me that there was too much focus on the process part of it, and not enough on the actual spending. i talked with senator john cornyn, who said that he appreciated the influence, the positive influence that elon musk was having. and i talked to or attempted to talk to senator tillis of north carolina as he was heading into a committee room, and i asked him whether he had had any discussions himself with the white house about any concerns about elon musk and doj's access to treasury payment system or opm personnel files or usaid. and he said, why would he need to be in touch with the white house if he doesn't have any concerns? in just a few

moments ago, katy speaker mike johnson said he was actively texting with elon musk in just the last hour and was encouraging him to keep going. so for all the lack of details we have, elon musk essentially has the green light here effectively from the white house and republican lawmakers on capitol hill. >> can you tell us a little bit more about who elon musk is using to help him with this? who's surrounding elon musk? >> you know, it was on friday night about 10 p.m. i was still here at the capitol and an employee over at usaid actually sent me four names of individuals and started looking into who some of these individuals were. one of them had just graduated college. one of them had just graduated high school. clearly very smart tech individuals. and in no way is that meant to imply that somebody is not positioned to be working in the federal government. yet it runs stark contrast to individuals that tend to have such access across multiple agencies. this is something that, you know, talk

to any government official they have not seen before, and we are trying to get a better understanding of exactly what these individuals have been told they are to do. just for example, yesterday over at usaid, all of the staff that had not been either fired or furloughed, they received an email from one of those early 20 year olds who was purporting to be representative of the press office at usaid, even though on his linkedin it says that he's working for the office of personnel management and said that they were not to come to headquarters or come into the office, really took all of these individuals aback because they've never heard of this individual. and as they were learning more, they were finding out that he was in his early 20s and suddenly had access to communicate to thousands of usaid employees that they were not to show up to work as they do on any normal day. >> all right. let's talk about the legality here. richard, explain to me elon musk is not technically a member of the government. he's got this special authority that can only be used for a certain time

period during a year, a certain number of days during the year. donald trump has tasked him with trying to, you know, make the government more functional. does he have the authority to get into treasury department records to look at finances? >> it's not clear at all that he does. i mean, even the fact that he's a special government employee, a lot of these things have all sorts of security protections, or there are all sorts of. >> privacy problems and access problems. the president, the. >> president is using him as like a special deputy. and in some sense, he's doing a lot of. >> the stuff on. >> behalf of the president. >> so one question. >> is, you know, just. how what are there. nonetheless protections that. would apply that would prevent that. >> from happening? it's just. >> i think the real answer on a lot of this is that a lot of this is unclear. and even if elon musk himself has some authority who appointed the. >> other people. >> how much authority does he have to appoint people who can then break into the break into

personnel systems and security systems? it's not clear the president has given. authority all the way. >> down to all the individuals. >> that were just mentioned in the report. >> what about tax information. tax returns or tax payments? there is some reporting that he might have access to the money. get back. how protected is our tax individuals tax information? when i submit my taxes to the irs, i believe that there's going to be a certain level of privacy there, that it's not going to be distributed, just anybody. do i still have that presumption when elon musk is around? >> well, i think the law allows you to have that presumption. but then. >> when you have the. >> people who actually are sitting on the. >> servers and. >> sitting on top of the. >> information. >> not feeling bound by the law, it's, you know, i'm not going to give you a lot of comfort. the

law does provide all sorts of privacy protections, but the law counts on people respecting the law and enforcing the law. and it's not not clear where we are on that. >> if there is a lawsuit that's brought on this and said that lawsuit winds its way to the supreme court, well, i mean, first, can a federal judge put an injunction on elon musk and anybody accessing this material? and if it does end up getting to the supreme court, do you have a sense of where they might fall on this? because they have been pretty broad in their reading of executive authority? >> yeah, that's that's two good questions. i certainly think that whether the injunction goes against elon musk or against officials in the agency, certainly a federal judge can enjoin any disclosure of private of the kind of protected information can enjoin anything that would put the information at risk. i think it's way too early to speculate about the supreme court. the supreme court has underscored the fact that the president has is overall

responsible for the executive branch. but there are all sorts of restrictions on what the president can do and all sorts of protections that people get. so i think we're too early to be thinking about what the supreme court would do about any of this. and we have to we have to kind of see what the what the actual issues are and what the specific laws are that are being challenged. in some cases, there are actual things that can't be done without congress, and some things the president might have some authority. >> all right. richard briffault, columbia law school professor, thank you so much for joining us. now with us, democratic senator patty murray, who represents the state of washington. senator, thank you very much. you called this a break glass moment. you're pulling the fire alarm. tell me why you are so concerned. >> i am concerned. for every single person. who works for us in the federal government, doing. >> the jobs. >> they're doing every day. >> being told. >> by the richest man in the world, give me all the records.

>> you have. and i am concerned, just as. an american citizen, that he. >> has access. to this. he has access. >> to your social security. >> information, your medicare information, and that he. >> is using. >> these lines to then. >> go after critical funding that. >> people out in our. >> communities are using for really important projects. i just think this is a three alarm. >> fire that in this. >> country, the united states of america, the richest man in the world. >> at the. >> behest of. donald trump, can go in and access this kind of information and use it against you. that's not who we are. >> so they would argue that what they're trying to do is make the government work more efficiently, that the government is too bloated. it's not it's not working. that's why they got elected. the american public wants them to do that. and i'd like you to respond to not only that, but something that one of your colleagues, senator john kennedy, said about why democrats seem to be or are so frustrated. listen to what he said. >> some of my. >> colleagues are screaming.

>> like they're. >> part of a prison riot. that this. >> is unconstitutional. >> and. >> wrong. and their very process driven. in my. >> opinion. >> they should. >> be substance driven. >> by that, i. >> mean. >> the central question. here is. what were we spending. >> taxpayer money on. whether the president. >> had the authority. >> to do. >> it and the. >> allegations that musk is copying. >> down everybody's social security number? >> i think. >> that's a distraction. >> do you think it's a distraction? >> no, this is. >> not a distraction. this is not a process. >> this is attacking. >> the very things that. >> we who. >> represent our constituents. >> across this country have worked. >> for, fought for, and in a. bipartisan way. >> work to put into. government spending bills that is used by people all over our country. it

is not a process when a preschool or early childhood head start program in. >> my state. >> was shut down last week, and even though there was a court order that it was unlawful, what they were doing still has not gotten the money because you can't just shut a program down and then restart it because somebody said, oh, never mind. it all takes a while. so they're looking at laying off teachers and telling kids not to come to their head start program. who does that affect? obviously, those little kids. but to every family that was relying on that head start to be there, on the community surrounding it, that was expecting those people to have paychecks and be able to shop at their local stores this weekend. this is a huge impact. that is a tiny little example of. >> what it. >> kind of impacts that we were talking about here. it is unlawful to say for a president to say, i am going to decide where the money goes that congress appropriated. he can

say, i disagree, he can send back people. john kennedy can come in and say, i'm going to offer an amendment. i'm going to fight this a bill. i'm going to say, i don't want to spend that money. we debate it. we vote for it. a majority has to vote for it, for it to become law. you can't pass a law and then say it doesn't apply to me. that's what they're doing here. and the american people are angry. my phone lines are flooded with people who are saying, oh my gosh, what just happened to me? i have a little federal grant that i've been using to help reintegrate veterans into the community. the funding has been cut off. as the person who is running this told me, he said, i have to go out and drive an uber to make sure that this program keeps going. this is impacting real people in real ways in our country. it is illegal. we are raising the fire alarm and republicans should join us because they too voted for those bills. for that spending. >> you say how it's illegal. there is an injunction on that omb order to stop all the

federal funding. there's that. is there another lawsuit that you're considering or somebody is considering to question whether elon musk has the authority to get into financial databases, to get into the treasury, and whether the people that he's has around him that are helping him also have that sort of authority. is there a lawsuit that can address that? and if not, what can democrats do other than then say that this is this is not allowed? >> well, katie. >> what we can do is highlight what is happening in the stories that we are hearing, so people understand the real impact of this. there's a number of attorneys outside of us, whether it's our state ags or community organizations who are writing and filing those lawsuits because they have standing and they can impact them. it takes some time, which is frustrating, but that is happening, and we have to call upon our republican legislators to listen to the people in their own communities who they have been telling that they are fighting for, to help

them with whatever resources they need, and are now just going to turn around a blind eye to trump and elon musk and say, well, whatever they decide is going to be what the final decision is here. i'll tell you what, as somebody who's been elected by the people in my state, i stand up and fight for them every day. i don't say, well, what elon says, i say what i fight for, and that's my job. and every single member here should be doing that. they should not be ceding power to the richest man in the world to decide where your tax dollars are going to go. >> senator patty murray, thank you very much for joining us, i appreciate it. and still ahead, did the president blink or did he win here? what really led to the pause on tariffs from on mexico and canada. and what fbi agents just did to block what they say are unlawful and retaliatory orders from the trump administration, individual fbi agents pushing back. plus, what just happened to make the

confirmations of both rfk jr and tulsi gabbard look a whole lot more likely. we are back in 90s. >> safelite repair safelite replace. >> nobody likes a cracked windshield. but at least you can go to safelite. com and schedule a fix in minutes. >> can't confirm. >> very easy. >> safelite can come to you for free, and our highly trained techs can replace your. >> windshield. >> right at your home. >> safelite repair safelite replace. >> go to safelite.com and schedule. >> a. >> replacement today. >> hey you, i'm. talking to all. >> of you. >> face painting. >> instrument mastering, lava dodging sensations. >> you deserve. >> care from people who get you. not this. you need. sitter city.

>> they've been. >> connecting families with sitters and nannies for over 20 years. >> these sitters. >> and nannies like what you like. >> they create kid centered. >> they create kid centered. >> adventures, and. oh... stuffed up again? so congested! you need sinex saline from vicks. just sinex, breathe, ahhhh! what is — wow! sinex. breathe. ahhhhhh! made. >> from the senna. >> plant, a natural vegetable. >> laxative ingredient. >> gentle. dependable. seneca. also available in delicious gummies. >> almost as quickly as he promised to impose tariffs against mexico and canada, president donald trump agreed to pause his plan for 30 days. and depending on which version of the story you're reading, it is either an incredible win from

the dealmaker in chief or an embarrassing blink. joining us now, nbc news senior business correspondent christine romans. i will say that there was a lot of backlash to the imposition of these tariffs. the markets didn't do so well yesterday at this news. so do you have a good sense of whether this was all part of the plan or whether the president needed to find an exit ramp? >> i'm not sure what the plan is, but the market did not like it in the early going, did not like the fact that the two biggest. allies of the us were about to have a 25% tariff. and then that's when you saw the u-turn and you saw markets come back. but the china tariffs are on. i mean they're on as of midnight. and those are 10% tariffs. then there's retaliation from china. so you've got sort of a simmering a simmering maybe going to happen dispute in north america. and then you definitely have tensions getting worse between the us and china. in fact, trump just said just told reporters he's in no rush to talk to xi jinping. a couple of days ago, it was they would be speaking

within the next day or two. and he said when asked, you know, hey, there's retaliation from china. he said, that's fine. >> what exactly did he get out of canada and mexico? mexico? sending some more troops to the southern border. canada is going to do some drone flyovers and helicopter flyovers. is that what he got for? i'm going to give you a 25% tariff. >> he also actually didn't even say that after a month he might put on tariffs again. anyway, you know, we still have just vast uncertainty here. it's something that even today, you know, uncertainty is the kryptonite for business owners and for small investors and anybody trying to figure out what they're going to be doing with their money in the next in a month or so. and we just don't know if there will be a trade war with these two countries. >> can i ask you another question on a slightly different subject and the sovereign wealth fund? >> yeah. >> can you explain this to me? >> so usually sovereign wealth funds are when a country has a whole big, huge surplus of money and wants to diversify from maybe it's an oil country or it has minerals or whatever, and you use that surplus to invest and diversify your economy. the us is running massive deficits,

already has a fed with a fed balance sheet and a congress that makes investments in other industries. this appears to be donald trump wanting to have another, i guess, fund or pot of taxpayer money that maybe doesn't have the scrutiny of congress and can make investments maybe in panama, greenland and elsewhere. >> does he have the authority to just just to create one on his own? >> i don't know. congress to i don't know, i mean. >> save the power of the purse, technically. >> i mean, i just have never seen a sovereign. norway has the biggest sovereign wealth fund. norway has all kinds of oil money. and so it's diversified its economy. but usually it's like russia, russia with its oil money, trying to make sure that it's making its economy a little less reliant on oil. you know, the middle eastern countries have sovereign wealth funds where they invest in other things. there's been some talk about the us maybe having a sovereign wealth fund so it could invest potentially, like in tiktok, it could buy tiktok. but it's there are critics who are saying, wait a minute, wait a minute. this is this is taking taxpayer money out of the purview of congress and putting it in the white house so that they can just buy and sell what they like.

>> all right. christine romans, thank you very much. and joining us now, former treasury official and washington post contributing columnist natasha sarin. thanks so much for joining us. let's go back to the tariffs. and this 30 day pause. can you help me understand what the intent is here or what. can you can you figure out what the intent is with this 30 day pause? well. >> katie, the first thing. >> i think that your viewers. >> should understand is. >> like, trump. >> really didn't get anything in. >> response to initiating this trade war. >> so what he got is like, mexico. >> is going to have some more border patrol. they had. >> already committed. >> to doing that. canada is going to invest more in. >> border security. they had also already committed. >> to doing that. >> the only thing that was new. >> that came out. >> of all of. >> this. >> is they're going to have a fentanyl. >> czar who's going to. be responsible for. >> trying to. >> think. about the nature. >> of fentanyl. >> and the. >> crisis in the. >> country and crisis in our. >> country as well.

>> but remember, canada is responsible for like 1%. >> of the fentanyl. >> coming into the us. so this is really sort of relatively small ball when you're talking about a global trade. >> war that he. >> started initiating. >> over the. >> weekend. and that is. >> kind of surprising. and it's kind of surprising, given that the market reaction and. >> the fact. >> that. >> the world perceived. >> this as. >> such a grave event. >> shouldn't actually be. >> all that shocking. >> and estimates that i've done with the. >> budget lab. >> at yale suggest that. >> the tariffs. >> were going to cost consumers around $1,200 a year in increased prices, the largest tax increase that we've seen on families since the 1990s. and so he walked back that again, no. >> shock there. >> but as you're saying, it's not a permanent walk back. he's walked this. back temporarily for the next 30 days. >> who knows. >> where we're going to go. >> from there. do that research. get those numbers about the $1,200. just yesterday, it wasn't all just, oh, we're going to do the calculations in the past 24 hours. i mean, these numbers have been out there for quite some time. the trump administration knew full well what the impact would be, or at least they should have if they

were doing their due diligence. do you have a sense that that that this was never really something that donald trump wanted to follow through with, that this was always about, you know, him playing strongman on the world stage and wanting to appear, make it look like he's getting concessions. >> listen, trump has said tariffs are. >> his favorite. >> word in the dictionary. and he's also said that he wants to see tax cuts in this country as a way to fuel growth. and so those two things are like internally inconsistent tax. a tariff is a tax increase. it is a regressive tax increase on middle and low income americans. he knew that. his administration knew that. you had scott bessent saying a year ago, as treasury secretary that tariffs are inflationary. you had trump saying yesterday that americans are going to have to bear the pain for a little while of a trade war. i think that he's kind of going to a place where he likes the idea of having strong tariff policy. he likes tariffs as an instrument. it's

something that he can do unilaterally in some cases. whether these cases actually apply in this context, i think is a question for trade lawyers. but i think that what we're seeing is that, and what i hope we're seeing is that the market can in some sense provide some sort of discipline on these types of actions, because you did see a very strong market reaction immediately yesterday and a very strong reaction once these tariff deals or temporary pauses were announced. >> and natasha sarin, thanks so much for joining us. we do we do really hope you come back. thanks for having me. really clear i appreciate it. and coming up, it's a move that that former and current usaid officials say puts lives at risk. we're going to speak with one of those people who served in three different administrations. there's humanitarian aid here. there's influence. there's also national security that's being put at risk by trying to shutter this agency. also, what fbi agents are doing to challenge a major shakeup at the bureau, a lawsuit

that they filed. filed. don't go anywhere. >> some people like doing things the hard way, like doing their finances with a spreadsheet instead of using quicken. quicken pulls all your financial quicken pulls all your financial info together in you founded your kayak company because you love the ocean. not spreadsheets... you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. our matching platform lets you spend less time searching and more time connecting with candidates. visit indeed.com/hire are. >> falls in the us. >> and that equates to 32,000 deaths each year. >> oh my gosh. >> and that's the thing that's so preventable. >> absolutely. >> for many, the stairs now pose the biggest threat to their safety. a stair lift. >> can be the. >> key to getting. >> your.

>> life back. >> when you buy from acorn. >> stair. >> lift, you're buying from the most trusted name. >> in the industry. acorn stair lifts has. >> the most. >> rigorous quality and safety standards available. >> acorn club monitors. >> your stair lift activity, providing you and your family with peace of mind. >> i really. >> get a sense for. >> just how slim. >> lined this is. >> look at. >> all the space. >> that i have here. >> acorn made. >> it possible for us to live in our whole house as guests. >> for you at home. are you ready for your peace of mind? liberate yourself. get yourself an acorn stair lift today. an acorn stair lift today. >> call 800 965 ♪ like a relentless weed, moderate to severe ulcerative colitis symptoms can keep coming back. start to break away from uc with tremfya... with rapid relief at 4 weeks. tremfya blocks a key source of inflammation. at one year, many people experienced remission... and some saw 100% visible healing of their intestinal lining.

serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections may occur. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms or if you need a vaccine. healing is possible with tremfya. ask your doctor about tremfya today. ♪ that grimy film on your teeth? dr. g? ♪♪ it's actually the buildup of plaque bacteria which can cause cavities. most toothpastes quit working in minutes. but crest pro-health's antibacterial fluoride protects all day. so it stops cavities before they start... crest.

dude, i really need a new phone. so it stops cavities before they start... check out my new samsung galaxy s25 ultra. it's got galaxy ai. imagine this thing running on our superfast xfinity mobile network. and i also heard that it can do multiple things with a single command. —with google gemini. let me try it. add recipes with overripe bananas to my “dessert ideas” note. that's what you chose to ask it? i had other things planned. ask how to get up to one thousand dollars off the new samsung galaxy s25 ultra with xfinity mobile.

>> plans from homeserve start at just 4.99 a month. >> call 1-888-246-2612. >> or visit homeserve. com. >> donald trump is defending the mass firings of federal watchdogs. >> our federal government now. >> can discriminate against the citizens of the country. >> we are all watching. >> and waiting to. >> see. >> who is going to hold the line. >> don't miss the weekends, saturday, and sunday mornings at 8:00. >> on msnbc. >> stay up to date on the biggest issues of the day with the msnbc daily newsletter. get the best of msnbc all in one place. sign up for msnbc daily@msnbc.com. >> joining us now, nbc news senior white house correspondent gabe gutierrez. and gabe, you're joining us because president donald trump is signing a number of executive orders right now. and after this, he's going to take a lot of questions from reporters in the room on a bunch of different subjects. first, though, tell us, what are the executive orders? >> hi there. katie. well, as you know, this follows a pattern

where the president takes questions and this is what we call taped turnaround. essentially, it's happening right now. we're getting notes and then we'll get the taped video to play back for you in just a short time. but what we can tell you is that the president has signed a number of executive orders. he signed an order on calling for the review and funding to the united nations and also the agency unwra. trump said that the u.n. has pretend has tremendous potential, but it hasn't for a long time. and katie, as you know, president trump has long railed against the u.n. so this brings into question how much funding the u.s. will be able to contribute to the u.n. he says that they're not the u.s. is not looking to take away any money from the u.n, but it should be funded by everyone. and this is a central part of the president's foreign policy. and that he says, in his words, that the u.s. continues to get, quote, ripped off by other countries. and so this executive order could, you know, put funding in the us's membership

in the u.n. somehow in jeopardy. so, again, we're still waiting to get the exact details on that as we wait for that video of the president in the oval office to be played out. another executive order is that he he is on iran. he seeks to exert maximum pressure on iran. it's aimed to sanction iranian programs on terrorism, according to these notes. and it also gives the president of the united states tools to engage with the iranian government. trump telling reporters that this is an executive order that he believes is tough on iran, but that he will not he hopes not to be able to use. again, this is just the first information we're getting of this. katie, we hope to learn more in the next few minutes when we get these full comments from the president played out. but this is, again, the president making it a habit now to sign a flurry of executive orders in the afternoon before he's scheduled to meet face to face with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. >> yeah, let's just linger on

that for one more, one more second. benjamin netanyahu is going to be at the white house to meet with him in just a few minutes. really, the signing of the executive order withdrawing us from the human rights council and from unwra, that is something that benjamin netanyahu and the israelis will be happy to hear. they are not happy with unwra. they believe that unwra helped hamas and was maybe even involved, or some of the people that were working with unwra were involved in the planning of october 7th. the memorandum on iran. obviously, iran and israel not friendly. iran has been funding the proxies that have been attacking israel. so this is also a message to benjamin netanyahu. we'll see what this means for their meeting. but a moment ago, president trump said iran cannot cannot have a nuclear weapon. he believes they're too close to having a nuclear weapon. remember he pulled out of the iran nuclear deal during his first administration, and that deal put a nuclear weapon for iran many years down the road.

now they are much closer. all right. that's about it on iran. let's let's go in right now. i believe he's talking. if he's not talking about china or panama, he'll be talking about the war in gaza. let's listen. >> to prevent. >> the kind of. >> progress towards a nuclear weapon. would you give him the green light? >> would it either. >> to do it himself or for the. >> us to participate with them? >> i don't know that that's what he's going to be asking for. i have no idea that it is. you're telling me we're going to have a pretty long meeting. we're going to be discussing a lot of things. not only that, but a lot of things. and i'll let you know if the time comes to let you know. but right now, that's not something that i can discuss. >> mr. president. >> when you. >> just said when you said. >> if they do it, they get obliterated. just to. >> be clear. >> you're talking about if iran. >> made another. >> made an. >> attempt on on. >> your life. yeah. that would be called total obliteration. and i can't imagine they do

that. it should have been stated by biden, but he didn't state it because he had no clue. as you know, as everybody knows. >> what is. >> your vision. actually for the relationship? >> do you have anything else? >> no. >> that's all we have. my visio. for what? >> our relationship with iran. >> and would you? >> i'd love to have a good relationship with everybody. they can't have a nuclear weapon. that was my only that was the only thing that was very important. they can't have a nuclear weapon beyond that. you know, we'd be very tough if they insist on doing that. they have some of their leadership, i can tell you right now, and maybe you know it. maybe you don't. but there are many people at the top ranks of iran that do not want to have a nuclear weapon just for that very reason. >> mr. president, what's your reaction to china's retaliatory tariffs? >> that's fine. that's fine. we're going to do very well against china and against everybody else right now. they've taken advantage of the biden administration like i've

never seen. i've never seen the deficit with china is about $1 trillion. think of it, $1 trillion. they're using our money to build their military. and biden let that happen. you know, we're taking a lot of fires here. we came back. this is like a different place. the good news is we're doing very well. we're doing well with countries that nobody expected would do well with. we are respected again as a nation, maybe at a level that people haven't seen for many, many decades. but when i left, we didn't have any wars. i defeated isis 100% of the isis caliphate, and now the world seems to be ready to blow up. but we'll see if we can stop it. >> mr. president. >> about any. >> kind of deal. >> have you. reached out to the. >> iranians about. >> any kind. >> of deal to. >> start those discussions? >> yeah. i mean, i have nothing. i say i'm one that doesn't care whether i reach out or they

reach out. a lot of people say, let them reach out, sir. and that to me, it doesn't matter. it's just it's just talk. but i want to see everybody do well. i want to see great countries, and i want to see peace in the middle east and elsewhere. we're also working very hard with respect to russia, ukraine, that's a bloodbath. it's a total bloodbath. what's going on there is incredible what's going on with the soldiers, young, young soldiers being killed by the thousands. i mean literally by the thousands. and we want to see if we can get that stopped. and i think we've had some very good talks. >> any update on when you would speak to president gee. >> sir, any update on. when you would speak to. >> president xi? no, i won't speak to him at the appropriate time. i'm in no rush. i'm in no rush at the appropriate. >> do you. >> think. >> that conversation can lend itself to the type of freeze that it meant for the tariffs for, for canada? and. >> well, we'll see what happens. i mean, well, there's a short term freeze with mexico, as you know, and with canada. but they've agreed to be very, very strong on the border, stronger

than they ever were by far, by a factor of about 30. and in addition to that, as you can see, we've been strong because we've had numbers like you've never seen before. i mean, the border is now closed, really closed. and with that being said, we're letting good people come through and we want good people to come into our country. but the border is closed. >> and your talk. >> is your talks. >> with president with prime minister. >> netanyahu today, do. >> you intend. >> to press him about how many deaths there have been amongst the palestinians? are you concerned. >> about that death? >> i talk about that, too. you know, both sides mean a lot. i talk about that. i talk about the other side. i talk about everything. >> what's your main message to him today during your meeting? >> well, i'm here to listen. he's here to see me, and i'm here to listen. >> so will. you continue to press. >> at the right time? i'll give him my message. >> will you continue. >> to press for this idea that jordan and egypt take palestinians. >> from gaza? >> yeah, i would like to see jordan. i'd like to see egypt. take some. look, the gaza thing has not worked. it's never worked. and i feel very

differently about gaza than a lot of people. i think they should get a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land, and we get some people to put up the money to build it and make it nice and make it habitable and enjoyable and somewhere else make it a home. >> i don't. >> want. >> to leave. the palestinians say they don't want. >> to leave. i don't know how they could want to stay. it's a demolition site. it's a pure demolition site. if we could find the right piece of land or numerous pieces of land and build them some really nice places with plenty of money in the area, that's for sure. i think that would be a lot better than going back to gaza, which has had just decades and decades of death. >> where would those. >> pieces of land be? >> well, they could be in jordan and they could be in egypt, or they could be in other places. you could have more than two, more than one, but you could have more than two, and you'd have people living in a place that could be very beautiful and

safe and nice. gaza has been a disaster for decades. >> would the. >> us pay for that? >> i don't. >> i don't think the un would pay, but i think there's plenty of people that would in the area. they have a lot of money. they certainly have a lot of money. some of the countries over there, they'd like to see it. i know that saudi arabia wants to see peace. i can see that. and many of the countries there, as far as i'm concerned, they all want peace. i think a you know, maybe i'm wrong on this, but i think iran would like to see peace, too. they've had enough, don't you think? they've had enough? >> but the leaders of egypt and jordan have said. >> bluntly, they they have no interest in doing this. >> well, they may have said that, but a lot of people said things to me. they said they wouldn't take anybody back in venezuela. and right now they're flying them right back into venezuela and a lot of people, and they're doing the right thing in venezuela. the panama canal is an active discussion right now. they said things about that and virtually

everything that's been said has been incorrectly stated based on the result. >> what amount. to force. >> would be discussed? >> wouldn't that amount to forcibly. >> displacing those people from gaza? >> i don't think so. i think if they had the opportunity, they'd love. if they had an alternative to they have no alternative right now. i mean, they're there because they have no alternative. what do they have? it is a big pile of rubble right now. i mean, have you seen the pictures of it? have you been there? it's terrible to live. who can live like that? and very dangerous as shooting all over the place. there's bombing all over the place on both sides. now, i would think if they had an option of moving to an either in a large group or various smaller groups and take care of the close to 2 million people, i would think that they would be thrilled to do it. they have no. you know, when you say about the gaza strip, they don't have an option. >> to be clear. >> you're. >> saying that it's very dangerous to leave gaza. oh, i think they'd love to leave gaza

if they had an option. right now, they don't have an option. what are they going to do? they have to go back to gaza. but what is gaza? there's practically not a building standing, and they're very dangerous. you know, those buildings are shifting and they're falling down all over the place, and there's gunfire all over. it's going to be that way for a while. >> mr. president. >> wouldn't it have it made. >> more sense to. >> evacuate people while the. >> war was ongoing, rather than now. >> when. >> there's a ceasefire. >> which is what you're talking about. >> when it was. >> more dangerous. >> when there were strikes overhead than now? >> well, the strikes could start tomorrow. there's not a lot to there's not a lot left to strike. it's a demolition site. the whole place is demolished. it's unsafe. it's unsanitary. it's a not a place where people want to live. >> mr. president. >> nobody. nobody has gone. it's. they have no alternative but to go back. if we gave them an alternative of living in a beautiful, open place with some,

you know, nice quarters there, nice housing of sorts. and we have the money in the middle east to build that. >> do you support. >> israelis actually moving back. >> and creating? >> not necessarily. no. i just support cleaning it up and doing something with it. but it's failed for many decades. and somebody will be sitting here in ten years or 20 years from now, and they'll be going through the same stuff, the wars and, and, you know, they've had civilizations on gaza, many civilizations on gaza, and they're buried in the sand. >> secretary. >> it doesn't seem to work. >> secretary. >> yes, sir. thank you, sir, i'm elon musk. >> how often. >> are you. >> talking to him? >> and have there. >> been ideas that he's brought to you. >> that you've said, oh, no, wait a. >> minute, this is going a little. too far. >> well, many ideas, but look, he's done a great job. and look at all the fraud that he's found in this. usaid. it's a disaster. what? the people, radical left

lunatics. they have things that nobody would have even believe. that the whole thing with 100 million spent on, you know, what with money going to all sorts of groups that shouldn't deserve to get any money with the money, i'd like to see what the kickbacks are. how much money has been kicked back, who would spend that kind of money to some of the things that you read about and i read about and i see every night on the news and every morning when i read the papers, who would spend money for that? i would say this. the people that got all that money, are they kicking it back to the people that gave it from government? no, that's to me, very, very corrupt. the real question is how much of a kickback has there been? and one of the things i want to investigate rapidly, because i've never seen anything to this extent, the train that's being built between los angeles and san francisco is the worst managed project i think i've ever seen, and i've seen some of the worst billions and billions, hundreds of billions of dollars

over budget. in fact, i read where you could take every single person that was going to go on the train and get the finest limousine service in the world and take them back and forth with limousines, and you'd have hundreds of billions of dollars left over. it is the worst thing. and we're going to start an investigation on that because it's not possible. i built for a living and i built on time, on budget. it's impossible that something could cost that much. and now it's not even going to san francisco. and it's not going to los angeles. it's they made it much shorter. so now it's at little places way away from san francisco and way away from los angeles. no, we're going to start a big investigation on that because it's i've never seen anything like it. nobody has ever seen anything like it. the worst overruns that there have ever been in the history of our country. and it wasn't even necessary. i would have said, you don't buy it. you take an airplane. it cost you $2. it

cost you nothing. you take an airplane. but this got started and if you have to, you drive, you can drive. >> are there other. >> they have hundreds of billions of dollars of cost overruns. and it's not even the same project. it's much shorter. it's way outside of san francisco and way outside of los angeles. so we're going to be looking into that. >> mr. president. >> is that doge. >> is going to investigate the train? >> no, i'm doing that myself. >> some of. these doge engineers that elon. >> musk has helping him are as young as 19 years old. >> that's good. they're very smart, though, peter. they're like you. they're very smart people. >> has he. >> have you met any of these guys? >> no, i haven't seen him. they work actually out of the white house. they're smart people, unlike what they do in the control towers where we need smart people. we should use some of them in the control towers, where we were putting people that were actually intellectually deficient. that was one of the qualifications is you could be intellectually deficient. no, we need smart

people. some are young and some are not young. some are not young at all. but they found great things. look at the list of things. i'll. maybe i'll do it tomorrow. i'll read off a list of 15 or 20 things that they found inside of the usaid. it's it has to be corrupt. nobody could approve that. they could only approve that if they were getting kickbacks. you're talking about you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. >> and it sounds like you're going to wind down usaid. >> this sounds like it. i mean, i think so. >> so when that happens, which part of the government. >> well, i could see marco rubio being in charge, state department, because they're giving money to. >> so we're going to put the california train comments aside for a second. donald trump, in signing an executive order and a memorandum on iran, speaks about not wanting iran to get a nuclear weapon, also threatens iran, that if it ever comes after his wife, iran would be obliterated, according to donald trump. he also, in talking about the war in gaza, says that

palestinians really want to leave gaza and they've had no other option until now. and now with the borders open, they're going to they're going to want to leave gaza. we know that that is not the case for a great number of palestinians in gaza. they do not want to leave their land. that's that's, you know, partially why the war is being waged right now. he also says he doesn't necessarily support israelis settling in gaza. and these two are relevant because he is minutes away from meeting with prime minister benjamin netanyahu in the white house. this is the first state leader that he will be meeting in the white house since he has become president for a second time. obviously, this is a crucial moment for netanyahu as well. they're in the middle of the cease fire. he's supposed to be negotiating the second phase of the cease fire. and there are folks talking about how this is the beginning of bibi's attempt to have another reelection

campaign to serve another term in israel. of course, that is very much up in the air, given the fact that he allowed october 7th, october 7th to happen under his watch. that being said, he will be at the white house in just a few minutes. also, talking a little bit about usaid, usaid, and the agency claiming that it was not run well and that elon musk is right to break with it and to try to fix government as elon musk sees fit. joining us now, former director of the policy office at usaid, noam ungar. he served in three administrations, including president trump's first term. he is currently director of the sustainable development and resilience initiative at the center for strategic and international studies. noam, good to have you. thanks, katie. the first question i have is, can you please help me understand what exactly usaid does?

>> usaid, the. >> agency for. international development. >> is an arm. >> of the. >> u.s. government. >> that executes. >> and implements. >> development and humanitarian programs. public health programs, agricultural programs in line with the needs. >> of. people around the world. but in the interests of. >> u.s. national security. >> all right. so when we're talking about the need for usaid, it was established by president kennedy to combat influence the influence of the u.s.s.r. it was made into an independent agency by congress in the late 1990s. there are folks out there that are talking about it as important to our national security. how is it important to our national security? >> well. >> the u.s. >> is currently. engaged in an intense and intensifying competition, a geostrategic competition. >> with china. with russia, with other adversaries around. >> the world. >> much of that competition is carried out. the front lines of. >> that is. >> in developing. >> countries around the world. >> we are. >> vying for partnerships with.

these countries, and these countries have needs. >> we can. meet those needs through american innovation and leadership and resources and expertise. >> and that's much of what. >> usaid does. >> when donald trump says it has to be corrupt. do you have any idea what he's talking about, what he could be referring to? >> katie, i. >> think there's a. >> lot of noise. >> around this set. >> of issues. but the fact of the. >> matter is. >> this agency. >> and u.s. foreign aid has historically had tremendous bipartisan. >> support. >> but it has also had an incredible amount of scrutiny, including. >> congressional scrutiny. >> so the. >> agency places a. >> lot of effort and expertise around. issues of compliance, around running programs effectively, around monitoring those. >> programs. >> because they're often working. >> in non-permissive environments. >> in difficult. >> communities. conflict settings around the world. >> he keeps trying to claim that the things that they're doing are not aligned with american values. he's brought up $100

million for condoms to hamas, to gaza. the washington post did a deep dive on this. that that is not the case. $1 million was spent in 2019 on condoms in the middle east. i think it was $46,000 spent on condoms in 2023. to jordan, those condoms were to stop the spread of hiv and aids. do you have any idea where he might be getting these numbers from? where this where this information is coming from? >> no, i have. >> no. >> idea where that information. >> is coming from. >> but what. >> i can tell you is that. >> u.s. foreign. >> assistance has. >> been used on behalf of the american. >> people through. >> work. >> like the work on global. >> health over the past two decades. >> more than. 35 million people have. >> their lives have. >> been. >> saved through. >> us leadership. >> on aids and malaria, that those programs. alone have saved 35 million lives. and that helps. >> with american. standing

around the world. >> programs like that, programs. >> like helping agriculturalists bring. their products to market. helping them with better. >> seeds to. weather. increasingly. >> intense weather effects. all of these programs. >> are actually. >> helping u.s. >> partnerships and the u.s. standing with countries. >> around the world. >> and we need those countries to be our allies. >> are they spending a lot of money? there? is the is the budget just ballooned or or too high, or are they sucking the federal government dry of cash? >> no. look, the. federal government, in terms. >> if you look at these issues. >> in terms of foreign assistance, there. >> are lots of. >> reasons to reform. >> foreign aid. and it is in continuous reform. >> i've seen a lot of good reforms during the time that i was working at. >> usaid and at state department. but if you're. >> doing it on the basis. >> of share of the federal government, that doesn't make sense. it's less. >> than 100th. >> of the federal budget. >> do you have any idea why elon musk would target usaid, or why

he might have a problem with it? >> i can't speak to why. different senior administration officials might want to target usaid. >> i can speak to. >> the professionalism of the. >> people who work at. >> usaid, and. >> who i had the. >> pleasure of working with across multiple administrations, whether they. >> were republican or. >> democrat, and people inside. >> the. >> agency are. >> conservatives and liberals. it almost never comes up. in the course of the nonpartisan work. >> that the agency. >> does with. bipartisan support from congress. >> again, you served three terms at usaid, including during donald trump's first presidency under three presidents. i should say. noam, thank you very much for joining us. noam unger of the center for strategic and international studies, i appreciate it. that's going to do it for me today. what a day it's been. deadline. white house starts after this quick break. >> let's just take a little bit. >> know this. >> part. >> is never. >> easy. >> but at.

>> least saving on your family's. medication is prescription. >> savings made easy? >> savings made easy? >> anoth upset stomach iberogast indigestion iberogast bloating iberogast thanks to a unique combination of herbs, iberogast helps relieve six digestive symptoms to help you feel better. six digestive symptoms. the power of nature. iberogast. hundreds on car insurance with liberty mutual. >> you're just a flightless bird. >> no. he's a dreamer, frank. >> and doug. >> well. >> i'll be. that bird. >> really. >> really. >> did it. only pay for what tractor supply customers experience is personalized service. made possible by t-mobile for business. with t-mobile's reliable 5g business internet. employees get the information they need instantly.

this is how business goes further with t-mobile for business. let's get started. bill, where's your mask? this is how business goes further i really tried sleeping with it, everybody. now i sleep with inspire. inspire? no mask? no hose? just sleep. learn more, and view important safety information at inspiresleep.com there's blink nutri tears. it works differently than drops. blink nutri tears is a once daily supplement clinically proven to hydrate from within, helping your eyes produce more of their own tears. to promote lasting, continuous relief. you'll feel day after day. try blink nutri tears a different way to support dry eyes. blink tears. >> to all. >> those who never.

>> give a second thought to being the. >> first ones in. >> first ones in. >> thank you i brought in ensure max protein with 30 grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! —uh. —here i'll take that. [cheering] ensure max protein, 30 grams protein, 1 gram sugar and a protein blend to feed muscles up to 7 hours. ♪♪ went hands. >> free with wide fit. >> skechers slip ins. >> just step in and go. >> without bending. >> down or touching my shoes. wipe it hands free. sketcher slip ins. >> sculpt shiva the time saver 90s and. >> you're done. >> stone shiva the time saver.