far from the ocean. and the red carpet is rolled out here at 30 rock. as generations of snl stars are set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of snl tonight. nearly 100 cast members will be here for the star studded three hour special starts at 8 p.m. eastern, by the way. jobs at yet another government agency may be heading for the chopping block. those details in just a moment. a very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. welcome to alex witt reports. we begin with breaking news and word of some new firings within the hour. a federal workers by the trump administration. this new report comes from nbc news. now it is hitting the department of transportation probationary workers. they're receiving letters saying they're being fired for poor performance. however, nbc news notes most of those employees were rated as exceptional performers by their

supervisors. lawmakers today, reacting to the administration's government shrinking efforts. >> you have to start cutting some of the fat. and unfortunately, the number one expense we have in the united states government right now is payroll. and when you start cutting departments, some people's jobs are lost. and that hurts us because we don't want anybody to lose their job. at the same time, we have to get it under control. >> so they're looking for that money anywhere they can find it, whether it's on the backs of rural america, whether it's on the backs of veterans. whether it is on the backs of cancer research. >> and as soon as this week, thousands of probationary irs workers are expected to be laid off. and that's a move that could crunch resources right in the middle of tax season. meantime, secretary of state marco rubio is in israel, where he met with prime minister benjamin netanyahu. netanyahu said he's working closely with the us to implement trump's plans to take over gaza, which the administration today defended. >> the president's also been very bold about his view of what

the future for gaza should be. not the same tired ideas of the past, but something that's bold and something that, frankly took courage and vision in order to outline. >> why are we going to necessarily default to a policy prescription? that has. been where the same policy prescription has been implemented for the last 4 or 5 decades, and it hasn't worked. so maybe we need to explore new policy prescriptions that ultimately end up in a better life for gazans and palestinians. >> in the coming days. rubio and an envoy of top officials are expected to meet in saudi arabia for talks about ending the war in ukraine. today, a spokesperson for ukraine's president said the country has not been invited to those talks yet. here's ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky. >> i will never accept any decision between the united states and russia about ukraine. never. and our people? never. i

think he is really a little bit scared about the president trump. and i think the president has this chance and he's strong. and i think that really he can he can push putin to peace negotiations. >> who builds ukraine, who brings back the thousands of children who have been stolen by putin. but you begin by talking to putin, leaving ukraine and all of europe out of it. it's an extraordinarily foolish foreign policy decision. >> and president trump is in daytona beach, florida today attending the daytona 500, where you see him earlier there doing a lap around the track in the presidential limousine known as the beast. we've got reporters and analysts ready to go through all the new developments. we're going to begin with nbc's aaron gilchrist. he is joining us from west palm beach. it looks like. so aaron, welcome. we have mass firings of government workers which are escalating this

weekend. what are you learning about that. >> so alex, i think. >> you have to start with sort. >> of the umbrella action, the new the latest umbrella action. and that is last week's order from the office of personnel management to different agencies that they should start cutting probationary employees across the federal government. all agencies should be looking at that action. and so since then, we've started to hear more and more stories about people getting these letters. in some cases letters that look like form letters. and most recently, you noted our reporting that probationary employees at the department of transportation had been getting some of these letters, that they're being fired, let go for poor for poor performance, when at the same time, they know that they have had performance reviews that suggest they had performed exceptionally in the early days of their employment at that particular agency. we have also seen reports about we've been able to report about judges, immigration judges having been fired. the most recent numbers that we're getting, i spoke with the union that represents those

immigration judges. i was told that 20 judges had been given notification that their positions were terminated from by the department of justice, and the concern with that particular group is that there is a backlog of immigration cases that the immigration judges are trying to work through. and so removing just 20 judges could mean thousands of cases won't get looked at. each of those judges could have handled upwards of 500 cases in the course of a year. and so one of the concerns is that now you have these actions that are being taken to terminate these employees, and the repercussions aren't being adequately considered by some. the national nuclear security administration fired some employees and then sent letters out saying that those those termination notices were being rescinded, but they were having trouble finding all the people who had been fired. so that's one of the concerns that's arisen here. and we've also heard from democrats on capitol hill who say none of what the administration has been doing by way of these firings and turning people's lives

upside down, really gets to what president trump said he would do on the campaign trail. i want you to hear from the house minority leader, hakeem jeffries. >> they've broken their promise. they have no interest in improving the quality of life of hard working american taxpayers. instead, what they're trying to do while they distract the american people is to jam the gop tax scam down the throats of people all across this country, all in service of massive tax cuts for their billionaire donors and wealthy corporations. it's a toxic bait and switch that is underway, and we will continue to push back forcefully. >> and i think that is some of what you've seen democrats do. they're saying that you shouldn't we shouldn't just be focused on these job actions and some of the executive orders and things like renaming the gulf of mexico, the gulf of america. rather, we should be focused on some of those little details in things like that that would normally fall into the category

of lowering costs not happening, potentially to the benefit of higher income earners. who who the democrats during the campaign season, alex, you'll remember, said, we're really going to be the winners in a second trump administration. republicans, for their part, have said that president trump is doing exactly what he said he was going to do. he was going to look at the size of the federal government, 2 million plus civilian employees, and start to make cuts, both to reduce the size of government and to reduce government spending. alex. >> well, we're going to have one of those government fired immigration attorneys on a bit later on in the show, and we'll get the pulse of what's been happening there, there. thank you so much, aaron from west palm beach heading overseas again. and the breaking news there, secretary of state marco rubio doubling down with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu today on president trump's, quote, bold plans for gaza. let's bring in nbc's hala gorani, who's joining us from jerusalem. hala, another welcome to you. what else did these two discuss? >> they discussed iran quite a

bit. the israeli prime minister said that iran was one of the biggest threats in the region, and that he wants to work to contain that country's nuclear program. the new secretary of state, marco rubio, stood side by side with him, agreeing on that point. but one of the other things you mentioned in the intro was this president trump plan for gaza, which he floated just a few days ago and then repeated several times afterward, including once with the king of jordan in the white house. this plan to remove 2 million palestinians from the gaza strip and turn the besieged enclave into some sort of middle eastern riviera that the u.s. would just take, not purchase, but just take without kind of getting into any kind of detail about how that would be done, or how 2 million palestinians would be ultimately forcibly displaced from their homes. these are details that were not at all

broached or laid out or expanded upon, but the representatives of president trump and the administration, including the secretary of state, marco rubio, today visiting with prime minister netanyahu of israel in jerusalem, had this to say about president trump. president trump's proposal. listen. >> the president has also been very bold about his view of what the future for gaza should be. the president's been very clear. hamas cannot continue as a military or government force. and frankly, as long as it stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can administer or as a force that can threaten by by use of violence, peace becomes impossible. they must be eliminated. it must be eradicated. >> meantime, of course, the main reason that palestinians many have been left homeless is because of big, big bombs being

dropped on their homes by the israeli military. and many of these bombs have been supplied by the united states. and the trump administration has has unblocked a shipment of one ton bombs that were delayed by the biden administration last year. and so this is a shipment that has arrived in israel, just as, of course, the country and many in the middle east hold their breath with regards to this hamas israel truce agreement. will the two sides get to phase two, which calls for a more permanent ceasefire, or will the whole thing collapse? alex. >> i don't know. that's the question. okay. hala gorani, thank you for that. well, joining me now is our friend, democratic congressman from massachusetts, jake klaus. welcome to you. first, on secretary rubio's meeting with netanyahu today, where they both praised donald trump's bold vision, as they called it in gaza, despite palestinian and arab nations ruling out a us takeover of gaza and the resettlement of palestinians is what was first viewed as some

kind of a wild statement becoming legitimate. i mean, if the idea gets repeated enough, will it seem less outrageous? >> alex, nice to be with you again. >> for 50 years now, american policy in the middle east has been marked. >> by extremely. careful rhetoric. every communique about the two state solution has. >> had commas and. >> semicolons double. >> checked. >> and yet. >> some pretty. >> careless actions by both the. >> united states and israel. >> obviously, the invasion of iraq. >> a major blunder. >> israel itself taking its eye off of gaza and focusing on the west bank in. recent years. what we're seeing now with. >> donald trump and secretary rubio is some very. >> careless rhetoric. without question, this discussion about displacing palestinians on a long. >> term basis. >> or turning it into the riviera, and yet the actions. >> that. >> they are taking, if you ignore the careless rhetoric, is actually. >> quite careful and quite strategic. >> what they are doing.

>> is they are making the plight of the palestinian. >> people, arab leaders problem because. >> arab leaders for the. >> last 70 years have said one thing about palestinians and done nothing. and now, for the first time, you've got egyptian and jordanian and saudi leaders who are actually rolling up their sleeves and saying to themselves, how are we going to fund and secure the redevelopment of gaza? and so i will say what we're seeing right now in these first three weeks of the trump administration relative to israel and gaza, actually has been progress. >> interesting. an see how you're presenting that. so i'm going to think about that for a bit. you mentioned saudi arabia. we have a us delegation set to go there for the talks on a ukraine russia peace deal. but an aide close to president zelensky tells nbc news that as of last night, ukraine still didn't have an invitation. and european leaders are holding their emergency summit tomorrow over the concerns that they are also being blocked from this peace process. is the trump administration going into these

negotiations in good faith? >> they have never. >> been in good faith regarding ukraine for a decade now. donald trump. infamously supplicated himself in. front of. >> vladimir putin in 2018. >> in helsinki. when he. >> took vladimir putin's word over his own intelligence agencies. he refused to say in his debate against kamala harris that he even wanted ukraine to win this war. so the ukrainians have every right to be deeply suspicious of donald. >> trump's motives. and it's a bad sign. >> that one. his own secretary of defense. is negotiating against himself, as opposed to against russia in his first week in office. and number two, that they're going to saudi arabia to talk directly to vladimir putin. thereby platforming. him without inviting the ukrainians to these negotiations on their own future. there can be no negotiations with russia that are not met simultaneously by continued support for ukraine's war making capability, and also by inclusion of ukraine in the process.

>> let's talk about the mass government firings, because ap is reporting thousands of irs workers may be laid off. right now it is tax season. jobs are also on the chopping block at the housing department, also at us health agencies. cbs obtained a termination letter to a health and human services employee which said, quote, unfortunately, the agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the agency's current needs and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment at the agency. i mean, what do you make of how this downsizing is being carried out? >> in the. >> federal government? is not twitter, right? you can't. >> move. >> fast and break things. >> it's not. >> actually going to save. >> taxpayers money. >> for example, you mentioned the irs alex. every dollar put into the into the irs in terms of its bandwidth and its capability, earns the us taxpayer somewhere between 5 and $10. >> back, because. >> what the irs does is it goes.

>> and audits. >> rich people who are trying to evade their taxes, and that makes the us government money. you had mentioned also health and human services. they're axing hundreds, if not thousands of career scientists at the food and drug administration. these are people who are evaluating, using highly sophisticated biostatistics, whether or not biologics or medical devices that are listeners right now, put into their bodies when they're sick, are safe. and by impairing the capability of that agency, one, we're undermining us biomedical, biomedical innovation globally, but two, we're endangering americans health and well being. how is this chaos making people's lives better? how is this lowering cost? if elon musk wants to go fight waste, fraud and abuse? absolutely. democrats are here to work with him on that. nobody's ever been against that initiative in the federal government. he should have started, though, in the department of defense with spending, you know, millions of dollars a year on alaskan king crab and show them how to procure more efficiently and how to be a lean and nimble fighting

force. we would have worked with him. >> yeah. i'm going to look at that alaskan king crab thing that you just mentioned. good grief. let me ask you about the nbc news report that government was trying to rehire several dozen nuclear safety workers who were fired on thursday. so apparently the government is having trouble tracking them down. you're on the house energy committee. what does it tell you about the way these layoffs are organized? and could they actually put the country at risk? >> they seem already to be. they're indiscriminate. clearly copy and paste emails, and they are not going in to these agencies and evaluating where there might be excess staffing, where we might be able to gain efficiencies, or in some instances, actually looking to expand the capability of that agency. they're not doing it that way. this is just elon musk trying to come in and break things for the sake of breaking them. and again, that has real consequences when it's the federal government. if you want to go buy a software company and

turn it into an avatar for your form of efficiency, that's your right. but don't come and do it with taxpayer dollars and put people at risk. what i still haven't seen, though, from this administration, is any plans to lower costs for everyday americans. i'm looking at home and auto insurance bills that are going to go up by double digits over the next year because of the tariffs and the deportations and undermining of the rule of law, and no amount of doge is going to pay people's insurance bills. >> yeah. point well taken as always, jake. i've enjoyed the conversation. you actually gave me some homework to do. i've got a couple points now i've got to do so. thanks. all right. we'll see you soon. coming up next, the remarkable repudiation at the doj and where the corruption case against new york city's mayor stands right now. we're back in 90s. >> i. want the fastest working glp1 for half the price. rowe now offers fda approved weight

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(man) cooool. ♪ (man) right on time! (vo) stay in the know. from your dock... to their door. case. after the doj pushed prosecutors to drop the charges. the legal saga has prompted backlash from top new york democrats calling for the mayor to resign. joining me now is kimberly atkins, store, msnbc political analyst and senior opinion writer and columnist at the boston globe and co-host of the sisters in law podcast. good to see you, kimberly. thanks for joining me. so what response are you expecting from federal judge dale ho is he weighs, you know, whether to approve of this

filing to dismiss charges? >> yeah. so he. >> has a. >> couple of options available to him here. it may seem logical that a judge cannot force a prosecutor to prosecute a case that they wish to dismiss, but there are certain things that could happen here to sort of help flesh out exactly what was happening here and whether there was a quid pro quo at play where donald trump was ordering this prosecution dismissed in exchange for mayor adams help on immigration enforcement, the judge, dale ho, can hold a hearing and bring all this out to life. he can do it to light. he can hold it in open court for some transparency before he makes a ruling at all. he could also appoint an independent prosecutor to prosecute the case if he believes that it should move forward with a prosecutor other than someone out of the southern district of new york,

which is trying to get that dismissed. i think that the hearing is likely. i think, generally speaking, it is very unusual for a judge to force a prosecution where a grand jury, in this case two grand juries, have been returned. it happens occasionally, but i think right now the transparency into what might happen might be the most likely outcome here, even if the case is ultimately dismissed. >> so you expect there should be a hearing on this one? >> yes, i. >> i would think that. >> so we saw seven resignations from federal prosecutors over this. is this a preview, kimberly, of what's to come from this new era in the doj? >> i think it absolutely is. look, the doj is full of career attorneys, some prosecutors, some working on civil cases who have dedicated their careers to protecting the rule of law and upholding the constitution and our laws. these people take it very seriously. and the fact that the pushback from within

the doj in this case came from across the ideological spectrum, including one prosecutor who said, you know, you may take this as being anti-trump. i'm not that at all, but i'm pro rule of law. i'm paraphrasing. i think you are seeing that and that courage is contagious. i think that will continue in other agencies as people try to protect the work that these career professionals have been doing for years, sometimes decades. >> so as we look at trump's mass firing of federal workers, how might the justice system or even the supreme court push back on trump here? >> yeah, well, we may see that very soon. in one case, the firing of the head of the office of special counsel, hampton dellinger. now, that's not the jack smith special counsel. he is essentially in charge of dealing with whistleblower complaints from within the federal government. so whether trump was confused or he just doesn't like whistleblowers, he fired him. even though the law

states that he can only be removed for cause. no cause was given already. that appeal has landed today at the door of the us supreme court. it's in the form of a temporary restraining order, which usually the supreme court doesn't get involved at that very preliminary stage. but i'll be watching it here. if they take any action, such as issuing an administrative stay to have him removed from office, that's a big signal that the supreme court would be leaning toward ruling in trump's favor. but if they stay out of it for now, which i think is probably the most likely scenario, we will have to continue and wait and see, let that case play out in a lower court before it gets to the supreme court to decide if trump was right in this sense, or if he exceeded his authority under the constitution. so it could be pretty soon. >> i'm taking notes. we're going to keep our eyes peeled on all that and what's happening at

scotus. kimberly, thank you so much. coming up next, what's going on at the defense department and why you should be department and why you should be concerned? here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need, and the flavor you love. so, here's to now... now available: boost max! introducing new eroxon gel, the first fda-cleared ed treatment available without a prescription. eroxon gel is clinically proven to work within ten minutes, so you and your partner can experience the heights of intimacy. new eroxon ed treatment gel. baby: liberty! mom: liberty mutual is all she talks about since we saved hundreds by bundling our home and auto insurance. baby: liberty! biberty: hey kid, it's pronounced "biberty." baby: liberty! biberty: biberty! baby: liberty! biberty: biberty! baby: liberty! biberty: bi-be-rty! baby: biberty! biberty: and now she's mocking me. very mature. mom: hey, that's enough you two! biberty: hey, i'm not the one acting like a total baby.

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>> stronger and thicker. >> and i finally feel like myself again. >> new fears in europe today, after the final day of the munich security conference, following speeches by vice president pence and defense secretary hegseth. the pair fueling concerns the u.s. might abandon europe. ukrainian president zelenskyy raising the alarm on a potentially wider conflict between russia and nato soon. >> we know for sure that he is preparing steps on the territory of belarus this year. it can happen in summer, maybe in the beginning, maybe in the end of summer. there are risks that this can be poland and lithuania, and because we believe, we believe that putin will wage war against nato.

>> joining me now for more on this is atlantic staff writer tom nichols. good to see you, my friend. tom. so this is a pretty grim warning from zelenskyy. can it be taken at face value, or is it an effort maybe, to keep the u.s. involved in europe? >> the thing. >> is, it's a warning that others have made besides zelensky. people who follow russia watch putin. putin has. a serious hostility toward nato that goes deep into his soviet past. >> he is deeply invested in the idea of proving that nato is just a paper tiger, that he can take some small piece of territory. i think when you hear zelensky talking about this or you hear other people talking about it, they're not talking about some gigantic rush to the rhine or to the english channel. what putin wants to do is take some piece of nato territory, sit on it, prove that nato will not escalate to general war, and

that article five is meaningless. and of course, hegseth and vance certainly helped with that project this past week. but that that fear that zelensky has is a fear. i've had fear of a lot, a lot of other people have had about putin trying to attack nato territory. hold it, freeze the conflict, and prove that nato is no longer a real alliance. >> zelensky suggesting there that poland and lithuania would be two potential targets. does it concern you? there's been no word from u.s. intelligence agencies about any kind of a build up, per zelenskyy's claims, or are we just not being made aware of it? and the timing of this? putin wouldn't do that to a nato country or hasn't prior to ukraine. and so why now? because the us has always come to the defense of nato and been a part of it. does he think that's wobbly? >> well, first, u.s. intelligence agencies are not

going to come out every day and kind of issue a threat level. what zelensky was talking about is potentially six months, seven months down the line, maybe even longer. and so again, you know, you're not you're not going to be looking for a kind of giant world war two kind of build up on the border. i think one thing that everybody worries about, including zelenskyy, is that putin is going to somehow convince himself that he can get away with some kind of action on the cheap. and put himself into a corner. i think one of the things that people really need to understand about putin is that he's actually not a good strategist, that he makes mistakes and backs himself into some pretty difficult corners, as he's done for three years in a war that was supposed to be over in two weeks. so i think that that's one thing to be concerned about in terms of not

to be concerned about, in terms of not hearing anything from the intelligence community. you wouldn't you're not going to hear anything at this point. i think what zelenskyy is warning about is something that could happen down the line. if the security guarantees start to unravel. i mean, we've never heard a vice president and a secretary of defense talk this way. and, you know, i don't agree often with john bolton, but i think he was right when he said there drinking vodka out of the bottle in moscow tonight. >> there's going to be that meeting tomorrow of european leaders. and it's called on by french president emmanuel macron. is there anything you're hoping to hear after that meeting? could there be any kind of an announcement of an armed forces of europe, which, of course, we heard zelenskyy call for? >> yeah, actually, i'm i'm hoping not. i'm hoping that the that the reaction all around is more measured and gradual. so that the europeans don't put themselves in a position where they're they now have to go ahead with things that they may

not want to carry through on, or that they may not have fully thought through yet. so i think the fact that europeans are going to together, they're talking about this. they're clearly keeping their eye on the ball in ukraine. i think that's enough. i don't think we need an earth shattering announcement tomorrow, in part because i think, you know, american policy isn't very coherent right now, and i don't think the europeans need to have a kind of tit for tat response to, to somebody like pete hegseth, who's already had to walk stuff back and is in over his head at this point. so i think, you know, measured and steady is probably what is probably the best outcome rather than an important announcement. >> well, let's turn though, to your article about the defense department. the title is who's running the defense department. and you note other key positions are being filled with unqualified candidates, mainly on the basis of loyalty to president trump. who concerns you most? and how dangerous is

it that there may be no one to challenge trump, or anyone with the experience to deliver for americans during a national emergency? >> yeah, what a question. who concerns me most? you could spin the big wheel and stop almost anywhere at this point. especially in the cabinet, because it's not just hegseth and his deputies. i mean, he's going to have people below him who just don't know what they're doing. and that's not a that's that may sound like an unfair criticism, but, you know, billionaires who have run big firms are not particularly adept at running the pentagon. and this is something americans tend to believe. they think that anybody who's good at business or making money should be able to run the defense department, and that's simply not the case. i'm particularly concerned about people that trump has sent back in after being rejected. the first time retired general named anthony tata, who was too extreme to be confirmed to

anything in the first trump administration, is now going to be under secretary if the senate confirms him under secretary for personnel. and there are there are others. but the overall picture is when there's a crisis, who's going to be in the in the oval office with the president? pete hegseth, tulsi gabbard, you know, marco rubio, who you know, is at this point a reassuring figure, although not particularly experienced. this is going to this is really a worrisome cabinet that is designed almost for entirely for internal american consumption. rather than solving and dealing with america's foreign policy and national security problems. >> yeah. i got to tell you, tom, i, i read the whole thing. you know, it's every single word is highlighted in yellow. it's that important of an article. people should look it up in the atlantic. thanks so much. you're going to hear from an immigration judge who was just fired by the trump fired by the trump administration next. -what've you got there, larry? -time machine. you gonna go back and see how the pyramids were built or something? nope. ellen and i want to go on vacation,

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about a group of. >> really dedicated. >> yeah. >> professionals being fired. >> we received. >> notice by. email on friday. afternoon of the. >> of the firing. >> and with. >> everything going on. i guess i was. >> not surprised overall. >> i kind of. >> expected i wouldn't. >> remain at the department. >> of justice. >> for. >> very long, but. >> very disappointed. >> because i was really looking forward to working for and supporting their mission and assisting with immigration process. >> yeah. and look, nbc news, we can't independently verify that these firings were political. but do you think your firing was political? and were the fire judges all as new as you were? as many people have been fired elsewhere in the government have been? or what's your sense of all that? >> so from what i. >> understand, there were a couple of judges that have. >> been fired in the last. >> couple weeks that have been

more senior and even. >> not necessarily on. >> probation, but our class is recalled. so the last group of judges that were going to be trained and brought on to the full time to the bench, we're all relatively new hires, would have been hired since about june of last year. from the last training. >> okay, so here's here's the head scratching part. i mean, a lot of it is. but one significant part these layoffs are coming is the immigration backlog grows with 3.6 million cases still waiting to be heard by a judge. >> exactly. doesn't make the. >> effect here. >> doesn't make any sense. and people could say, oh, it's only a few people, but every single judge that's on that bench contributes to helping the system work more efficiently. give people due process in court. >> heard that some of these judges. kelly, i'm sorry that i've heard, kerry, that some of these judges can be 5 to 800 cases a year. they'll deal with

so times that by, let's say, ten, right. right there. right. it's remarkable. >> every little bit. >> every little bit helps. >> every little bit helps. and the amount of time and money, resources, energy that went in to recruiting people, hiring them, bringing them on board. i mean, my process alone was 14 months. and from interview to onboarding and it just it makes no logical sense. and so there really doesn't seem to be any other explanation for this happening other than political motivation. and personally, i'm a little bit in a different position, having served in the biden administration than my colleagues, but a number of them were military veterans, had worked for obama as immigration prosecutors. it was a pretty diverse group of people coming from a lot of different backgrounds. >> look, i'm glad you mentioned having worked in the biden administration, because there's a bipartisan support to hire more immigration judges. why do you think your department is

where the trump administration decided to make cuts? >> i can't get in their heads, honestly. i wish i knew. but that might be a great question for them because, as you pointed out, with the large number of cases in the backlog and in the last trump administration, they doubled the backlog in the immigration court. so with all of their enforcement, the numbers are just going to grow. so it just it really makes no sense to me whatsoever. so it's hard for me. i can't answer that question. >> well, i'm sorry, kerry doyle, that you're going through this and i'm sorry you can't answer all the questions, but maybe we'll have you back to talk about and get your perspective, because it's quite unique and it's important. so thank you. have a good one. thank you. good luck. next we're talking to the author of this stunning article, how the trumps turned an election victory into a cash election victory into a cash bonanza. right after this break. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need,

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first lady melania trump has a $40 million documentary deal with amazon, many times more than a typical documentary by three, more practically than the closest competitor. $10 million legal settlement, rather, with elon musk's esque to the president, which all went directly to donald trump and son don jr, making roughly 1.6 million off his shares in drone manufacturing company unusual machines. after becoming an adviser when his father got reelected. what transaction that you discovered surprised you the most? >> i think. >> it's. >> just these new. >> avenues that we're seeing the trump. >> family pursue this time around. you know, the first administration, i. >> think we. >> saw a similar. >> pattern. >> of behavior in that we saw, you know. >> republican officials began holding. >> events at the trump hotels. you saw foreign officials coming and staying. >> at. >> trump's hotel in washington. >> all these trump. >> properties became a real hub of activity, and people. >> were really. directing quite

a. >> bit of money to the. >> president that way. >> but this time, i think we're seeing really new approaches. >> you know, for starters, this melania. >> documentary deal, we didn't see anything like that. >> the first time around. >> we reported that the first lady's share of that $40 million deal is more than 70%. >> which is, you know, a pretty striking number for especially. >> for a project that hasn't even been made yet. and then i think. >> these legal. >> settlements. >> it's just. been fascinating. >> to see. >> the. >> president use. >> his leverage. >> here to go after, you know, former adversaries and pressure them to resolve lawsuits that when he first brought them, were really, you know, many of them were considered pretty frivolous. and they'd been languishing for a couple of years now. and we've seen him. he got a $25 million. settlement from meta. he got this $10 million settlement. from x, even though x owner elon musk is one of his closest advisors right now. and we know that they're expected to pressure google, who he had sued also in 2021, and a number of other companies that

he has open lawsuits against to settle their lawsuits as well. >> and i should say, with your mention of foreign dignitaries coming in and like, that's why we all became so familiar with the emoluments clause, because that was something that was directly violating that. now we have several mentions in this article of these payments going to the trump presidential library fund, a not for profit whose mission is to preserve and steward trump's legacy. what more do we know about this fund, and what's it meant to be used for? >> so we really. >> know very little about it so far. it's a it's a not for profit, as you said, that was registered in florida in december by a lawyer who has also registered the trump transition and the trump inaugural committee. but little has been disclosed about who will manage that money. you know what the money will be used for the mission of that not for profit, which is what the money is supposed to be used for, is very broad. it's to preserve and steward trump's legacy. but, you know, you could see that mission

statement being interpreted a number of different ways. so i think in essence, there are fairly few restrictions on how that money needs to be used. >> so here's just a basic question. are all these transactions legal and how common are they? >> well, i think, you know, those are two different questions in terms of legality there. the president is not subject to the same kinds of conflict of interest rules that the rest of the government is. you know, as you said, the emoluments clause does apply to him, meaning he can't accept foreign money or foreign government money. but i think the larger question there is, you know, even if things did violate, you know, ethics rules, who is going to be left to enforce that? he last week fired the head of the of the head of the office of government ethics. he's installed a close ally there. clearly, you know, he's he's installing a number of people close to him at the department of justice. so, you know, nothing that we reported violates the law. i want to be

very clear. but. but i think his intention that he signaled about how he's going to approach government ethics so far has been pretty clear in his decision to dismiss the director of that office. >> i'm just out of time, but quickly, does it apply to him, these these rules and restrictions? what about a wife or a child? don junior. melania. >> right. >> so, so the rules really apply to senior administration officials. so it wouldn't necessarily be his family members. but you know, i think this overall question of not wanting to appear to be violating, you know, appear to be having conflicts of interest is still something that previous presidents have taken very seriously. >> right. and we have to know whether or not the trump family cares about it. it is a blockbuster article. rebecca ballhaus, thank you so much for joining me. people can look it up in the wall street journal. thank you. from downpours to powerful winds, a good reason to powerful winds, a good reason to stay indoors today. sometimes my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis gets in my way.

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>> breaking news. just moments ago, the president approved an emergency declaration for kentucky after deadly storms and flooding there. at least nine deaths are blamed on the storm. meanwhile, the sprawling winter storm making way across the country, dumping heavy snow and freezing rain across the northeast. joining me now once again, nbc's george solace from florence, mississippi. so the danger is far from over, my friend. what are officials warning about? >> yeah, they're warning about that next bit of winter storm that's coming right here. and it's going to impact a lot of states. you're looking at not just cold air, but the winter weather itself. more more snow. but of course, looking at what's happening in kentucky right now, officials are already concerned about some of that winter weather moving in as well, as they're already dealing with the cleanup of this flooding that claimed at least eight lives. the governor saying he expects that number to unfortunately go up. here is governor andy beshear speaking about the devastation impacting the state right now. >> don't get on the roadways.

>> don't give. >> time for the water to go down. so many of these fatalities were due to attempts to drive through water and through moving water. so folks, stay off the roads right now. flooding is still possible around many, many rivers in our state. all across, this may be a record, but portions of more than 300 state roads and federal roads are currently blocked due to flooding, slides or damage. >> yeah. alex. >> the governor saying crews are of course exhausted, but they're going to keep at it to make sure they can help as many people as possible. that declaration, of course, helping tremendously. so we'll just have to wait and see how all of this unfolds as that other round of weather. >> for sure. we'll keep an eye. thanks, george. that's going to do it for me on this edition of alex witt reports. i'll see you wednesday and thursday at 1 p.m. and of course, next saturday and sunday at 1 p.m. eastern. deadline. white house wee