>> on five nights. >> a week. >> now is the time. so we're going to do it. settle in. >> the rachel maddow show weeknights. >> at nine. >> on msnbc. >> 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. >> eight on msnbc. >> andrew weissmann gets tonight's last word here. the 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. >> tonight, exactly one month into trump 2.0, his administration is stepping up the mass firing of federal employees. while elon musk defends the doj's cuts to government agencies and pledges maga loyalty to conservative

activists. plus, the senate confirms one of trump's most controversial picks to be in charge of the fbi. as the 11th hour gets underway on this thursday night. >> good evening. >> once again. >> i'm stephanie ruhle. it is. >> day. >> 32 of the second trump administration, and it has been one month since trump's inauguration. so let's. >> get into everything. >> that has happened in just the last. 24 hours, including just tonight. the washington. >> post reports. >> that trump. >> is. getting ready to dissolve the leadership of. >> the u.s. postal. >> service and absorb the. >> currently independent. >> agency into. >> his administration. the agency would. >> be controlled by the commerce. >> department and. >> its secretary. howard lutnick. >> nbc news has not yet confirmed that reporting. >> earlier today. >> the senate confirmed trump loyalists and hard. >> line fbi critic. >> kash patel as the bureau's director. republicans lisa. >> murkowski and susan. >> collins joined. democrats in voting no. but mitch mcconnell, who just announced he will

retire. >> at the end of. >> his term. >> next year. >> well. >> he voted yes. >> and trump's. >> mass firings. >> across the. >> federal government. >> are. still piling. >> up even higher. >> both the irs. >> and. >> the tsa. let go hundreds. >> of employees earlier today. tonight. >> two sources at housing and urban. >> development tell nbc news. >> that they are. >> also expecting for them. it is. >> up to half of the department's. 9000 employees. >> to be cut next. and this afternoon. >> a federal. >> judge said. >> he could not. >> block the administration's mass firings. he told the. employees unions to take. >> their. >> case to an independent. >> agency that handles. >> those kind. >> of claims. >> but this. >> evening, we are keeping. >> an especially close eye on american foreign policy and the world's. reaction to president. >> trump's repeated. >> lies about how the war. >> in. >> ukraine began and his attacks against their president, president zelensky. with the new tensions between the two countries. >> a. >> news conference planned for. today with zelensky. >> and trump's ukraine envoy. well, it was.

>> pretty. >> abruptly canceled. for a little perspective. >> on just how drastically. >> things have changed when it comes. >> to. america's stance. >> i want you. >> to listen to what republican. >> senator john thune. >> said. >> just one year ago. >> i'm hoping. that there. is enough of a. >> consensus and a majority of republicans. >> in the. >> house who believe that we need to defend america's interests. we need to stand. >> with our. >> allies. that this does represent a national security. >> threat for our country. we need to make sure. >> that ukraine. >> has the. weaponry and the resources. >> that it. >> needs to. >> defeat the russians. >> because if you're not sending them american weapons. >> and they they succeed in ukraine and they go. into roll. >> into. >> a nato. >> country. >> then we're going to. >> be sending american sons and daughters. >> speaking of majority. >> now. >> here's what majority. >> leader john thune had to say just yesterday. >> i think what. >> i'm in support. >> of is. a peaceful. >> outcome and result. >> in ukraine. >> and i think right now the

administration, the president and. >> his team. >> are working to. >> achieve that. >> and i think. >> right now you've got to give them. >> some space. >> got to give them some space. >> well, today. >> trump's team. backed up the president again. and what did they do. they continued attacking zelensky. >> and if. >> you. are wondering. >> how the rest of the world feels about this major change. >> in u.s. foreign. >> policy. >> just check out the. >> latest cover. >> of the economist. >> it's a simple image. >> of president trump. >> and vladimir. putin alone at a big table surrounded by empty chairs. the title europe's worst nightmare. with that, let's. >> get smarter with the help of our. >> leadoff panel tonight. >> peter baker is here, chief white house correspondent. >> for. >> the new. >> york times. leanne caldwell joins us. >> chief washington. >> correspondent for. >> puck news. >> and former. >> u.s. attorney joyce vance, who. >> spent 25. years as a federal prosecutor. she is now a law professor. >> at the university of alabama. >> mr. baker, we. turn to you first. we're going to get. >> to we're.

>> going to. >> get to ukraine in. >> a moment. >> but i. >> want to. >> start with this report about the postal service. >> president trump tried. >> to get involved in his first term. now here we are. it would have huge consequences. >> not just for those who say, well. >> the postal. >> service has to tighten up their game. i got to send a package on a sunday. it's more expensive than ups. explain to us. >> how it could impact. >> elections, because that could. >> be a top reason why. >> the president cares so much. >> yeah, it's a good question. look, there's plenty of issues involving the postal service that many people think need to be addressed. but nobody, at least a lot of people, don't think that it's what donald trump is really concerned about. what he is concerned about are a couple of things. one, amazon uses the postal service to deliver packages, and he doesn't like the washington post coverage. and when he wanted to turn up the pressure on jeff bezos, the owner of the washington post, he tried in his first term to go after the us postal service and get them to raise rates on amazon, a direct, you know, result of his displeasure at coverage by a

news organization that he didn't like. so that's one thing. secondly, of course, as you rightly just note, is the issue of mail in ballots. he also, of course, was very interested in 2020, in the postal services, you know, role in delivering and securing ballots in elections in which particularly elections, he was a candidate in. and we thought at the time that his appointees at the postal service might not necessarily be handling that with the alacrity and efficiency that the election demanded. and in the end, it seemed to work out relatively okay. but he's now coming back at the postal service once again, now that he has a second term and more power. >> peter, you know. russia well. you know how putin operates. you spent years living in moscow. explain to our audience just how big of a change it is. >> for america. >> to appear, or. >> to publicly. >> cozy up to. >> putin and continuously attack

zelensky like this? >> yeah, it's a huge change. i mean, look, obviously presidents of both parties over the years have tried at times to negotiate or work with their soviet or russian counterparts, but that didn't mean that they treated them as if they were the heroes of an invasion of a neighboring country. that was never the case. time and time again, democrats and republicans in the last 80 years condemned aggression by moscow and at least gave rhetorical support to those who were, you know, the victims of that aggression. now you see a very different situation where donald trump is blaming the invasion of ukraine on ukraine. they're saying somehow that they were the ones who started the war, even though, of course, russia attacked them. and it's a remarkable pivot for the united states. why is he doing it? well, one reason may be setting a predicate so that americans who will look at whatever deal the donald trump strikes with vladimir putin will not see ukraine in a sympathetic light.

at least trump supporters might not see ukraine in a sympathetic light, and might be much more agreeable to a deal that seems to favor the kremlin. >> all right, leanne. >> let's go to the hill, because we just played those. >> clips of john thune. a year ago. compared to now. but he's not the. >> only republican hawk. >> on the hill. i feel like i'm ready to. >> send tea. >> with honey down. to their offices. >> it seems like everybody. >> has lost their voice. >> yeah. >> they have. >> no one wants to cross donald. >> trump. >> especially as. >> they say. look, let's see where this goes. >> maybe this is. >> just a negotiating. >> tactic. >> even though donald trump is actively trying to rewrite history and it's something that's absolutely damaging to ukraine. so republicans are quite reluctant to say anything, even though many republicans. >> some of them. >> agree with the. president and don't want to, of course, continue to fund the war in

ukraine. but for the most part, there is. still a significant amount of republicans, especially in. >> the senate. >> who do think that the survival of ukraine and a very fair end to this war is absolutely. crucial for nato and for the western alliance. now, one thing, senator thom tillis is one republican who actually has spoken out. he didn't. >> say. >> a lot yesterday, but he gave a very fiery speech on the senate floor today. and he told me that he's not going to let stand by while this while this happens, if the president continues to do it, but he's just one person as well. and i asked him how this is going to play out, what congress can do to try to push back how they are going to fund ukraine if they're going to at all. and he admitted that it's still a very open question. >> peter, let's talk nato allies. we showed that economist cover the. >> big table.

>> putin, trump and no one else. what are you hearing in. >> terms. >> of international. >> reaction to all of this? >> well, obviously the european allies are very distressed by this. they're distressed by the attacks on zelensky and on ukraine, the distressed by the cozying up to putin. and they're distressed on the attacks that trump has mounted against them, the traditional allies of the united states going back generations. he has month he's been back in office threatened tariffs. he has harangued them over their military spending. he has seemingly threatened to hollow out nato in a way that is very distressing. and you see macron, president macron of france, trying to gather european leaders together because they realize that they may need to find their own way without being able to rely on the united states. and that's a big change. you saw jd vance saying at the munich security conference a few days ago that the biggest threat is not russia, it's not china. it's internal issues within europe, because in fact, extremist

parties like alternatives for germany, which is considered on the far right, there have been, you know, not given enough credence and credibility by the governing elites. so you can see from that speech, you can see from trump's comments, you can see from trump's approach to these russia negotiations without any europeans at the table. nato, that seems to be, you know, fraying once, once again. >> all right. >> new topic, liane. >> we were just talking about all the. >> republicans that that seem. >> to not push back on donald. trump over anything. including doge, but they are starting to hear. >> about it. >> from their constituents. >> just tonight, there are. reports from people in georgia yelling at a republican house member about the doge cuts in a town hall, and this is in a firmly red district. tell us. >> how republicans are feeling now that they're. >> starting to hear from their. constituents who. >> are nervous. >> about all these cuts. yeah. so these cuts are absolutely impacting red districts just as

much as they're impacting blue districts, if not more, because there's a lot of red states that get a higher percentage of federal funding than some of these blue states per capita. so they are reluctant to say anything publicly, as this is a pattern that we're going to see over and over again among republicans on capitol hill. but they are privately lobbying the administration, lobbying cabinet heads, administration officials to try to reverse some of these cuts or to ensure that they are taking into consideration how these cuts impact their districts specifically. so i called them these nimby republicans, not in my backyard republicans, where they praise the overall theory and goal and message of doge. but when it comes to their own voters, their

own districts and states, they're saying, hold off. this might not be such a good idea. >> all right. >> joyce, we know that president trump has tried to get a lot of stuff through over. >> the. >> last month, but a lot is getting held up in the courts. what grade would you give our. legal guardrails. >> so far? >> so i think the courts are doing really well so far, calling the balls and the strikes. but it's important to remember, steph, that these are early times. in these cases, the judges aren't ruling on the substantive issues in them. this is early procedural maneuvering over whether the status. >> quo. >> should remain in place. in other words, whether donald trump should be prevented from carrying out any of the activities he wants to carry out until the courts have that opportunity to have the parties brief and let them consider the substantive issues. well. >> we're also seeing the. president and his team use loopholes successfully to get around the courts and go ahead

with their agenda, especially when it comes to the spending freezes. what do you think about that? >> right. so what the administration has done is that it's planted people in the agencies, they're invoking other sorts of reasons to hold off on spending as a way of avoiding the court's orders without technically violating them. and then, of course, making the pretextual claim that this action is independent of the president's executive orders. look, parties are starting to go back to these judges and ask them to reconsider whether or not the government is complying with the orders in good faith. i suspect that we're about to see some angry federal judges in the mix. >> all right. >> peter, let's talk. >> kash patel. >> because he was once seen. >> as, i believe. >> the longest of long shots of trump's pick. today he got through the senate. it was narrow, but he made it through. what was your takeaway? >> yeah, i was struck by that. you're right. he so many republicans are nervous and not happy about kash patel as head

of the fbi, as leon probably knows better than i do. but they swallowed their objections. they swallowed their concerns and went along with trump's, you know, decision. and this is a sign of just how much the republican lawmakers on the hill at this point are willing to accept trump's lead on almost anything. as patel, just to be clear, is a hard right partizan warrior who published a book just a couple years ago called attacking government officials, calling them government gangsters, listing 60 people in the back he considered to be deep state actors, essentially what people consider to be kind of an enemies list. he said that he would come after. that's his words come after media, who, in his view, you know, lied about the 2020 election, that is to say, reported truthfully that the 2020 election was won by joe biden. and so he is a different kind of fbi director than we have seen in a generation. and the question, of course, is what kind of campaign of retribution

he will lead. we've already seen, even without him there, the justice department turned drastically away from the way it is run. in the past. it has, you know, dropping cases against those who are seen as allied with donald trump. and now and facilitating the pardons of january 6th attackers. and now we'll see whether or not kash patel follows through on his on his comments about the, you know, taking on trump's adversaries. >> and how about shutting down the hoover building on day one? should we expect that come monday? >> well, probably not. he said he would shut it down and make it a museum to the deep state and then move the fbi basically out of washington, i think, on day one. but you may see him try to do some of that, try to move parts of the fbi away from the nation's capital. he says that it's corrupting to have them here. it makes them political. of course, a lot of his critics would say he's the one who is planning to make the fbi political. but this all stems back from trump's great

grievance against the fbi for its crossfire hurricane investigation of the russia interference in the 2016 election for its involvement in the indictments against trump after he left office for trying to overturn an election that he lost, and for taking classified documents that he did not own, and refusing to turn them back over. so, you know, he is he has said during the campaign he is out for retribution. that's his word, retribution. and kash patel is widely believed to be his agent for doing that. he said during the confirmation hearings it wouldn't be about retribution. we'll see whether he follows through on that. >> joyce. >> what are you going to be keeping. >> an eye. >> out for. >> from the. >> fbi from. >> a legal perspective? >> well, the most important question is whether or not the fbi will fulfill its mission in a nonpolitical fashion. i suspect that very early on, we'll get indications about the direction kash patel intends to go. we may see a repetition of what we've already seen in the southern district of new york in

main justice, where people begin to resist illegal orders and leave office, leave their jobs in the fbi. the problem here is that an fbi director certainly has the authority to open investigations, but the fbi has strong guidelines in their dialog, which is sort of the agent's bible that tell them when they can and can't open an investigation and what they can and can't do in terms of the tactics they can use. if patel strays from that in an effort to get revenge, i think we'll find out pretty quickly because we'll see people start to leave. my goodness. >> joyce. >> thank you for joining us. >> leanne. peter, thank you. >> as well. >> when we return, the trump team floats the idea of a. dividend check for americans using the savings from doj's work. i thought the savings were meant to address our. >> debt, which is $36 trillion. >> these numbers don't seem to add up. i'm going to bring the boys in to figure this out for

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savings to american citizens, and 20% goes to paying down debt. >> i am sitting here frantically writing down these numbers because they don't add. >> up to me. >> it is time for money, power. >> politics. >> donald trump and. >> elon musk. >> have both floated this idea of giving doge. dividend checks to. >> taxpayers. >> using the money. saved from its cost cutting. >> efforts. >> but a. >> senior fellow at the manhattan institute tells the washington post doge has reduced spending by 4 billion bucks. at most, far, far, far from musk's $2 trillion. >> goal. >> as she puts it, quote, the american people. >> could possibly take. >> their dividend to starbucks for half off of one cup of coffee. let's bring in justin wolfers, professor of economics and public policy at the university of michigan, and brian barrett, executive editor of. news for wired. justin. explain this math. >> to me. >> the musk plan. >> is to cut. >> $2 trillion. >> in federal spending. spending. okay, the trump team

says it's going to deliver $5,000 per household. all of that is happening while republicans are trying to pass a new budget. >> that increases. >> spending by $300 billion, and they want to have massive tax cuts for corporations. how how is this possible? >> stephanie. >> this is fantastic. this is what happens when innumeracy hits ambition. >> so i. >> just before. >> coming on. >> the show, i went to the doge website where they. >> show line by line. >> every one of their savings. it adds up to. >> $7.3 billion. >> which sounds like. >> a lot. >> but remember, there are 340 million americans. so far doge is savings add up to $21.47. >> per american. >> the president is. >> proposing that. 20% of the money doge. saves go out, goes. >> out as. >> a dividend check. so, stephanie, you. and each of your viewers is going. >> to get $4.29.

>> in a. >> doge dividend. >> and this. >> is what happens when you don't understand that. >> you're looking in the wrong. places for. >> the big money. >> okay? but brian. >> even if they found. >> a ton of money to cut, right? even if even. >> if even if. >> the money to the american people was a lot more than $5,000. here's what i don't understand. the point of doge is to pay down our debt, right? we currently have. $36 trillion in debt in this country. >> and. >> the fact that they would be willing. >> theoretically. >> to. >> take 20% of the doge savings and send it out to the american people as checks. isn't that just one big political hustle? because donald trump knows how popular it was when those stimulus checks with his name on it got sent around. and we should remind our audience those stimulus checks were approved, not via executive order. congress did it. >> it is. and i think. >> it speaks to. >> the economics. >> of it. >> just about it seems. >> like so. >> much of this is. >> for show, and so much. >> of it is.

>> pr. >> and so much of it is just making. >> it seem like. >> you're doing something. >> and let's remember. >> to a lot of the. >> savings that they. >> are showing, and. >> they're emphasizing that just. >> thousands of. federal workers. >> who are. >> out of. >> a. >> job now for no reason. >> other than that they. >> had just started their job within the last two years or just. >> gotten promoted recently. >> it's built on the. >> backs of. >> massive layoffs of. >> people who are working on bettering americans. >> position in. >> science and humanitarian. >> aid, and protecting people. from fraud. >> if you. >> are really serious about. >> paying down the deficit, you probably wouldn't fire. >> thousands of irs. >> workers whose job. >> is to. >> increase revenue. >> that's why they are there. so all of this seems deeply cynical. >> and sort of speaks. >> to the larger. emptiness of the whole. >> doge project. >> a reminder i just told our audience last night when the inflation reduction act designated additional money to the irs, what did that result in. the irs bringing in more money from taxpayers? brian. the washington post also reports that the white house and treasury officials have agreed to prohibit doge from accessing

personal taxpayer data. now, the white house previously claimed that access was necessary for doge to do their work. that's the last time you were on with us. we talked about that. the fact that they're now reversing course, what does that tell you? >> it tells. >> me. >> that there are limits. >> to this, which. >> is great. >> i think this. >> is a really. >> promising sign. >> the courts. >> haven't gotten very. >> far or court. >> efforts haven't gotten very far. >> this is the first time. >> we've sort of seen. >> the white house itself. >> kind of say, okay, you're right. >> maybe this. >> 25 year old doge representative. >> who's in. >> the irs. >> who. >> a few. >> months. >> ago was blogging about the deep state. >> shouldn't have access to. >> personal payment. >> information from american citizens. >> he doesn't need it. >> i can't imagine. >> what doge thinks. >> it needs to. do with that. >> they're going to. >> get the same access. >> that researchers and. >> independent academics get. >> that seems honestly reasonable. if your actual job is to look at this system and say, how can we improve it? versus how can i gobble up as much data as i can and figure out what to do with it later? >> justin, a. recent poll by the economist found that more americans want doge eliminated

than any other agency. any agency that doge is working on improving. more americans are saying, can't we just bounce doge? given how politically damaging doge is thus far, how much time do you think donald trump will give it? >> well. >> you can also. >> add to that. >> the same. >> poll also. >> had a. >> question asking people whether they. >> wanted elon musk. >> involved a little bit in. >> the government. >> a lot in. >> the. >> government or not at. >> all, and. >> not at all was overwhelmingly favored. trump has managed to find something he. >> likes. >> which is someone. >> who. >> makes him look good and. >> someone who makes. >> him. feel loved. >> but to the extent that he's. >> co-president right now. elon musk is widely. >> detested and. >> does not have. >> the charisma, does. >> not, hasn't. >> brought people along in the musk. >> project the way that trump did, and he's a clear. political liability. >> justin, i want to get your take also on trump's newly confirmed commerce secretary, howard lutnick, telling fox news that his goal. >> is to.

>> abolish the. irs completely. and where are we going to find the money? well, massive tariffs, the rest of them will. >> pay for us. >> well. >> the problem with that is. >> it's quite. >> simply impossible. >> the amount of. >> money that we have that we could. tax for a tariff is the amount of imports. that's only $3 trillion. >> when we tax. >> income, we've. >> got $20. >> trillion. >> to tax. >> so if. >> you're trying to tax from such. >> a small. pool, there's not that much you can get. you can't fund the. >> modern us. government purely with tariffs. >> it's one literally. mathematically impossible. >> and two. >> incredibly bad for the working and middle class americans. but by jingo, it's a. >> huge tax. >> break to the rich. >> all right, gentlemen, thank you so much. before we go to break, i did want to let you know that the new acting head of the of social security made an announcement today after elon musk and donald trump claimed that millions of dead americans were receiving social security

benefits. well, the new guy overseeing social security said that's not really happening. so there you go. fact check from their own team. the worry is that that lie has already made it around the world multiple times. so we'll have to tell the truth every night. gentlemen, thank you for joining. when we return, a closer look at first lady melania trump's documentary deal with amazon. it's a big one. the timing and how it all came together. and we're going to ask the question again, is to ask the question again, is the white house for sale? my moderate to severe crohn's symptoms kept me out of the picture. with skyrizi, feel symptom relief at 4 weeks. many people were in remission at 12 weeks, at 1 year, and even at 3 years. don't use if allergic. serious allergic reactions, increased infections, or lower ability to fight them may occur. before treatment, get checked for infections and tb. tell your doctor about any flu-like symptoms or vaccines. liver problems leading to hospitalization may occur when treated for crohn's. ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ ask your gastroenterologist about skyrizi.

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most. powerful fat incinerator ever. >> absolutely free. >> all right, put your drink down or swallow it quickly, because i do not want you to spit it out after you hear this. from the beginning of this administration, we have seen all the new businesses that have sprung up in and around the trump family. and we've been asking this one single question, is the white house for sale? so let's take a closer look at the first lady, melania trump. she wrote a memoir and it was released. during the campaign, she launched her own cryptocurrency token on the eve of the inauguration, and most recently, she signed a $40 million deal with amazon to produce a documentary about her transition back to the white house. so how did we get here? well, you might remember a lot of tech titans met with trump at mar a lago after the election. jeff bezos, the third richest man in the world and amazon's founder was one of them. he donated a million bucks to the inaugural fund. and according to the wall street journal, listen

to this. he went to dinner with the future first couple at their florida resort in december. just over two weeks later, amazon agreed. >> to. >> pay $40 million to license the film all about her life, which is the most amazon has ever spent on a documentary in their history, and nearly three times the next closest offer. and that is potentially the tip of the iceberg. this week, the new york times pointed out that trump has been emboldened to push his business interests in his second term. one of the reporters on that story joins me now, eric lipton. he's a correspondent for the new york times washington bureau. eric, i'm so glad you're here. it has been a month of the second trump administration. tell us about your reporting on his businesses across the board, because he's pushing hard this time. >> we've really seen that he's basically unrestrained, the family, as compared to the first time when we were. >> focused on people. >> staying at their hotels or going to the mar a lago or the trump hotel in d.c. now they are

just. >> signing new. >> international deals to build, you know, branded hotels in saudi arabia. and in dubai. and vietnam and in other places around the world. in serbia, at the same time, they're issuing cryptocurrency tokens that while trump is appointing the head of the securities exchange commission, he's, you know, selling cryptocurrency that's earning them $100 million in transaction fees alone, and perhaps more as they sell the cryptocurrency itself. and you know, he's. meeting including today in the white house with the head of the saudi sovereign wealth fund, the governor of the sovereign wealth fund, who is a backer of live golf and trying to, you know, forge a deal between the pga tour and live golf at the same time as live golf is in april, will be at the trump doral in florida and spending money there to promote, you know, to have a tournament trump draw. this will be the fourth year in a row that the live. golf has used the trump doral as one of its venues. so

there's just, you know, it's everywhere you look. i mean, you know, trump announced in florida before he was sworn in that he was that a partner of his from dubai, that domec group was going to be investing in data centers in the united states. and now don jr and eric trump are now, you know, surprise, surprise. they're they're investing in data centers in the united states. and trump has said that he's going to give accelerated environmental reviews to this dubai investor. now, we don't know if the dubai investor is going to be actually teaming up with eric and don jr, but they've gone into the same business sector. and so there's just there's no longer a reluctance to try to turn the relationships into money for the family directly. where there was there was a before. they were a bit more shy about it, even though in fact it was happening anyway. >> congress seems to be turning a blind eye to all of it. it's not a surprise that republicans are, but democrats aren't pushing back that hard. is that because there was a four year window to actually change

things, tighten up the rules? so? so we didn't have to hope that donald trump wouldn't push his businesses. it wouldn't be legal. but they didn't do anything. they didn't change anything. so now it might be offensive, it might be corrupt, but it's not illegal. >> i mean. >> i think that, you know, trump himself has taken out nearly 20 inspector general. he fired the head of the office of government ethics. he removed the guy that runs the office of special counsel, the justice department, the public integrity division, many of the lawyers, which is the unit that investigates, you know, fraud and abuse by government officials that many of several of them have resigned because of what's happening in new york city with the effort to dismiss the charges against the mayor of new york. so really, the entire infrastructure around accountability has been decimated in the federal government. and congress shows no desire to try to get into this. the democrats have effectively no power. they can write these letters. they can have press conferences, they can have rallies, but they have no

subpoena power on their own. and they can't initiate major investigations. so there really is there's little accountability left. and even from the nonprofit community, on the day that trump was sworn in, you know, eight years ago, that's when they started lawsuits against him around the emoluments, which is the allegation that he was violating the constitution by taking payments from foreign entities and foreign governments. there have been no emoluments lawsuits. now, those those suits were ultimately dismissed at the end of his first term because it was deemed moot when he left office. but none of the nonprofit groups have gone back to filing emoluments lawsuits yet. i still expect that they will. but there's less enthusiasm this time around. i mean, they're still filing lawsuits around doge right now, but less. less. they're going after the trump family and its financial activities a bit less, in part because there's just there's little accountability left in the federal government at the moment.

>> sure is. unfortunately, we have no time left. but man, i wanted to talk about the president's frustration with boeing not getting the new air force one done in time. i guess if he wants to help figure it out, elon musk, who of course is in the aerospace business, when we return, we have oh, actually, we have an important fact check. i want to share this with you before we go to break. during his appearance at cpac, elon musk continued to spread more lies about the two astronauts that were that are currently in the international space station. watch this. >> you think that. >> biden left these astronauts up in space because he didn't. >> want. >> to give. you an. >> opportunity to save them. >> make nasa. look bad, make the private sector look better, make you look good. >> you believe that? >> yeah. >> no. >> absolutely. >> yeah, absolutely. well, for facts sake, former president biden did not abandon these astronauts, and certainly not for political reasons. the astronauts were scheduled to return after just ten days, but their spacecraft ran into issues. it was an independent

safety panel at nasa that decided it would be better for the pair to remain at the international space station through their mission. but if you want to take my word for it, don't take it from the astronauts themselves. >> we don't feel abandoned. we don't feel stuck. we don't feel stranded. i understand why others may think that we come prepared. we come committed. >> suni williams and butch wilmore are expected to return home ahead of schedule on march 19th. when we return, elon musk says his mind is a storm. he'll hear what else he said during his debut at one of the biggest conservative events. michael steele gives us his take. that steele gives us his take. that used to be his party. 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! tap into etsy for home and style finds like custom shelving

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weekend right here on msnbc. mr. steele, i watched elon musk. much of it was hard to follow in an incoherent the glasses, the drama. but after i watched him, i saw something that matt iglesias wrote posted and he wrote this. elon musk is asking us to trust him to wield enormous power on our behalf. he is undoubtedly brilliant and accomplished, but every day he fails to display the normal human virtues honesty, loyalty, humility, concern for the welfare of others that would earn that trust. i thought that was an extraordinary thought that iglesias had, especially after we saw elon musk. what do you think? >> i agree with that. and there's a reason why he cannot do that, because elon musk is the embodiment of every bond villain ever created. they're all rolled up in one person. him. the grab for power. the

smarts. yeah. very smart guy. you know, the strong businessman. but beneath all of that is a disconnect to humanity. a disconnect to what real people are going through. the accretion of wealth is the power source for him, not the humanity of others, not a desire to help people make life better. this image of him in the oval office tells me everything you need to know about elon musk. as an immigrant to this country, standing in the center of our government, yes, but a place that americans every day, americans look to and hold in high regard. he's standing there in a damn baseball cap. he didn't even have the presence of mind to put on a jacket and tie, to show some respect for the institutions that we as american citizens value. he wasn't born

here. he wasn't raised in our in our culture. he hasn't gone through the strife that we've gone through in the civil rights movement and the in the in the women's movement and the movement for just basic decency and pay for workers in this country. so that's all foreign to the foreigner who looks at others, who also want to immigrate to this country and want to cut off their opportunity, that buzzsaw is the emasculation of our federal government in the hands of a man who doesn't give a damn about anyone in this country, and he's working at the behest of a man who cares even less. why? because he put him in charge. >> well, let's talk about the president's official number two. his actual number two might be elon musk, but the official one is jd vance. he was also at

cpac. >> exactly who. >> i know. i know i want to share. >> a few movies. >> he does not watch it. he had to say. watch what he had to say. >> our culture sends a message to young men that you should suppress every masculine urge. you should. you should try to cast aside your family. you should try to suppress what makes you a young man in the first place. and i think that my message to young men is, don't allow this broken culture to send you a message that you're a bad person because you're a man, because you like to tell a joke, because you like to have a beer with your friends. >> that might have brought a tear to his eye, but it would have smudged his eyeliner. does that make any sense to you? >> that's just bull crap. that's just bull crap. just, just just substitute being a man for being white because he's talking about young white men. that's that's what that's about, my boy, that

wasn't the experience of the two young men i raised. they knew what being a man was. they are very. they're doing well. they're taking handling their business. there are a lot of young men in this country who come from broken homes, who grow up and are fine young men. there are a lot of young men in this country who have everything handed to them. right. and things don't turn out so well for them. but there's a lot more to go that goes into the development and the promotion and support of young men than sitting your. excuse me. i'm not going to go there. sit your behind on stage pontificating. right. the way he we see him there. what has he done to help these young men? he wrote a book. and then tanya wrote the book about your experiences, that hillbilly elegy, by all accounts. that experience is not how your story turned out. so

what are you telling me? who was the elon musk in your life? so, i mean, it's just i wish people would just stop treating this crap from vance and elon and trump as somehow normal, that somehow all these people are just put upon. there's a whole lot of folks in this country who are going through hard times right now. because you know what? elon musk and donald trump just fired their mommy and their daddy. so what about those young men? so when they don't have food on their table and they revert to crime because they had a job, a breadwinner in the family, there's no longer there. and six months out, there's still no job available. guess why? because you crashed the damn economy and inflation is gone back up. you think the price of eggs are high now, folks? it's $12 in my neighborhood, by the way. all right. so don't don't hand me this. i'm sick of these sappy songs from poor put upon folks

like jd vance, who don't know jack about what the hard life is anymore, if he ever really did. because if he did, he wouldn't be talking that smack. >> well, he's also out there defending the unfortunate plight of alpha males. and i'll tell you, as a fan of alpha males, he ain't one. michael, it is a pleasure to see you. >> amen, sister. >> when we return, we remember the lives. we remember the lives of the youngest hostages that todd takes prevagen for his brain of the youngest hostages that were and this is his story. hi, i'm todd. i'm a veteran of 23 years. i served three overseas tours. i love to give back to the community. i saw a prevagen commercial and i did some research on it. i started taking prevagen about three years ago. i've told my coworkers and family, since taking prevagen, how much of a difference it's made in my life. i feel really good. prevagen. for your brain.

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>> 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 at msnbc.com. >> tonight, we are remembering four year old ariel bibas and ten month old fear bibas. the bodies of the youngest hostages held by hamas were returned to their father today, but the israeli defense force said the remains that were believed to be their mother, shiri, could not be identified. there are no words for this tragedy, but we hope this family can lay their loved ones to rest soon. may their memories be a blessing. and on that note, i wish you all a very safe night from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news. thanks for staying up late with me. i'll see you at the end of tomorrow. >> the data is in. it's been a month. officially, as of today, for this new presidential term.