the pentagon and the defense department, i want to start with firing of coast guard commandant , linda fagan, the first woman to lead a major military branch or service, i should say, in the united states. tell us what happened, why was she fired? >> she was appointed in 2022 and like you said was the first woman to lead one of the major branches. we have been expecting because of all the campaign rhetoric that some of the heads of the services might be fired, the coast guard had not immediate come to mind, but in announcing the firing they said she had focused too much on the eye initiatives and had not really shape the coast guard to deal with any sort of migration crisis, not acquiring cutter's fast and not -- and of come that's putting a lot of responsibility on the head of an organization when honestly the acquisition of cutter's is a complicated process that involves, how quickly could the defense mark -- department get the cutter's in place? interestingly enough, the coast guard almost immediately on the 21st put out a press release announcing how quickly they were going to respond to

and i think we've also learned that the coast guard commandant, linda fagan, has been fired.pentagon and what could all this mean? >> it's a little bit of surprise, even though i will say we have been talking for weeks about the possibility that donald trump and his and the people who he brings into this administration with him could fire some senior level military officers, many of whom are seen as being too, too much in favor of promoting diversity issues. >> well, now we know the first one that we are aware of anyway is the commandant of the coast guard, admiral linda fagan, as you mentioned. now, chris, she is the first woman who made it to four stars in the coast guard. she's also the first woman to serve as the chief of a branch of the united states armed forces. so this is a significant person, a woman who was removed from this job. we learned she was actually told late last night by the acting secretary of the department of homeland security. but we only got confirmation of this decision earlier today. now, there are other women who are serving among the chiefs, but a

today, the administration firing the head of the coast guard, admiral linda fagan, the first woman to lead a branch of the us military, relieved of her duties. a official tells us she was removed because of leadership deficiency including a failure to address border security threats. tonight, president trump touting more sweeping changes appearing with top tech ceos at the white house including oracles larry allison announcing a $500 billion investment in ai. he says it'll create 100,000 jobs. also tonight, trump was asked, would he support elon musk buying tiktok? >> i would be if you wanted to buy it, yeah. >> peter we learned about new details about the presidents trip to the west coast. >> that's right, trump will travel to los angeles this friday after repeatedly blaming the democratic leaders for the response to the wildfires but governor newsom invited him and the president announced an executive order to help bring more water he says, to southern california. >>> there's growing backlash tonight over the presidents brought actions on immigration. including lawsuits by dozens of

today the administration fired the head of the coast guard, admiral linda fagan, the first woman to lead a branch of the u.s. military relieved of her duties. tonight president trump touting more sweeping changes on his first full y in office, appearing with top tech ceos at the white house, including larry ellison announcing a massive investment in a.i. in the u.s. he says will create 100,000 jobs. also tonight president trump was asked if he'd support elon musk buying tiktok. >> i would be if he wanted to buy it. >> and peter, we just learned new details about the president's trip to the west coast? >> reporter: that's right, president trump will travel to los angeles this friday afterer peatedly blaming the democratic leaders there for the response to those wildfires. but governor newsom invited him, and the president just announced an executive order to help bring more water, he says, to southern california. lester? >> peter alexander at the white house, thank you. >>> and there's growing backlash tonight over the president's broad actions on immigration, including lawsuits by dozens

coast guard commandant admiral linda fagan, who by all objective accounts was an admirable leader, proves that the purge is under way. unfortunately, mr. hegseth would not categorically condemn those efforts during his hearing and instead talked about meritocracy and restoring accountability within the senior ranks of the military. if the senate confirms mr. hegseth this week, who will be fired at the department of defense next week? and i doubt very seriously it will be based upon merit or anything else other than a political agenda. and that would be the beginning of the unraveling of the core element of our military. it is not political. it serves neither party nor person. it protects and defends the constitution of the united states. and if we lose that, we will have lost something that is, i think, the key to our success not only as a military force, but as a nation. despite mr. hegseth's comment, the united states military is already one of the finest meritocracies in the world. every member of the military is in their position because of their ability. they are chosen by boards of

host: commandants linda fagan had been very vocal about reducing sexual assault in the coast guard.do we know about her activities there, and did that influence the decision to fire her? guest: that was one of the reasons in this lengthy press release that she was fired. the coast guard has said they were dealing with sexual problems for years, and news organizations, including ours, looked at sexual assault allegations and how they were handled in the coast guard with the last several years, and it was the subject of multiple directional hearing the last years, and this is one of the reasons of why she was removed. host: and the heads of the other services, as far as army, navy, marine corps air force, what are you hearing about the possibility of them also being fired? guest: everybody is keeping a low profile right now. we don't suspect there'll be any engagements right now among the uniformed chiefs. that is the chief naval officer, general alvin who is the chief of staff of the air force, general george, the chief of staff of the army. all of the services right now are trying t

nobody knows the line that linda fagan crossed.but now that it's blurred, everybody is going to hunker down, buckle down, do nothing at all that may arise the suspicions of the white house. and it seems to me that that's exactly what's going to happen at the department of defense. he has promised to fire top-end military leaders who are engaged in his nebulous war on woke. so if you care about making sure that you've got troops from different backgrounds and different parts of the country, maybe that's a war on woke. if you promote a woman 0, maybe that's a war on woke. if you care about making sure that your troops don't engage in unethical conduct, maybe that's a war on woke. if you contract with a local business that

. >> coast guard commandant admiral linda fagan was relieved 6 duty by president trump's acting homelandto a failure to address border security threats and an excessive focus on dei. fagan was the first woman to lead any branch of the u.s. military. the pentagon is now accelerating deployment orders after president trump ordered active duty troops to the border. >> cartels are now going to be seen as foreign terror organizations. would you think about ordering u.s. special forces into mexico to take them out? >> could happen. stranger things have happened. >> trump has not ruled out using the military to reclaim the panama canal. china is operating the panama canal we didn't give it to china we gave it to panama. i just reject in its entirety the words expressed by president donald trump. there is no presence of any nation in the world that interferes with our administration. president trump removed former joint chiefs chairman general mark milley from dhs's national infrastructure advisory council today. gengeneral milley was appointedy president trump in 2019. but numerous books have d

coast guard commandant, linda fagan, the first woman in charge of a u.s. military branch. trump dhs official accusing her of "leadership deficiencies for prioritizing diversity initiatives over border security." president trump continues to threaten tariffs against china, canada and mexico, saying he may even go beyond that. pres. trump: we will put a universal tariff on anyone doing business in the united states, because they are coming in and stealing our wealth, our jobs, our companies. geoff: the president continued his breakneck pace of laying out his priorities and staffing up his new administration. sitting down with republican house and senate leadership to discuss the legislative agenda of the new congress. >> do solemnly swear. geoff: he already has his first cabinet member, newly sworn in secretary of state marco rubio, who was confirmed by the senate unanimously last night. two more cabinet picks had hearings today, elise stefanik for the u.s. ambassador role, and doug collins to lead the department of veterans affairs. and others like defense secretary know ma

he fired the head of the coast guard, linda fagan.he first known senior military officer to be let go joining us nbc news senior white house correspondent garrett haake from outside the white house. garrett, let's start with january 6th. the first defendants have been released if jail. the pardons also cover people who were charged with violent crimes. that's despite prior push back from his own party on that. president trump. help us understand how significant that move is. >> reporter: the trump white house feels like it was a promise made and kept to go big on pardons for folks involved in the january 6th riot. there has been swift condemnation from democrats, capitol police officers involved in defending the capitol that day and testifying afterwards. even from some congressional republicans like maine sneer susan collins, who in a statement lumped these pardons from president trump and president den's 11th hour pardons of family members together in one statement, calling it a terrible week for the department of justice. but the t

. >> the first woman, admiral linda fagan. how is the administration coming together? >> yeah, it's very clear that the trump administration was well prepared to come into office and had their eye on certain officials that they no longer wanted to be serving in government. we expected marco rubio to sail through his confirmation. it is often the courtesy that senators give to their fellow colleagues as they head into the administration. and we're seeing that the trump administration is having wide success with all of their nominees. none of them have have yet been confirmed. but but sailing through senate confirmation hearings without much backlash from from republicans. and i think that's important to note here, obviously, as we look at this cabinet coming together, trump has a, you know, a wide margin of support among republicans in the senate. so making it much easier for him to get the people in place that he wanted to. i think that's the big difference between the first term and the second term here is that trump and his allies and his staff have been here before.

he fired the first female officer to lead a branch of the armed forces, now ex coast guard chief linda fagan this morning, the spanish language version of the official white house website gives a 404 error. joining us now, republican strategist susan del percio and democratic strategist basil smikle. both are msnbc political analysts. basil, we've touched on how so many of these initial orders are essentially reversals of president biden's executive orders, particularly when it comes to diversity, equity, inclusion. and, of course, they could be reversed again if a democratic president takes takes office. do you see this dei backlash as temporary, or do you see it having lasting impact in government and the private sector as well? >> i do see it as having lasting impact. and some of these orders, the reversals of things that obama had done. so this is this is far reaching, both looking back and looking forward. the concern is that not only was the eradication of dei and equal opportunity consistent through all of the departments as, as, as written in project 2025, but this has an impact on m

is over leadership deficiencies and operational failures, a dhs official told cnn that admiral linda fagan quote, failure to address border security threats and excessive focus on diversity, equity and inclusion policies is also what led to it. what's your reaction to this news? >> i'm very troubled by it and other moves that the president is taking with the military. in the first day or so you saw, the president was, you know, was really focused on a day one activity of removing the portrait of general mark milley, who was the previous head of the joint chiefs of staff. he wanted to remove that portrait from the walls of other heads of the joint chiefs and the pentagon. that was important for him to do on day one. remember, this was a president who was the only president that i'm aware of who ever vetoed a defense bill. he vetoed a defense bill in 2020 because he didn't like renaming bases that had been named after confederates. so he didn't like rewriting history. but then on his first day, he wanted to rewrite history by removing general milley's portrait. i think that the the firing of

coast guard commandant admiral linda fagan. >> an executive order cloaked in orwellian doublespeak that. oath keepers. >> this is textbook authoritarian takeover 101 tactics. >> that's all in just the past few days. the new york times calling this, quote trump 2.0 bans, purges and retribution. here are some more of the details. as many as 20 key career officials at the department of justice have been reassigned. the ap noting that that's not standard. the new administration has, quote, sidelined about 160 national security council staffers, telling them to work from home while the administration reviews staffing. it's a lot. and taken altogether, it should alarm all of us, regardless of your political preferences. joining me now is jason stanley, professor of philosophy at yale university and the author of erasing history how fascists rewrite the past to control the future. professor, in your book, you write, quote, exposing a nation's citizens to the complex history of its past is an essential prerequisite for civic compassion. without such an understanding, one cedes power to hierarch

he abruptly fired the top admiral for the coast guard, linda fagan, who was the first ever woman to lead a branch of the us military. joining me now is senator cory booker, democrat of new jersey, who serves on the judiciary and foreign relations committees. let me start with immigration. it's something i've spoken to you before about. you represent a state with people from all over the world. and just how you are thinking about both the slew of executive orders from the president and legislative developments that have happened in the senate about, are you looking to make common ground with donald trump? do you think the referendum of the voters means you're on the wrong side of immigration? you got to go to his side. do you think resistance by any means necessary? where you at? >> look, i'm focused on new jersey and doing everything i can to make new jersey safer, stronger, and more prosperous. new jerseyans deserve that. they didn't send me down here to fight donald trump. they sent me down here to fight for them. but when donald trump is doing things that are going to hurt new jerseya

fagan. one change by the trump administration. we did not want to go unnoticed is the firing of u.s. coast guard commandant admiral lindaagan in 2022. fagan made history when she became the first woman to lead a branch of the u.s. military. one of the reasons dhs officials cited for her firing was, quote, excessive focus on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. while in command, admiral fagan had this advice for women who doubt themselves in the workplace, saying this quote, you're stronger, smarter, more capable, more courageous than you believe. when you find yourself in the room, do not second guess that you're in the room for a reason. well, admiral, you were in the room for a reason as well. thank you for your years of honorable service. and before i leave you completely, you know, i love to talk money, power, politics, but i especially love to talk about it with my friend tim miller. i don't have more time tonight, but i did today. i joined him on the bulwark podcast earlier, and you can catch me on his latest episode wherever you get your podcasts. and on that note, i wish you a very good night from all of ou

coast guard commandant admiral linda fagan, who by all objective accounts wasn't admirable leader proves the purge is underway. unfortunately mr. hegseth would not categorically condemn those during his hearing. instead talked about meritocracy and restoring accountability within it senior ranks of the military if the senate confirms mr. hegseth this week, who will be fired at the department of defense next week? i doubt very seriously it's based upon merit or anything else other than a political agenda. that would be the beginning of the unraveling of the core element of our military. it is not political to serve either party nor person. it protects and defends the constitution of the united states. and if we lose that we are at a loss, something that i think is the key to our success. not only as a military force but as a nation. despite mr. hegseth's comment the united states military is one of the finest meritocracy's in the world. every member of the military's in their position because of their ability. they are chosen by boards of other senior officers who evaluate their performan

coast guard commandant admiral linda fagan, who by all objective accounts was an admirable leader, proves that the purge is under way. unfortunately, mr. hegseth would not categorically condemn those efforts during his hearing and instead talked about meritocracy and restoring accountability within the senior ranks of the military. if the senate confirms mr. hegseth this week, who will be fired at the department of defense next week? and i doubt very seriously it will be based upon merit or anything else other than a political agenda. and that would be the beginning of the unraveling of the core element of our military. it is not political. it serves neither party nor person. it protects and defends the constitution of the united states. and if we lose that, we will have lost something that is, i think, the key to our success not only as a military force, but as a nation. despite mr. hegseth's comment, the united states military is already one of the finest meritocracies in the world. every member of the military is in their position because of their ability. they are chosen by boards of

the administration firing the head of the coast guard, admiral linda fagan, the first woman to lead arelieved of her duties. president trump, touting more sweeping changes on his first full day in office. appearing with top tech ceos at the white house, including oracle's larry ellison, announcing a massive $500 billion investment in ai in the us, he says we'll create 100,000 jobs. also, president trump was asked, would he support elon musk buying tiktok? >> i would. >> be, if he wanted to. >> buy it. >> all right. that was nbc's peter alexander with that report. we want to turn back to the sweeping pardons to january 6th rioters. marc caputo with axios reports that trump vacillated during an internal debate over targeted clemency versus a blanket decision, according to two insiders. but as trump's team wrestled with the issue and planned a shock and awe batch of executive orders day one, trump just said, f it, release them all. an adviser familiar with the discussions said. meanwhile, former proud boys leader enrique tarrio, who was released from prison yesterday after being sentence