Elon Musk and the primary members of the DOGE team gave a behind the scenes review of their mission to Fox News correspondent Bret Baier. Elon Musk outlines how the Dept of Government Efficiency is on track to remove $1 trillion in excessive waste, fraud and abuse from the federal budget.
The team discusses just how excessive the fraud is within the federal spending programs as they outline finding after finding of federal spending that is often outrageous and stunning. This is MUST WATCH television.
President Trump has given remarks supporting National Security Advisor Mike Waltz during an interview with NBC.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump stood by his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, after The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief was accidentally added to a private, high-level chat on the messaging app Signal where military plans were being discussed.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said Tuesday in a phone interview with NBC News.
When asked what he was told about how Goldberg came to be added to the Signal chat, Trump said, “It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there.”
Trump said Goldberg’s presence in the chat had “no impact at all” on the military operation.
The president expressed confidence in his team, saying he was not frustrated by the events leading up to The Atlantic’s story. The situation, Trump said, was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.” (more)
The rest of the DC setup is transparently clear. (1) Goldberg held the story until the day before a long-scheduled Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. (2) The SSCI then used the hearing to blast the heads of the Trump administration intelligence silos on the issue of “classified” information in the text messages.
According to Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic [SEE HERE], National Security Advisor Mike Waltz invited him to a group chat on the Signal app, where various Trump administration officials and cabinet members were discussing how to address the Houthi rebels in Yemen in advance of military airstrikes.
The media is having a field day with the story, and it does have multiple angles that will unfold in the next several days and weeks. Some media even claiming the story could take down Mike Waltz and/or Pete Hegseth due to the national security implications in the series of events [Politico Here]. However, I wouldn’t go that far at all.
(left, Mike Waltz – right, Pete Hegseth)
Why Mike Waltz would be texting an invite to Jeffrey Goldberg is an issue for later discussion. Generally, given the nature of these things it is not the principal who sets up the text network, usually a top aide or lead staff, which might indicate Waltz’s wife Julia Nesheiwat was involved [SEE WHY], but let’s put that aside.
Goldberg claims “details of war plans” were discussed in the group chat. Perhaps so, perhaps not. This specific part of the story is refuted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. What was discussed and further shared and outlined by Breitbart News [SEE HERE] is a conversation about the strategic reasoning for the U.S. to directly attack the Houthi rebels in Yemen and reopen the sea lanes into and out of the Suez Canal.
The EU and Egypt are the primary beneficiaries of U.S. involvement toward stopping the Houthi terrorists from targeting ships in the region. Egypt manages the Suez Canal, and obviously there are some strategic U.S. benefits in the region from helping Egypt deal with the Houthi issue. Specifically, as President Trump seeks to have Egypt, Saudi Arabia and partners help solve the problem in Gaza.
Additionally, most of the shipping through the region is headed to the European Union through the canal. Reestablishing safe maritime flow of goods economically assists the EU more than any other region. Again, a point of leverage for the Trump administration as President Trump confronts the issues of EU support for a Ukraine conflict he is trying to resolve.
Following a cabinet meeting, President Donald Trump and the various cabinet members hold a public press availability to outline fraud discovered within the budgets and spending of the agencies they head. Several examples of demonstrable fraud were highlighted by DOGE team lead Elon Musk, the Small Business Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Dept of Energy, the Dept of Veterans Affairs and others.
President Trump explains that targeting the governmental spending “fraud” is critical as his administration focuses on growing the economy and bringing in major U.S. investment. Most of the spending being highlighted is fraud within the business model of U.S. politics. As noted by President Trump, it is not waste or abuse, it is simply fraud.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick outlines his expectations in advance of April 2nd, economic liberation day. HHS Secretary RFK Jr outlined how the DOGE team is helping to streamline the goals and objectives of the healthcare system. President Trump guides the MAGAnomic conversation around the various cabinet secretaries.
Dept of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem outlined how border patrol now has almost complete control over the U.S. border, and how the deportation operation is now removing record numbers of illegal aliens.
The Q&A session with media begins at 23:14 of the video above.
President Trump asks for Secretary Marco Rubio [24:57 of video] to review foreign policy and the Ukraine-Russia negotiations that are underway in Saudi Arabia. President Trump also notes the mid-east policy program is restarting the Abraham Accords to bring more nations into the alliance to stop regional hatred and create peace.
Around the 28:00 moment, President Trump notes the MAGAnomic policy initiatives that are starting to reduce prices. The price of energy input products is dropping rapidly along with gasoline and core food ingredients. Around 31:30 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlines how Treasury is positioning policy to assist in economic growth.
At approximately the 34:00-minute mark, President Trump asks Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy about air safety and the goal of a new Air Traffic Control system. Secretary Duffy outlines the importance of DOGE to deliver solutions and assist with identifying problems.
Attorney General Pam Bondi who is primarily in position to keep the administration -and Trump himself- defended from Lawfare attacks, outlines how the DOJ is taking investigative referrals from the various cabinet members and will review identified instances of fraud for prosecution when warranted.
President Trump concludes the press availability by defending Elon Musk and his DOGE team from the attacks against him and his companies.
Tariffs simply work. This is no longer a debatable issue, and decades of Wall Street gaslighting collapses as the outcomes of tariffs generate visible economic benefits for all Americans.
South Korea-based Hyundai and President Donald Trump announced a $20 billion investment in US on-shoring on Monday, which includes a $5 billion steel plant in Louisiana,
The $5.8 billion Louisiana facility will be the car manufacturers’ first steel manufacturing facility in the US and will produce more than 2.7 million metric tons of steel a year and create more than 1,400 jobs. It will supply steel to auto plants in Alabama and Georgia, Trump said in remarks at the White House.
The announcement at the White House included President Trump, Hyundai Chairman Euisun Chung and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry. WATCH:
The Hyundai announcement comes as the highly anticipated April 2nd “reciprocity tariffs” are scheduled to begin against all nations. For the EU this means an end to the 80-year-old Marshal plan of economic benefit.
Effective April 2, 2025, the U.S. will begin a process of reciprocal tariffs on imports from all nations with tariffs against U.S. products.
If a nation charges a 20% tariff on a U.S. good, in combination with a 20% non-tariff trade barrier, President Trump will calculate the financial impact and then reciprocate with a 40% tariff put on that nation’s goods being imported to the USA.
Globally, all nations are calculating how to deal with this issue. Hyundai’s best position calculations end up with this announcement.
Interim installed Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has confirmed the snap election for Canada is scheduled for April 28, 2025.
Given that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre generally sealed his fate with criticism of President Trump while aligning himself with a surging patriotic-leftist movement, it is now expected that Mark Carney will win the election.
Politico has an article about the dynamic underway, and the following quotes are noteworthy:
CANADA – […] Trump has even taken credit for turning the Liberals’ fortunes around.
“Before I got involved and totally changed the election — which I don’t care about, probably, it’s our advantage, actually — but the Conservative was leading against, I call him Governor Trudeau. The conservative was leading by 35 points,” he said Friday, while exaggerating the polls.
“I think Canada is a place, like a lot of other places, if you have a good candidate, the candidate is going to work,” Trump said.
[…] Canadians have responded to Trump’s intimidation tactics with an outburst of patriotism. They are canceling spring break plans, buying made-in-Canada products, damaging Teslas and booing “The Star Spangled Banner” at professional sporting events.
If you find yourself wondering, wait, what, why are we funding Australian universities? You are likely not alone.
Apparently, the U.S. government has been sending $6oo million/yr to universities in Australia to subsidize various college research programs. The Trump administration has told Australia the funding will likely end.
The Australian university system is in a state of panic, telling their government to declare a “state of emergency”.
One particular quote from within the Sky News article below seemingly encapsulates the mindset of the situation in the land down under:
AUSTRALIA […] Last week after it was revealed the universities had been asked to justify their funding, the National Tertiary Education Union called on the government to “guarantee Australian researchers would be protected”.
“The federal government must push back on the Trump administration’s blatant foreign interference in our independent research in the strongest possible terms,” NTEU president Alison Barnes said. (Full Article)
One would think the NTEU would be happy for an enhanced opportunity for “independent research.”
Alas, it appears Mr/Ms Alison Barnes doesn’t quite understand the nature of the word “independent” within the relationship. A little funny.
Steve Witkoff is one of the most important people within the administration. Witkoff plays the key role of emissary and envoy for President Trump carrying his message to designated ears and returning with information.
It is certainly frustrating to the global operatives of the CIA not to have the ability to influence and control the messaging and information flow from and around President Trump. Without a doubt the use of envoys and emissaries has to be giving the Intelligence Community significant frustration headaches.
Within the interview Witkoff walks through what he has seen and discussed in numerous conflict zones. The majority of the interview focuses on the Israel-Hamas conflict, and Witkoff’s action toward negotiation peace, as a result of the question priority of Tucker Carlson. The remainder of the interview, approximately one-third, focuses on the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Tucker Carlson also emphasizes the U.S. media attacks against Witkoff, which I would say are significantly overstated (motive unknown), distractingly so. Overall, a great insight into Steve Witkoff, President Trump and the peace agenda of the Trump administration, while simultaneously (oddly) you can sense Tucker Carlson is engaged with Witkoff with an intent to shape the conversation. WATCH:
Chapters:
0:00 What Witkoff Has Learned as Trump’s Global Negotiator
4:10 Negotiating With Israel, Hamas, and Qatar
12:50 Will We Achieve Peace Between Israel and Hamas?
19:09 Why Corporate Media Hates Witkoff
While repeating his claim that Canada can easily replace their trade relationship with the USA by seeking larger trade relationship with other countries, specifically the EU, current interim Prime Minister Mark Carney repeats that no contact will be attempted or accepted by the Canadian government until President Donald Trump shows him respect.
This doesn’t portend favorably for U.S-Canada relations; which, to be fair, they would argue have been destroyed by President Donald Trump questioning their sovereignty. However, here’s the kicker, what Canadians don’t seem to realize is that questioning their sovereignty is simply a strategy by President Trump to eliminate the one-sided trade relationship with Canada.
It is funny to me that Canada just can’t figure this out.
As long as Canada refuses to engage with President Trump due to a perceived lack of respect, President Donald Trump will continue to enhance his disrespect of Canada, because the absence of engagement assists his ‘total trade reset’ objective. President Trump wants to ¹show, perhaps prove to the Canadian people, how dependent they are on their USA relationship; vis-a-vis they are already not a sovereign, economically independent nation. WATCH:
¹Somewhere around 80% of Canadians have no concept of how their economy is functioning {GO DEEP}. Most Canadians seem to think they have some form of capitalistic system in operation and tweeking the knobs will fix things; it won’t.
So, from an American political perspective, specifically from the perspective of President Trump – as noted in all of his repeated remarks about the upcoming Canadian election – having Mark Carney carry out his policies and watching the system therein collapse, might break the borg-mindset. It will be massively painful for Canadians when their currency hits around 0.25¢ to the US dollar. However, that currency collapse will ¹more than eliminate any Trump tariff impact.
Under pressure from a frustrated leftist base, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer appears on PBS to defend himself against increasing calls for his replacement.
Senator Schumer is having difficulty explaining to the base how ‘government shutdowns’ are now a bad idea, when previously the shutdown battles were always supported by Democrat leadership.
As Schumer notes, things are different now; the agenda of President Trump would benefit from a reduction in government and there’s no reason to believe Elon Musk (DOGE), Russ Vought (OMB) and President Trump would not like to continue a shutdown for an extended period while they reduced the size, scale, scope and power of the federal government. Such an approach would be against the interests of the hardline leftists.
The larger point on the shutdown and reasoning for supporting the Continuing Resolution are accurate. However, leftists are tribal followers by nature and when the direction of the activism is reverse by their leaders, they struggle intellectually and cognitively to understand why. Hence, Schumer is under fire.
That said, there’s a moment within the interview where Schumer is forced to outline what the political leadership is doing against the favorability of the Trump agenda. Within Schumer’s explanation of what they are doing, he admits to Democrats organizing activist groups to travel the country and target GOP townhall meetings to give the illusion of non-support. The goal, he says, is to change the narrative and pretend the policies of Democrats have more support than they do. Watch, it’s a remarkable series of admissions.
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Schumer also notes the Democrats also have a new “online operation” where they are intending to shape public opinion through the use of Astroturf activists to give the illusion of a larger support network.