Meet the Press NOW — March 3

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And welcome to BE THE PRESS now. I'm Aaron Gilchrist in Washington where the fallout from that unprecedented heated Oval Office meeting between President Trump and President Zelensky continues to have ripple effects around the globe. President Trump renewing his threats against Zelensky today as US Allies scrambled to try to repair the damage while the president threatens to upend America's post war alliances. This afternoon President Trump reiterated his calls for Zelensky to be more grateful for America's support and for Ukraine.

He criticized Zelensky for saying the end of the war is very far away. I just think you should be more appreciative because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin. We've given them much more than Europe. I don't want to see this go on for years and years now.

President Zelensky supposedly made a statement today in AP. I'm not a big fan of ap, so maybe it was an incorrect statement, but he said he thinks the war's gonna go on for a long time and he better not be right about that. I think everybody has to get into a room, so to speak, and we have to make a deal and the deal could be made very fast. It should not be that hard a deal to make.

It could be made very fast. President Trump also hinted that he will have more say on the US Ukraine minerals deal as joining us to Congress tomorrow that this comes as we're also learning that ahead of Friday's explosive Oval Office meeting, the French secretary, Pete Hegseth ordered a halt to offensive cyber operations against Russia. That's according to a US Official familiar with the matter. All.

All while the flow of US Weaponry and military hardware to Ukraine has essentially stopped. That's according to the New York Times. The president's allies, meanwhile, are sending a clear message to Zelenskyy that he needs to come back to the negotiating table. Hat in hand.

I hope and pray, frankly, that President Zelenskyy come to his senses, come back to President Trump, express gratitude, as he should, you know, apologize for his behavior there. Something has to change. Either he needs to come to his senses, to come back to the table in gratitude, or someone else needs to leave the country to do that. Active, open undermining of efforts to bring about peace is deeply frustrating for everyone who's been involved in communications with them leading up to today.

And I think I should apologize for voicing our time. For me, that was gonna end the way it did. What we need to hear from President Zelensky is that he has regret for what happened, he's ready to sign this mineral deal, and that he's ready to engage in peace talks. I don't think that's too much to ask.

And again, this is against the backdrop that European leaders are racing to repair relations between the US And Ukraine. Fresh off of his own meeting at the White House, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted the summit of Western leaders where he said Europe needs to do the, quote, heavy lifting to support Ukraine, though noting that effort will require strong US Backing. Following that summit, President Zelenskyy told reporters he believes he can salvage the relationship with President Trump while also rebuffing calls that he needs to personally apologize to the president. Joining me now, our team of reporters here.

Vaughn Hilliard outside the White House, Keir Simmons in Moscow, and Kwordy QB is outside the Pentagon for us. So Vaughn will start with you here. Is everything at a standstill right now until Zelenskyy apologizes. If that happens, they feel like the US Ukraine relationship can be repaired.

There's no indication that negotiations have opened back up between the US And Ukraine. And White House officials have been explicit that they have cut off negotiations with Ukraine after Friday's Oval Office, the exchange that led to ultimately Volodymyr Zelensky flying to London for that major summit there. And Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister and French president, Edinburgh announcing that they are going to now be the ones initiating peace talks in a draft proposal of what a potential piece of green it could look like. And then at that point, they will then deliver it for the United States to review, suggesting that the US is still going to be key toward a long term solution, a ceasefire and end to this war in Russian aggression against Ukraine.

But we have heard from President Trump here just in the last hour openly suggesting that he wants to hear from Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Korean president, that he appreciates what the US has offered it over the course of its last three years of war. And as you deserve from national security, Michael Waltz, there is skepticism about the ability to bring both Russia and Ukraine back here to the negotiating table. And President Trump responded this afternoon to the suggestion for President Zelensky that this more take a long time. For President Trump explicitly say that that should not be the case.

It looks like we may be a ways away from these two sides beginning those talks again. And what I'm curious, what's the reaction within the administration to this summit that European and NATO leaders held over the weekend without the US right here? Some of the British prime minister suggests that he had a phone conversation with President Trump in which he told him about this effort that European leaders are going to take with Zelensky to put forward their own plan and if he would keep him a prize, he said, well, Europe will do the heavy lifting. He said that the US's involvement will be imperative and the financial military aid that the US will hopefully and for them continue to provide is going to be crucial.

And we saw late last night that three saw President Zelensky after that summ with those Western leaders come and talk to reporters for 90 minutes in which he did articulate that he is ready to sign a critical minerals deal with the United States if the United States is ready. But we are almost 24 hours since that moment and there has been no agreement signed. All right, Von Hillier force here in Washington. Vaughn, thank you.

Listen to Kir Simmons now in Russia. Kir, what's the reaction from the Kremlin been to this rift in the relationship between the US and Ukraine? Well, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and telling reporters here in Moscow, quote, we see the collective west has begun to partially lose its unity, calling it a fragmentation. A envoy for Russia, newly appointed, posting a video of the exchange between President Zelensky and President Trump and Jovanovitz on Friday and simply saying on X historic anchor, a very popular anchor here in Russia declaring that President Trump behaved stoically.

So taken as a whole, the Russians think frankly that they are winning. They believe that there is a gap now truly opening up between Europe and the United States. It is Clear, frankly, that NATO is on the precipice of a crisis. And President Trump's aim to get to a ceasefire quickly, promised to the American people right now looks very difficult.

The Russians say, and the Foreign Office spokesman here saying this, that they won't just cease fire, but only if the west addresses their fundamental concerns like the expansion of NATO. The Ukrainians say they want to cease fire, but only if they get cast iron guarantees that there won't be further attack by Russia, that they'll be protected. And neither of those two positions look like delivering for President Trump the kind of ceasefire that he has demanded, that he wants and that he's told the American people he can deliver. So, Kira, as we look at this rift, as we say, between these two countries, at least between these two presidents right now, do you get the sense that this will embolden President Putin, that we can see him take a more aggressive stance against the west or on the battlefield against Ukraine?

Well, I think that's one of the ironies, though, Aaron, is that if indeed the Trump administration decides to pull support for Ukraine, it might make a ceasefire less likely because inevitably President Putin here in Moscow is going to think, well, that's going to make my chances on the battlefield greater and may well believe. And keep in mind Russia has, for example, 80,000 Russian and North Korean troops near to Kursk. Here in Russia, for example, Putin may well think that he should keep going, at least for some months. Another aspect of all of this, Russian officials are saying that normalization with the United States could happen quickly.

That translates as that the Russians hope that they might get sanctions lifted, trade, some kind of trade with the US Re established, while the question of the war in Ukraine is not addressed, perhaps the conflict continues. So the Russians very likely think that everything that is happening right now makes their prospects better. And frankly, they'll be pleased with that. All right, Q7 Moscow today.

Thank you. Appreciate it. We'll start with Courtney QB now outside the Pentagon. So, Courtney, talk to us a bit more about this order from Secretary Hegseth on cyber operations.

What are the implications here? Yeah, so this is something that came from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and went to US Cyber Command and it was ordering them to halt or pause all of their offensive cyber operations against Russia and their information, their offensive information operations against Russia. And as we have just been hearing from here and from Vaughn and from you, the timing of this is why there are so many people who are concerned about this decision now. The US Is actively involved in these negotiations.

We saw President Trump talking President Zelensky on Friday. That's, we've been talking about that for days. But US Officials also met with Russian officials in Riyadh two weeks ago. So the US has been actively involved in this attempt to negotiate between Russia and between Ukraine.

There are times where it makes sense to, to change the way your posture or some of your offensive operations during a negotiation. For instance, if this was a more kinetic conflict or war that we were talking about and the US Were to have a ceasefire during a negotiation, that would make sense. In some ways, that is what officials are talking about this. But there are others who are concerned that the opposite should be true, given the situation, that the US should have been stepping up their cyber operations, their information operations on Russia throughout these tense negotiations.

And the concern is that as President Trump, as we were just hearing from here, President Trump is making it clear that he wants to normalize relations with Russia, with Moscow, more so than we have seen in years, potentially decades between the US And Russia, that this may be something that's a capitulation to Russia throughout these efforts. Now, the big question now, how long will this go on? And we just don't know the answer to that, Aaron. Is it something that just happens during these active negotiations or could this be a longer term situation for U.S.

cyber Command? And at this point, we just know the answer to you, Aaron. All right, thank you. And joining me now is Masha Gessen, a Russia and Putin expert and opinion columnist for the New York Times.

Masha, thanks for being here. What's your reaction to how President Trump has handled relations with President Zelensky versus how he's handling them with President Putin? What does this mean, you think, for our standing in the world? Hi.

It's good to be here. Well, I don't know that I have anything terribly original to say on this score. We're seeing Moscow jubilant. They're celebrating splintering the West.

Alexander Dugin, who is sort of the self taught philosopher who feeds Putin a lot of his talking points, has been tweeting or posting on X exuberantly celebrating that. As he says, we're no longer at war with the West. We are not at war with the United States. We're not at war with Hungary, we're not at war with Slovakia.

But of course, the biggest win, right, is they're no longer seeing a Western alliance united in defense of Ukraine, united inadequately, I should say. For the last three years, there has been a lot of overstatement of the kind of aid that Ukraine has received. In the last few years, especially from the United States, but still United was still helping Ukraine defend itself. And that is no longer the case.

So, as you say, we see this, like, splintering, right? The Kremlin has been praising President Trump and his recent actions in a more tangible way. Or more specifically, what is Russia seeking to get out of this relationship with the current Trump administration? I wouldn't actually say that the Kremlin has been praising President Trump.

It has been celebrating being able to play President Trump. They're not particularly making a secret of, who has never made a secret of thinking that Trump is a buffoon. And I think they are. They're seeing this.

Their wildest dreams basically come true. They're able to play this buffoon as they think and use his ignorance and his overconfidence to get him to lift sanctions, to get him to seize offensive and possibly defensive operations against Russia. They're also seeing him decimate the FBI, which also helps Russia proceed with its defensive operations on US Soil. And all this in exchange for absolutely nothing.

In a significant way. We have seen European leaders try to appease President Trump. Both McCarland and Starmer announced some additional defense commitments before they visited the White House over the last couple of weeks here. Is that the best strategy for the Europeans, or does that come a point where Europe needs to push back harder on the U.S.

you know, I can't tell European leaders what to do, and I'm not, you know, I'm not an expert on that kind of strategy. What I can say is that there's a huge difference between what European leaders have to do and what Zelenskyy has to do. Some people have asked, why hasn't Zelenskyy used a sort of combination of flattery and some advanced concessions to get Trump to. To be more inclined toward him?

Well, he's the president of a country at war, and he also sees Trump being played, and he also sees his overconfidence, which is quite transparent. And he realizes that Ukraine stands to lose absolutely everything because of Trump's overconfidence and because of his conviction that he's a brilliant negotiator. European leaders understand this, too, and they understand that Ukraine has functioned as basically a buffer zone between them and aggressive Russia, and that now is the time to step up and help Ukraine defend itself, because, in fact, Ukraine is defending all of Europe, a point that Zelenskyy has made over and over, and which European leaders do hear. All right, Mikesson, we leave it there for now.

We appreciate your time today. Thank you. Thank you. Well, coming up, the economic, political and diplomatic impact of President Trump's tariffs also set to take effect in just hours as manufacturers and consumers brace for the potential price hikes.

That's next. Plus, New York's former Governor Andrew Cuomo trying to make a high profile comeback after resigning at the resigning and scandal. What his bid for mayor says about the state of our politics and how top Democrats are responding. You're watching the press now.

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So you stay in control. To put AI to work for people, visit ServiceNow.com welcome back. This afternoon President Trump said he will implement new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China that are said to go into effect at midnight tonight tomorrow. Tariffs 25% on Canada and 25% on Mexico.

And that'll start. So they're going to have to have a tariff. So what they have to do is build their power plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs, all the tariffs. Is there any room left for Canada and Mexico to make a deal before midnight and should be accept those tiny tariffs, the extra 10%, no room left for Mexico or for Canada?

No, the tariffs, you know, they're all set. They go into effect tomorrow. They can't come in and steal our money and steal our jobs and take our factories and take our businesses and expect not to be punished. And they're being punished by tariffs.

It's a very powerful weapon that politicians haven't used because they were either dishonest, stupid or paid off in some other form. And now we're using them. Last month, the president granted last minute reprieves on those tariffs in exchange for promises from both countries to step up efforts to prevent drugs and migrants from crossing into the US but as you just heard, now he's saying that there is no room left to make a deal. On Wall street, meanwhile, the markets tumbled on that news with a Dow ending the day down more than 600 points.

The S and P posted its single biggest loss since December. CNBC Washington correspondent Megan Seller joins us now to sort of walk us through this. So, Megan HS Today's market tumble could make the White House sort of reconsider. Take a look at this 25% tariff.

It could Aaron, as you just said, this is the biggest drought we've seen since December, since before President Trump took office. And markets continue to be one of the only things that has some sway over this president, something that can rein him in. He doesn't like to see the markets fall. So I'm sure he's watching this reaction right now and considering whether that might impact his path forward.

I can tell you that just a few minutes ago I was talking to an administration official who said that the president had signed the executive order putting that extra 10% tariff in place on China starting tonight, that he had not yet signed one against Canada and Mexico. He would have to sign something in order for it to take effect. So even though we just heard him say that it was going to happen, that continues to be the expectation. The paper work hasn't been signed yet.

So we still have some time left for we should deal potentially. So if you're taking a word though, where we are right now and these tariffs do take effect, Megan, what impact can the average American expect to see potentially? What's included in these tariffs? Everything is included in these tariffs, just about.

There are no exemptions here. There's a slightly lower tariff on Canadian energy products, but only slightly, about 10% there. It's well over a trillion dollars worth of goods. When you include China as well, there's going to be hit with tariffs.

That means that as they come across the border into the U.S. the importers, the companies themselves are having to pay 25% or 10% more than before. That means things like housing prices could increase because some lumber and construction materials from Canada will be caught up in this. And home appliances and consumer electronics from Asia, from China will be caught up in Mexico.

It's a lot of agricultural goods, your avocados, a lot of your fresh produce coming from Mexico. Price increases across the board. The Pearson Institute estimates that as these tares are currently written, it's about a $1,200 annual increase for the average. All right.

Megan Salafor at the White House today. Megan, thank you. Let's go to Canada now. I'm joined now by Doug Ford.

He's the premier of Ontario, Canada. Mr. Premier, we appreciate you making some time for us today. We know that President Trump delayed these tariffs a month ago and now we're hearing today that this will happen for Canada.

Do you have any indication that he might delay them again? Anything that's giving you any hope at this point? Well, first of all, thanks so much for having me on, Aaron. For the sake of The American people and the Canadian people.

He needs to pull back. I'm going to tell you exactly what's going to happen here. You know, President Trump ran out a mandate to create more jobs, keep inflation and low and lower cost. It's going to work totally opposite.

Plants will show, will close down within a week. Assembly plants in Michigan, which is a red state, manufacturing will stop. And the people of the US Which I absolutely love, the American people, they're going to be paying more. The market is going to go downhill faster than the American bobsled team.

It's going to be an absolute disaster for both countries. We're your largest trading partner. I don't want to respond, but we will respond like they've never seen before. You need our uranium, you need our products, you need our high grade nickel.

I will stockpile our high grade nickel at 50% of your military and manufacturing needs, your aluminum, the steel, the lumber. It will be an absolute disaster. And this is all due to one person, that's President Trump. I have talked to endless governors, Republican governors and Democrats, senators and Congress people.

I love the U.S. i live there for 20 years. They're all saying this is the craziest thing that someone could ever do. So it's going to create massive problems.

Let me ask you a couple of things. I want to ask you about all. You said that you will respond. Help me understand what you expect the Canadian Prime Minister might do and what you yourself might do as the leader of a province there in Canada.

Well, we'll respond strongly and we don't want to. On the critical minerals. I will stop shipments going into the US for nickel. It will shut down manufacturing because 50% of the nickel you use is coming out of Ontario.

I've ordered our bureaucrats to cut off tens of billions of dollars of contracts that we have with the US we are the largest purchaser of alcohol in the world. We buy over 3600 products from 35 states. I talked to the Governor of Kentucky and Mitch McConnell. Don't touch our bourbon.

I'm going after absolutely everything and I don't want to. We keep the lights on. 1.5 million homes in manufacturing in New York, in Michigan and in Minnesota. If he wants to destroy our economy and our families, shut down the electricity going down to the US And I'm telling you we will do it.

It's unfortunate. I would rather ship you more electricity. Should be more critical minerals. I want to ship you more energy, more potash to keep your farmers going and uranium that you use for your Nuclear power.

It comes through from Saskatchewan over to Ontario, and it's going to be a massive, massive problem. I'm telling you, we love the American. Indians, love Americans. I love the US Everyone does.

And not one American friend. I live there for 20 years. I've talked to all of them. Hardcore Republicans are saying this is the biggest mistake President Trump has done and we're dead against it.

And so, if I'm hearing you correctly, you are ready, sir, to go to war, go to a trade war with the United States, with the Trump administration. It's the last thing we want to do. It's one person that's coming to attack us economically. Your closest friend, your treasured ally, that will stand with you in every situation you faced.

And he's attacking the person, his number one customer. There's no country in the world that buys more products off the US Than we do. We're the number one trading customer to 28 states, and a lot of them are red states. They're going to feel the pain like they've never felt before.

We're going to feel the pain. But I'll tell you, Canadians are resilient. We're strong, we're proud, and we're going to fight back like they've never seen before. And I'm sorry to the American people that your president has decided to do this.

I apologize, but he's giving us no choice. There's nothing wrong with our trading. He keeps saying, oh, they're taking money. No, that's not accurate.

Matter of fact, if you take out our oil, that you take 4.3 million barrels a day and we keep things going outside of that, take the energy to the side, you have a $55 billion surplus, which is good. That's fine. America has a $55 billion process, and I mean, you know, 55 billion more in trade, and God bless them, we want to expand the trade. We want to create an am can fortress, the two greatest countries in the world.

We have what you need. We want to ship more what you need. And I'll be very frank, you're going to see nothing like this ever in the history of the US you obviously, you've taken a very strong stance here today. Have you had conversations about your perspective, your action plan with the Prime Minister, with the folks in the capital there?

Numerous times. I've talked to the Prime Minister up to a couple days ago. I'm the chair of the federation, being the chair of all the premiers, I've talked to him on a daily basis. We all feel the same way, we do not want to do this.

We love, love the American people. We love the US but when one person attacks our country unprovoked, then we're going to respond and we're going to respond like the US has never seen before. We do $1.3 trillion of two way trade and we're like a big family between us and Canada. So we're almost out of time here.

We know that President Trump posted on social media that drugs are pouring into the U.S. from both Canada and Mexico despite, I know, evidence really to back that up. If this is his pretense for imposing tariffs, what can, what should Canada do in response? How do you start to write the ship here in this relationship?

Well, first of all, Secretary Lutnick came out and said, yes, we're moving forward. I agree. Let's tighten up the borders on both sides. We put 10,000 personnel along our borders and it works both ways.

We're working with the dea, we're working with US Border Patrol, with our Canadian border. Pat, we're ramping it up because we're seeing so far in the last couple of weeks we busted 624 kilos of cocaine coming from the southern border. Endless amounts of guns, illegals are coming across. I agree with President Trump.

Let's both tighten up the borders. And we're doing it. You know, your borders are Holman, you know, he seems to be satisfied because we're showing results. We're listening and we're agreeing with the administration.

We need to tighten up both sides of the border and that's exactly what we're doing. Okay, we will leave it there for now. Ontario Premier Dunn Ford. Sir, we appreciate your time today.

Thank you. Love the Americans. God bless America. God bless Canada.

Do not let your president do this or plants will be shutting down within a week. Thank you, sir. Up next, Capitol Hill negotiators have less than two weeks to come to a government funding agreement. We'll have the latest on where talks stand.

You're watching Meet the Press now. Welcome back. Congress now has less than two weeks to reach a deal to avoid government shutdown. With the current spending deal set to expire a week from Friday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told Kristen yesterday that he wants to pass a clean resolution to keep federal agencies operating at current spending levels through September. We are working hard to do our responsibility to keep the government open. The Democrats have to help negotiate this and they to this point show no, no interest in find a reasonable solution for that. We're looking to pass a clean CR to freeze funding at current levels to make sure that the government can stay open while we begin to incorporate all these savings that we're finding through the DOGE effort and these other sources of revenue that President Trump's policies are bringing to the table.

And then for FY26 for the next fiscal year, you're gonna see a very different process and a lot more efficient, effective spending for the people. Now, a clean CR would not codify cuts made by Elon Musk's DOGE team. And keep in mind, Musk nearly blew up a deal to avoid shutdown in December with a tweet storm demanding Republicans push for deeper spending cuts. Some Democrats, meanwhile, say they also want assurances as part of a deal that the White House will actually spend the money that's allocated by Congress in hopes of spending deal could potentially reverse some of those cuts.

Republicans say those assurances are a non starter. We turn now to the growing measles outbreak in West Texas. State health officials they are now reporting at least 158 cases. Officials say they expect that number to climb even higher given the number of suspected cases they have.

Measles cases have now been reported in nine states. That's according to the CDC. And Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

A long time vaccine skeptic, wrote out that this weekend urging parents to consult their doctors about getting the MMR vaccine that covers measles. But he stopped short of calling on parents to vaccinate their children, calling it a personal decision. And after the break, America's traditional alliance is in turmoil and how Congress is responding. I'll talk to a House Democrat who is deeply involved in the Ukraine crisis about the fraying relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy and what it means for the war.

You're watching MEET THE PRESS now. And welcome back. As we know that President Trump's allies are urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to either show remorse over Friday's meeting in the Oval Office or resign. Democrats, though on Capitol Hill say it's actually President Trump who acted out of line, not Zelenskyy.

Here's Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders with Kristen on the press. Do you think that President Zelenskyy needs to resign in order for there to be a peace deal? I think that is a horrific suggestion. Zelenskyy is leading a country trying to defend democracy against an authoritarian dictator, Putin, who invaded his country.

And I think millions of Americans are embarrassed or ashamed that you have a president of the United States who says that Ukraine started The war, that Zelensky is a dictator. He's got it exactly backwards. And joining me now is Illinois Democrat Congressman Mike Quigley. He's a member of the House Intelligence Committee and co chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus.

Congressman, we appreciate you being here today. We heard National Security Advisor Mike Waltz this morning say that President Zelensky needs to express regret for what happened on Friday. President Trump wants him to be more appreciative. We hear him say that if an apology President Trump is what reopens the door here.

What gets Zelensky back into the room for these talks. Should he apologize? You know, it's just an extraordinary set of circumstance. In the end, we're fundamentally a different country now than we were just a few weeks ago, unrecognizable to our allies.

And I'm not even sure we have allies anymore. Everything has just been flipped on its head. I've been to Ukraine four times since the war started. I met with President Zelensky seven times, but probably 50 meetings with members of the RADA or their military.

Every meeting begins with them thanking not me, but the American people. It's addressed to Congress. It is the first thing that President Zelensky did. This is victim blaming.

This is lying. This is the president at his worst siding with the bad guys. Right now, our country is on the wrong side of what's moral and right. We're on the wrong side of history.

So Zelensky saying, I apologize for the turn of events or I regret the way things played out, or I'm sorry that the conversation got heated. You don't think that would be useful at all, or something that Zelensky should consider? Look, he shouldn't have to, but I get diplomacy sometimes requires things that are difficult, so that's fine, but it doesn't get to the broader issue of where we're going to be on these issues. You know, what do we think should be part of a peace deal?

You know, I'm for peace and I know Ukrainians are desperate for peace, but not if it means a Russian victory. And we got to start asking ourselves what that means. It means the land, territorial integrity. It means security assurances.

Hey, how about returning the tens of thousands of kids that were kidnapped by Putin and taken into Russia, accountability for the war crimes and who will build, rebuild Ukraine? We're again in the opposite part of this. We're talking about almost de facto reparations. The Versailles Treaty twisted and turned on its head as well.

We're punishing the victim here and blaming him instead of the tyrant, Putin. So I want to play what we heard from Oklahoma Republican Senator James Langford on Meet the Press yesterday and then ask you a question after this. Based on what you witnessed in the Oval Office, Senator, are you concerned that the United States is turning its back on Ukraine? No, we're not turning back on Ukraine, nor should we.

Putin is a murderous KGB thug that murders his political enemies and is a dictator there. And so we've seen that. We've seen his aggression. Countries around him have seen that.

Obviously, the Ukrainian people have seen that. The challenge is now we're at a sale. So what do you think, sir? Is the US Turning its back on Ukraine?

Look, if we don't help, we're turning our back on them. Let's just say. Let's just say we don't do anything. There's no additional supplementals.

Ukraine can't last forever in that. This is a battle that Putin wants. He can play the long game because he has four times the population. He has North Koreans helping him, and he treats his troops like cannon fodder.

So we have to actually do something and give them additional aid with our NATO allies. If we want to accomplish anything. Right now, we're making it much worse for them, especially when we cut off USAID help in Ukraine, which is an important part of maintaining their country's strength. So we are turning our back on them.

We're siding with the Russians within the United nations and not doing anything to help in the meantime. And when you say we are administration, but does Congress actually have any power here if President Trump decides to turn his back on Ukraine? When I was saying we, I was talking about my country. Unfortunately, we're in the minority in the House and Senate and don't have the White House.

So the fact of the matter is, those supplementals, the last few supplementals that helped give military aid to Ukraine, failed on the Republican side of the House. Let's put that in context. The Reagan Doctrine said that we will help our allies against Soviet aggression no matter what it takes. Well, the Reagan Doctrine is dead in the Republican Party, so the only reason it passed in the first place is because of Democratic votes.

We're not in the majority. We can't do it alone. They have to take a leap. I want to turn domestically now if we can.

Sir, over the weekend, we heard Speaker Johnson say that he's okay with a clean CR through September at current funding levels. Does that sound good to you? Look, normally I would say yes, but what faith should we have that the president will even spend the money. Right.

I think you go back and say we're not going to approve anything until you start unfreezing the assets and put people back to work. We're not going to go in the opposite direction and negotiate against ourselves. This is a president who has got an onward assault against Article 1. I don't think he, in his mind believes it's necessary and doesn't believe he can violate the Constitution.

So a clean CR without restoring the cuts that we were talking about and respecting the Article 1 and moving forward together negotiating these issues. You know, I think anything's on the table right now, but it begins with the president, United States coming back to the reality of the Constitution. I want to show our viewers some numbers here. This is from a recent CNN poll that we're able to pull up for you.

It shows that 73% of Democrats and Democratic leaning independents say congressional Democrats are doing too little to respond to President Trump. If Democrats supply the bulk of the votes for the cr, if that were to be the case, with nothing in return, are supporters going to be happy with that? Supporters of Democrats? Well, I won't be happy with it, so I'm not going to be part of it.

I get the frustration that Democrats see right now and that they're living with. All I can tell them is we have our voices and our votes and we're going to use our votes to the extent we can and leverage them to restore our country back to where it should. In the meantime, I'm doing town halls virtually and in reality and talking to the press as much as I possibly can to communicate to the American people that this isn't cost cutting, it's corruption. This is Musk protecting his interests and that everyone's going to be hurt by these cuts.

If you think you're safe as a Republican in rural United States, if they cut Medicaid the way they're suggesting, those rural hospitals will collapse and you will have no place to take your family to the ER Just as one example. All right, Congressman Mike, quickly. Sir, we appreciate your time today. Thank you.

Thank you. And still to come, what to watch for when President Trump addresses a joint session of Congress for the first time since the beginning of his second term. We're looking ahead to tomorrow's major speech. The panel is next.

You're watching Beat the Press now. And welcome back. President Trump set to make his first address to a joint session of Congress of his second term tomorrow. And it may end up looking a lot like his last speech to Congress in 2020.

Sources tell NBC News. The president is planning on using that primetime address to tout what he views as his early second term accomplishments while featuring guests in the gallery to help tell his story. Sources tell us to expect, quote, surprises and made for TV moments. Now, if you remember his February 2020 State of the Union address, Mr.

Trump surprised a military spouse by reuniting her with her husband back from deployment. And he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh. Joining me now on set here, Eugene Daniels, White House correspondent for Politico and soon to be MSNBC chief Washington correspondent Megan Hayes, former special assistant to President Biden and Brendan Buck, four advisor to Republican speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan. He is also an NBC News political analyst.

So I'd rather go over here, Eugene. Let's start thinking about the speech that's coming up tomorrow to the joint session of Congress here. We know that President Trump in his speech tomorrow, is he going to justify what he's been doing over the last several weeks in office to the American people in that speech? Obviously, he's expanded executive authority.

He's had cuts all across the federal executive branch. Is this way of him making the case, does he need to justify? I don't think he feels like he needs to justify. Right.

I think he said over and over and over again, including his aides, that this is about they feel like they have a mandate, that the American people put them in office and they're able to do whatever they want to. And I think that's been made clear. But we have seen him at times defend Doge. Right.

He did that sit down with Elon Musk, which was clearly a Elon's out there on his own. I need to bring him closer and make it clear that also I'm calling the shots here. So what I'm looking for is does he how much he spent explaining dojo, what it's done, does he actually give more importantly signals to Congress about what he wants them to do? Right.

They have a continuing resolution that needs to be done. They have this reconciliation, this big beautiful bill that they have to figure out how to do. So those are the kinds of things that we're looking for. But he doesn't feel like he's justified it.

He might explain it to the American people, but in the sense of we came here to do what you wanted us to do here is that monolith. I won't show some numbers to folks at home who are watching. This is a new Marist poll that's out that has President Trump with a 45% approval rating, the same number saying that he's changing the country for the better. Is this a glass half empty or a glass half full sort of analysis of where we are right now for the public?

And I think that President Trump is going to see as a glass half full. I think everyone who's worked in the White House, who worked in Congress will say the exact same thing. Right. They feel like they are taking on the establishment in every way.

Which way, in every type of establishment happening in Washington D.C. so they see numbers. What they take from that is the American people want us to keep pushing and moving. Right.

Obviously there's a much stronger group of people. So he's not doing the right thing. They want him to do something different in that mars pole. But that's not how the spin works.

Brendan, I want to hear your perspective on what we might expect tomorrow night. I mean we've been told that we should expect made for TV moments. We remember the Rush Limbaugh medal in the last term. What do you expect in terms of made for TV moments?

Or we just see sort of swag in the football year? Well, it's funny, the first three of his state of unions were relatively traditional. It was just gave a teleprompter speechless of all things he wants to do. And I think by the end you sort of realized, hey, I can make more of a show out of this.

I think before you're time to plan, I think we'll certainly expect something crazy to happen. Look, Donald Trump especially right now is all gas, no brakes. And you remember from his inaugural address, one that is usually a relatively, I don't know, bringing the country together moment. It was very political, very harsh, savage to Joe Biden was right next to Nesbitt.

I imagine he's going to be leaning very far forward. Although I will say you would have to expect he would have liked to have been able to tout and deal with Ukraine right before the speech. He probably also wasn't expecting his tariffs to be going in and having the markets taken. So let's see what the sort of market is reading into his tariff plan because that's also going great in effect as the speech kicks off.

So we also hear that he may not do the traditional post speech travel that you would see after a second of the union or speech like this. We know that the vice president is likely going to the southern border perhaps in the president's place. What's your view on that? Does this sort of suggest or tell us that this is A laying duck president, really?

No, I mean, it's a carryover to the first round. I've actually seen the. I remember quite distinctly he didn't do a lot of the same travel to Barack Obama. And I think some of that is it's harder for him to show up to some of the places that previous presidents would use.

He was a lot more controversial. Now he can just do a rally anywhere, I'm sure. But it was very difficult for him to show up to, I don't know, a small business in the community and not get protested. And they may feel a little different now.

He may be able to do that. I don't know why he's not out there, but it's usually been a really important moment. The State of Union or the joint section of Congress usually kicks off a long period of how you're trying to advance your agenda. I don't know if he really cares about it.

He does care about congressional agenda, but he's much more focused on himself at this point. So it's less about making the case of the country. So, Megan. Democrats have chosen newly elected Michigan Senator Elisa Slotin to give the Democratic response for Trump's first address in Congress in 2017.

They chose former Kentucky governor Steve Beshear, who was out of office at the time. Does this tell you anything about the direction that respective Democrats are taking in choosing this Russian senator to give the response to this speech? I think it's just a lot of Democratic Party wants to move forward from Michigan to the battleground state. Also really impacted by these terrorists taking effect tonight.

I think that's actually pretty smart for the Democrats. And she's more moderate than most people in the Democratic Party who's new and fresh and young face for the country. I see a different way forward for Democrats. The last Trump address we saw then Speaker Nancy Pelosi rip up the speech behind the president at the end, at the end of that speech.

What do you expect from Democrats, from the minority in the chamber during the speech tonight, tomorrow night, as we're in this time where Democrats have largely felt powerless. And I think there'll be a lot of booing and a lot of clapping, just like there are now these features that make an incredibly long, incredibly painful for all of us to watch at home. But I do think they'll be a lot of bullying and it's a lot of time interrupting. I think that they'll be yelling just like their husband, you know, for present Biden experience and present Bonnesville.

But I just, I don't think the Democrats have a lot to use their voice in vocal way and swing that delta. When you say the vocal. Yeah. I'm just wondering is this going to be, you know, take advantage of the opportunity.

If nobody's being polite to anybody, then just go, you know, all out. And really the question is, who's organizing? Right. Like, is this something that people come to hack Jefferson saying, hey, we all want to wear white or whatever.

Like, women have done that over and over again over the years. Is this we're going to wear Ukraine pants? Is this we're going to be more aggressive and boo him. Right.

These are the things that that's what they're looking to their leaders. They can actually do that and should be doing that. Right. Hakeem Jefferson, Chuck Schumer, you have some members of the Democratic Party who aren't even showing up.

As Murphy, the senator is saying, I'm not even coming. And so I think what you're also seeing is the party still hasn't figured out how to engage with Donald Trump. Right. Like, they want to be aggressive.

They don't know what aggressive looks like nowadays. They want to stand up and say something and, you know, encompass what he's up there talking. But that's not really how the Democratic Party works and operates. Right.

Like we like institutions and that's not. We don't stand up and boo when you like institutions are enjoying and how the rest of the country be that the rest of the country be done. I would see them organized protests, decreaiming things. But I do think you'll see some members just on their own make comments as this is going to just, you know, move back here and say what they want to say.

I do ask very quickly about this continuing resolution. Do we? Do we? Obviously the speaker said that's what he wants to see happen.

The president seemed to indicate that he might want to see a clear resolution to extend the funding for the end of the year. Is that likely to see what we likely be. What we see go forward is Elon Musk. Are they be on board with that?

I think there's a lot of chatter. Doggone shutdown. Usually have a shutdown when somebody really wants to make a point. And I'm not sure either side is really ready to do that at this point.

I always tell people, if you're going to go to government shutdown, make sure you know how you're getting out shut down because they last a long time. I think Democrats are ready to engage in that kind of thing for a while. Are Democrats ready to engage in this? No, I don't think they'll look like they'll be getting blamed for that.

I think that their negotiations here are during the whole thing, Bill, on how they get, how they can help get things faster for American people, be seen as working together with Republicans and Belgium. What are you here, lcj? I mean, again, they're struggling to figure out that they want to be seen as the adults in the room, but they also want to force Republicans to come to them. Right.

And that's not what we're seeing at this point. All right, we're out of time here, so this is where we'll be. Eugene, Megan, Brendan, thank you all. And we are back tomorrow with more MEET THE PRESS now.

And tune in to special coverage of President Trump's joint address of Congress tomorrow night. That starts at 8pm Eastern right here on NBC News. Now the news continues with Hallie Jackson. Right now, AI Is moving fast across the Enterprise.

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