The Daily Signal - DOGE’s Popularity, Complaints About Musk, Illegal Alien Encounters | Feb. 25, 2025

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Starting point is 00:00:45 More than six and 10 voters believe President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency will significantly reduce federal government spending over the next year. The new polling comes from the Napolitan news. service and was conducted by Scott Rasmussen at RMG Research on February 20th and 21st. The survey of 1,000 registered voters found that 62% are confident that Doge will find savings in the federal government. Even among Democrats, 45% say Trump and Doge are likely to significantly reduce spending. Well, 42% say it's unlikely. Just 39% of voters say Musk has gone too far with Doge's cuts compared to 47% who disagree. Trump on Saturday encouraged Monday. Musk to get more aggressive in a truth social post. And later that day, Musk sent an email to all

Starting point is 00:01:40 federal employees asking, what did you do last week? He gave them a deadline of Monday to list five things they accomplished. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt was asked about the email at today's press briefing. We've had more than one million workers who have chosen to participate in this very simple task of, again, sending five bullet points to your direct supervisor or manager, C-Cing OPM. I actually participated in myself. It took me about a minute and a half to think of five things I did last week. I do five things in about 10 minutes. And all federal workers should be working at the same pace that President Trump is working and moving. We have a country to save and we want this federal government to be responsive to the needs of the American people who

Starting point is 00:02:22 re-elected this president to have historic massive reform. And that's what the intention of this idea is. Leavitt also announced that Musk would attend Trump's first cabinet meeting, which takes place Wednesday. The Napolitan news service numbers are consistent with a Harvard Capp's Harris poll released Monday, which found that 60% of voters think Musk's team will help the federal government make major cuts to its expenditures. That poll also showed 67% of voters believe the current $36 trillion national debt is unsustainable. Joining me now is Preston Bashir, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Preston, you have a new commentary for the Daily Signal. How bad is our spending problem? Well, Rob, we have a tremendous spending problem right now. The national debt,

Starting point is 00:03:07 as you mentioned, is over $36 trillion. We've been running deficits of over $2 trillion year in and year out since COVID. And if you look forward into the CBO forecasts, it only gets worse going from there. The deficits will be rising to $3 trillion per year by the end of a decade. And from there, the interest payments will continue to snowball. And we'll see that already at this point, the net interest payments are surpassing the national offense, and we very much risk a debt crisis going forward if we fail to get this under control soon. The Elon Musk effort has already identified 65 billion in taxpayer savings. What is included in that $65 billion number?

Starting point is 00:03:47 Yeah, so you can go to their website, the doge.gov, and you can actually take a look, and there's a list of all the savings. A lot of contracts that they've canceled, you know, you can go in there and there's a lot of very frivolous stuff. So I think one of the smart things that the Trump administration has done and Doge has done is that they've really started with some of the more egregious spending. You see a lot of things on DEI, you know, some of the USAID excesses, we'll say, in terms of some of the money that is just going overseas on who knows what. You can look at some of these studies. They're giving money to the census to look at how they should, at millions of dollars to do the census to look at how they should be posing questions on gender identity and things of this nature.

Starting point is 00:04:25 We're looking at studies of transitioning people with special needs. So these are some pretty radical things that they're starting with and they're going to build from there, but you got to start somewhere. And I think it's a very smart strategy to start where they are starting. And finally, Preston, you point out in your daily signal piece and just now that we have a long way to go before we close the budget deficit. Yet President Trump has teased a balanced budget. Is that possible?

Starting point is 00:04:49 Balance budget is a very, very difficult task to get to in one administration. to a steady debt as a percentage of GDP would be a more realistic goal. Once you're doing that, you're at least not making things worse. You're able to kind of maintain where you're at. And so I think that's maybe the more realistic strategy. The more cuts they can do, obviously the better, but we're already talking about $1 trillion of interest each year. So it's a very high bar for them to clear to actually attempt to balance the budget. Thanks, Preston. We'll be following this issue closely, as I know you will as well. Thanks, Rob. Up until now, most Republicans have cheered Elon Musk's cost-cutting measures, but there are signs of frustration in some quarters of Washington with Doge.

Starting point is 00:05:32 At a closed-door meeting of House Republicans today, some members spoke out with their concerns. Congressman Austin Scott of Georgia railed about the lack of communication from Musk over Doge's plans. Scott said in a written statement Tuesday that Doge's recent requests of federal employees should have have been coordinated with the agencies before they were issued. I fully support those agencies working with Doge to improve efficiency and eliminate tax dollar waste. With that being said, referring to Americans who may need government assistance as parasites is unacceptable in any circumstance. The reference to parasites stems from Musk's reposting of a meme on X. Congressman Ralph Norman of South Carolina said Scott had a different interpretation

Starting point is 00:06:20 of the meme than Musk, who viewed people gaming the system as parasites. Meanwhile, Fox News reported Tuesday that the left-wing groups behind anti-Doge activities are the same activists who have also supported defunding the police, pushed socialist ideas, sparked anti-Israeli protests, and opposed President Trump's agenda. MoveOn.org, which came to prominence in the late 1990s, is among the left-wing organizations now taking aim at Musk. George Soros is one of its most prominent supporters. Fox News identified the Working Families Party as another group behind the anti-Doge efforts.

Starting point is 00:06:57 It has organized protests in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. A third group is called Indivisible, and it's seeking to disrupt town hall meetings in congressional districts. These left-wing groups aren't targeting Republicans exclusively. Congressional Democrats have also complained about the large number of calls to their offices. Customs and border protection encountered a record low number of illegal aliens at the southern border on Saturday, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The Daily Signals, Virginia Allen reports that agents encountered only 200 aliens at the U.S. southern border. That is the lowest number of apprehensions in a single day in over 15 years, according to the statement from the Department of Homeland Security. In February 2024, daily encounters of illegal aliens at the border averaged over 6,000.

Starting point is 00:07:48 Secretary Kristi Nome said under President Donald Trump, the days of open borders are over. Just over a month into Trump's presidency, thousands of illegal aliens, many of whom have criminal records, have been arrested and deported back to their home countries, including India, Venezuela, and Colombia. During a recent interview on Newsmax, Nome credited the drop in encounters to Trump's border policies, a clear message that the border is closed and the Department of Homeland Security adds, that are being aired around the world that warn prospective migrants against attempting to cross the border illegally. Let me deliver a message from President Trump to the world.

Starting point is 00:08:28 If you are considering entering America illegally, don't even think about it. Let me be clear. If you come to our country and you break our laws, we will hunt you down. Criminals are not welcome in the United States. For too long, weak leadership has left our borders wide open. Flooding our communities with drugs, human trafficking. and violent criminals. Well, those days are over.

Starting point is 00:08:52 Recent polling indicates Americans are pleased with the Trump administration's actions on the issue. Among U.S. voters, 63% approve of Trump's deportation efforts will 33 strongly oppose the efforts. According to our recent poll conducted by the Napolitan News Service. Today's news flash is up next. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear-off about transferring your business when the time comes.

Starting point is 00:09:24 Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do, business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us, and contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk, business. The White House announced a big change for the press pool. That's the group of journalists who cover President Trump's activities, and report back via email with quotes and other information about his movements. Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team.

Starting point is 00:09:57 Legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join, fear not, but we will also be offering the privilege to well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility. Just like we added a new media seat in this briefing room, legacy media outlets who have been here for years will still participate in the pool. But new voices are going to be welcomed in as well. That means the White House Correspondents Association will no longer determine the list of reporters who make up the press pool from television, print, radio, wire services, and photography.

Starting point is 00:10:35 The Daily Signal previously served in the press pool during Trump's first term, but had its credentials revoked, along with 440 other journalists under President Joe Biden. Trump restored them upon taking office in January. During today's press briefing, Caroline Levin also forcefully defended the choice of Dan Bonjino to serve as deputy director of the FBI. She specifically singled out media outlets for disparaging Bonjino as a far-right podcaster rather than focusing on his law enforcement qualifications. He is a former Secret Service agent who put his life on the line to protect this country, and that is why the president of the United States has entrusted him for this important role. He's also an outsider to this Washington swamp. And we often see that when outsiders are appointed to such coveted positions,

Starting point is 00:11:22 a lot of people in this city get very, very nervous. And they should be because Dan Bongino and Cash Patel and Attorney General Bondi are focused on rooting out the corruption at these agencies and ending the weaponization of government once and for all. Rachel Maddow took aim at her own employer Monday night after MSNBC fired Joy Reed. After praising Reed as a colleague, Maddo then called out the network for its other programming decisions. I will tell you, it is also unnerving to see that on a network where we've got two, count them two non-white hosts in primetime, both of our non-white hosts in prime time are losing their shows, as is Katie Fang on the weekend.

Starting point is 00:12:06 And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible, and I do not defend it. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to Top News & 10. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on new episodes each weekday, plus our weekend Deep Dive interview edition. Each morning, you'll also get Victor Davis Hanson's latest commentary in your feed as well. At just five minutes, it's a quick way to get his take on current events. Today's episode was produced by John Pop. Thanks again for listening and have a great night.

The Daily Signal - DOGE’s Popularity, Complaints About Musk, Illegal Alien Encounters | Feb. 25, 2025

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