The Daily Signal - Trump Predicts Ukraine-Russia War Could End Soon, Confusion in Fed, Germany’s Surprising Election | Feb. 24

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Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk, business. President Trump says the war between Ukraine and Russia could end very soon. I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Sleda's top news in 10 for Monday, February 24th. Today marks three years since Russia invaded Ukraine. About a dozen world leaders were in Ukraine today for events on the anniversary. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., President Trump met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House to discuss ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, Sitting in the Oval Office next to the French president, Trump said he thinks the war could end soon. I think the war could end soon.

Starting point is 00:01:17 Within weeks? Yeah, I think so. Right? Don't you think so? I'd like to ask you. I think we could end it within weeks if we're smart. If we're not smart, it'll keep going and we'll keep losing young, beautiful people that shouldn't be dying. And we don't want that. And remember what I said, this could escalate into a third world war.

Starting point is 00:01:44 And we don't want that either. Trump also said Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Trump that he would accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine as part of the deal to end the war. Of course, this three-year mark is coming as President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have had terse words for one another in recent days. And part of that tension appears to have stemmed from a district. agreement over a mineral deal between the U.S. and Ukraine. But Trump told reporters today that the two countries are getting closer to finalizing that agreement. Trump also said Zelensky wants to come to the White House to meet with him and sign the deal in the near future. Trump said that he would

Starting point is 00:02:24 welcome Zelensky's coming. The mineral deal will allow the U.S. the opportunity to get back some of the money that the U.S. has invested in Ukraine over the course of the war. I think getting very close to getting an agreement where we get our money back over a period of time. But it also gives us something where I think it's very beneficial to their economy, to them as a country. But we're in for $350 billion. How we got there, I don't know, but that's a lot of money. A lot of money invested.

Starting point is 00:02:57 And we had nothing to show for it. And it was the Biden administration's fault. the Europeans are in for about $100 billion, and they do it in the form of a loan. And the Europeans have been great on this issue. They understood it wasn't fair, and we were able to work something out. But with the Ukrainians, I think I can say that we're very close. Trump said France is getting its money back from Ukraine, but Macron interrupted and said, no, France has not yet gotten most of the investment that it has made back from Ukraine.

Starting point is 00:03:32 But Macron stressed the strong relationship. relationship between France and the U.S. and said that the two countries have repeatedly stood on the right side of history. Also, today on the anniversary of the war, the Ukraine General Assembly voted on a resolution calling on Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from Ukraine. Federal employees had their weekends interrupted with an email from the Office of Personnel Management. Federal workers were asked to reply to the email with five bullet points explaining what? what they did at work last week. The employees were told that failure to reply to the email by 11.59 p.m. on Monday might result in them losing their job. Elon Musk is reportedly behind that email through his work at Doge or the Department of Government Efficiency. Now a group of unions and

Starting point is 00:04:22 other organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Office of Personnel Management. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in California. The Associated Press obtained a copy of that lawsuit. The lawsuit states that no office of personnel management rule regulation policy or program has ever in United States history purported to require all federal workers to submit reports to the Office of Management and Budget. The lawsuit claims that the email and threat of termination represents one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country. After the initial email, some federal government employees received a second email telling them to not. not reply to the first email. The FBI State Department Pentagon and Homeland Security, among

Starting point is 00:05:09 others, told their employees to hold off on any response, presumably because it was not clear if the request was legal in the first place. NBC reports that the Justice Department emailed all of its employees and told them not to respond due to the confidential and sensitive nature of the department's work. But other departments, like the Department of Education, told their employees to comply and answer the email. This comes as Trump has encouraged Elon Musk to become even more aggressive in his work of rooting out waste in the federal government. Germany just had major elections over the weekend elections that prove that the U.S.

Starting point is 00:05:48 is not the only nation embracing conservative policies. Germans voted Sunday to toss the ruling coalition government out of power and gave 28.5% of their votes to the Conservative Party. Here with us to discuss is Heritage Foundation Research Associate Jordan Emory. Jordan, can we start just by having you break down a little bit of the government structure in Germany? Because it is quite different than what we have here in the U.S. So explain a little bit how that works with the leading party in Germany. Absolutely. Thank you for having me on today, Virginia. So Germany is a parliamentary democracy at the national, what they refer to as the federal level. And it has a 630 member parliament. That's unit camera.

Starting point is 00:06:30 not like our House and Senate all in one. And that parliament is known as the Bundestag. And they're elected by proportional representation, which means that German voters vote for parties and then to gain seats in the Bundestag, a political party has to receive a minimum of 5% of the vote. And then proportionally among all the parties that achieve 5% or more, they get seats in the parliament.

Starting point is 00:06:51 Since it's a parliamentary democracy to elect a leader, known in Germany as the chancellor, they have to have either a party that wins a majority, which is basically unheard of. but more likely, as out of this election, a group of parties known in their format as a coalition, achieving a majority of seats in the Bundestag. Now, normally the party that gets the most votes in the election, the one that came in first, gets the chancellor position who kind of runs the German government.

Starting point is 00:07:15 Then their coalition partners, along with some of the loyal lieutenants from that leading party, get named as ministers. They serve as a group similar to the cabinet here in America. Now, since 2021, Germany has been led by Chancellor Olaf Schultz of the SPD. It's a progressive party in coalition with the Free Democratic. and the Green Party in a progressive government that pursued rather open immigration policies and net zero targets, among other policies. Okay. So then explain the results of this election. And are they surprising results? It seems like they are. But correct me if I'm wrong there. Yeah, it's definitely a sea change. The German citizens overwhelmingly rejected the SPT Green Free Democrat Coalition.

Starting point is 00:07:52 They put the conservative Christian Democratic Union, CDU, CSU, CSU, in the lingo in the leading position. And the results, while they largely, track with the polling were really surprising in the absolute flip that we saw. Additionally, the CDO CSU was aiming for about 30% of the vote, nists that target slightly by 2%. But in return, the AFD, which all the other German parties, including the CDU, refused to include in their government coalitions, actually came in second, their best result ever on the backs of German voter frustration over mass migration and economic delays. Germany's been a recession in the last two years. And that put them above what was the leading party, the SPD, who, who, came in third with their worst night in decades at the ballot box. Wow. Okay. So then, Jordan,

Starting point is 00:08:34 what do the results of this election mean primarily for the United States and also for Europe? Of course, yeah. Well, the immediate result is to vindicate Vice President J.D. Vance for his insistence that European voters are deeply concerned about mass migration and economic malaise and that German politicians in particular with their election so close in the heels of his comments had to respond to their direction. Immigration was the number one issue for months in Germany, including all the way through this election, and they've shown with who they elected that they really do care about this and they want change. Now, that's the immediate result.

Starting point is 00:09:06 Obviously, there's going to be a little bit of time to form a coalition government. And so in the longer term, we'll have to see what that agreement looks like. Since the leader of the CDU, Friedrich Mertz, who will go on to be the chancellor, most likely, has publicly stated that he is not going to include AFD in any of his governing coalition arrangements. It's probably going to be an agreement between the CDU, CSU and the SPD, even though German of voters just turf the SPD out of office. So it's possible that even though the voters just rejected policies on mass migration and some of the green energy things that have really hurt

Starting point is 00:09:36 the German economy, some of those will only be changed around the edges rather than the fundamental reform that the electoral result seems to indicate. More optimistically, we expect there to be a redouble commitment in Berlin to increase military spending and military capabilities in line with Secretary Pete Hexas comments in Brussels about two weeks ago to European leaders. Fascinating. Jordan, thank you for your time. The Heritage Foundation is Jordan Embry. Thank you for your show. Up next is today's news flash. You have likely heard by now that Dan Bongino has been tapped to be number two at the FBI under Cash Patel. Bonino will serve as deputy director of the FBI. Most recently, Bonino has hosted his own successful conservative show called The Dan Bonchino Show. Bon Gino previously served in the New York City Police Department and as a Secret Service agent. Last summer, the Daily Signal spoke with Bongino at the Republican National Convention

Starting point is 00:10:31 and asked him if he would ever consider serving as director of the FBI. This is what he said. There comes a time where I wouldn't even take a salary for this stuff. There comes a time where, you know, your country matters more. And I never got in this stuff for the money or the glory or any crap like that. It just happened. And I'm honored that people think that. But, yeah, I'm kind of flattered.

Starting point is 00:10:54 If he called, I'd have to consider anything. You can catch the Daily Signal's full interview with Bongino from the Republican National Convention by clicking the link in today's show notes. Finally, today, some news out of the world of journalism. NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt will be stepping down from the show this summer. NBC reports that Holt will continue to be a fixture at the network with a full time slot on Dateline. With that, we're going to leave it there for today's episode. Thanks for joining us to The Daily Signal's Top News in 10. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button, so you never miss out on brand new shows from The Daily Signal. Today's show was edited and

Starting point is 00:11:35 produced by John Pop and Keith Coughler. Thanks again for being with us today. We'll see you right back here at the same time tomorrow.

The Daily Signal - Trump Predicts Ukraine-Russia War Could End Soon, Confusion in Fed, Germany’s Surprising Election | Feb. 24

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