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My View with Lara Trump 2/21/26 FULL END SHOW | ᗷᖇEᗩKIᑎG ᑎEᗯS Tᖇᑌᗰᑭ February 21, 2026
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00:03good evening hope you're having a great saturday night welcome back to my view the president's
00:09state of the union address may see the domestic policy is made and kept our border closed
00:16america's taxes cut and priorities realigned to make america safe and healthy again but
00:22midterm elections are historically an uphill battle and retaining the gop majorities in the
00:27house and senate is more important now than ever as november nears there's little room for error
00:33and a growing need for a unified message from the white house and congressional republicans
00:38to the american people so i asked vice president jd vance for his assessment of the administration's
00:44accomplishments so far and his advice for the midterms to keep momentum moving forward
00:51mr vice president thank you so much for sitting down with me again thank you um let's start with
00:56the fact that policies as administrations and immigration policies despite grandstanding
01:03from democrats yep has led to the deportation of thousands of violent illegal criminals and
01:10obviously we have seen the lowest border crossings in american history right where do you think the
01:16immigration policy of the united states goes from here i'll tell you the story so and you can if
01:21you watch the state of the union address last year you will see this because the president added the
01:26line last year where he said it turns out we didn't need a bunch of new laws we just needed
01:31a new
01:31president and i in the senate had been kind of pushing back against this idea that we needed some
01:36you know immigration law that actually was a bad immigration law and so i was like so into that
01:42line but i stood up before anybody else and was just like yes absolutely it really is the case that
01:48you just needed a new president it's not that hard to enforce the immigration laws it just takes a
01:52little bit of political power hard to enforce the immigration just takes a little bit of political
01:58power so where do we go from here i mean look there are a couple things that we're trying to
02:02do one
02:02we're going to keep on getting people who came into the country illegally out of the country
02:07there's this crazy narrative in the media that deportations are chaotic and they're terrible when in
02:14reality the only places where deportations are chaotic is in minneapolis and is in los angeles
02:20so the president has asked us to continue with the immigration policy but frankly where you have
02:26the blue states the blue cities that aren't willing to work with us to force them to work with us
02:31you know you saw murders come down by 20 percent in 2025 well a big part of that there's a
02:37lot of
02:37reasons for it a big part of that is you've gotten these violent criminal illegal aliens out of the
02:41country so we're going to keep on doing that we're going to keep on working at it i'm sure the
02:45democrats
02:45will throw up some obstacles in our way but we're not going to stop well you brought up minnesota
02:50that's for sure uh there now saying want reparations from ice so jacob fry and tim walls believe that
03:00they should be paid money they say uh that the federal government must pay for what they broke now all
03:07of a sudden they care about money apparently they didn't care about it with the fraud
03:09what is your response to that well my response is i on behalf of the american people would like
03:14reparations from them for allowing somali fraudsters to steal billions of dollars from the american
03:19taxpayer that live in minnesota they've done nothing to cut down on that fraud i think it's absurd for
03:25people to say we want reparations reparations for what because we enforce the law that the american
03:31people elected us to do because we took people who were setting up fraudulent daycare centers and tried
03:36to get them out of this country because we took sex criminals out of neighborhoods and either put
03:41them in prison or sent them far away from the united states of america we're doing the job the american
03:46people elected us to do no one is talking about law against criminal illegal aliens in the united
03:54states of america it's really not that hard and it's it's a huge indictment of jacob fry and frankly
04:00the entire far left that they made that their cause of the day letting violent sex offenders stay on the
04:06streets of america the president's just not going to go for that well the irony doesn't end there
04:11unfortunately for the democrats they've now thrust us into a dhs shutdown and they claim the reason is
04:17that they want more oversight into ice and cbp but in doing so have actually paused any ongoing audits
04:24into federal law enforcement conduct so what this clearly is all a political play yeah so i actually
04:31talked to a couple of my former senate colleagues you know people who are able to work across the
04:36aisle who have good relationships with democrats and i said look please come to me and the president
04:40and tell me what is it exactly the democrats want to allow us to continue to enforce the border what
04:46is
04:46it that they're asking for what policy changes put an offer on the table become abundantly clear is
04:53there is no offer on the table they're just throwing a temper tantrum and hoping that the
04:56president will give up entirely on the idea of border enforcement so what we will be willing to do
05:01is talk to anybody about how we can make the enforcement of our immigration laws easier and smoother
05:07we're willing to have that conversation but we're not going to give up on the american border
05:12well i imagine after the shutdown ends um number one priority will be passing the save america act
05:19absolutely why is that so important for this country it's it's so simple to get on the airplane
05:25you need voter id um to buy a beer you need voter id but to do the most important thing
05:31that we do
05:32as american citizens exercising our right to vote we let anybody vote without any confirmation they
05:39actually have the right to vote in our elections now i think laura that's actually a form of theft
05:43because let's say that you an american citizen show up and vote for a candidate and then somebody
05:53else who has no right to vote shows up and votes for a totally different candidate that person is
05:58stealing your vote away from you stealing your sovereignty as a american citizen it's very
06:04disgraceful now what the democrats will say and i always find this so funny they'll say it's racist
06:09to ask for voter id i actually think that's kind of racist assuming that people of color can't get a
06:15driver's license and by the way if you look at the polling black brown asian everybody agrees
06:21it is a 90 10 issue that we should have voter id to vote in our elections the other thing
06:26and this
06:26is my favorite the democrats will say laura well voter id is not necessary because nobody who's not
06:34allowed to vote ever votes in our elections and my response to that is well if nobody
06:41careful well i'm going to be an important thing especially as we head towards the midterms in
06:46november if you had to break down for republican candidates right now what you think their messaging
06:52needs to be to their constituents or potential constituents around the country what would you
06:56see them say the message needs to be most persuadable voters are voting on did you guys make my life
07:02better and i think we have a very good record to run on that account by the way laura it's
07:05gonna get
07:06better because we're gonna have the biggest tax return season in 2026 because the working families
07:11tax cuts passed if you go back to day one of the biden administration to day one of the second
07:17trump
07:17administration the average american family lost three thousand dollars three thousand dollars of
07:23take-home pay because of inflation because of lower wages because of higher taxes in the first year
07:29of the second trump administration the average american family gained twelve hundred dollars do
07:35you want to people lose three dollars of take-home pay that is catastrophic that is food that doesn't
07:43get put on the table that's prescription drugs that don't get bought that's real sacrifices that happen
07:48all across our country if we can get the american people to continue to gain in their prosperity to
07:55continue to get a little bit richer as opposed to a lot poorer which is what happened under biden
08:00the democrats that is why we're here let's double down on what's working absolutely well i know a lot
08:06of issues are going to be addressed coming up next week in the state of the union so without getting
08:10ahead
08:11of the president and what he's going to say what are top priorities for this administration yeah i don't
08:17want to get ahead of the president but look you're going to hear a lot about the importance of bringing
08:21jobs back into our country of reshoring i don't want to get ahead of the president you're going to
08:27hear a lot about the importance of bringing jobs back into our country of reshoring manufacturing of
08:33all these great factories that are being built but when they turn on and you're hiring thousands of
08:38american worker per factory that's when the real trump boom i think starts i think he's going to talk
08:43about regulatory change the importance of lowering energy prices for american citizens because
08:48you know if you lower a person's gas bill or you lower a person's electricity bill yeah that's good
08:54because they're paying less money for gas and electricity but it also means the farmer who has
08:59taken the food to the grocery store that price goes down because the farmer's paying less for gas
09:05electricity too so you'll hear a lot about the trump energy boom which is very powerful we've got
09:09record low energy prices and that's a very good thing to point to well just before your wife the
09:15second lady joins us i want to ask you because i feel like she she might get in here and
09:20and make
09:20you a little a little more humble about her what is it you want america to who is so good
09:27to the
09:28kid makes it possible for them to grow up as normal kids but i think that takes a special skill
09:33and so if
09:33if you're an american citizen wondering what we have in our second lady you know this is a person who
09:38doesn't really care about the limelight who's not trying to sort of get out there in front of the crowds
09:42all the time who just wants to give her kids a good life and who wants to be as good
09:47of a public
09:48servant as possible i think that's what we should want out of our public leaders and and certainly
09:53they have it in in our second lady i guess the other thing i'd say is she really is wicked
09:57smart
09:57usha has this ability to take extremely complicated and a large volume of information it somehow goes in
10:04her head and comes out and it makes total sense and she's organized it she's like she's able to just
10:11process a ton of information she's super smart and i think that because of that she's able to
10:20she's able to you know cause me to think about things in a different way and i think that makes
10:26her you know not just a great partner to me but i i think she adds a lot of value
10:30to the american
10:30people she doesn't like to talk about it she doesn't like to be out there but she loves this country
10:35and i think she's doing a great job much more still ahead as second lady usha vance joins the conversation
10:42to talk family education and life in the trump administration vice president jd vance was a
10:50fantastic man but when he went to yale there was one person that was marginally ahead of him so he
10:56married her exciting news arrived last month when the vances announced they were expecting a fourth child
11:06a baby boy and for the second lady her young family is also the fuel behind her passion for education
11:13and childhood literacy so in our exclusive conversation with both the vice president and the second lady
11:19we talked not only about their story but about the story they hope to leave behind i'm so excited to
11:29sit down with both of you good to see you thank you um this has been i'm sure quite a
11:35whirlwind what
11:36has happened with your family over the past several years did you ever either of you think that politics
11:41were in the future and that you would very not too long later be the second family of the united
11:46states
11:47well it certainly happened much faster uh i did not think we were going to be running for office
11:51at all but certainly not to this level so quickly so sometimes things just happen but i don't know what
11:57do you think i mean i would say no we we had all these different plans we purchased a house
12:03that we
12:03decided was the house that we were going to retire in uh we picked the schools for our kids with
12:08the
12:08intention of them being there until they graduated so it all came as a bit of a surprise i think
12:12and now that you're a little over a year in looking back over the past year advice might you give
12:20to
12:20yourselves a year ago going into all of this roll with the punches a little bit i mean there's a
12:26certain amount of chaos that inevitably comes with it and we just try to kind of lean into it right
12:31so
12:31if we're going to have a big trip we'll find a way to take the kids and yeah that means
12:35they're not going
12:36to sleep as much as they should and yeah that means they're going to probably misbehave in certain
12:39ways but we just try to make them as much a part of it as possible and i think that
12:43attitude of just
12:44kind of being flexible has made it much easier to thrive as a family in this thing what do you
12:49think usha i think that's right i mean i was actually going to say roll with the punches too
12:55i'm going to answer first so i steal all of her good answers so she has nothing to say no
12:58i was
12:58thinking we we i mean we had two jobs before this and we you know mostly took care of everything
13:05on our
13:05own and so we had a very orderly schedule kind of a way of doing things where everything was planned
13:10out and we made sure breakfast is at the right time and dinner was at the right time and all
13:13these
13:14sorts of things kind of getting used to you at the seat of your pants was a new experience maybe
13:20more
13:21for me than for jd but it's fun and so i think the advice i would give myself is not
13:25to worry so much
13:26about losing all of that and kind of accept the the roller coaster and you're not just doing it as
13:32a
13:32couple you go together as a family and we see that and i think people are so happy to see
13:38the truth of what it means to be a family because sometimes it's not perfect we try to just let
13:44the
13:44kids be kids and it's always a little bit challenging when there's so many cameras and so many security
13:49personnel around but like when we took our kids to the olympics and it was sort of a mixture of
13:53diplomatic meetings and the opening ceremony and all the pomp and circumstance that comes along with that
13:58but it also gave us an opportunity to like go watch a hockey game with our kids on a saturday
14:03night
14:03in milan i had our four-year-old uh in my lap the entire time and on the one hand
14:08i'm like okay
14:10in my lap the entire time and on the one hand i'm like okay the cameras are on maybe i
14:15should be like
14:15a little bit careful about you know her dancing to the spice girls during the breaks but on the other
14:20hand it's like well she's four years old and she might as well have a good time and if people
14:24see
14:24you're having a good time there are much worse things in the world but i think the way that we
14:28have approached it is to allow them to have their full normal private life and then only very rarely
14:34do they kind of pop up in the public eye and i think it's so rare in their in their
14:40minds and so
14:41rare in their experience that they just continue to behave like themselves and so that is a balance
14:46that i feel pretty comfortable with right they go to school and no one asks them about any of this
14:50and
14:51their interests are football and pokemon cards and greek mythology and then they go on these big
14:56trips and that's still the stuff that they're talking about they just happen to be people happen
15:01to be watching a little bit from afar well i can relate to that's all right he brought his like
15:08heroes
15:08of olympus percy jackson books on the trip and it's funny there were journalists like what is your eight
15:14year old reading and i'm like it's none of your business if you can zoom in the camera figure it
15:18yourself good luck otherwise none of your business something usha i know that has always been very
15:23important to you um is a passion for childhood education in your position as second lady you've
15:30you've championed childhood literacy specifically so why is that something that you felt really needed
15:37to rise to to a surface level now well i mean as you know until the moment jd was nominated
15:43i was
15:43working as a lawyer and i really loved doing that but that came to an abrupt end and i thought
15:49to myself
15:50um i mean i want to take this adventure for what it is and experience all the things that come
15:54with it
15:56but if i don't have sort of project that i think is meaningful that has deliverables and
16:02outcomes then i'm going to go crazy um so i was thinking about what would be the best thing to
16:07do
16:08and i think like most parents right now i've been reading about how literacy rates are dropping and
16:13it's not just a pandemic thing though the pandemic accelerated that trend this is a decades-long trend
16:18at this point and literacy is the foundation of virtually everything that children do we see i mean
16:24we're again we're hyper conscious of this and i think most parents are as well that children are
16:29struggling in school in the workplace with mental health issues with a whole host of things and i think
16:35one way that we can kind of counteract that is by giving them the tools that they need to be
16:41able
16:41to think critically and to pursue whatever it is that they really care about but also kind of the gift
16:46of concentration and focus in a really really challenging world and i see childhood literacy as
16:52kind of the starting point personal and policy blend to this because she's the one who makes
16:59all three of our kids read their books she taught them through like some phonics book that you ordered
17:05on amazon and i'm like the kids are way too young to learn how to read and she got all
17:10of our kids
17:10reading super early well and i know last year you had a summer reading program i think it was very
17:16successful are you going to do something like that this coming year what can we expect oh so the
17:20summer reading challenge was the target population that we've been thinking about is you know zero to
17:26early middle school right and like i said we're looking for ways in which at low cost and low kind
17:33of effort people can make real changes and one of the areas is um summer reading loss where children
17:39are in school and then they're out for the summer and they forget so much of what they did during
17:43the
17:43school year the easiest way to counteract that is just to pick up a book you know do a couple
17:48math
17:52problems things like that here and there so it was just a test balloon to see could we get some
17:59kids
17:59picking up books that they wouldn't otherwise and it was really fun i mean we had an outpouring of
18:04enthusiasm from kids tons of submissions so this year we're doing it again but it's going to be a much
18:10bigger effort with lots of new partners and and rolling it out hopefully in all the states that's
18:14amazing so great and it's you know it's interesting to hear you say that you left a job that you
18:19worked
18:19so hard to get as a lawyer i don't think people appreciate that as much but that must be hard
18:25for
18:25you to to leave everything that you work for um i mean there there are certainly some challenges like
18:31kind of figuring out how to spend your day how to structure your time when everything has been so
18:35structured and you have deadlines and goals and case i mean i think it's do as good of a job
18:43as possible at
18:44this job and then let the future worry about the future um you know i i've not been in politics
18:49that
18:50long laura you know this so it's always kind of bothered me when you have a person you elect them
18:54to do a job and they're thinking about the future more than the present i i just think that every
18:59day
19:00there's something cool to focus on and if the future holds another political office that's great
19:05but i just want to focus on this job and do as good of a job as i can i
19:10think we're just taking it
19:11step by step and day by day and right now to me the thing that i really care about is
19:16trying to
19:17get some of these projects that we've been germinating off the ground um being there for
19:22everything that jd needs me for and making sure that our happiness you know and with normal life on
19:29the out on the other end of it maybe it'll get more chaotic in a few years maybe it'll get
19:33less chaotic
19:34either way we'll figure it out thank you again to the vice president and second lady for sitting
19:41down with us up next special envoy steve whitkoff debriefs after a busy week exclusive updates on iran
19:48ukraine and the gaza board of peace when my view returns welcome to fox news live i'm chandley painter in
19:56new york iran is running out of time to reach a nuclear deal with the united states or face
20:01possible military strikes president trump is giving tehran just 10 to 15 days to come to an agreement
20:08he says iran can't continue to threaten stability in the region the warning comes as the u.s continues
20:14building up a major military presence in the middle east it includes dozens of military aircraft
20:19thousands of troops two aircraft carriers and other naval forces a top
20:26curbing iran's nukram in exchange for sanctions relief reuters reports the trump administration
20:32remains divided on possible military action some advisors are urging the president to instead put
20:37more focus on the economy ahead of november's midterms i'm chandley painter now back to the show
20:48the trump era of peace through strength diplomacy was on full display this week
20:53dual negotiations in geneva switzerland addressed two of the white house's major foreign policy
20:58sticking points on one side trilateral talks with russia and ukraine as the war in eastern europe
21:04approaches the end of its fourth year on the other negotiations with iran guided by the president's
21:10hard line to dismantle tehran's nuclear arsenal he says he's a military strike to put on sure but iran is
21:19still rebuilding nuclear sites destroyed during operation midnight hammer despite that tension
21:26thursday marked the inaugural meeting of president trump's gaza board of peace special envoy steve
21:32woodcoff was there for it all and lucky for us he had time to lay out exactly where america stands
21:38on the world stage steve i'm so excited to sit down with you again there are so many people across
21:44this country incredibly impressed with what this president has been able to do on a world stage
21:49and we are here you know right behind us here at the the trump institute of peace you just finished
21:55the first board of peace meetings we know a lot of discussion was about you know making sure that phase
22:02two in gaza finished the first board of peace meetings we know a lot of discussion was about you
22:10making sure that phase two in gaza is implemented what can you tell us what are we going to look
22:16forward to so much about it that i heard was hopefulness aspirational um sensitivity towards
22:25what can happen in the future between israel and the palestinian people and gaza who would ever have
22:31thought that we'd get to this place a year ago i thought it was i don't know so uplifting i
22:37i guess
22:38would be the word the president noted that the board members here at the board of peace pledged
22:42seven billion dollars for the reconstruction in gaza and then the president went above and beyond as
22:48usual and added an extra 10 billion dollars on top of that steve so what does that look like what
22:54are
22:54we going to see come out of that money it's going to jump is there and get it ready from
23:00a renaissance
23:01and and i think this is just the beginning lara i think uh today it's 17 tomorrow it could be
23:0734.
23:07so the future of the middle east largely also depends on what happens in iran and i know that
23:12you've been very deep in talks with iran uh we just saw this weekend and geneva there was conversation
23:19but there have been some very hard red lines drawn the us of course wants to dismantle iran's
23:24nuclear arsenal iran says that is a non-starter so based on what you've seen in the negotiations that
23:32that you've been part of what could a deal actually look like with this regime well i think
23:37the president has uh has he gave jared and i direction before we went over there there were
23:42red lines zero all about their about their civil program and yet they've been enriching
23:51well beyond the um number that you need for uh for civil nuclear it's it's it's up to 60 percent
23:59they're
23:59probably a week away from having uh industrial uh industrial grade uh bomb making material and
24:08that's really dangerous so i can't have that this is something that they have to stick with until they
24:14prove to us that um you know they can behave i know that you we have red lines here from
24:20the us
24:21how about over with iran the president asked me that this morning and he's i don't want to use the
24:26word frustrated it's he's i don't we're frustrated it's almost because he he understands he's got plenty
24:33of alternatives but it's curious he's curious as to why they haven't i don't want to use the word
24:40capitulated but why they haven't capitulated why under this sort of pressure with the amount of
24:48sea power naval power that we have over there why they haven't come to us and said we profess that
24:53we don't want to be we don't want a weapon so here's what we're prepared to do and yet it's
24:57hard to
24:58to sort of get them to that place well there's that pressure there's also pressure coming from
25:03within iran from their own people obviously we've seen these major protests going on within the country
25:09the exiled crown prince reza palavi has also laid out pretty clear steps as to how a transition of
25:16power might occur over there in his eyes has he been has he been part of any you guys had
25:23any
25:23conversations with him well i've met him um at the direction of the president and i actually you know
25:28it's it's public it's it's out there i think he's strong for his country cares about his country but this
25:33is going to be president about president trump's policies not not not not uh mr palaba's uh policies
25:41i think the president is interested in hearing everyone's views he has no pride of authorship
25:45is maybe the best way for me to say which i greatly respect because he's open to new ideas and
25:52new
25:52ways of thinking to move to europe we're about to enter the fifth year of this war between russia
25:58and ukraine and the u.s brokered talks between the two many times uh this week as well and it
26:05doesn't
26:05look like that much progress is being made i think you've heard the president's frustration with that
26:11as well so what do you feel like is the major hold up is it territory is it from being
26:17made there
26:18holy war it really is a silly war and they're fighting over they're arguing this territory
26:24you know everyone throws the word dignity around but does what is what does dignity get you if you
26:31have that amount of killing there i think um we've put the two sides together that's had a real positive
26:37effect in some respects they don't seem like they really want to fight with one another and i don't
26:41think they do i think what's happening is elite at the leadership levels it's hard for um it's hard
26:48for them to finish off making a deal we're hopeful jared and i that we've put some proposals on
26:53the table to both sides that will bring them together in the next three weeks and maybe even
26:58result in a summit between zelensky and president putin might end up being a trilateral at some point
27:06with the president we'll have to see i think he doesn't want to come to a meeting unless he feels
27:10that he can consummate this thing and he has that power to do it so hopefully um you'll be hearing
27:18some
27:19good news in the coming weeks well a lot of this does boil down to vladimir putin and i know
27:24you've
27:24dealt directly with him so first of all what is that like and how do you with this position go
27:30into
27:30dealing with some of these adversarial people he's never been anything other than straight with me
27:35and i say that and i get attacked but that's an accurate statement he's told me that this is what
27:42his
27:42red lines are you know lara i got attacked for going to meet him eight times how would you make
27:47a deal
27:48with someone on the other side unless you knew where the other person was coming from i needed to
27:52understand what his motivations were his goals and so forth and i actually think that a lot of those
27:59meetings now are becoming very relevant we understand where they are and i don't think the ukrainians
28:05disagree with us in our assessment the ukrainians disagree with in our assessment so i think those
28:13meetings were important and hopefully we're going to consummate this whole thing people were worried
28:19about donald trump in the position of commander-in-chief leader of the free world right obviously he has
28:25proven that he is the president of peace but for anyone out there who might still have something
28:31negative to say what would you tell them about where america is as it relates to our position on the
28:37world stage he's changed the perspective of everybody out there all the different nations and you listen to
28:42it one after another they get up there the naysayers would say oh they're just pandering to him it's
28:47preposterous all their everything is better in in the entire world and in each of their individual
28:52countries which is what they say about the president what presidency has ever done this much in four years
28:57or in fact even eight years but he's done it in 11 months but he's done it in months and
29:06it's nothing
29:06short of remarkable i told the story laro about how the 20 hostage families came in and i saw a
29:13tear
29:13in your father's eye now he doesn't like people knowing that right oh i know that makes him a softy
29:17you know but he was emotional and why because none of them were going to going to come home without
29:24him
29:24and he came up to me and he said to me i think this is the most emotional spiritual day
29:30that i've had in
29:31white house in all my years now he had four years in the white house and now he had another
29:36year and
29:36this moment seeing the hostages their sense of of um gratitude because i don't think any of them felt
29:45under a different administration that they would get their children home and so i'm happy for him
29:51he sets the table and i'm not just saying it he really does we walk in the room and we
29:56have an edge
29:57just because we work for him he's really really good about trusting his people he gives of peace
30:04i know you're very busy you have things going on but we we appreciate you taking some time for us
30:08thank you lara up next what are the administration's next moves now that the supreme court ruled against
30:16president trump's tariffs carrier bond weighs in when mighty returns
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