On Thursday’s Mark Levin Show, First Lady Melania Trump calls in to explain how she successfully facilitated the return of Russian and Ukrainian children to their families after they were separated because of the war. She also discusses her new movie – MELANIA, which is in theaters now. Afterward, the Democrats in the House voted against funding key components of the Department of Homeland Security, including FEMA, TSA, the Secret Service, and others, while ICE funding continues through 2027. Democrats are pushing demands that would severely hamper ICE’s ability to identify, apprehend, detain, and deport illegal aliens, while granting increased protections to them. Democrats will orchestrate a propaganda campaign, with media assistance, to blame Republicans for resulting inconveniences to air travelers and disaster victims when they shut down the government. Later, several members of Congress, including Senator Mark Kelly released a video urging military personnel and intelligence community members to defy or turn against the commander-in-chief without justification. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth took action against Kelly arguing that allowing such actions to go unchecked erodes military discipline and standards. But federal judge Richard Leon for issuing a ruling that blocked the Pentagon’s attempt to strip Kelly of his rank and pension, calling the decision contemptible, stupid, and an overreach. Leon should retire or leave the bench now. Finally, Don Hodel calls in to discuss his new book: Called to Serve: My Path to President Reagan’s Cabinet and Beyond.
Photo by Alex WROBLEWSKI/AFP
The podcast for this show can be streamed or downloaded from the Audio Rewind page.
Rough transcription of Hour 1
Segment 1
Hello, America. Mark Levin here. Our number 877-381-3811. 877-381-3811. The first lady, Melania Trump, will be here at the bottom of the hour. Look forward to talking with her. Well, the Democrats have voted against. Funding FEMA. TSA. The Secret Service and other elements of DHS. ICE continues to get funded through 2027, as it should. But they are in a big propaganda effort. Agitprop. In which they want people to believe in, they’ll get the help of their media. That the Republicans are creating these inconveniences for people who seek to fly. For people who need federal help when there’s natural disasters. But the TSA and so forth. When it is they and I read to you, I believe it was last night, the list of demands that the Democrats have made and the demands would result in ICE being absolutely unable to identify, apprehend, detain and deport virtually anybody. Virtually anybody. It would increase protections. I didn’t say liberties and rights protections for illegal aliens, making it more difficult to identify them, to apprehend them, to detain them and deport them. This is the same Democrat Party that brought many of these people into the country illegally. Same Democrat Party that has created segregated cities and states. They called them sanctuary cities in states where they have declared utter lawlessness. And they treat illegal aliens like first class citizens. This is why they oppose the SAFE Act. One Democrat in the House voted for the SAVE Act. That is the act that requires identification. If you’re going to vote. And that was Henry Cellular of Texas. But he was neutralized. His vote was by Massie of Kentucky. And that job, I wouldn’t even call him a libertarian at this point. He’s just a nut job. I passed the House last evening, as you know, 215 to 214. It will be brought up at some point in the Senate. They have certain rules and it needs to. I suspect the Democrats might filibuster it, because keep in mind what I’ve been saying, this is the greatest power grab in American political history, letting in 2025 million illegal aliens trying to prevent them from being deported back door amnesty, if not front door amnesty. Hakeem Jeffries said yesterday that other than the most violent, there should be a pathway to citizenship. That was always the plan. Then they have children, birthright citizenship, and then they have chain migration. And then it’s over. It’s over. The Democrats one party rule they can’t lose. In the meantime, they’re creating more congressional seats for themselves. In the meantime, they’re creating more Electoral College votes for themselves. Remember, they count people, which they shouldn’t, but that’s what they do rather than citizens. And then you have an individual states, individual governors like Spanberger, a liar, a fraud, and a phony who claimed to be a moderate who is never a moderate. They are destroying the voting system in Virginia and they’re destroying representative government. She just signed a bill that would give the Democrats nine seats and the Republicans won. Now, keep in mind. Virginia is not that Democrat, even though it’s become Democrat. Do I have a 9 to 1 number? Actually, I think it’s 11 or excuse me, 10 to 1, 10 to 1. So 7% of the seats won would go to the Republicans, 47% of whom voted for Donald Trump. And we just had a Republican governor, lieutenant governor, an attorney general. So they are totalitarians. They act like totalitarians. That is what they do. And they want to do nationally what they’ve done in California and New York, in Illinois and now in Virginia and other states. Change the citizenry. So they don’t have to persuade the American citizen today to vote for their radical. Radical agenda. This is happening right in front of your eyes. Right in front of your eyes. And so there will be inconveniences. The House is taking off for about a week or so. So when the Democrats voted not to fund these other elements of the Department of Homeland Security, they voted to shut it down for a week. That ten days. I feel sorry for these TSA folks. I really do. They get caught up in this every single time. Every single time. Now, I keep reading that we’re going to get slaughtered in the midterms. We could. No question about it. It seems to me it’s the Democrats who should get slaughtered. Look what they do. Look what they’ve done. Keith Ellison. Used to be a big. Big radical leftist still is, but he used to be a follower of Farrakhan. He called himself a one time, you may recall, Keith X. I call him Keith A-hole, that that’s a whole nother story. He’s a radical leftist Islamist. That’s what he is. And he ran cover for the Somali community in Minnesota. Ran cover for them. As they were ripping off the taxpayers in Minnesota and the United States. And Alison was testifying today at a hearing and in the Senate. I’m going to play you just a few clips of this. We have Bernie Marino, the new senator from Ohio. He’s terrific. Absolutely terrific. Cut. Go. What have you actually done differently to help fight anti-Semitism in Minnesota? I speak against anti-Semitism. I condemn. It is repugnant. Is wrong. Let’s pause there. You speak against anti-Semitism where you condemn Louis Farrakhan’s comments saying that Judaism is a dirty religion. You know, sir. I thought I was coming here to talk about that. That wasn’t the lay up question. No, no, no. I thought I was talking about immigration policy. I didn’t know that we were going to be talking about all these matters. Here is one to criticize Farrakhan. Does he? That’s the bottom line is right. Senator Moreno’s right. It’s a lay up question. They have a yes. I condemn Louis Farrakhan for calling Judaism a dirty religion. He couldn’t say he wouldn’t say it, folks, the Democrat Party is filled. With these cancerous politicians, these Islamists and these Marxists. It is a hate filled, evil party. If you’re a Democrat, get the hell out of there as fast as you can. Go ahead. To just sort of. I mean, we already had one thing where we didn’t mention immigration policy at all. I’m fine with you asking about questions around asylum and things like that. That makes a lot of sense to me. But now we’re going off and all kind of different directions. I think there should be some scope to this hearing. And so thank you for your interest. And we both share a need to talk to them. And a few of my colleagues have gone over time, Mr. Chairman, to just just. I find it disgusting that we would have a witness who’s the attorney general of a state that will not condemn the fact that somebody said that Judaism is a dirty religion. The fact that we have a witness of that low caliber here before the United States Congress is an insult to this institution. Beautiful. Exactly. Exactly. And now we know. In significant detail that the Democratic Socialists of America, AOC Party and the rest of those stooges and in Bernie Sanders and so forth, is an influence operation by Communist China, communist Cuba, and was communist Venezuela with Maduro. Now we know it for sure 100%. And on Life, Liberty and Levin on Saturday if they run it. I get into this in great detail. Great detail. And we have the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on Wednesday on this, Jason Smith Goodman. Among others. Here’s Keith Ellison. He compares ICE enforcement to the Boston massacre. See these leftists are either ignoramuses. Or they’re just propagandists or they’re both. In the case of Keith Ellison, Cut five. Go! It felt like our state was targeted, blanketed with paramilitaries everywhere who were approaching citizens, non-citizens, whoever. It felt like we were being occupied by the federal government. And I started returning, Senator, to reading about how the Boston massacre. How did those Bostonians feel when a faraway government in England had imperial troops marching all over this? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. How stupid is this guy? How stupid. Immigration in our country. Is a matter that is controlled by the federal government under the federal Constitution. The federal Constitution was adopted by the states and any state that they came into the into the nation newly territory came into the nation, newly had to embrace the Constitution of the United States. That’s what the Constitution compels. I have no idea what this moron is talking about. He’s trying to make a case. That this is the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party was about a lack of representation. We’re talking about massive fraud and illegal conduct by illegal aliens. Massive fraud and illegal conduct by illegal illegal aliens. The Boston Tea Party, those are our tax dollars, yours and mine that are being squandered. We’re the ones that ought to have a Tea Party. We are the Tea Party. Ron Johnson. Cut sex. Go. Now we can investigate. But I can’t imagine being a law enforcement official. Where I know my colleagues have been shot at their vehicles rammed, but they’re trained activists deployed. And by the way, we know at least one of those activists had a semiautomatic pistol with extra clips. So now you’re an ICE officer. You’re doing enforcement action. You’ve got a team behind you trying to protect you. You’ve got all these trained activists behind you. Is it any wonder they’re at hair trigger alert? A tragedy was going to happen and you encouraged it and you ought to feel damn guilty about it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Now, sit there and smirk. I’m sick. It is despicable. Are you asking me for comment, Senator? Because everything you said was untrue. It was a nice theatrical performance. But it was all lies. No, they’re not lies, you clown. They’re not lies at all. I’m not done with this. We’ll be right back.
Segment 2
Tuesday is the big day. America Liberty’s Voice with Mark Levin. We’ll have our new video podcast vodcast, they call it. You’ll be able to find it on YouTube and Rumble. Just looking for Liberty’s voice. This coming week we will launch it on Tuesday and we will also have it on Wednesday and Thursday. Normally to be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. But we didn’t want to launch it on Presidents Day. So it will be available starting next Tuesday. I’ll talk to you more about it. But. All you’ll need to do because we’ll be downloading it immediately, is to check it out on YouTube and Rumble. We will eventually be going on other platforms as well. Liberty’s Voice We’re going to do things a little differently. You’re not going to hear F-bomb so you can listen to it and your kids can listen to. Just not going to do that. I’m not going to smoke pot. Never have. Never will. Even a cigarette or a cigar. I’m not going to do that either. I’m not interested in the antics. I’m not interested in the drama. What you see is what you’ll get. I do get passionate times. You’ll see that we do get, you know, into very heavy issues, too. But one of the things you haven’t seen is me when I’m doing it. And so there will be that video aspect to it. And I feel a lot of you focus on radio and want to watch it in addition to listening to the radio program. That’s why we’re launching it on noon Eastern time on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, next week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. So in no way does it interfere with the radio program. That’s the mothership, the radio program. And as I said, I view them as overlapping. They overlay and we want to bring one on. It’s into the other because right now there’s not a lot of that going on. So I feel like I can bridge that. The reason I’m doing this is to a couple of reasons. I find that the podcast world, except for some very significant exceptions, many of my friends, but there are thousands of them, has become in many ways a cesspool. Racism, bigotry, anti-Semitism, Christian bashing, American bashing. It’s being used by foreign governments and bots to advance an agenda. I want to stand up to this, and I want you to help me do that. This is going to be pro-American about Americanism 250th anniversary. I want you to listen to the show. And when you’re done, learn things, maybe laugh and understand that you and I, we, Mr. and Mrs. America, we love our country. And we’re not going to trash it and we’re certainly not going to advance the cause of Qatar or a Saudi Arabia or Russia, any foreign governments or any foreign ideologies. When we come back. Scheduled the first lady, Melania Trump. We’ll be right back.
Segment 3
It’s a great honor to have the first lady with us, Melania Trump. How are you, ma’am? I’m very well. Good evening. How are you? I’m doing great. Good evening. Thank you. And thank you for being here. You know, I want to talk a little bit about your movie, but before we do. You’re very much focused on reuniting these Russian kids with their parents and these Ukrainian kids with their families, too. And you’ve accomplished that again today. Can you explain to us what’s taking place here? Yesterday we had another success and I’m very happy about it. Today marks the third day. Unification seems to have been working strategically with both nations, Ukraine and Russia. And I helped facilitate the return of children to their families after they were separated because of the conflict. And I have no doubt that we will have more progress to come in the very near future, which is a wonderful thing to do. I mean, these these kids get caught up in this. They have nothing to do with it and they miss their families and so forth. And unfortunately, they’re very much targeted and become sort of pawns of these wars, this war in particular as well. So this is very, very important what you’re doing. I want to talk about your movie. And by the way, the movie obviously is called Melania. You can check it out in your local theaters, theaters across the country. It’s doing very, very, very well for a documentary. Also, what what gave you the idea to do this? Because it’s very intriguing to me. The first 20 days leading up to the inauguration, there’s a tremendous amount to do as well, isn’t there? It is. And I had that idea for a while. And after I saw solidified my creative concept, I talked with my agent and he went out and feed that idea to two senior ranking officers from Amazon, MGM, MGM, Disney, Paramount, Netflix and other prospective partners. But I selected MGM because of several reasons, including but not limited to the fact that the company was willing to launch my film in theaters only, and then later on it will become on streaming on Prime Amazon Prime. So we accomplished what we wanted the film. It’s a great success. It’s very proud to say never seen before moments in my life, including my family and my business, and only 20 days leading to the presidential inauguration. And they will see what it required and what planning goes in to be coming from first from private citizen to a first lady again. And were the first 20 days this time different than the first 20 days the first time? I mean, the first time, obviously it was quite unique, but what were the real differences? It was different because the first you learning on the go, I was never in politics. I always I always was interested in in politics. But in private, I always followed what was going on around the world. But this time I was in it. And the first time when we moved to the White House and when my husband was elected was very different. I didn’t have as much knowledge as I had the second time. Also, I, I was hiring people that I didn’t know. And it’s you need to be very careful who you hire because people have an agenda and, you know, you hire people who who works for me, for my office, for my East Wing first Lady office, but also for the American people, for our country. Hmm. You’re very classy. I’m just going to say it. You’re very classy. The way you hold yourself, the clothing that you wear, the things that you say. And yet you’re very natural and you’re very normal. What is it like being under the spotlight all the time? I know you were in the fashion world and so forth, but this is different because politics can be fun and it can be evil and brutal. You are correct. And you know, I grow up since my young age, I was in fashion business and I travel the world. So nothing gives you so much education. As you know, traveling, experience, different cultures, meeting a lot of people and being judged all the time. Fashion business, it’s very cruel and not so pleasant. So it looks very glamorous. But behind the scenes it’s a lot of work and nothing prepares you for it. And politics is the same. You judged all the time. Also, there are, you know, different parties. You have a lot of opposition. So and I you know, you grow up you grow up very fast. And it’s very interesting how how everything progressed from first time in the White House, first administration. And now we are second time here. And it’s kind of incredible. We have an amazing success. I had an amazing success the last first the last few months in the White House with my East wing. And I accomplished a lot as, for example, Take down Act was signed into a new law to enhance federal online protections for the children from online deepfakes. That is a big we know we are protecting children also in the future, the ones that they starting with the technology and the ones they are already in it. Hmm. You focus a lot on children. A lot on children. Is it because you have a wonderful son and you think about this and you think about what other mothers, what fathers are going through and so forth, and very proud of their own. We are very proud of him. He’s incredible young man. But also we need to as a parents and as an adult, we need to protect our children and we need to guide them. We need to give them the tools that they could succeed in life. We need to be there for them. That’s why I’m focusing on them. They are our future ones. They they work on themselves. They are successful. They could give back to communities and to the world. So it’s very important that they have us for us as a teacher, as a as a guidance. And that’s why it’s very important. I’m focusing also now on the president’s artificial intelligence challenge. We had the great success over 20,000 students and educators sign in and, you know, it’s a new world out there. So that is my priority. 20 days leading up to the 2025 inauguration, the movie’s called Melania. You definitely want to see this movie. You really get to. You feel like you really know the first lady when you’re watching this. You have a great sense of humor. That’s one of the things I got out of this movie, too. You’re smiling, you’re winking, you’ve got all these pressures going on, but you kind of keep your head above it, don’t you? Yes, I do. I stay true to myself. I know what are my priorities and what other people think about me. It’s not any of my business. I, I do what is right and I’m focused and very selective what I do. I know what I like and what I don’t like. And I’m focused on my my work and that that’s what is very important. The dawn, that 20 day period, that anything particular really surprise you or shock you? Not really, because it was my life. The only thing was very challenging because the schedule can change at the last minute and you have a lot of people behind it and a lot of people to to manage. And so the last moment changes can be a little bit hectic and but the rest of it was that’s my life. From morning till evening, the camera followed me and they caught everything with what they could. Some of the scenes they are still not in the movie. We are planning to release docu series later offered for the streaming and it’s a really busy life. So we we don’t take a second takes because it’s too many people involved. I have a Secret Service detail and when you take one time you you go and that was all filmed for for the movie Melania I also got out of the movie and I’ve seen it. You know, I there are people that want to hang around Mar-A-Lago in the White House, so I try not to bother people, you know, I try not to bother the president or you or anything like that. It’s very fun. You you both are fun to be around. You’re both very knowledgeable. I just want the nation to know you’re a wonderful couple. And the times I’ve been with you both, not a lot, but the times I have been with you about. You’re very supportive of each other, aren’t you? We are. Of course. It’s very important. And, you know, I give my husband advice. Sometimes he asks for it, sometimes he doesn’t. But I give him anyway. I am not afraid to say and what I feel and what I think. So sometimes he listens, sometimes he doesn’t. And that’s okay. I think the communication in the relationship is very important. Oh, also, we are so busy as he has the West Wing. I have an East Wing and we are both so busy, you know, sometimes. Sometimes the family and like family dinners and could be not as usual as it was before because we are working non-stop and the schedule it’s it’s it’s, it’s intense. And yet you do work at that. I know with your son Barron, it’s very important to you and being able to be a mother and to be a wife, right? Yeah. Correct. My family is my priority. Mm hmm. And you get that out of the movie, too. I mean, it’s a lot of work being a first lady, You know, people around and know there’s a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scene, and you’re going to see it the 20 days before the inauguration. Just how much there is to do in addition to being your own persona as the first lady. There’s a lot of management, there’s a lot of orchestration, there’s a lot of administrations, just a lot that goes on behind the scene. And this is very, very important. I’ve never realized it till I saw this movie. Did you like. Making a movie like this, being involved in a movie like this. Yes. It’s very productive. It’s it’s incredible when you have an idea and. Then that idea comes to life. And I said that we, the whole United States, we the American people, but also people across the world. I sold my story. It’s very historic. It’s important, it’s groundbreaking. And it’s it’s for all of us. We are in this together. And, you know, it’s something that will go in the history. And I wanted to people to see what it takes to become a first lady. And I think they might be interested to see how it is my life now in the White House because it’s ten times more intense. And you you work from so many different on so many different projects. And you it’s a non-stop work. And many people rely they rely on me, they rely on my husband. And it’s very it’s incredible work. We are very proud of it. For example, yesterday I was in the and I ate visiting the children there. They have rare diseases. We celebrated early Valentine’s Day, so that was very exciting, was great to see them again. And tomorrow we are travelling to to say thank you to the Special forces in North Carolina. So it’s really incredible work and we are very proud to be doing it. And first lady. Obviously, most ladies don’t become a first lady. You’ve been a first lady twice now. That’s historic as well. And you come from another country originally. You’re a naturalized citizen. You’re the first lady of the United States. You’re like the American story, wouldn’t you say? It My story. Incredible. Yes, it’s incredible journey. And to come from Slovenia and become a United States citizen, it’s something very special. And, you know, I don’t take for granted. No. Well, I know you have to go. We appreciate your time. I want to tell the audience there’s a lot of people out there, folks. Go check out this movie. You’re going to really love it. Melania, you’re going to get to see the first lady like you’ve never seen her before. And you’re also going to get to see really a lot of what it takes to put together an inauguration. And an inauguration was fantastic despite the freezing weather and the snow and all the rest. It was pulled off beautifully. And I want to thank you for your service and for your kindness. Whenever you see my wife and me and I want to bless you, God bless you and hope you’re safe. Thank you so much. Thank you, all of you. And thank you all for your support and your prayers and are with everybody a healthy and prosperous year. Wonderful. Thank you. Give the president our best and God bless you. You bet. He’s such a sweet lady, I’m telling you. Tough, Tough as nails, but sweet as can be. Check out this movie, Melania. I would encourage you to see it over the weekend. Check your local theaters. Melania, it is one of the hottest documentaries ever to be produced, as a matter of fact. We’ll be right back.
Segment 4
What a wonderful guest. Easy interview because she’s so easy to talk to. What a wonderful guest. Well, that was a quick hour. We got a big hour coming up, hour two. We’ll be right back.
