Politics and views in the United States.

Secretary of State Rubio pledges more arrests like that of student activist Mahmoud Khalil. Former EPA directors sound the alarm on Lee Zeldin's deregulation plans, and lack of opportunity is pushing rural Gen Zers out of their communities.

TRANSCRIPT

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Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

We've been in for eight weeks.

We are putting the policies in place that will make the affordability crisis go down, inflation moderate, and as we set the sales, I am confident that the American people will come our way.

Secretary of Treasury Scott Besant says he can't guarantee there won't be a recession, but blamed last week's stock market plunge on economic adjustment, rather than large and unpredictable tariffs on America's largest trading partners.

He insists the administration will have, quote, "good tax policy, deregulation, and energy security."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, now in immigration detention, will be forced from the country, as will others.

We don't want terrorists in America.

I don't know how hard that is to understand.

We don't want people in our country that are gonna be committing crimes and undermining our national security or the public safety.

As a grad student, Khalil negotiated for classmates protesting the war in Gaza at Columbia University.

Rubio says Khalil was aiding Hamas, but provided no evidence.

Khalil has not been charged with a crime, and courts have ruled green card holders have constitutional protections.

Several former EPA directors are calling current administrator Lee Zeldin's plan to roll back protections for clean air, water, and the climate disastrous.

Zeldin says Donald Trump campaigned on, quote, "protecting and unleashing American energy," and says he plans to do that while still caring for the environment.

Trump rolled back more than 100 environmental laws in his first term and has frozen funds for climate and clean energy projects.

A recent poll finds voters firmly support the recent surge in unionization and especially favor clean energy projects that have strong labor practices.

Daniel Dicer-Roth is with Data for Progress.

So our polling found that there was a pretty broad consensus in general that unionization helps workers secure better benefits, such as better health insurance and more paid time off, improved wages, improved worker safety.

New research finds fewer than half of rural Gen Z-ers believe they can find good opportunities in their communities.

Zach Ranowski's a senior researcher with Gallup.

He says they feel pushed to go so they can continue their education or careers.

We did not see any indication that they wanted to move away in large swaths.

What we did notice were there were factors about the community that would influence, one way or the other, whether a young person wanted to move.

Finally, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly has decided to sell his Tesla and buy a Chevy Tahoe made in Texas.

The electric car maker's stock has fallen sharply, in part possibly due to CEO Elon Musk's White House role.

Many Democrats and liberals are getting rid of their Teslas while some Republicans are rallying to the brand.

I'm Alex Gonzalez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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