Fox’s Brian Kilmeade Says Town Hall Blowback ‘Is Real’ — Trump Voters Getting Fired Are ‘Casualties’ of DOGE

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said the blowback against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk over DOGE cuts at town halls across the country “is real” — and suggested Trump would “do himself a favor” by more effectively messaging to his voters who are being affected.

Republicans have faced raucous and hostile constituents at town halls in red states, with voters angry about the cuts getting outsized media attention

On Monday’s edition of Fox & Friends, Kilmeade acknowledged that the anger “is real” and that some people who voted for Trump are becoming “casualties” of the effort to cut spending. He suggested Trump respond to those voters head-on:

AINSLEY EARHARDT: You know, it’s interesting the president says he wants him to be more aggressive.

LAWRENCE JONES: More aggressive.

AINSLEY EARHARDT: Because some people are upset that they say he’s been too aggressive by cutting these jobs, including USAID workers. Overnight, they were placed on on leave, 1600 of them.

Originally he was going to put 2000 on on leave and he changed it to 1600. I guess he was listening to different cases.

LAWRENCE JONES: Essential.

AINSLEY EARHARDT: Exactly. The essential people get to stay, the leaders get to stay. But here’s Donald Trump talking about Elon doing a good job. This was at CPAC.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I signed an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency. You probably haven’t heard of it, which is now waging war in government waste, fraud and abuse. And Elon is doing a great job. He’s doing a great job.

We want to make government smaller, more efficient. We want to keep the best people, and we’re not going to keep the worst people.

BRIAN KILMEADE: And almost every agency wants wants them to come in. So go ahead and gut– Treasury.

You know what helps? Because cabinet secretary’s got certain responsibilities and a president’s got to get elected. And people.

But when you have someone from the outside come in and make some tough cuts, you could say, “I don’t have my hands in that.”.

The blowback they’re getting in some of these town halls is real. I’m sure there’s some people in there that voted for Trump and said, “I walked into work and I lost my job.”.

But that’s going to be one of the casualties of having to take a $2.7 million federal workforce and knock it down to maybe half of that.

So I think we got a heads up on it, as– I think the president would do himself a favor — and the Treasury Secretary especially — just saying, hey, we we have a $7 trillion budget. We only make 5.9 trillion. The revenue gap is 2 trillion. This is part of closing that gap.

AINSLEY EARHARDT: Mmm.

LAWRENCE JONES: That’s right.

–Is lessening the responsibility. It’s not punitive.

Watch above via Fox & Friends.