>> listening to kevin and seeing csx's earnings, csi. >> i was looking this morning and last week, it sold off quite a bit. that's a trade you want to look at. >> buy google. it's going higher. >> thanks for watching. "power lunch" starts right now. >> that's right. here is your rundown, hitting the ground running, taxes, regulation and trade to start his first week as president. what's he really likely to get done in his first hyund0 100 da? we're on the hunt for the hottest etfs, including the ones that might benefit most in the new trump world. >> and quarter pounded. stock not responding. why aren't investors lovin' it? i'm brian sullivan. "power lunch" starts right now. >> welcome to power lunch. i'm michelle caruso-cabrera.

stocks in the red. dow down by 60 points, s&p lower by 10 and nasdaq by 16. despite today's slump, few stocks are hitting all-time highs, altria, deere. melissa? >> coming to you from hollywood, florida. some of the big themes here, tech, bonds and, yes, even a trump etf. we'll explain all of that, just ahead. tyler? >> melissa, thank you very much. welcome, everybody. i'm tyler mathisen. it has already been a very busy monday at the white house. president trump signing several executive orders after meeting with the host of the top business leaders earlier today. let's get right to eamon javers live at the white house. >> reporter: you're right, top business leaders of the country were here this morning, bright and early for a meeting with

president donald trump in the roosevelt room. it meant much longer than expected and broke up at one point, donald trump moved them all into the oval office, continued the meeting there. that's a sense of just how much of a focus donald trump wants to put on business and manufacturing in particular here. if you missed it this morning, here what donald trump said in his first opportunity to talk to the nation about what his business tax and regulatory priorities are going to be for this new administration. >> we are going to be cutting taxes, massively, for both the middle class and for companies. and that's massively. we're trying to get it down to anywhere from 15% to 20%. a company that wants to fire all of its people in the united states and build some factory some place else and then thinks that that product is just going to flow across the border into the united states, that's not going to happen. they're going to have a tax to pay, border tax, substantial border tax. we think we can cut regulations

by 75%. maybe more. one thing i do have to warn you about, when you have a company here, you have a plant here, it's going to be in indiana or it's in ohio, or it's in michigan or it's in north carolina or pennsylvania, anywhere in this country, when it decides -- when you decide, if you decide to close it and you no longer will have a real reason, because your taxes are going to be lower. by the way, if you go to another state, that's it. that's great. but if that happens, we are going to be opposing a very major border tax on the product when it comes in. we want to start making our products again. we don't want to bring them in. we want to make them here. if you stay here, there's no tax. all you have to to is stay. don't leave. don't fire your people in the united states. >> reporter: and on the way out we had an opportunity to hear from some of those ceos, including andrew liveris of dow

chemical. and also mark fields from ford. >> i come out of the meeting with a lot of confidence that the president is very, very serious on making sure that the united states economy is going to be strong and have policies, tax regulatory or trade to drive that. and i think that encourages all of us as ceos as we make decisions going forward. so it was a very, very positive meeting. and i think very positive meeting for the united states of america and manufacturing in general. >> reporter: guys, the ceo said they've been given a 30-daytimeline to come up with ideas and proposals. president trump said he wants to make a regular affair, not monthly necessarily but maybe a quarterly session with ceos in the top manufacturing companies in the country. that gives you an idea how much of a focus that will be at the white house. >> let's hear from former white house press secretary,

arifleischer who knows all too well what comes with it. in his walk-up to his inauguration, laser focus on job creation, manufacturing, american business. all good. it seems they got distracted this weekend by some side shows, having to do with crowd size at the inauguration and other things like that, that led to a rather contentious first press briefing on saturday. you've been there. is there anything that mr. spicer needs to correct today when he meets with the press on -- at roughly 1:30? if he does correct anything, walk back some of the alternate facts that were floated this weekend, will he be employed tomorrow? >> well, yeah, i think he will be employed tomorrow. look, there's a reason and a time and a place to fight with

the press. and i used to do it myself. it comes with the territory. every press secretary has. every press secretary will. but you want to do it when you have high ground. i thought the white house had high ground when they were making the case that the press was trying to delegitimize the trump presidency, when the press falsely reported that they removed the bust of the martin luther king. i don't think they had the high ground when they said how many people showed up to watch the inauguration. who cares? i think the white house had some good arguments. they never should have gotten into the argument about crowd size. >> so does he need, though, then, having said -- cited facts that he said were facts about the number of people who went through the turnstyles at the d.c. metro station that turned out not to be the case, according to the d.c. metro. does he need to correct that or

not? should he just leave it? >> no, you correct it. if you're the white house press secretary, and this has happened and it will happen. it's happened forever. statistics, sometimes you get them wrong. what you need to do is say it forthrightly. i've been updated. here are the statistics. here is the broader point i was making and you go on. if it was a mistake just say it. >> sometimes we in the media get things wrong. it's amazing. statistics and so forth. i've done it myself. >> ari, you said who cares. president donald trump care. >> that's right. >> he's very, very concerned about being perceived as popular. he hates being slightly. we saw that throughout the entire campaign trail, whether it was the former miss venezuelan, miss universe, whoever she was. these are things that matter to him. i mean, wasn't sean spicer probably doing what he was ordered to do? >> absolutely. i tweeted that, that sean was doing what the president told him to do. i can only picture the scene near the press office or in the

oval office when the president said to sean you need to go out, fix this and you need to fix it now. and the poor press secretary is put under tremendous pressure when that happens to gather data, make the case. and sean knows, he's working for a boss who wants him to be very vigorous with the press corps. so he's trying to find that balance of how to do it. it's a tough balance to find. no question, sean did what the president wanted him to do. nevertheless, i will make the case that sitting in my comfortable chair offer here, crowd size is not an important matter, should not be an important matter. >> ari, is there any way that any of this might be a trap, deliberately set for the media to distract from everything else that's not going on? and maybe we are falling right into that trap? or is that just a way too mockevelian way of looking at it? >> no, michelle had it right. he did what the president

wanted. that's the press secretary's job, to reflect what the president is thinking and why he's thinking it. >> let's talk about the first 100 days of the administration. how is everybody settling in from mr. bannon, the senior adviser and more? what's it like? how to you get your bearings? >> it is a delightful, crushing moment of joy. i mean, it really -- the excitement, the exhilaration. you walk through that door to the west wing, a marine opens up the door. you're surrounded by history. you know who has been in these rooms, from john adams forward. this is what the mansion has been an occupant of. and the west wing was built in the early 20th century, if i've got my history right. see, that could be a fact i got wrong. but it's such a sense of national honor and exhilaration. >> i'll bet. >> but at the same time, it very quickly becomes a crushing burden, too. you carry tremendous weight on

your shoulders when you're in that job. >> ari, don't move. we want to hear you about what else is going on this morning. john harwood is telling us about the president signing a bunch of executive orders today. john, more on that story. >> michelle, let talk about the things that president obama -- excuse me, president trump has done with the stroke of his pen. first of all, he signed an order, announcing the withdrawal of the united states from the transpacific partnership. that is a break from the bipartisan consensus of presidents to expand multilateral trade deals, something he said he was going to do in the campaign. the united states was not in that trade deal because it was never passed by the senate. limited immediate effect since it was expected to be killed anyway. now he has also signaled his intent to renegotiate nanta. that involves canada and mexico as well as the united states congress, both houses of which passed nafta in president bill clinton's administration. third, he has implemented a

regulatory freeze and then today a hiring freeze. both of these attempts to show his commitment to reducing the growth of government. and then, finally, on his first day in office, he proposed an order allowing his appointees to roll back certain elements or loosen certain restrictions under obamacare. not yet sure exactly how far they intend to go. anything they -- the further they go to undercut obamacare, the more potential destabilization of the individual insurance market there will be. and it's been clear that the administration does not want to blow up the individual insurance market immediately. we'll have to wait and see exactly what the effects of that are. most importantly for our audience, of course, is transpacific partnership. paul ryan, the house speaker, putting out a gentle statement saying this affirmed president trump s decision to formally

withdraw from the transpacific partnership. john mccain saying this will have lasting consequences for america's economy and strategic position in the asia pacific region. back to you. >> this is what he said he was going to do. >> people are frustrated with politicians because they run on one thing and change their mind as soon as they're in office. tpp, former presidents above the bipartisan pushed for trade agreements like this. bernie sanders, hillary clinton, donald trump all ran against tpp. and that's a sign of what's changing in the country. >> all right. ari, thank you very much. do not go too far away. we are just minutes away from another white house press briefing. we will carry it live as soon as it begins. >> while we're waiting for that, happening right now, the president of mexico making

important foreign policy speech today. just finished, in fact. and he says a number of key things. he says we'll define our relationship with the u.s., we are going to try to modernize about prioritize a trade deal with the european union instead, working close with brazil, argentina and other latin american countries and immediately begin trying to negotiate bilateral trade agreements with all the countries that were in the tpp. so, mexico very concerned about president trump. this was designed to be a response. we found out over the weekend he was going to do this, directly to be a response to the new administration here in the united states and how mexico was going to deal with this very aggressive tone from the president. melissa? >> reporter: thanks, michelle. still ahead on "power lunch" live from the world's largest etf conference here in hollywood, flchorida. what's the next big thing? stick around to find out.

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welcome back to "power lunch." i'm melissa lee in hollywood, florida, at the etf conference. bob pichlt sani joins me now. biggest thing now is something trump related. >> every single question was on trump etfs. what is the trump effect on the markets overall? a lot of people trying to construct portfolios of etfs, construction etfs, financial etfs or short trump etfs, short the dollar, clean energy, for example. >> those etfs, it's not clear whether you would be long or short, let's say, a defense etf, given the day's tweets. >> tweet risk is amazing. a lot of people were playing ideas like oil and gas. for example, if mr. trump was making positive comments on the restaurant industry one afternoon, there was an etf for

that. people were urging investors to be a lot more nimble. active versus passive? is this a year where active etfs might be big, for example, in fixed income? would this be a good year to do that? maybe you want a guy who will move you into cash. >> speaking of fixed income, let's bring in karen schiavone at blackrock. thanks for joining us. >> absolutely. thanks for having me. >> you think fixed income may not be the best place to be yet you're seeing clients wanting stability, refuge from the volatility in the markets? >> absolutely. we had a lot of about $70 billion in bond etf flows in the u.s. last year. i don't think that trend will low down for a couple of reasons. we're seeing investors coming back into core bond etfs like agg. investors thinking growth is going to occur in the economy because of the new ols, that

speaks to corporate credit. we're seeing a lot of interest in lqd. we're seeing investors, for example, concerned about the tax policy. what does that mean for munis? very heavily invested in municipal bonds, peeling back that exposure and going into corporate credit as a way to diversify around that risk. >> $70 billion in inflows last year. how much of that was pretrump and how much in outflows did you see post trump? >> absolutely. we saw most of the inflows were occurring all throughout the year. if you remember last year, we'll set the stage back. we had oil falling to about $26 a barrel. and we had a huge rally in credit after that. a lot of inflows into hyd and throughout the year, $11 billion in agg as investors were looking for core fixed income exposure. following the trump rally, we had a little peel back in munis, but investors going into short duration bonds ahead of the fed hike we had in december. so, the flows were very strong all throughout the year. >> set up for a very interesting

push and pull in bonds. demographic trends, people like me, baby boomers getting older, putting more money into bonds. on the other hand, people are concerned about the lower prices and higher yields. how is that going to dynamically play out? >> we spent many, many years helping investors think about rising rates and how is that going to play through. the demographic shift is interesting. while investors might be worried about a little bit of rise in interest rates if you're an investor with any sort of time horizon, it's your friend. invest in higher levels and get more income out of your portfolio. blackrock conducted an etf pulse survey that revealed 70% of millenials we survey are looking to get into etfs this year. you're seeing both on the older side of the population, looking to shift into bonds. we're seeing younger investors that are just getting started to build portfolios are doing it with an etf.

>> some people have been making an argument, this is the year for active management in bond world because you want someone standing there in case things go south. you want someone to move it in. you want a jeff gundlach, pinco. your position on that? >> absolutely. at blackrock we have both. it's not an either/or but how you want to build portfolios. we see investors gravitating toward etfs because they're tax efficient and can give them a precise exposure. we don't know what trump will do with all the tweets, move the market in certain ways. at certain times there could be an opportunity to get into high yield, into floating rate securities, to get into emerging market bonds depending how the policies work out. as a tactical opportunity, etf is an elegant vehicle for doing that. >> karen, thank you for your time. karen schenone of blackrock. tyler, back over to you. >> thank you very much. let's take a look live at the white house press briefing room.

president trump's new press secretary, sean spicer, expected to, it says, address the media in just a few minutes. we will bring that to you. at least dip in and out of it as soon as it happens. we will be right back in two minutes.

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welcome back to "power lunch." i'm rick santelli on the floor of the cmt group. these 240 ar all the way down to the 230s is packed with consolidation. let's look at one-year charts, shall we? tens there, clearly an upside to rates, but it's not unique to the united states. it's unique to commodity countries. look at the canadian ten-year, 167. look at the aussie ten-year, 275. let's look to europe, we know the pound has lost a bunch. look what's going on with the rates, still the same pattern. finally, of course, let's go to bunds even though it's below 40 basis points it's hovering near the highest yields they closed at in a year. central bank policy may not be going in opposite directions with the speed many of us once thought. brian, back to you, and the gang. >> thanks, i'll take it, rick. take a look at a live picture of the white house press briefing room. white house press secretary sean

spicer expected to hold a press briefing at any moment. we think we've gotten the two-minute warning. we'll bring it to you as it begins. meantime, let's bring in ari fleischer, former white house press, who has joined us for the show he here. he didn't take any questions, questions, if any, on saturday. >> to use a baseball analogy saturday was the top of the first. now we're in the bottom of the first. it's the press' turn to bat. they're going to ask sean to justify the statements he made about the statistics that he used and either sean will be able to do so, 36 more hours to research it, get the facts clear or he's going to have to explain if he made a mistake why he said what he said. frankly, this is the way the process should work. let the press secretary make an assertion and let the press ask whatever questions it has. >> do you agree maybe -- to brian's question earlier, all of this about the crowd sizes, it's

ridiculous, right? >> correct. >> meantime he has signed executive orders related to obamacare, regulation, related to trade, et cetera. >> right. >> it seems those of us who sit here in new jersey that the washington press corps are running after these little crumbs all the time rather than the focus on the much bigger issues. >> i totally agree with that. i think it is important to point out it was also unusual for a wut hou white house to have that event saturday and take no questions. i think what's going to happen today, the press will go back to the saturday briefing and ask questions. if they dwell on it too much, though, it's going to hurt the press corps. if they touch on it ask three, four, five questions and move off of it to more important substantive matters it will be a good day for both the press and the white house. last thing the press should do is get into a feeding frenzy about this 36 hours later. it will only hurt the press. >> is the white house having a better day today than it did saturday? >> they're having a different

day. that's life at the white house. different days at the white house, you're going to be up. one day you'll be in the barrel. next day you'll be out of the barrel. welcome to life at the white house. when you work there, you want to put yourself inside the barrel as little as possible. somebody else is going to put you there. don't do it yourself. >> your best advice, ari, to every man and woman in that press room right now? >> love it. enjoy it. it's the honor of a lifetime. to sean, serve the country. serve the world. serve your president. >> that's all good stuff. i mean, is it better to be combative with sean? what's the tact that they should take? >> no. the press should not necessarily be combative. the press' job -- i was going to get to this. the press' job is to be fair, accurate and neutral, even if the press secretary or president are antagonistic. it doesn't matter if a president praises you or president speaks derisiveely of you. your job is to be fair, neutral

and accurate. that's the way the press should be. if the press comes across as confrontational and it turns into a blowup, it doesn't help the press. people think the press looks bad, too. ask your questions, good, sharp, pointed questions. make sean justify the facts that he used. if the press says what you used was inaccurate, state what's accurate and make sean defend it or justify it. but both sides need to lower the tension. they're going to be living with each other in that room for a long time. >> to your point, the president's popularity ratings, whatever they are, the press' popularity is even lower, frankly. do you think damage has been done to the press? >> the press has damaged itself immensely over the last several decades. gallup poll came out and showed the trust of the american people to tell the news fully, fairly, accurately is at an historic low. if people don't think that they can accomplish their mission,

which is to tell the news, people won't believe the press. when people don't believe the press, it gives donald trump leverage over the press. the press has brought a lot of this on itself. >> i was going to say, the degree of the level that a capable commentator is aghast at certain statements, what is very effective on the part of people like kellyanne conway, she changes the subject, why aren't you so upset about madonna saying she's going to bomb the white house? if the shoe were on the other foot, you would be screaming and yelling. i don't think she's wrong. it's very unfair, the treatment. it doesn't make lying or alternate facts right, but it makes the population prerhaps abut more sympathetic to the president. >> the press' way of reacting to this is we have to be even tougher on donald trump, which is what they're saying, they're only going to hurt themselves more. 86% of republicans don't trust

them. 70% of independents and 49% of democrats, according to that gallup poll. all they do now is get tougher on donald trump, the only people who will believe them are democrats and republicans and 70% of independents will have even less reason to believe the press. >> did you find the press trustworthy or not trustworthy? >> i found them to be biased. i found that since i started on capitol hill in the '80s. reporters largely are liberal. they largely are ideologically liberal on social issues particularly, but even on issues of the economy. they look at korpgcorporations, business, and put a target on their back. you're doing something to exploit people because you're making profits. i've always seen this in the press corps. journalists will deny it and say we are neutral and i beg to differ. that is not the case at all. >> you know, just to comment, do you know how many of our brethren have actually taken an econ class?

>> exactly. >> very few. >> to explain supply and demand to them sometimes is a struggle. they tend to be anti-business because they don't understand it. >> i took one. i didn't do well. but at virginia tech. any hokie will know who he is. we've got a split screen up there if you're on the radio. on the left you see a press room with a lot of people but no press secretary just yet. we are seconds away, that's what we anticipate, for sean spicer to walk out and do his second press briefing. we'll see if this one goes better or perhaps worse or more contested than the first one was. just a reminder, we are, hopefully, seconds away from that. ari, again, i go back to my original question, which michelle followed up on as well. look what we're doing. we're sitting here, talking to you, wasting time -- not wasting it, but spending time talking about us. we're talking about the media. the media once again has become obsessed with the media. i'm as egotistical as the next

guy and love talking about myself, but i'm not sure we're serving the american public adequately. >> we advocated taking the briefing off live tv. part of the problem is it's become a tv show in and of itself. it should not be a tv show. it should be one piece of data that reporters use as they gather data all day long to write stories and go online about what the white house is doing. it's become such a dramatic show, which the press secretary will play his part on the tv show. the press will strut and popp wrch yy poppycock. we're sitting here, waiting to watch it. >> now to be fair to my team, i guess, the media, if you will, spicer and trump and kellyanne, they've been poking us, right? at some point you want to poke

back, do you not? >> sure, but poke back and do so respectfully, but not on a live tv show. and don't let sean poke you on a live tv show. that's my point. use snippets to report on the evening news but this live notion of must see tv takes what should be a serious briefing of policy, substance and fact and puts it into too much glamour, glitz, back and forth. that's not good. >> let's get back to the president's agenda and talk a little bit about the sequencing of things that are on his desk. obviously, he has signed executive orders about withdrawing from the transpacific partnership today. he did some things regarding sort of stepping back from obamacare over the weekend and also this morning. how, in the white house, do you sequence what you're going to do first as opposed to what you're going to do second and third and on down the line? and, specifically here, it looks

like there's more immediate focus on obamacare than there is on tax reform and so forth. but maybe you can walk and chew gum at the same time. >> well, your sequence is a reflection of the president's priorities. and the bush white house, first thing george w. bush did was focus on education reform and secondly on tax reform. those were the first two major pieces of legislation to pass in 2001. for donald trump, the very first thing he did was move forward toward the repeal of obamacare. tpp, trade, jobs. he's going to also move, i predict, on building the wall and on immigration reform. he has a pile-up of things that he ran on. if i'm donald trump, i run on all of them and move all of them as soon as i possibly can now while he has relative strength on his side. that's how he will be most effective. >> don't move. we thought we got the two-minute warning. maybe not. awaiting president trump's new press secretary, sean spicer.

we'll bring that to you live when they begin. stick with us. ..

hi, shall. i'm sue herera here is your c kls nbc update this hour. iraqi forces retook most of mosul's eastern half from isis. a measure of calm has returned to many of the eastern neighborhoods. sign of hope for emergency crews digging into an avalanche-slammed hotel in italy. residency can cuers finding three puppies under the debris and they all appear to be in pretty good condition. the puppies survived for days under tons of snow, giving crews new hope for the 23 people still missing in that disaster. severe storms that rolled in overnight causing a lot of damage in southern florida. a reported tornado may have hit a school facility in palm beach gardens. trees and power lines are down, knocking out power to thousands of people.

sierra nevada brewing company are recalling select bottles of its pale ales, a packaging flaw that could cause piece of glass to fall into the bottles, produced between december 5th, 2016, and january 8, 2017. if you have them, check them. that's the news update this hour. back to you, michelle. >> thank you very much, sue. we are still awaiting a white house press briefing. and against the advice of our previous guest, ari fleischer, we're going to carry it live. chief investment officer of heartland financial, and charlie reunhart at mainstay investments. lady and gentleman, good to have you here. >> great to be here. >> slowdown in the markets, nancy, since the big euphoria after the election. what's wrong? >> i think we're playing a bit of catchup.

earnings have exceeded, 74% of the 55-ish companies that have reported, exceeded by a good margin. we haven't seen that pull through to the markets. people are distracted by the side show, investors in particular, and are waiting to see if we'll go back to those policies that were driving the euphoria, the tax reform, the repate ration. >> pro growth saying there will be a border tax if you move your company. sounds very protectionist. certainly things are going to get much better. what do you interpret the truth to be, charlie? >> i think the truth is that he will touch trade. already made very clear that trade will be an important part of this policy and that he wants more goods to be made in the

united states. now, the market, speaking to nancy's point just before, likes some of the other parts of the agenda. the market likes the idea of rolling back regulation. the market likes the idea of lowering taxes. however, as we enter the conversation about trade, the market, everything else being equal, would rather not see protectionist overtones. that being said, four years from now, if world trade is at an all-time high and production is up big time in the united states, i think people will be happy with it. >> nancy, as i sit here and look at my screens, you have all the macro stuff up, the dow. it's like buy the house, buy the car, everything is higher. stock market, dollar. where is all that money coming from? >> i think there was a lot of money on the sidelines. >> what does that mean? literally somebody's bank account? >> yeah, or in cash.

cash in brokerage accounts earning nothing. >> people frustrated and annoyed with the stock market finally said okay i'm going to put some money to work? >> i think so. we heard from our clients calling us in december, asking us to increase their allocation to equities. you look at the aaai indicator, bullish indicator went from 28%, individual investors, all the way up to over 50 overnight. so, i do think that the long-term policies, if followed, will be intact, that will be very good for stocks. there has been sector movement. we've seen a lot of strength in like pharmaceuticals, et cetera. >> i want to highlight, we've seen some of the staff come in there. you see kellyanne conway as we await sean spicer and his first official press briefing where we assume he will actually take some questions as opposed to saturday where he just made a statement. charlie, what do you do and how do you invest right now when, as you point out, focused on the positive stuff.

tax cuts, et cetera, but worried about protectionism. >> you have to think beyond the first 100 days. three things we're addressing this year. we see commodity prices rising. you want commodity sensitive exposure. rising interest rates is second. we're thinking you want to be toward high yield, short duration, high yield, maybe considering floating rate notes. and then the third is that underneath it all, we think that we're in a 5% to 7% total return environment but a bumpy one. so, there are things that you can also do to protect your portfolio. you might want to consider convertible securities which provide some participation in a rising market and also some protective qualities when markets face some turbulence. >> i would note you're still a supporter of alphabet, right? we had you on -- new all-time high today, right? >> yep. >> that's worked out for you. >> still in our buy range. we added tesla and still have the facebook value play. i'm waiting for the growth guys to come back in so i can sell it

to them. >> nancy, thank you so much, and charlie. all right, guys. now we think we're less than a minute away from sean spicer. this is the first really full day of work, press briefing. we presume he's going to take questions as opposed to what we saw on saturday. what are you sxkti inexpecting guys? >> i think he's going to take questions and focus at the start with a statement, in all likelihood, about what the president has done so far today and over the weekend. i suspect he will talk about moving forward on some of the confirmations of appointments to the cabinet. i believe there's some action later today on the part of the state, maybe cia, getting his team assembled here comes, i would gather from that, sean spicer. >> good afternoon, everyone. thanks for coming out to our first official briefing in the brady room. i want to start with a little recap of the inauguration. i think we've covered that pretty well. by the way, as i get started, i know that josh earnest was voted

the most popular press secretary by the press corps. so, after reading, checking my twitter feed, i shot josh an e-mail last night, letting him know that he can rest easy, that his title is secure for at least the next few days. let me begin by saying that the president has been closely monitoring the severe weather in the southeast. he spoke by phone with governor deal of georgia yesterday and offered his condolences and support. today, president trump has focused on fulfilling his pledge to pursue trade policies that put america first. the president began his day with a breakfast with key u.s. business leaders where the focus of the discussion was on job creation and growing our manufacturing base. business leaders who attended included michael dell, founder and ceo of del, krechlt o of whirlpool, mark fields, ceo of ford, ceo of johnson & johnson, marilyn huson, ceo of lockheed martin, andrew liveris ceo of

dow. elon musk of space x and tesla. mark sutton, wendell weeks, ceo of corning, chief of staff reince priebus, chief of staff and senior adviser steven miller. the breakfast was an opportunity for the president to hear directly from meamerica's top business leaders about the challenges they're facing and take suggestions as to what policies and action could help them create jobs and grow our manufacturing base. the meeting created strong ideas and he will have them reconvene in a month and then meet on a quarterly basis. fair deals that create jobs, increase american wages and reduce americans' trade deficit. he appointed a tough and smart number of trade experts who will fight on behalf of american

workers. with that vision in mind, the president has already taken several steps today. first, he issued a presidential memorandum, withdrawing the united states from the transpacific partnership. tpp is a multilateral agreement that includes the united states and 11 other countries. as the president has said many times, this type of multinational agreement is not in our best interest and he's moving quickly to advance trade policies that increase the competitiveness of the american worker and manufacturer. this executive action ushers in a new era of u.s. trade policy in which the trump administration will pursue bilateral trade opportunities with allies around the globe. this is a strong signal that the trump administration wants free and fair trade throughout the world. additionally, the president issued a memorandum, re-establishing the mexico city policy, stating that the united states will end the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions overseas, along with coercive abortion and sterilization practices. finally, the president issued a

memorandum, outlining executive branch hiring. this memorandum counters dramatic expansion of the federal workforce in recent years. in particular, it prevents filling vacant positions and creating new positions except when necessary to meet national or public security responsibilities. it does not apply to military personnel and it ensures that the american taxpayers get effective and efficient government. earlier in the day, the president spoke with egyptian president and discussed ways to deepen the bilateral relationship and support egypt's fight against terrorists and bolster egypt's home grown and historic economic reform program. president trump underscored the united states remains strongly committed to the bilateral relationship, which has helped both countries overcome challenges in the region for decades. the president committed to working, continuing with military assistance to i jiegypd working with egypt, supporting the egyptian fight against terrorism. the president also commend the

president of egypt. finally the two leaders discussed a visit to the united states in the future. the president then had lunch with the vice president where they recapped this morning's meetings and discussed next steps. they also discussed plans to advance the president's legislative agenda to make america safer and more prosperous. also today the president signed destinations for acting heads of executive departments in agencies to maintain continuity in those critical positions. at 3:00, union leaders and front line workers will meet with the president to discuss his pro worker agenda. atte attendees include mike flynn, terry o'sullivan, general president of the national labor union of north america, mark mcmanus, general president of the united association, donald mullins, steamfitters, frank

spencer, united brotherhood of carpenters. mark holz of iron workers number five. joseph sellers jr., general president of the sheet metal workers union/smart union. thelma m. mata. mark ukowski, steve dodd, smart union. the president has been honored to receive tremendous support from union working men and women on election day and is dedicated to growing and deepening their support. and he made it a priority to meet with these union workers on our working day one here in the white house. the offshoring of american jobs and lack of economic growth in recent years has hit american workers particularly hard. and the president's top priority is to retain and attract american jobs, which have already been seen happening on

carrier, sprint, general motors and so many more. at 5:00, the president will host a bipartisan meeting with leaders here at the white house, including the vice president, senate majority leader, senate majority whip, senate minority leader and senate minority whip, house democratic leader, house democratic whip, white house chief of staff, our chief strategist, chief of staff to the vice president and chiefs of staff from those respective offices. the purpose of the meeting is to get the president's agenda mvg through congress. the american people are frustrated with the lack of progress here in washington and the president wants no delay in addressing our most pressing issues, taking every opportunity to forge strong bonds with congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle. one of the other subjects to come up is the status of his nom nis during this meeting. it's important to note in 2009 president obama had seven of his nominees confirmed on day one and five more in the first week. as it stands today, we have two.

democrats even held up the confirmation of cia director mike pompeo, needlessly leaving one of our most important national security agencies without its top leader on day one. it's time for senate democrats to stop playing political games with the core functions of government and allow president trump's unquestionably talented group of cabinet nominees get to work on behalf of the american people. rounding out today's schedule after the reception i mentioned he will have a meeting with the house speaker, paul ryan. they will discuss the republican agenda and strategy going forward. earlier in the day, the president nominated former new mexico congresswoman heather which wiilson as the next secre the air force. she grew up in key new hampshire and made history as part of the third u.s. air force academy class that included women. she earned her masters degree and doctoral degrees as a rhodes scholar and on the national security office under president

george h.w. bush. as you know, we are all about big viewerships and large audiences here. so i want to tell but an effort we're undertaking in the press briefing room to offer up more access to a group of journalists around the country. beginning later this week i'm excited to announce we'll have four what we call skype seats in the briefing room, opening it up to journalists who live beyond 50 miles from the area any organization is welcome to apply for day pass. we're excited to welcome up into the field diverse group of journalists from around the country who may not have the convenience or funding to travel to washington. i think this can benefit us all by giving a platform to voices that are not necessarily based here in the beltway. looking ahead, the president will have a breakfast tomorrow with the auto industry, including heads of gm, chrysler and ford. he looks forward to hearing their ideas about how we can

bring more jobs back to this industry in particular. on wednesday, the president will host a swearing in ceremony from new secretary of homeland security, general james kelly -- john kelly. on friday he will do the same for secretary mattis at the department of defense. on thursday, he will travel to philadelphia to attend the republican house and senate retreat and on friday, he will welcome his first foreign head of state, british prime minister may. with that, i look forward to taking your questions. daniel halpersn [ inaudible question ] >> the president has noted a serious priority of his throughout the campaign. he has started to work with congress on the appropriations avenue of that. he is doing everything he can to direct agencies and congress to commence with that work as soon as possible. >> what about obamacare, are you enforcing the mandate or not?

>> enforcing the mandate? >> yes, the obamacare mandate. >> the president has made it clear he will work with congress and part of the discussion he is going to have tonight with some of these leaders and again with paul ryan, how we can work to implement both the repeal and replace aspects of this. jennifer wisham? >> of all the policies and actions the president chose to take he chose to reinstate the mexico city policy. what message is he sending here? does he see the elimination, reduction of abortions as an american value? and also here at home, can pro-life americans expect him to put his signature on legislation that will defund planned parenthood? >> i think the president, it's no secret, has made it very clear he's a pro-life president. he wants to stand up for all americans, including the unborn. and i think the reinstatement of this policy is not just something that echoes that value but respect taxpayer funding as well and ensures we're standing up not just for life, for life

of the unborn, but for also taxpayer funds being spent overseas to perform an action that are contrary to the values of this president and continue to further illustrate not just to folks here in this country but around the world what a value we place on life. jennifer rodriguez? >> janet. >> janet, i'm sorry. >> thank you. what did he mean when he said he would work through congress to get a special something, we don't know what it is, for recipients. when can we expect that to happen? and when can we expect the white house spanish site to be back up? >> two questions. let me start with the latter first. as you know, we got -- we hit the ground running on day one. there was a lot to do. we had done a lot of work on the website to make sure that we were prepared to get as much information up as fast as possible. we are continuing to build out the website both in the issue areas and then that area.

we've got the i.t. folks working overtime to get that up to speed. trust me, it's going to take more time but we're working piece by piece. on the daca piece, the president has been clear he was going to prioritize the areas of dealing with the immigration system, both building the wall and addressing people in this country illegally. first and foremost, the president has been very, very clear, that we need to direct agencies to focus on those in this country illegally and have a record, a criminal record or pose a threat to the american people. that's where the priority is going to be. and then we'll continue to work through the entire number of folks that are here illegally. but right now the clear focus is on that. >> fox business. >> i want to ask a few questions. two questions. the president campaigned on the corporate tax cut rate of 15% and today when he met with business leaders, he had mentioned that the tax rate would drop to somewhere between 15% to 20%.

is he moving the goal post there in any way? and my second question is on government spending, there have been reports that he might be looking at $10 trillion over the course of ten years. is that accurate? and would you be willing to wrap up entitlements to get there? >> i think, first -- i'll take the other one first on entitlements -- or on spending. you saw this with the hiring freeze. there's been, frankly, to some respect to taxpayer dollars for a long time. through the hiring freeze, first and foremost today, the president is showing that we have to respect the american taxpayer. they're working real hard. some people working two, three jobs just to get by. to see money get wasted in washington on a job that is duplicative is insulting to the hard work they do to pay their taxes. that comes into your question in overall spending as well. we have to look at how we're spending the american people's tax money. what the landing teams have been doing is going into these

agencies and departments and talking about ways to create greater efficiencies, eliminate duplicity and maximize the tax dollar. it's more a question, instead of just cutting, it's about how do we spend and respect the american taxpayer dollar more than going forward? april ryan? >> more than 15%? >> oh, sorry. the president is a very successful businessman and negotiator. he will sit down and work with congress to get the best deal possible for american businesses so they can hire more people and we can grow the economy. he is going to work with congress on that rate. he understands better than anybody how to negotiate a great deal. he is going to negotiate the best deal on behalf of the american worker and on behalf of the american businesses that are hiring them. that was a lot of the focus that went on today. talking to these companies. it was interesting. the meeting was only supposed to last an hour. it overflowed another hour into

the oval office. he kept asking, what ideas do you have? what prevents you from hiring people? what regulations are stopping you from conducting more business? what are the ways that we can give you more market access to other countries around the globe? that's what his focus will continue to be. how do we create a tax and regulatory environment that grows the economy and benefits the american worker? it's not just about creating who are jobs but about lifting up those jobs through higher wages. april ryan? >> sean, a couple of questions if you'll allow me to take them one at a time. elijah cummings, maryland congressman, confirmed that president donald trump talked to him at the luncheon about the high price of prescription drugs. when is this meeting set? is it coming up soon? when will he meet with the full body of the congressional black caucus as well as the hispanic

caucus about those issues? >> i'm not aware of the conversation. you've heard the president talk about the price of pharmaceutical drugs and the need to get those prices down and bring manufacturing back in the pharmaceutical industry to benefit the country. it's an issue he will continue to work on. he understands as we reform health care, repeal and replace obamacare that getting ahold of the cost of prescription drugs to give more people access to them but allow greater plans in health care. that's going to be a key part of it. so, i mean, that's going to happen. look, i think you're seeing with respect to the other meetings, it's day one. working day one here. it's going to start with the leadership. he will have a great conversation with them. but then i think you're going to see a variety of meetings, congressional black caucus, hispanic caucus, small groups of -- he's someone who really enjoys that kind of conversation. i think you'll see a lot of meetings occur like the ones you did today. business leaders coming in,

union workers. it's interesting. the president was asking these folks today, how many of you have been in the oval office? three of them raised their hand. we talked to some of these union leaders and hear we didn't get a lot of attention. here we are on working day one and you've got the president reaching out to some of america's best business leaders and some of the union workers and line workers and bringing them in and saying i want to listen to what's going on in your life. what can we be doing to help you? and i think that you're going to see a lot more of that. a listening president who is engaged and trying to figure out what policies and actions that he can take, that this government can take, that he can work with congress to make people's lives better, to make their security better, to make their economic security better. but you're going to see a lot of that. that's who he is. that's what he did during the transition. and i think that's what he's going to do going forward. he appreciates the ideas and opinions that come through the oval office or small groups where he gets to share their

perspective, their ideas and their opinions. i think that's what he will continue to do later this afternoon. john case -- i'm sorry, april? >> i'm sorry. i want to go back to what the gentleman said about the mandate, new york post gentleman. he said something about the obamacare mandate. with the numbers that you talked about and has been in the news from inauguration day and the numbers saturday, do you believe that you have the mandate to be able to force through what you had talked about, replacing portions of obamacare that really subsidize the whole piece of it to help low-income people get health care? >> i think what we have is a mandate to make health care more accessible and lower costs. that's what the american people are promised under obamacare. it's not a question about a mandate or about forcing anything. it's about doing the right thing. it's about providing people what they've been promised, which is you go around this country and look market after market, they're down to one plan.

that's not what the american people were promised. not only that but rates are going up 10, 20rks 30, 50%. that's not what they were promised either. he has got bipartisan support to work with congress, take executive action where necessary, to implement a health care system that provides more people health care, truly allows them to keep the plan they're signing up for, lowers cost, creates more competition. do i think he has a mandate? sure. it's not about -- it's not on this issue. i think all leaders have a mandate from the american people to fix the system and make it bette better. >> julie pace? >> there's some discrepancy between what the russian is saying and what the pentagon is saying in terms of some potential joint action. >> right. >> can you clarify that? generally, is the president open to joint action with the russians? >> i would refer you back to the department of defense. that's still developing.

i know they're currently monitoring this and would refer you back to them on that. the president has been very clear that he's going to work with any country that shares our interest in defeating isis. not just on the national security front but on the economic front. if we can can work with someone to create greater market access and spur economic growth and allow u.s. businesses and small companies -- >> joint military actions with russia and syria. >> if there's a way that we can combat isis with any country, whether it's russia or anyone else and have a shared national interest in that, sure, we'll take it. >> when he was at the cia on saturday, he was talking about the u.s. not taking oil during the iraq war and said that there could be another chance for that. what did he mean when he said that? >> what the president has been very clear about in foreign policy is too often the united states is going in with a lot of money, lot of manpower and, in many cases losing both loss of life. and we want to make sure that our interests are protected. if we're going into a country for a cause, he wants to make sure that america is getting

something out of it for the commitment and the sacrifice that we're making. >> does he mean by -- >> no, he has been very clear throughout the campaign that he is committed to making sure that america, the american people, the american taxpayer, sees some benefit in ensuring our interests overseas is not just sending blank checks, that we're doing something to protect america or is in our economic interest. john roberts? >> executive actions, does the president plan to take action to green light the excel and dakota pipelines? and on tpp john mccain says it was a serious mistake to do what the president did for america's economy and for our strategic position. why was tpp the right thing to do? >> why was it the -- >> why was it the right thing to do to repeal tpp? >> i think i said it. because the multilateral -- when you enter into these multinational agreements you're

allowing any country, no matter the size, any one of those 12, including us, to have the same stature as the united states in the agreement. we're basically on par with some very small companies, who are getting access to an amazing market, the united states. and in return, we're negotiating at the lowest common denominator. when you look at big, multinational, multilateral agreements they're not always in the best interest of the united states. the beautiful thing about a bilateral agreement is if any one of the two parties in the agreement decides at any time they want to get out of the agreement or they're not being treated fairly they can renegotiate it much easier. in a multinational agreement that's not the case. in many cases all the other countries have to agree to an action or to let somebody out. that's not putting the u.s. interests first. >> the question about the da tota access? >> i won't get in front of the president's actions but i can tell you that the keystone pipeline, areas we can increase jobs, economic growth and tap

into america's energy supply more, that's something he has been very clear about. i think he talked about it not only on the campaign but around the thanksgiving period, he was talking about that being a big priority. that's one of those ones where i think that the energy sector in our natural resources are an area where the president is very, very keen on making sure that we maximize our use of natural resources to america's benefit. it's good for economic growth. it's good for jobs and it's good for american energy. jonathan carl? >> thanks for being here. great to see you. >> thank you. >> before i get to a policy question, just the question about the nature of your job. >> yeah. >> is it your intention to always tell the truth from that podium? and will you pledge never to knowingly say something that is not factual? >> it is. it's an honor to do this. and, yes, i believe that we have to be honest with the american people. i think sometimes we can disagree with the facts. there are certain things that we may miss, may not fully understand when we come out but our intention is never to lie to

you, jonathan. our job is to make sure that sometimes -- you're in the same boat. there are times when you guys tweet something out or write a story and you publish a correction. that doesn't mean that you were intentionally trying to deceive readers and the american people, does it? i think we should be afforded the same opportunity. there are times when we believe something to be true or we get something from an agency or we act in haste because the information available wasn't complete, our desire to communicate with the american people to make sure you have the most complete story at the time. so we do it. but again when you look net/net, we are going to do our best every time we can. i'm going to come out here and tell you the facts as i know them. if we make a mistake i'll do my best to correct it. i don't -- as i mentioned the other day, it is a two-way street. there are many mistakes that the media makes all the time. they misreport something. they don't report something. they get a fact wrong. i don't think that's always to turn around and say, okay, you were intentionally lying.

i think we all go, try to do our best job and do it with a degree of integrity in our respective industries. >> do you have any corrections that you would like to make or clarifications of what you said saturday? >> sure. ask away, jonathan. >> i don't want to relitigate the whole issue, but take one issue of metro ridership. you made a statement. >> we d at the time. the information came from an outside agency that we reported on. knowing what we know now, we can tell a lot of those numbers are different. but we were trying to provide numbers that we had been provided. that wasn't like we made them up out of thin air. >> you stand by your statement that was the most watched inaugural? >> sure. it was the most watched inaugural. when you look at just the one network alone got 16.9 million people online. another couple of networks -- there were tens of millions of people who watched that online, never mind the audience that was here, 31 million people watched it on television. combine that with the tens of

millions of people that watched it online on a device. it's unquestionable. and i don't see any numbers that dispute that. when you add up attendance, viewership, total audience in terms of tablets, phones, on television. i would love to see any information that proves that otherwise. so, do you dispute that? >> well, i don't want to get into numbers. >> well, i do. i mean, i'm just saying, if you're asking me a question about my integrity, i have a right to say if you add up the network streaming numbers, facebook, youtube, all the various live streamings that we have information on so far, i don't think there's any question that it was the largest watched inauguration ever. >> more than ronald reagan's in 1981? >> i'm pretty sure that reagan didn't have youtube, facebook, the internet. i think 41 million people watched his. 41 million watched his. let's take the neilsen ratings

and add it to cnn, 16.9 million. that's a little higher. i'm just saying -- you're asking me for numbers. there's two entities together. >> the approach you took on saturday, any second thoughts on that? >> jonathan, look, i want this to -- i came out to read a statement and i did it. we're here today. i'm going to stay here as long as you want. i want to make sure that -- i think you guys might want to leave before i do. but, look, i want to make sure that we have a healthy relationship. we saw the other day that -- and i'm not trying to rehash history but you're asking the question so i'm going to answer it. we had a tweet go out about martin luther king. think about how racially charged that is. someone rushes out and says to the entire press corps that the president of the united states has remove d the bust from his office. do you -- think about what the

signal -- hold on, please. >> apologized -- >> no, no, he actual lly repris, to quote, my colleagues. that was his quote. that report got tweeted around and to report -- where was the apology to the president of the united states? where was the apology to millions of people who read that and thought how racially insensitive that was? where was that apology? >> you accepted the apology. >> i'm asking, where was that apology? i'm just saying that when things like that happen, when john lewis says that he's never missed an inauguration, and we find out, actually, he did. he skipped george w. bush's. there are points at which we have a right to make sure we correct the record. you're talking about integrity and you're talking about telling the truth and facts. i don't know that it was malicious at all. but we have a right to go out there and correct the record. and i think that over and over

again, there is this attempt to go after this president and say, well, that can't be true. and that's not right. and the numbers weren't there. and there's a rush to judgment every time. and it's a two-way street. we want to have a healthy, open dialogue with the press corps and with the american people about what he's doing to help this country and to unite it. at a time he's trying to unite this. he keeps talking about uniting this nation, bringing people together and then a tweet goes out in a pool report to a few thousand people saying that he removed the bust of martin luther king, how do you think that goes over? >> did the media invent the feud between the president and the intelligence community? >> look, i'm not -- i think you saw from the response the other day, he walked into the cia. people were hooting and hollering, gave him a fi five-minute standing ovation. that doesn't look like a relationship that's -- i mean, they were excited -- >> but the media -- >> i think there's a difference between having difference with intelligence leaders and leaders of that community who have

strong differences with than the people and the men and women who toil every single day in our intelligence community. and it was reflected at the cia. i mean, they came there. they were so excited. it was a thousand people that applied for 300-plus seats. we ended up taking in 400 people. that doesn't sound like a huge feud. they were excited, clapping, and cheering when he walked in. to see reports that made it sound like there was fence mending that needed to happen. it sure didn't look that way. i'm going to move on. >> what's the strategic interest in moving the u.s. embassy in tel aviv to jerusalem? also on the chat with the egyptian president, was the status of the muslim brotherhood discussed? >> i just gave you the readout on the call with president assisi. what was the second part? >> what is the strategic reason

for moving the u.s. ambassador. >> we're in the very early stages that have decision-making process. >> will there be a detailed discussion when prime minister may comes on friday on the potential parameters of what a trade deal may look like? will there be a joint news conference? and will president trump get a state visit back to the uk later in the year? >> we're here on working day one, excited that prime minister may is coming friday. we look forward to it. i'm sure there will be a discussion of trade. the degree to which, i don't know yet. i'm sure we'll have an opportunity to brief you out. i don't believe we have any plans for a joint press conference. that's something that our team will be working out with prime minister may and we'll keep you updated on that. >> after the executive order, withdrawing the u.s. from the tpp, what specific steps will president trump take to expand u.s. trade opportunities abroad? >> well, again, when he talks to prime minister may he will have

a great conversation about the potential for greater trade with the uk. when he met with these manufacturers this morning, that was, you know, right up there at the top of that list. how can we get greater market access? what are the specific challenges that these manufacturers are facing getting market access into countries around the globe? that's an important issue. so it's not just other countries but within existing trade deals, we can figure out is there a trade dispute that can be settled at the wto, a revision to one of the existing treaties that we have now? there is a lot that can be timed. there's things that congress can update to make sure that we're importing and exporting more to benefit american businesses. >> has the president or will the president have a chat, even informal chat, with the prime minister before, in fact, she comes here? >> there are no plans for that

now. it's always possible. he has been having a tremendous number of calls. i think it's well over 80 now, of people who have talked to him, congratulated him. he has talked to canada, mexico, prime minister netanyahu yesterday, president assisi today. a robust number of world leaders. there's a tremendous excitement in the diplomatic core and at the leader level that they want to engage. there are a lot of times he's talking to these folks who say i've not heard from anyone years. there's a general excitement to reengage the united states in trade and also in national security. >> i'm sorry? >> needless to say, this is the big one and it's the first. >> right. >> tpp wasn't even passed in

congress. why was this executive order anything more than symbolic? and when will he start renegotiating those deals with the other 11 other countries in asian pacific, that will take time and could give china, some would say, to make inroads. >> china is engaging in bilateral deals and that's what i said, the president will look to countries to engage with. most of them we have existing trade deals to begin with. this was an expansion of that. whether it allowed financial services additional market access but i think that this is not a deal that was in our country's best interest. the president could have come in to office, a president could have come into office and renegotiated it and sent people back to the drawing board. it hadn't gone to congress yet because it wasn't finalized. this president pulling out of the agreement is not just about this one agreement. i think it's symbolic both here in america and around the world

of a new era of trade policy. one that's going to put american workers first and foremost. and one that assures the rest of the world that the way we negotiate bilateral agreements will ensure that we get something out of these deals. as i mentioned to john a minute ago, the problem with multilateral agreements is that often it becomes the lowest common denominator and for the u.s. who already has low tariffs and other service industry benefits for countries, we've got to make sure we're fighting for the american worker. jennifer? >> so you're not going to renegotiate, to be clear? >> we pulled out of tpp. >> of all the existing -- >> we'll have further updates on trade issues later this week. jennifer? >> does the administration feel like you still need an executive order to remove yourself from nanta? >> that's a great question. i believe there's an action that has to be taken under the provision of nafta where you send notice to the other countries, the other two countries. the exact nature of how that's

described, i don't -- but there is a trigger within nafta, one of the sections allows the president of the united states to notify them that we intend to do that. >> jennifer? >> will there still be a northern american trade block or something different? >> part of it is that he has spoken to already the president of mexico and prime minister of canada about his desire to renegotiate. and i think as he meets with both of these individuals over the next 30 days or so, that's going to be a topic. now if they come in and express a willingness to do that, you can negotiate it within the current parameters and update it through the existing structure. if they don't and he decides to pull out, then we would have to go back to the drawing table in the future. mara? mara? going to make sure mara gets a question this time. >> just to follow up on the china question, china actually has a regional agreement called the regional comprehensive

economics partnership and now japan and australia, two of our great allies, are talking about joining that. does the president trump see a national security component to these trade deals and is he concerned that now china will write the rules for asia-pacific trade? >> i think he has been very, very clear about china's place in the geopolitical landscape economically and national security wise. he understands the need. that's part of the reason that trade is important, bilateral trade. it provides a check on a lot of this. but, again, he is always going to be fighting for the interest of the country and the american worker. so, how we engage and with whom is going to be decided on whether or not we can get a deal that benefits our country economically and in terms of national security. there are things that we can do economically or -- economically that also end up benefiting us from a national security standpoint because of the economic relationship that exists between the two countries.

yes, sir? >> follow up on that. >> okay, mara gets a follow-up. >> sorry. >> no, you earned it. >> really simple, what is the average national unemployment rate? >> what's the average? >> what's the overall unemployment rate? >> whether or not we include the full -- >> i'm just asking. >> department of labor statistics puts it out. >> what do you accept -- >> it's not what i accept. there's a way to put out -- >> i know what it is. >> there's a reason we put out several versions of that. the illustrative nature, whether they're long-term unemployed or still seeking a job. but there's a reason you put out several of these statistics, so that economists can view them and decide, look at different landscapes and how to make economic policy. >> during the campaign, he at one point, trump said it was 42%. i want to know where we're starting. >> again, part of it is his economic team is going to look at a multitude of statistics and drive economic policies. his goal is obviously to get as

many americans working together. that's his ultimate goal. he sees people that are hurting that haven't had wages lifted up, that are unemployed, that can't save for their kids' future, that are having trouble with their health care costs, that's what he really cares about. it's not just a number to him. it's about is someone getting by? are their wages going up? can they find a better job? access to education, higher education, college or vo-tech kind of school so that they can train for the skills of the next century. those are the kind of things that the president -- he's not focused on statistics as much as he is whether the american people are doing better as a whole and whether or not a family -- we talked about carrier. well, that's 1,000 jobs. you talk about those thousand jobs and their families during the holiday season i would beg to differ that those people were unbelievably ecstatic that the president and vice president intervened. and so every one of these meetings that you saw happen at trump tower and now, it's all about whether it's 2,000 jobs or

20,000 jobs, that's the focus. it's making sure that we have -- that small businesses have greater opportunity to be successful, that american workers can have their wages lifted up, that the benefits that they receive in terms of health care and education are something that provide them the support that they need. but that's what this is all about. i think for too often in washington we get our heads wrapped around a number, a statist statistic. we look at it and forget the faces and families and the businesses that are behind those numbers and so i think that's where his head is at. trying to look at the people that have come to his rallies, come to his event. mr. trump, i'm working as hard as i can. i'm working two jobs, doing everything by the rules and i keep getting screwed. that's what he's fighting for, that man or woman out there that's doing everything they can right but can't catch a break. and i think he addressed that in his inaugural speech when he talked about shifting power outside of washington, d.c. back

to the american people. because for too long it's been about stats, mara. and it's been about what number are we looking at, as opposed to awhat face are we looking at? >> david? >> one on daca, the message from this administration, from the white house to young people who may qualify and not yet have their -- should they enroll going forward, and those in the program now seek renewal? >> what those people should know is that the president has laid out a list of priorities. priorities are focused on making sure that people who can do harm or have done harm and have a criminal record are the focus. as he said throughout the campaign, we've got a series of individuals we've got to figure out, people who have overstayed their visas, people who have committed crimes, going through that in a systematic and methodical way. for now the focus is going to be on people who have done harm to our country. yes? >> 2016 was the hottest year on record in the last three years, the hottest three years. scientists are saying we're

getting dangerously close to the point where human civilization is being threatened. how does president trump plan to address this? >> i think he's going to meet with his team, figure out what policies are best for the environment. but i think that there's -- one of the things he talked about during the campaign is that there's a balance. he's trying to make sure we use our resources appropriately, that we maximize things to make sure we don't do so at the detriment of economic growth and job creation. there's a balance. i don't think it's an either/or situation. we can ensure we're doing things that are smart for the environment and smart for the longevity, as well as making sure that we're doing things that create economic growth and job creation. sir? >> sean, what is the president's message to the millions of people here in washington and around the country who were protesting on saturday? and a follow-up after that. >> okay. that is very polite of you. i think he has a healthy respect for the first amendment. and this is what makes our

country so beautiful. is that on one day you can inaugurate a president and in the next day people can occupy the same space to protest something. but he's also cognizant that a lot of people were there to protest an issue of concern to them and not against anything. debbie dingle was on television and was talking about -- let me -- i don't want to inaccurately quote her. jonathan's a stickler for that. different women were there for different reasons but they were all there to make sure that their core american values are going to be protected and i think many people, like me, were there for positive reasons. and i think the president shares debbie dingle's views, that there were people that came to the mall, as they do all the time. sometimes in smaller numbers. [ inaudible question ] >> i think he reaches out to them the way he did on the night he won the election, on way he did on inauguration day, sending a message that talks about fighting for them. more importantly, i think the president will show through action and through success that

he's fighting for them and fighting for every american. one of the things that we've seen so often in this town is a lot of rhetoric about how much people care. and i think the president is going to show through deed and action and success that he wants to fight for people's health care. he wants to have a better education system. he wants a stronger america. he wants to go in and fix our intercities. he wants to make sure our infrastructure, roads and bridges -- more than anything, showing people through action and deed and success is where he's going to prove to the american people how much he cares to unite us and how much he cares to make this america better and safer. >> on the other side of this, another group that's coming -- >> i forgot. you did ask. >> thank you for remembering. >> that's polite. >> another group, just to follow up on cnn's question a moment ago, when we have the march for life here in washington, a pro-life president, what concrete promises is he making? we haven't heard a lot about what that policy is going to look like. >> it's day one. >> yeah, but you've had a lot of

time to make those promises. >> i know but -- look. >> -- >> what should their expectations be? >> their speculations should be that he's going to stand up and value life, born or unborn, same as he said throughout the last year and a half, that he's going to stand up, protect life, promote it and instill policies that promote life, that promote adoption, that help support young women, that help support funding of agencies and clinics that support women's health. i think that's what he's going to talk about. it's supporting all of life, the born, the unborn, throughout life. making sure that we have health care that can support the american people and the american families. that's what he's going to fight for. and that's what he's going to be clear on. >> i have two questions. >> okay. >> first one with the congressional meeting today and . regulatory reform, three and four. >> not an overhaul, though? >> iook at how we're keeping people out of this country that shouldn't be here. the people who are coming to visit are leaving when they're

supposed to. to make sure that we're tailoring immigration policies to make sure we're not an open door for anyone to just walk in, that the people who are here to visit our country safely or come here to bring jobs or support our economy are coming in. we have to do immigration smartly. that's what he's looking at. >> i had a second one. >> i'm sorry. you're right. >> i haven't heard that you have said or someone else has said specifically. has the president spoken to any of the intelligence agencies about the investigation into the russian connections and will he allow that to go on? >> i don't believe he has spoken to anybody specifically about that and he has not made any indication he would stop an investigation of any sort. yes, sir? >> thanks. clarification. you said you're willing to work with anybody to defeat the islamic state. does that include bashir al assad? >> i think we're going to smartly do this. let's be clear. part of it is to make sure they

have america's interest in what they're doing and who they are. with people under the guise of defeating isis if that's not truly their -- or if they're not -- so let's not take that too far. thank you. >> sean, will the president release documents showing that he has left his businesses? >> i believe we have. no? but, yeah, he has resigned from the company, as he said he would, before he took office. don and eric are full in charge of the companies, taking extraordinary steps to ensure that's happened. [ inaudible question ] >> political priorities. what will be the message for the hispanic community in the u.s.? one of the priorities has been the wall. what will be the relation between his administration and hispanic community in the u.s.? >> well, i think his relationship with the hispanic community is going to be great.

as i said, i think whether it's jobs, education or health care, the president is committed to uniting all americans and working towards a better, safer, more secure, more prosperous america that benefits everybody. and i think whether -- regardless of your background, that's something that he's committed to. yeah? >> does mr. trump agree with rex tillerson that the u.s. should try to prevent china from access the island in the south china sea where it's building runways and other facilities? >> areas in the south china sea that are part of international waters and international activities, i think the u.s. will make sure we protect our interests there. it's a question of if those islands are, in fact, in international waters and not part of china proper, then, yeah, we'll make sure that we defend international territories from being taken over by one country. >> would you prevent china from actually -- >> look, i'm not going to -- i think i answered the question. as we develop further we'll have

more information on it. >> thank you, sean. >> hold on. >> i'll get to you, i promise. >> thank you, sean. welcome to your first day on the job. >> thank you. >> very simply, there was an earlier question about jerusalem and the u.s. embassy there and a lot of talk about executive orders. is this something the president can accomplish by executive order? >> it is, but i think as i noted, john, it's very early in this process. we're at the beginning stages of this decision-making process and the team will continue to consult with state players. >> thank you, sean and welcome here. >> of course. thank you. >> i have a follow-up on the question about nafta. are we not to expect an executive order to renegotiate nafta or will he wait until he meets with the president next week? he didn't mention latin america at all in his inauguration speech. does he plan to visit latin

america this year? >> on the first part, i think we'll have further announcements on trade throughout the week. i think we're done with executive orders for the day. but, as i always say, stand by. we do not have any intention to have additional executive orders today. but i believe there could be some additional ones throughout the week on trade. we'll have further updates for you there. and then the second part? >> if he plans to travel to latin america, given that he left them out of his inauguration speech. >> i don't think he -- i don't think he left them out. i think he was focused on this country, our american workers. i don't think he got into detail on any countries that i'm aware of, or that i can recall. but i also think that we're here on the first working day. we're announcing teresa may coming this friday. we're excited to have the prime minister here. as i said, we already talked about setting up a meeting with canada, mexico. he has talked to prime minister netanyahu, about having him come over. as i mentioned, president el

assisi. >> on lgbt rights, gay republican group delivered a white paper to the trump team urging the president to maintain an executive order from president obama, barring anti-lgbt worker discrimination among federal contractors. the president has said he will rescind the executive orders from president obama, they're unconstitutional. will he maintain this executive order? >> i don't know on that one. i'll have to get back to you. i don't know that we've gotten that far on the list of the executive orders. i'll be glad to get back to you. >> will he rescind them? >> i just don't know the answer. i'll try to get back to you on that one. yes, sir? >> on immigration, the chief of staff, i think, had said over the weekend seemed to suggest that an executive order shutting down the daca program had been ruled out. is that officially ruled out as

you guys go forward? and does the president support action in congress that would essentially permanently establish those protections? >> i don't have anything further on the executive action front. i've asked and answered the daca piece in terms of his priorities. >> legislation? >> i think we don't have anything in front of us right now to sign on that. so, give us a little bit of time. we'll see what congress moves forward with. then i'm sure we'll have a further readout on both the executive order piece on the legislation. yes? >> resettlement program? >> i'll have to get back to you on that one right now. the best thing to do would be to contact the department of state. in the back? >> regarding access for american companies in the international markets, will he take strategic negotiations by any other means? >> i think he will increase market access wherever he can.

he's in the process of reviewing all of our current trade agreements and looking at potential bilateral options going forward. whether it's in the eu or asia-pacific arena or in the middle east. he will figure out where we can expand market access. that's what today's decision starts to show. it's not about multilateral agreements under a trump administration. it's about bilateral agreements where we can figure out country to country how can we fight for the american worker, gain them access to another market that will benefit our large and small business? we want to sell additional goods and services. yes? >> why did the president choose the british prime minister as the first foreign leader for him to meet? and can we take from that that he intends to make the relationship even closer? >> i think we've always had that special relationship with britain. and that reflects in the prime minister's first visit here.

he has a great conversation with her and looks forward to having her here. we can always be closer. yes, ma'am? >> what kind of relationship is trump looking for with china after he withdraws from tpp? and on taiwan's issue, what kind of stance is he going to make on -- >> what's the last part please? >> taiwan trade relations. >> he understands china, what a big market that is. when he met with the head of alibaba a couple of weeks ago. there's a huge market issue there. in many cases it's not a two-way street. there's so many chinese businesses and individuals, frankly, who have ease of access in the united states to sell their goods or services. and i think whether or not you're talking about the financial services or the banking, the other service industries, manufacturing goods and services or some of the ip problems that we have with china, that it really is not a two-way street.

and so he understands the desire of penetrating that market but he also understands there's concerns with how we are trait treated in china's market. we'll have further updates on that. yes, ma'am? >> welcome. >> thank you. >> question following up. she asked about tpp. i wondered if the president has gotten a little bit about what kind of bilateral relationships in the region, trade relationships would accomplish a similar goal? secondly i heard you talking about nafta and a trigger but i didn't hear you say you triggered the trigger. >> we have not triggered the trigger. hasn't happened. again, we have an existing relationships with many of the countries that were part of the 12-nation makeup of tpp and i think we'll continue to explore how we can, in some cases, strengthen those relationships or look for bilateral agreements with nations that we didn't have

one through tpp. >> sean, congratulations. >> thank you. >> social security and infrastructure. on social security, the president will be meeting with congressional leaders. what's he going to do, given his campaign promise on not touching social security when paul ryan and mitch mcconnell send a bill that included in a funding package various cuts in social security? and infrastructure, has it fallen off the radar screen or will it stay a priority for the president? >> on social security, he will talk to them i think he has been very clear on preserving and protecting this important benefit to our seniors. he understands -- mr. trump has employed so many people over the years, he understands the struggle that people have later in life to continue to make ends meet. and i think that he is keenly aware of how important this program is to people in their

later years. will he continue to fight to make sure that's a program that's preserved and protected and then on the -- >> infrastructure. >> yes, of course. he has continued to bring that up and talked with business executives today about how so many of our airports that are so important to our commerce system, getting planes to land in and out, roads and their ability to truck things across the country, even our freight system. if our infrastructure is not strong, it inhibits our ability to have free commerce. it inhibits, drives up the cost of goods and services, when someone has to take a different route or is limited in the opportunities that they have because the runway might be closed or can't be expanded or a rail line breaks down or highway is just not -- the wear and tear it puts on trucks or shut down. infrastructure continues to be a huge priority for him. yes, sir? >> two questions. national security council, staffing of the national security council, when do you expect to have those positions filled? >> we've got many of them

filled. i'll have to get back to you on the number. it's fairly robust. there were a lot of hold overs. general flynn has been working diligently to make sure that that's filled out, ready to go. he has had countless meetings with counterparts and had several folks detailed over. but it's a very, very robust effort from day one. >> follow-up to john carl's question. so are you retracting your claim on saturday that it was the largest ground in person inauguration? >> that's not what i said. >> the largest audience both in person and around the globe. >> yes, to witness in person and around the globe. total audience it was. >> not simply in person? >> right. but, again, i didn't say in person. both in person and around the globe to witness it. >> you're saying those together? >> that's actually what i said. it's not what -- i don't know

how you can interpret it differently. that's literally what i said. to witness it in person and around the globe. total audience, yes. >> but not just in person? >> hold on. >> but not -- you're saying here, just to clarify, you're not saying, you weren't saying on saturday that it was the largest inaugural in person? >> i'm not. i'm saying it was the total largest audience witnessed in person and around the globe. yes, sir? >> let's go back. >> yes. >> sources are telling cbs news those with knowledge of who was in the room at the cia that senior leadership were not among those hooting and hollering and that there were some 40 people in the first front rows who were brought in by trump and pence and pompeo. i would like to give you a chance to respond. >> i don't think that's correct at all. if you listen to the audio of it, you can hear the excitement that exists there. some people had to be off camera

for obvious reasons. when you looked at the number of people that were there, the audio alone tells -- speaks volumes to what had happened. i don't think that there's any question about that. >> so the people in the front who were seen on camera, those were cia employees? >> honestly, i don't have a seating chart. i think we had a very small footprint going over there. i don't know exactly who went over. i don't know. maybe ten people at the most? sarah was there. ten were in the travel going over. so ten of 400 plus. >> the people in the front rows were cia employees? >> some. >> some? so some were not? >> i'm sure we seated -- i can't say -- i'm not sure why this matters. ten people didn't yell that loud. [ inaudible ] >> yeah, they were. >> not this rift between the intelligence community and the president? because senior authorities within the intelligence community are telling cbs news that they're uncomfortable with that portrayal and the notion

that people in the cia were -- >> all i can tell you is to listen to the tape alone. i think you can hear a lot of that. yes? >> a couple of questions, if i could. has the president formally requested or received pentagon advice on how he could change the campaign against the islamic state? >> i think he has ordered it. he's going to -- as i mentioned, he will be at the department of defense friday to swear in general mattis as the next secretary -- go through the ceremony of that. he is, obviously, the secretary of defense. and so, you know, at that time he will continue to have conversations about what he wants from them and the joint chiefs. jim? >> to follow up? >> yes. >> i don't mean to beat a dead horse on the issue of the u.s. embassy in israel. >> right. >> at the end of the president's first four years, will the united states embassy be in jerusalem? >> well, i think i've answered it twice now. we are at the early stages in

this decision-making process. >> it's not whether. it's when and how? >> there's a reason you go through a decision-making process. that's what we're in the process of starting right now. i don't want to get ahead of -- if it was already a decision, we wouldn't be going through a process. i just answered the question. thanks, julie. jim? >> first of all, congratulations and thanks for taking the question. getting back to saturday at the cia and your statement here at the podium, why make this crowd size issue something to talk about at all and why get into it? did it bother the president that much, that he felt that you needed to come out here and straighten that out for us? and why did he choose the cia as the venue to talk about that? >> so, two things. one i just got handed a note. all of the people -- no one in the front row was trump. they were all cia. that's what you asked. >> i said first three rows. >> i'll find out who the other

two were. i'm sorry. i just got you the front row. give me a second. i'll get the second and third. are we going to get to the fourth and fifth? okay. i'll see what i can do. look, i think one of the things that happened, jim, is that he kept hearing about this rift that existed. he talked about it a couple of weeks ago after his briefing, how proud he is and how much he respects the intelligence community. and i think when he walked m ee that and saw it, he wanted to make sure that what you were hearing on television or reports about this rift, i have the utmost respect for you, i honor your service, i'm proud of what you're doing, the sacrifices that you're making and i think he wanted them to know that you see and hear all this stuff on tv about this rift that so-called exists and clearly it doesn't matter. like don't believe what you're hearing. know that i have a tremendous amount of respect for you. i appreciate everything you're doing and i think that's why he wanted to do it, to make sure that they understand, heard

firsthand how much he respects them, how much he wanted to dispel the myth that there was a, quote, unquote, rift. >> in terms of the crowd size issue, why bring that up at the cia and why did you come out saturday afternoon to talk about that? did he tell you, sean, i'm upset about this? >> i'm not going to get into conversations i have with the president. i will tell you it's not just about a crowd size. it's about this constant, you know, he's not going to run. if he runs he's going to drop out. if he runs, he can't win. no way he can win pennsylvania. there's this constant theme to undercut the enormous support that he has. and i think it's just unbelievably frustrating when you're continually told, it's not big enough, it's not good i good enough, you can't win because i think it's important. he's gone out there and defied the odds over and over and over again and he keeps getting told what he can't do by this narrative that's out there and he exceeds it every single time and i think there's an overall frustration when you turn on the

television over and over again and get told that there's this narrative that you didn't win, you weren't going to run, you can't pick up this state, that's not -- you know, that's a fool's errand to go to pennsylvania. why is he in michigan? how silly. they'll never vote for him. a republican hasn't won that state since '88. then he goes and does it. what's the narrative? because of this, he didn't win that. then oh, people aren't attending a thing. john lewis is the first person to skip his inauguration. not true. over and over again, the mlk bus. i think over and over again there's a constant attempt to undermine his credibility and the movement that he represents and it's frustrating for not just him but i think so many of us that are trying to work to get this message out. and so i mentioned this to john. part of this is a two-way street. like we want to -- we want to have a healthy dialogue, not just with you but with the american people because he's fighting for jobs, he's fighting to make this country safer but when you're constantly getting

told that can't be true, we doubt that you can do this, this won't happen. that's the narrative when you turn on television every single day. it's a little frustrating. and i think that for those people around him, senior team especially, but so many of the other folks that are either here in the administration that gave up their time during the transition, they left a job to work for three or four weeks because they're so committed to having his nominees get through, it's a little demoralizing to turn on the tv day after day, can't do this, this guy's not going to get confirmed, no way they're going to go through. >> isn't that part of the conversation that happens in washington? >> no, it's not. >> imbeing president of the united states? >> no. look, i've been doing this a long time. you've been doing it, too. i've never seen it like this. i've never -- again, i'm not -- i'm not looking to go back and forth, but you're asking for an explanation and i think it's important to understand that whether it's the president himself, the vice president, the senior team, the volunteers or the people who are out there

just, you know, in america that voted for him or walked the streets or put up a sign, that to constantly be told no, no, no and watch him go yes, yes, yes every time and to come up to the next hurdle and see him put a block up gets a little frustrating. i think we are -- and so you see this historic thing. he stands there at the capital and i was not that close but, you know, on the platform. you look out and it's an amazing view. and it's just so many people who got in long lines, who had to go around all this different stuff to get in and that was for the first time that we did have to go through fencing that far out. and then to hear, well, look at this shot and it's not that -- it wasn't that big. it's a little demoralizing because when you're sitting there looking out and you're in awe of just how awesome that view is and how many people are there and you go back and turn on the television and you see shots of comparing this and that. you know, then you look at the stuff that's happening, the

nominees that you put out, the democrats stopping -- there are two cabinet officials, ladies and gentlemen, that are taking their office today. he visited the cia and a director that was considered a consensus candidate wasn't approved. where's the story? and i think that -- so -- >> you've got bigger fish to fry. why worry about a couple of tweets about crowd size? >> because that's what i'm saying. you're minimizing the point here, jim. it's not about one tweet. it's not about one picture, it's about a constant theme. it's about sitting here every time and being told no. well, we don't think he can do that. he'll never accomplish that. he can't win that. it won't be the biggest. it's not going to be that good. the crowds aren't that big. the narrative, the default narrative is always negative. and it's demoralizing. and i think that when you sit here and you realize the sacrifices the guy made of leaving a very, very successful business because he really cares about this country and he wants

to -- despite your partisan differences, he cares about making this country better for everybody. he wants to make it safer for everybody. and so when you wake up every day and that's what you're seeing over and over again and you're not seeing stories about the cabinet folks that he's putting or the success that he's having trying to keep american jobs here, yeah, it is a little disappointing. so i just -- you know -- >> be positive. >> no, it's not. sometimes we'll make mistakes, i promise you that but it's not always got to be negative, jim. some days we do do the right thing. some days we are successful. so it's not -- part of this is saying when we're right, say we're right. when we're wrong, say we're wrong. but it's not always wrong and negative. there are things -- there's a lot of things that he's done already, a lot of amazing people he's appointed, a lot of success that he's having and it would be nice once in a while for someone just to say, report it straight up, he appointed this person,

here's their background, not why they're not going to get nominated. not why it's not going to happen. so -- >> thanks, john. >> one last thing. hold on. i can't. i know we're getting really into facts. just to be clear, there were no trump or white house folks sitting down. they were all in the cia. not in rows one through anything from what i'm told. i appreciate julie's effort but i have hallie. john, you got one. >> sean, a couple of questions for you if you don't mind. first of all on russia, the administration was asked about multiple interactions between national security advisor mike flynn and russian ambassador. you at the time said calls were related to sitting up a discussion between president trump and vladimir putin? >> that's right. >> were the calls about anything else other than setting up that discussion yand hasn't that discussion happened? >> so there's been one call. i talked to general flynn about

this again last night. one called talked about four subjects. one was the loss of life that occurred in the plane crash that took a military choir. two was christmas and holiday greetings. three was to facilitate -- or to talk about a conference in syria on isis and four was to set up a -- to talk about after the inauguration setting up a call between president putin and president trump. that i don't believe that that has been set up yet because the call was to say after -- they did follow up, i'm sorry, two days ago about how to facilitate that call. once again, so there have been a total of two calls with the ambassador and general flynn and the second call came i think it's now three days ago that was to say, once he gets into office, can we set up that call. it hasn't -- to my knowledge has not occurred yet. >> you said between general flynn and russian members of the government. >> not that i'm aware of.

when i say that during the transition i asked general flynn whether there were any other conversations beyond the ambassador, and he said no. >> the statement the president said on saturday. i want to clarify your answer here. can you unequivocally state that this administration will not send more troops into iraq to as the president put it take the oil? >> i'm not going to say what we may do. he doesn't telegraph forward. he doesn't telegraph to people what he's going to take on or off the table. >> what's the president's thinking now on the supreme court. related to nominees and a follow-up -- >> never doubted it. >> okay. >> and at the end of the obama administration there are a number of prisoners in guantanamo bay and on the first i think that in the next week or so we should have an update on a

nominee for the supreme court. it does. and i think we'll have a nomination within the next couple of weeks. on gitmo, i think you're going to see further action. i don't want to get ahead of the president, but this is something that has been discussed and is in his current decision-making process how he wants to handle that. >> yeah. excuse me, if i could ask one more, that the president disagreed with the characterization of a rift intelligence community. do you dispute his tweet about comparing the intelligence community to nazi germany? >> no. >> [ inaudible ]. whole list of day one promises. they're done with taking

executive orders. currency manipulator. closing that. i want to ask you why not go through all of those on day one as he promised in a contract with voters? >> we're going to continue to sequence those out. i think part of it is to make sure we don't spend our entire day signing executive orders and bringing you in. there's a way we can do this to make sure we are getting all of the things he promised the american people done in short haste and do it in a way that doesn't jam them out in a fire hose. part of this is insuring that we sequence these. it gives the american people the proper issue, the proper attention that they deserve. part of it, if we put them all out on one day, they lose -- they get lost in the ether. i think he made these promises and pledges to the american people because they're important to him so -- >> on that day one list? >> that's his intention. he's very clear about that, yes, sir. >> shake up the leadership of cfpb before the director's term

is up? >> no decision has been made on that. >> kristen welker. >> one on obamacare. has he finished his plan on obamacare? and then on nafta, can you just clarify. i know he's going to meet with the leaders of mexico and canada. has he started to have discussions with them currently about negotiating nafta? >> on obamacare, i think he's going to continue the discussion tonight with speaker ryan in particular at the meeting that he g