triggering riffs with two staunch american allies, ramping up tensions with a long-time adversary. relations with australia now said to be strained over a heated phone call last weekend with the aussie prime minister. mr. trump creating tension with mexico's president saying he wasn't doing a good job knocking out, quote, tough ombres. >> the trump administration calling out iran for testing a ballistic missile. michael flynn, quote, putting tehran on notice. no word on what that means. our coverage begins with jeff zeleny life at the white house. what's the latest, jeff? >> president trump's tough talk on the campaign trail is getting its test on the world stage. some of the first calls with foreign leaders intended to be courtesy calls are actually confrontational. new tension between president trump and a major u.s. ally. sources say the president grew angry during a phone call with

australia's prime minister last saturday. president trump calling the australian refugee agreement a very bad deal. that resettlement deal reached by the obama administration will transfer refugees currently living in detention centers on islands off australia to the u.s. >> i'm in the going to comment on the conversation. >> reporter: prime minister turnbull repeating to president trump that according to the deal nearly 1,300 refugees have to pass u.s. screening requirements. sources say mr. trump kept insisting it was a very bad deal, remarking one of these refugees will be the next boston bomber. >> i always stand up for australia in every forum. >> reporter: the prime minister saying the conversation ended courteously. a source says president trump abruptly ended the call. notably the readout of the call provided by the white house on saturday showed no sign of a contentious meeting instead saying both leaders emphasize the enduring strength and closeness of the u.s.-australia relationship.

as news of the contentious call broke on wednesday, mr. trump tweeted, i will study this dumb deal, in the same tweet calling the refugees illegal immigrants. white house secretary sean spicer confirming the deal will ultimately go through. >> the president in accordance with that deal to honor what had been agreed upon by the united states government in ensuring that vetting will take place in the same manner we're doing it now, we'll go forward. >> reporter: and more on yet another diplomatic dust-up with a u.s. ally. after the mexican president canceled their in-person meeting, cnn is learning president trump offered to help mexican president pena nieto with drug cartels in mexico during their friday phone call. according to an interpret of the transcript provided to cnn mr. trump said, you have pretty tough ombres in mexico that you may need help with. we are willing to help with that big league, but they have to be knocked out and you have not done a good job knocking them out. meantime, national security adviser michael flynn offering a stark warning to iran after

their recent ballistic missile test launch. >> iran is feeling emboldened. as of today we are officially putting iran on notice. >> reporter: on notice has some lawmakers worried the administration will dismantle the iran nuclear deal. >> i hope it doesn't include trying to undue the nuclear deal. i think that would be a grave mistake. but we'll have to just wait and see what general flynn meant. >> reporter: as others call for a collaboration on policies. >> i think the trump administration needs to work with congress. >> reporter: if you talk to senior administration officials, they say tough talk is exactly what the president intended to do. it was not a mistake at all. there's no question, chris and alisyn, this tough talk that worked here in the campaign stage may have to be interpreted more on the foreign stage. >> jeff, stay with us. we're waiting for president trump to actually take the podium at the national prayer breakfast. you see in that little screen within your screen, he is now at the dais. there will be introductions before he gets up to address,

and we look forward to see what kind of ecomenical, larger conciliatory message he gives that the national prayer breakfast demands. while we're waiting for that, let's talk about the news of day. we have david drucker from "the washington examiner." this call with australian prime minister matters for several reasons. the two i'll suggest to you right now is, one, the white house put out a readout on it that seems in direct contradiction to what the realities are from sources at "the new york times," "the washington post" and cnn has. why do that? why do something they had to expect would come out and show that they weren't telling us the truth? >> i think any administration, but apparently even this administration, is sensitive to the idea that the president is blowing up an alliance that is very important to u.s. interests in asia and around the world. australia has fought with us in almost every theater and every

war. they're geographically big, but not the biggest geopolitical player. they've always been with us. they're an important ally when it comes to intelligence gathering, one of the closest in that regard. so i think the administration is fine. i think the president is fine with redirecting how these alliances work. i don't think they like the idea that they're not in control and that these things aren't being handled in a controlled fashion. >> so rex tillerson is now secretary of state. he's not a career diplomat. he's a businessman. so what changes when -- i mean in terms of, this is different than how we've seen diplomacy done for decades. does rex tillerson come in and change it yet again? >> look, they're either going to be successful on the diplomatic front or they're not. first of all, as the last administration found out, diplomacy without the threat of credible military force, without letting our adversaries know that there's a consequence to not working with us is useless.

it's not just a matter of knowing how to talk to people and establishing relationships. it's having leverage with the people we're dealing with. i think it's also -- as republicans said throughout obama's eight years, re-establishing relationships with our allition, i think that's where the dust-up with australia is curious because republicans in general and even president trump was critical of obama for not working better with our friends, in addition to letting our adversaries run rough shot over us. with rex tillerson, the question is this administration going to put policies in place that reinvigorate our alliances so we have support and also so our adversaries know that there are consequences to not working with us. >> that raises the question of why would you bash someone who has been an unalloyed ally in australia? jeff zeleny, what is your take and your sourcing on the notion that this call went off the rails, that trump wound up freelancing and getting angry and being hostile and ending the

call early and saying inflammatory things, but that wasn't the plan and that's why they tried to spin the readout on the call? >> reporter: it wasn't the plan, of course. one thing we're learning, i talked to one administration official who said look at the context of his schedule, of his day. he talked to five world leaders on saturday, last saturday at the end of a long week in the white house, and they said simply by the time he got to the australian phone call, he was a little fatigued. i think also you can probably say not perhaps up to speed enough on the issues for that phone call. it is extraordinary that, for one, it's one of the phone calls, it's an english-speaking phone call. there's no translation going on which is often the case in most of these calls. it was supposed to be an hour-long call. it only went 25 minutes. that's pretty extraordinary. again, the aides are not backing away from his tough talk. they like that image of tough talk. i'm not sure who leaked this

initially to "the washington post." i don't know if it was someone inside trump's orbit. it would seem risky to do that. they like the idea the tough talk is out there. but now this has set off a bit of a diplomatic firestorm with our friends. we have to remember these are our allies here. what about the adversaries once we get to that? >> david, let's talk about that leaking. cnn has a source that knows the content of that call, as does "the new york times," "the washington post." so what does it tell you that 11 days, two weeks in, that there's a serious leak happening? >> there's either one of two things going on. i'm loathed to argue with phil mudd who knows his stuff. either someone is trying to put the president on notice that this isn't a good idea, we're going to leak this to try to rein you in. we've seen this happen with republican and democrats over the years. you have career officials working in administrations that run through each president, and

they have their own agenda. or the administration doesn't necessarily have a problem with the contents of the call and people knowing, as jeff said, this is a tough talking president. this call, in fact, sounds exactly like hat the president said he would do. it could be that they're just sensitive to the blowback and the criticism and because of that, i just can't totally make up my mind that they're necessarily that upset with how it went. they might just be sensitive to the criticism, and they may not have been prepared. i've often wondered if this president is prepared for the fact that allies he thinks have been free loading off of the united states, even if the president is right intellectually, they're going to look at it differently. they're going to look at a call like this, a country like australia, as though the u.s. is trying to bully them. we've heard that coming from the australian prime minister and they're not going to put up with us simply because they need us, quote, unquote.

they'll look for other ways to counter us. the australian prime minister and the australian government have voters, too. >> by the way, turnbull is not known as a weak guy, by the way. jeff, i still don't get it. why put out a readout that is so wrong if you really want people to know what happened in the substance of the call? >> it's a great question. i wish i had an answer to it. that's something i'm going to be getting an answer. i think the readout came in the moment. the readout came on saturday. as you all know, these readoutireadouts from these phone calls are pretty pro for ma. you can almost insert name of country here, phone call went diplomatically well. there's not much substance in that readout. so what has happened between saturday and now? there have been a lot of other issues inside the white house and on the world stage. i think whoever decided to start talking about this did it after the fact of saturday, obviously.

those readouts are basically useless when it comes to the substance of the call as now we're finding out. so it's just one of many things here. we often don't have the truth in the moment. it comes sometimes several days after, sometimes years later here. but i also would say, this white house is still getting set up. one thing, when you even drive around washington or walk around agencies, talk to people inside agencies, there are empty offices across this government. we talk about the cabinet secretaries a lot. but what about the number two, number three, number four positions? this government is still not up and functioning as "as it will be obviously. i think the people, as david mentioned, who are here are the career people, people who work in the government. a lot of those folks across agencies do not like what is going on necessarily. so that's one way to sort of reflect that by shedding light on this. that's something to keep in mind on all this stuff. the government is not fully

functioning in a lot of agencies. it's something as we head into these coming weeks we'll have to have our eye on that to see how quickly they get up to speed. >> that's a good perspective, good reminder for all of us. jeff, thank you. we're keeping an eye there on that little box. that's the national prayer breakfast where we expect president trump to begin speaking very shortly. we'll take a quick break and we'll go back to that as soon as we can. also, we're going to tell you what democrats are saying about all these diplomatic issues. we'll be speaking with senator tim kaine. >> when the president gets up there, we'll get to it. why pause a spontaneous moment? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure.

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president trump in a heated phone conversation with the australian prime minister. that's not what the white house said about the call. they said it was good and reflected the collaboration between the two countries, but sources have leaked about it. hen the president talking about the president of mexico and stalking about tough ombres that mexico has failed to take care of. what does this language mean? let's discuss this with democratic senator from virginia and former vice presidential nominee tim kaine. senator, from the president's perspective, this deal stinks with australia. he called them the next generation of boston bombers, called them illegal immigrants which is untrue, refugees, not illegal immigrants, but he doesn't like the deal. he has a right not to like the deal. the question is why did you cut

the deal within the obama administration, democrats included? why? >> look, this is not a deal that i was involved with when the obama administration was doing it. so i'm not going to answer why the obama administration did it. they thought it was in the best interest of the country, they were careful about it. if he doesn't like the deal, that's his right. but to have a contentious conversation and name call a country or the prime minister of a country that's one of our greatest allies in asia, is foolish, to suggest to the president of mexico we may have to send u.s. troops into mexico is foolish. some of the statements that the president is making about iraq and iran are foolish. he's doing kind of tour hour stuff on matters of significant national importance. >> all right. so you're using the word foolish. let's open it up for a second. president trump did very well with the flyover states by giving people certainty that he won't be weak, which is how he

characterized the obama administration. i'm going to talk to these allies and our opponents and tell them the real deal. we're doing too much, they're doing too little, and it's going to change now. tough talk. that's what he promised. that's what he's delivering. >> i'm going to take issue with you, chris. that is what he promised. let's use iran as an example. iran fired off an anti ballistic missile. we ought to be pure sighing sanctions against them in the un for doing that. i supported sanctions against iran in the past for doing that, as the previous administration did. so on that we're together. here is what president trump is saying. he's complaining that iran is gaining too much influence in iraq and wants to be tough about it. what is he doing? he said we should go in and take iraq's oil and he's banned iraqi citizens, even those who have worked with our american military from coming into the united states. anybody who knows the region knows that strengthen's iran's

hand. iran is in iraq basically saying you can't trust the u.s., you need to trust us. when the president of the united states says we should steal iraq's oil and iraqis aren't good enough, even those who helped our military, to come to united states. donald trump is making iran's case for them every day. you're right, he's talking tough, but his actions are strengthening iran's hand, not weakening it. >> he's saying you gave him a weak hand, gave them all this money that now they're using to make even more bad things, and he has to set a new tone and that's why flynn came out and put them on notice. do you think that can be a positive step? >> yes ought to put them on notice for the anti ballistic missile. i supported that in the past. >> what do you mean by on notice? >> i have no idea what he means. what we've done in congress in the past is we've passed sanction statutes and encouraged the un to sanction iran for

violating the resolution for dealing with anti ballistic missiles. that's what we should do. what we shouldn't do is strengthen iran's hands by telling iraqis that we're going to steal their oil or telling them they can't come into the country. chris, you know this. the iraqi prime minister has already been called in to parliament to have to defend, what are we doing with the u.s. when the new president is talking about taking iraqi oil. there's nothing that will strengthen iran's hand more in the region than the kind of foolish actions that the administration has taken. >> fair point. we have to see how the president and the new administration clean that up. the war at home, to turn the phrase, is about the cabinet nominees. jeff sessions is getting his phone. will you support him? >> no. i've come out against sessions. i support -- i voted to support five of the nominees, and i've either publicly opposed or voted against six of the nominees, but i'm going to oppose jeff sessions for two principle reasons. first, i was a civil rights lawyer for 17 years, and i don't think his commitment to the

nation's civil rights laws are such that he should be attorney general, and second, i strongly oppose the use of torture. senator mccain on the armed services committee where i serve, we put together a resolution to make clear that the army's anti-torture rules apply to every agency, including the cia. we had nearly 80 votes in the senate for that. senator sessions was one who voted no. i don't want an attorney general advising the president who is kwif equivocal about whether torture is okay. i want someone who knows it's not okay. >> what about betsy devos, do you think you can get republicans, some of them iffy, on devos. she's certainly had hurdles. do you think you can have another vote or do you think mike pence will come in as the vp and break the tie and she's in? >> as you know it's 50/50. democrats are opposing devos. i'm on the h.e.l.p. committee. she will not be a champion for

public schools. she does not understand the law respecting students with disabilities, and she does not think that schools receiving taxpayer dollars should be held equally accountable on important matters about student outcomes. so i'm opposing her. as you pointed out, two republicans have also come out against her. right now it's sort of 50/50. will there be another republican vote? i don't know. the vp might be coming in to have to do a tiebreaker. i think the more people see that hearing, the more questions they have. i'll say this. in four years in the senate i have never had the volume of letters and calls about anything, including the government shutdown, as i have about the nomination of betsy devos to be secretary of education. >> what has president trump done in these first 14 days that you like? >> look, i think general mattis was a great pick for secretary of defense. i voted for him, even though it was unusual, as you know,

because he had been recently in the military, we had to do a waiver for him. i think it's very important because i frankly am concerned about other members of the president's national security team, general flynn and steve bannon, you have to have somebody good like general mattis, general kelly for dhs. i have supported some of the cabinet nominees. look, i do agree on this point yesterday about iran's test of anti-ballistic missiles. when they fired missiles in the fall of 2015, i joined together with republicans to suggest that should be activity that should lead to sanctions. even though i supported the iran nuclear deal, ballistic missiles is something different. when you violate a un rule on that, there needs to be a consequence. i can see some items where, look, i can say i would do the same thing. but this muslim ban, we're going to be voting on a ridiculous thing pushed by the administration in the gop today to roll back a regulation that requires our oil companies to

report payments to foreign governments. it's an anti corruption and transparency measure. for some reason the president and gop, the day after they approve the exxonmobil ceo to be secretary of state, they now want to take out an anti corruption rule affecting our oil companies. this isn't helping people get jobs. it's a give-back to big oil. i can't understand why they're doing it and i'll fight against it. >> you know why they say they're doing it, right? what do you make of their argument in favor of the move? >> look, american companies have to be able to pay foreign governments and keep it secret to have a level playing field. canada, the eu and the uk after the u.s. adopted our rule, they adopted rules as well. we've established a global standard that virtually every company now has to comply with. if the u.s. pulls out of that leadership position, other nations will, too. there's no reason to allow

corruption in high transparency of these payments to foreign governments. they should be in the open. >> do you believe rex tillerson, this is a reflection -- assuming he knows about it -- that he's going to have a hard time not putting corporate interests first as secretary of state? >> chris, that's why i voted against him. i would have voted for him for secretary of commerce. i probably would have voted or considered voting for him for secretary of energy. as secretary of state, he has to have an independence from his 41-year career at exxonmobil. i asked him questions in the hearing to see if he was independent enough of russia. he didn't satisfy me. will he be independent enough of exxonmobil's history to press for appropriate climate change liken forcing the paris climate accord? he didn't satisfy me. when i asked about exxonmobil's commitment to transparency around these payment issues to countries, he gave me a good answer. then i see congress gutting the very protection that is put in place to make sure the oil

companies do behave in a transparent manner. it's deeply concerning. >> to be fair, rex tillerson has nothing to do with promulgating this reg or anything of that stuff, all done by other agencies. >> that is true, but exxonmobil and other organizations lobbied very hard against the regulation when it was originally put in place through the american petroleum institute and others. they really didn't like it. that was when he is ceo. one day after he's approved there's aen effort to gut this transparency rule. >> fair point. we have to go now. we're monitoring the national prayer breakfast. we will revisit a very important subject, the authorization for use of military force, more relevant than ever we'll come back to you on that. >> thanks, chris. we've been reporting all morning about this phone call between president trump and the leader of australia. is that kind of contentious exchange what we can expect in foreign policy? we'll get to the bottom line

with david axelrod next. bp engineers use robotic ultrasound technology, so they can detect and repair corrosion before it ever becomes a problem. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better.

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the president putting iran, quote, on notice. we at the same time are hearing about contentious conversations with america's allies, australia and mexico. what does all this mean for the future of america's foreign policy. let's get to "the bottom line" with former obama adviser david axelrod. what do you see here happening with foreign policy? >> look, i think we have to separate the discussion into two categories. one is politics and the other is protocol and policy. in terms of the politics, you know i bet you that these contentious statements, conversations, this bellicose approach to foreign policy is playing pretty well with the president's base. this is the kind of approach that he's promised, and he is delivering on it. i think from that standpoint he's probably well satisfied with some of these back-and-forths and the menacing

comments towards iran and so on. here is the problem with it. in reality, america is needed in the world and america needs the world. when you antagonize allies, as australia is, you may need them later, and they may not be as willing to be there for you. the same is true with mexico. we have many important issues with mexico, and we also have 6 million jobs that depend on exports to mexico. so what's satisfies your politics may undermine your ability to be effective as president. on iran, it's not clear what the purpose of the statement was yesterday because saying that they were on alert or whatever phrase it was that flynn used. >> on notice. >> on notice, does not suggest what it is that is being threatened and could easily have been conveyed through private

channels. the other thing that's interesting about this, so the suggestion is that maybe this was for public consumption, not just iranian consumption. the interesting thing is that the complaint is they violated un resolution by testing this ballistic missile which they apparently did. and yet the un is roundly criticized by the president as being a discussion society and having no real teeth. you can see where a un resolution is important. i think on politics, i think he is not at all upset about some of this coverage and he's intentional in some of these conversations. what it portends for the future i think is much darker. >> why is it necessarily darker, just to engage trump's analysis on this issue? obama was weak, we allowed our allies to get away with

everything and didn't have our fair share. i will be strong and tell them who is in control of this relationship, and he will flex and say, look, feel this? this is me, i'm america, you will respond. that's what he promised. people liked it. now he's delivering. >> exactly. i said on the level of politics, chris, i think it's probably pretty effective with his base of supporters. but let's look at iran, for example. everyone in washington, republican and democrat, though they may have cripple sized baumerly and criticized the agreement he made with iran, everybody agrees that the sanctions he put in place were very, very effective and they were effective because he was able to bring the rest of the world in with him, in on those sanctions. that took a lot of work. i was around at that time and i was a witness to some of the meetings with foreign leaders in which he had those negotiations and discussions. so that's where alliances pay off. there are times when you need your allies.

australia is a principal ally in the broadcast and has helped supply intelligence. they've been allies in a couple of wars. there are going to be times when you need your allies and your allies aren't going to be your allies if you are constantly at odds with them. >> david, one of the things, as you know, that mr. trump as a candidate criticized obama for often, as did republicans, was the red line on syria. so the on notice for iran sort of begs the question of what kind of ultimatum is that and why are they using that when they thought president obama either shouldn't have said red line or should have followed it up with something? >> it would be interesting to know what secretary mattis thought about that statement. i agree, and it was sufficiently vague that it's not clear what they're talking about.

are they talking about military action? that would be a very high stakes move if they were to move forward on that. what exactly are they talking about? maybe they're talking about sanctions, some people suggest, although the administration denies it, this was a prelude to trying to undo the iran nuclear agreement, though general mattis has said he would be opposed to such a move. more than anything, what they've sewed is confusion. that's not a good thing in foreign policy, and certainly in these frayed kind of relationships that could lead to armed conflict. >> ax, what's your take on who is behind some of these early moves and what's perceived as a shakeup that's going on within the white house? that issue got piqued my interest, uc berkeley, if they don't honor free speech, why would they get federal funds? why would he come out in favor of this breitbart fire brand guy

sensored on different levels because of what he said. to me it smacks of bannon and how much is creating reverb and shakeup. >> i don't know whether bannon whispered in his ear. i don't know who whispers is nis ear in the middle of the night. the reality is if you're nice to donald trump and milo has been nice to donald trump and supportive of donald trump, donald trump will respond in kind. he views him as a supporter. all of his other views, as repugnant as they may be to the mainstream notwithstanding, he's been nice to trump. when i saw the events in berkeley last night, i thought it was absolutely something that he was going to respond to because most americans will look at that and see the flames on the streets and so on, or at least certainly most of his base and say someone should stand up to that.

so i wasn't surprised to see his tweet. the bigger story is sort of this white house shake ip thing. one of the questions that i've had and many people who have worked in the white house have had is how does this work with a chief of staff, with steve bannon as chief strategist, obviously empowered to do a lot with jared kushner there, different power centers within the white house and no sort of streamline system by which decisions would be made. in that kind of a system when there's a screw-up, one faction is going to ascend and another faction will take a hit. there's no doubt the rollout this immigration and refugee order was a screw-up. what it reflected was a lack of consultation, lack of planning and the result was chaos. the one thing i don't think donald trump wants is the sense that he's incompetent. remember, he's the ringmaster of

"the apprentice" predicated on a guy that knows how to get things done and done in a right way. that wasn't done in the right way. you can see the reince priebus forces are going to seize on that, have seized on that to say, you know what, we need to do this in the proper way, do this in regular order so we don't look incompetent. i think you're going to see a lot of this. if priebus should slip on a banana peel, you'll see other forces in the white house seize on that. it's going to make for a lot of tumult in the white house. >> i don't think we should be calling it a shakeup. >> what should we call it? >> breaking the mold. he's putting people in different roles. a shakeup suggests people are being fired. he's breaking the mold, putting steve bannon on the national security council. he's doing things differently. >> look, i don't disagree with you, alisyn.

it it isn't unusual in the early hours of an administration for roles to be defined. what's different in this white house is you do have these competing powers. they may work together, but they're also competing. it was very unusual for the chief of staff not to be the guy who ran that order. it was certainly unusual for them not to consult with the secretary of defense or the state department, director of homeland security, the attorney general. all those things would have been done, i suspect, had the chief of staff been in charge of that process. >> david axelrod, thank you very much for the bottom line. >> i'll disagree. there is tension in there right now. >> but nobody has been fired. i'm reserving shakeup. >> shakeup means fired? >> to me. no question there's a lot of frustration going on within the white house. they don't like the way the travel ban has been perceived, even how it's being defined. started as a muslim ban, rudy

giuliani was tasked with making a muslim ban legal. now they don't like it being called a ban. tech leaders are venting to the white house. we'll tell you their concerns next.

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apple and google are just some of the tech companies drafting a joint letter opposing president trump's travel ban. cnn business correspondent christine romans is here. >> talking google, apple, uber, microsoft, facebook. no official comment from those companies yet. here is what they want. there's the practical argument. these are global companies with thousands of workers who have visas. they need to be able to travel with predictability. there's a moral argument. these companies want clarity on how the trump white house plans to treat the 750,000 so-called dreamers who are unsure about whether they'll be deported. a new coalition of more than 100 companies and industry groups is fighting any proposed border adjustment tax saying it would

lead to higher prices. it will cost each american family $1,700 a year in extra costs. pro points though of the border adjustment tax says it will bring manufacturing jobs back to the u.s. on a whole lot of fronts you're seeing companies start to speak up. >> christine, thank you very much. up next, details of the tense call between president trump and australia's leader from the reporter who broke the story. first, what you eat can affect the texture and even color of your hair. nutritionist lisa drayer shares tips. >> good hair care doesn't start with shampoo. it starts with protein. your hair is mostly made of protein. so the quality and quantity of protein in your diet plays an important role. at least a quarter of your daily calories should come from excellent sources such as lean meats, fish, eggs, peanut butter and greek yogurt. make sure you're also getting

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as we have been reporting all morning, president trump had a heated phone call last weekend with australia's prime minister, not the cordial one that was described. the main issue, president trump doesn't like an agreement made under the obama administration to resettle some refugees that are being kept in horrible conditions in australia. let's talk to one of the journalist who broke the story, phillip rucker, national political reporter for "the washington post," also joining us senior congressional correspondent for t"the washington examiner" david drucker. i owe you breakfast, rucker, not you, drucker, because you were up very late last night and now here again for us this morning. the white house says this was a nice call, a pro forma call, "the new york times," cnn, and starting with you at "the washington post," you heard a different story. what did you hear?

>> that's right. a rather contentious call and at times even hostile. president trump, it only lasted about 25 minutes. they aukd about the refugee plan. trump felt very strongly that that was a bad deal, it would hurt him politically in the united states. more importantly in his mind, it would be a threat to u.s. national security. he even drew a comparison to the boston marathon bombing telling the prime minister of australia he doesn't want australia exporting, quote, the next boston marathon bmers. >> philip, you have a scoop, a source who explained all this. were you able to get any sense of what the reaction was from australia? this was not the phone conversation the prime minister was expecting to have. >> it is not. it's been huge news in australia, and i followed a lot of it on social media. what the prime minister had to say in his radio interviews last night, he acknowledged that the phone call was testy, but he

also came away with an assurance in his mind from trump that the u.s. would honor that agreement for the refugees. however, our sources in the u.s. are telling us trump used the phrase my intention, my intention is to honor that agreement. that leaves him a little wiggle room as a negotiator if he chooses to back out of it at a later date. >> he also tweeted this morning, i'll study this terrible deal or something. trump was very negative on it. now, mr. drucker, you believe that the white house is okay with this reckoning of the phone call making its way into the media even though it did not spin it this way initially. >> i'm just not so sure that they don't mind the fact that at least for the president's base, but even others, that they see somebody who is doing what he said he would do, talk tough to our allies who's argued for years, not just during the campaign, have been taking

advantage of our generosity, and he was going to reconfigure agreements that were not in f e favor of the united states. president obama was critical of deals that george w. bush reached with allies of ours. he reoriented uchltd s. policy, backed away from agreements. we do know and i'm sure phil could speak to this, that the president is sensitive to criticism, but -- so they may not likenessly how this is playing here and in different places around the world, but i'm not so sure they're upset with the fact that, as they would probably say it, the media is all spun up about something and they're missing the entire point of what the president said and what the president accomplished. >> philip, what about that? is it your impression that mr. trump is okay with this story being out as captured by you and

c cnn? >> i think so. if he were not okay, he would have tweeted something different. david is exactly right, nobody elected donald trump to make diplomatic niceties. they elected him to reconfigure the world order. his whole naugal address was about america first. this is the very definition of america first. he's re-evaluating deals over refugees. >> phillip rucker, what do you make of the reporting that the aussie prime minister was saying he dealt with me as a bully. the way to deal with a bully is to bully back? do you believe that's accurate and what could that mean? >> you know, i don't really know. i have less information about how the prime minister handled the call. it seems like he's dealing with his own politics at home, trying not to look weak. it's bad for him if he comes across in australia looking like

he couldn't stand up to president trump. i think his people are trying to spin this in the most positive way back home. >> philip rucker, thank you for sharing your reporting with us, great to get it directly from the source. >> david drucker, thanks for sticking with us. the "newsroom" will be bringing you president trump's teach at the national prayer breakfast as soon as he takes the stage. we'll see you tomorrow. we'll see you tomorrow. >> have a good morning.

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good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you for joining me. the trump white house rattling nerves among friends and foes alike as america's foreign policy takes on a more combative tone. we're closely watching two live events this hour. on the left side of your screen, president trump attends the national prayer service in washington, expected to speak any moment. we'll take you live to the hilton in washington, d.c. at the bottom of the hour, trump's new secretary of state rex tillerson will speak to a crowd of employees at the state department. the agency rocked by dissent and resignation over trump's new policies like the travel ban. the diplomatic tension is only growing. today we have more details on the president's newest clashes with important