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welcome back, topping the headlines, late day flurry and striking a different note on israeli settlements, which is surprising. cnn's elyce has details. yesterday the trump administration said they were putting iran on notice. what happened today? >> anderson, today they said that they are going to impose sanctions against iran. these are under existing executive orders on weapons of mass destruction and terrorism and you remember that president obama did this after iran launched some ballistic missile tests. this is more designations of that. this kind of comes on the heels of mike flynn, the national security advisor's warning putting iran on notice yesterday.

president trump doubled down on that. it's a continuation of what president obama did, but you can stop and look and see this in the context of this new tough line against iran, and president trump said he's not taking anything off the table including military action but to be fair, neither did president obama. >> the statement released by the white house on new israel settlements is interesting comes from president trump who until now hasn't in any way questioned israel's policy. >> you remember how vigorously he defend that controversial u.n. vote on settlements. talking to israelis tonight, they don't see it as that bad. the construction of new settlements, the expansion beyond the current boarders may not be that helpful in achieving the goal. president obama did call them impedement to peace. he didn't want them building

even inside those blocks, which so basically some israelis see this as president trump giving cover to netanyahu. he used to use obama as a foil against the hard liners on the right. now the right is excited about trump. this is statement that allows netanyahu to keep them in check. it's interesting to note the secretary of state rex tillerson spoke. before the statement came out. >> thank you. >> tough talk for russia at the u.n. signs that some foreign policy recalibration maybe underway, given that it's good of time as any to talk to fareed zakaria host of "gps." it is interesting and particularly the notion that perhaps this is president trump trying to help netanyahu get some cover to push back against his own right flank? >> yeah, one can't tell because so far what you notice is a lot of inconsistency.

you know, initially there were things done, which seemed to give the signal what netanyahu did was took encouragement from some of the things trump said and went forward and very aggressively proposed some of these things and announced himself. it's unclear it's the right wing doing it. it's that he's doing it. >> expansion of settlements but also creation of a new one. >> exactly. there is this issue of expansion with an existing block, which is one thing, new settlement is a more provocative move. i wonder if recalibration is the result of some of trump's team getting more firmly in place, so mattis is really now acting as secretary of defense. he's already on a foreign trip. tillerson probably moved in in a significant way and perhaps you're having some weigh in and provide some of the professional and historical context.

on settlements for seven, eight administrations is opposed to settlement. trump's statement was in that simply consistent with the continuity of american foreign policy. >> right. in terms of iran. there is a white house advisor on jake tapper's show saying look, there is a new sheriff in town and we heard from mike flynn yesterday that the u.s. is putting iran on notice and now leaning toward new sanctions. >> it's an odd series of events because iran has not done something dramatically new. it's important to remember the missiles are not part of the nuclear deal. the nuclear deal is the word implies, about the nuclear program. iran is a country. it has, you know, it has a military program and defense budget and develops missiles. we don't like that but there is no consensus this is so far out the pail that iron would be sanctioned for it. the sanctions were all about the nuclear program. this is iran having a

sophisticated defense program and so i'm not quite sure what the -- where this leads. you could put in additional u.s. sanctions but you'd hope there is a strategy here because the key gain from the iran nuclear deal is that iran's nuclear program by everyone easiest mitt has been frozen. 98% of the material was destroyed. you want to maintain the freeze on the program. >> right. i want to show our viewers some of what nikki haley said today. the u.s. ambassador to the united nations. it surprised a lot of people. basically, stating u.s. policy, vis-a-vis russia acting on crimea. let's listen in. >> i must condemn the aggressive actions of russia. it is unfortunate because it is a replay of far too many instances over many years in which united states have needed to do that. it should not have to be that way. we do want to better our relations with russia.

however, the dire situation in eastern ukraine is one that demands clear and strong condemnation of russian actions. >> the u.s. saying they will not lift sanctions until russia returns control of the crimea peninsula and also the violence now stops in eastern uncrane. >> this will be perhaps the most important thing to have come out this week from the trump foreign policy for the rest of the world. it will be very reassuring to ukrainians, to polls, to the eastern europeans. >> there was silence on advancement by russian-backed forces in eastern ukraine. >> absolutely. this was very clear. it was at the united nations. it was an official statement by the u.n. ambassador and very important to europeans. one of the great dangers of the flirtation trump was having with the idea of deals with putin was it's been very hard to maintain these sanctions against russia. after russia invaded ukraine and

took crimea, there was a certain amount of pressure and it was possible to put some kind of measures in. people start drifting away. they want to do business with russia. it's the u.s. maintaining sanctions with germany. the fact that she spoke out will be important in keeping that coalition. >> we'll see if we hear more from the white house. we heard from mike flynn on iran and did not hear from the white house directly. interesting to see. fareed, thanks very much. fallout from a pair of calls between president trump and two close allies and the controversy following president trump's remarks at a prayer breakfast. we'll talk to two people who were there. you're gonna love birds eye steamfresh vegetables.

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any questions? -yeah. -how do you go to the bathroom? great. any insurance-related questions? -mm-hmm. -do you have a girlfriend? uh, i'm actually focusing on my career right now, saving people nearly $600 when they switch, so... where's your belly button? [ sighs ] i've got to start booking better gigs. >> australia's ambassador met at the white house today. this would be the middle of a likely development between two old allies as diplomatic and the weekend. it's damage control. the likes of which are rarely seen between such close allies

and not the only one as jim acosta reports tonight. >> translator: president trump is doing cleanup down under offering praise for australia. following the closure of a tense phone conversation. >> i love australia as a country. >> at issue is a deal cut by the obama administration to take in political refugees currently held in detention centers off australia. who fled from some of the muslim nations now barred from sending people to the u.s. under the trump administration's new travel ban. refugees, the president incorrectly calls illegal immigrants. >> they had a problem where for whatever reason, barack obama said that they were going to take probably well over 1,000 illegal immigrants who were in prisons. and they were going to bring them and take them into this country, and i just said why.

>> reporter: sources say the president was so upset with the prime minister that he abruptly ended the call, and he had another phone conversation with the mexican president where he offered to send troops to mexico to help go after, quote, huff hombres. they said it made the harsh language of white house staffers turn white. not to worry, said the president. >> believe me. when you hear about the tough phone calls i'm having. don't worry about it. it's time we're tough. we're taken advantage of by every nation in the world, virtually. it's not going to happen anymore. it's not going to happen anymore. >> reporter: still, top republicans were spending the day reassuring a keyst ally. >> i don't think australia should be worried about their relationship with the new president or the country for that matter. >> this, in my view was unnecessary and frankly, harmful

open dispute over an issue which is not nearly important as united states australian cooperation and working together. >> reporter: the worries come as the president said he is weighing his options on how to deal with provocations from iran which include sanctions on entities. >> i don't know if you're a republican or democrat, but i'm appoints you for another year. >> reporter: the president also took years from the lip style at the national prayer breakfast. he mocked arnold schwarzenegger. a replacement on his old tv show. >> the ratings went down the tubes. it's been a total disaster. and i want to just pray for arnold, if we can, those ratings. drawing this rebuttal from swart neger. >> why don't we switch jobs in you take over my job and i'll take over your job and people can finally sleep comfortably

again. >> jim, tell us about the cleanup efforts on the calls, including the meeting with the australian ambassador. >> reporter: right. aides say the australian ambassador paid a visit to the white house. white house officials say the ambassador met with the chief of staff and the chief strategist over here, steve bannon who conveyed according to white house the president's admiration for the australian people. but keep in mind this meeting did not include the secretary of state, rex tillerson, or michael flynn, but did include steve bannon which is a big sign as to how much influence he has in the white house. >> thank you very much. it's become the question to ask after so much reports lately. is this the norm or are we in unchartered territory? why are we hearing so many normally closely guarded inside details soming out of what seems to be the white house. karl bernstein and jeffrey lord

and david gergen here. david, you're been in the oval office probably listening in to these kind of phone calls with leaders in the past. it's rare that -- is it rare that so many details come out of them like this? >> absolutely. and it's almost a rush to get some of the details. it's very prisurprising. i don't know if it's reprisals, they're angry and upset with the president. >> kellyanne conway saying it's not coming out of the white house, although, i'm not sure how she would know. >> because it occurred on saturday and the leaks came on monday, probably transcripts got around to various people and they would get on the desk to some of the permanent civil servants, but we said all along the way they were alienating certain departments, state department and others, there was -- somebody is going to bite back. civil servants have a way of retaliating. i'm assuming the leaks have something to do with that.

>> karl, not just the leaks but also the reality of the tense details about the phone calls with the australian prime minister, it is pretty remarkable for long standing u.s. allies. >> absolutely. and if the president's actions and words were more thoughtful, there wouldn't be these leaks. we've seen the president's counselor telling the press to keep its mouth shut when the person who should be choosing his words more carefully and using the mouthpiece of the presidency effectually is donald trump. he is undermines himself and the security of the united states through reckless words and actions. >> jeffrey, i get a lot of trump supporters who say this is why we voted for donald trump. we want him to shake things up and be a disrupter and think even longly held alliances even with countries like australia. the fact that the white house then has to have the australian

ambassador come to the white house and meet with reince priebus and steve bannon the next day, doesn't that signal that some folks in the white house are concerned about what trump is doing? >> there's a piece being left out of the story. on november 2nd -- 22nd, senator grassly and the chairman of the house, and the senate, judiciary committees sent letters to secretary kerry and jeh johnson about this australian agreement. they were very upset it was classified. they wanted to know why. they were angry. they didn't get a response. they repeated the request on december 2nd in another letter all of which was released to the public. so this has been out there long before. apparently the president, president trump is now -- has now found out. he was not happy about it with reason. this has been kicking around for quite some time in the system. >> but i guess the question is

there are ways to address those things. and again, maybe this is just a stylistic thing or maybe too conventional, but there are ways to deal with an ally that don't involve ending a phone call abruptly. >> but, australia is not exactly staten island. it's a pretty big place. 2400 refugees. they're not going to let these people into australia? they're keeping them on offshore islands and then we're supposed to take them? >> you don't hang up the telephone on the prime minister of australia. that's the real question here. >> yes, you do. karl, yes, you do. >> okay. >> if you want to make a point, yes, you do. >> okay. >> i also think australia has taken in quite a few of refugees. i don't have the numbers, but throughout history. >> let's be clear. the tradition has been that one president makes a commitment to another country, the next president is sort of bound by

that. if you want to get into it, you have to go back and use diplomacy. the australians have sent their soldiers to serve alongside our soldiers. they spilled blood to help america on many occasion, and the australians by nature are so friendly. as a former government official told me tonight, it's really hard to make the australians mad at you. >> right. >> and if they succeeded, it is a huge -- >> i heard somebody on twitter say to that, well, they didn't work at the new york post. >> yeah, but it's a huge departure from standard procedure. your presidents do not chew out others. i understand that donald trump is a volcanic and all the rest, but when it comes to diplomacy, it's called diplomacy. it is not called raising hell. >> david? >> yes. >> you recall when president

reagan broke all kinds of precedents by calling the soviets liars and cheats in his first press conference. washington was agas. you just don't do this. but the lines eventually got us to end the cold war, to winning. >> it's a very different situation. >> i hope the cold war ends between us and australia someday. they are one of our closest allies. >> he said tear down this wall which is different than hanging up the telephone on somebody. i think this is the reason we're seeing so many republicans on capitol hill as well as democrats and those of us in the press, keep hearing from our sources that they are questioning the stability, the emotional maturity and stability of this president, because one after another of these incidents keeps occurring. >> we to leave it there. an update on a vow president trump made, he was up in arms over voter fraud or alleged

voter fraud. making the unfounded claim that millions of undocumented immigrants voted in the election, voted for hillary clinton. he was promising a federal investigation into what would be if true, the biggest case of voter fraud in america's history. again, if true. so as we mentioned, that was a week ago. made headlines. subject of a lot of discussion oh on news and newspapers. which makes tonight seem like a good time to check in on that promised investigation. jeff zeleny has been doing digging for us on that. >> reporter: this executive order president trump said he would sign opening an investigation for his claim that millions of people voted illegally in the election, what do we know. >> it was a week ago today he was supposed to sign it in the oval office. it didn't happen. at the time they said he was running out of time, taking his first trip outside of washington to philadelphia, and then they said friday and saturday. it didn't happen. but we know he was making a big issue last week. his initiative of saying that

three to five million people voted illegally. he tweeted about it as well. take a look at this to refresh your memory. he said i will be asking for a major investigation into voter fraud. including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and even those who registered to vote are dead and many for a long time. depending on results, we'll strengthen up voting procedures. that was supposed to be followed by an executive order or memorandum calling on the justice department to investigate it. it hasn't happened yet. we asked today why that is. >> did they say anything? >> well, a senior administration official told me that, look, it's not the president's priority at this time. and looking into it a little bit further talking to some other people, many republicans here at the white house and capitol hill have been urging the president to stop talking about this and change the subject. they think it's a waste of money and they think he won't find

anything. for the time being he's not planning on signing the executive order in the coming days. they won't rule it out entirely because he still believes there was voter fraud so possibly when his new department of justice is up and running, they might revisit it, but many republicans are hoping he forgets about it. >> we should point out people registered in multiple states or a dead person on the roles is not voter fraud. what the president continued to change is three to five million people voted illegally. that would be the largest voter fraud in america's history. the idea that he really believes that and is not calling for an investigation is kind of amazing. or that this is suddenly just disappeared. >> without a doubt. it's disappeared as quickly as it came up last week. he first mentioned it in a meeting with congressional leaders, and then the reporters here asked the white house if he really believes this, shouldn't

there be an investigation? this would be an epic scandal in county after county across the country. well, then the president came out and called for that investigation, but he really was being urged by people inside the white house to move on. so yes, he may still believe it, but no evidence of voter fraud. and there are republicans and democrats who say it just simply didn't happen. certainly to that extent. >> all right. jeff zeleny, thank you very much. >> thanks, anderson. >> just ahead, more on president trump's approach to the national prayer breakfast. what he said in front of a room of religious leaders. isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection, or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring.

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as we've said, president trump spoke at the prayer breakfast in washington. fair to say he did not follow the usual script. >> thank you as well to senator chaplain, berry black for his moving words. and i don't know, whether or not that's an appointed position. is that an appointed position? i don't know if you're a democrat or republican, but i'm appointing you for another year, and i think it's not even my appointment. it's the senate's appointment, but we'll talk to them. your son is here. your job is very, very secure. okay? >> among other things, president trump also talked about his celebrity apprentice ratings and made fun of his replacement, asking the audience to pray for

better ratings for arnold schwarzenegger. he vowed to overturn, and repeal a law that requires a rule of congress. we wanted to know how it went over for people in the room. we are joined by katherine, joe who was in the room. joel, thank you for being with us. and sister as well. how did the comments to chaplain black and what he said about the celebrity apprentice and other comment, how did it play in the room? >> people really enjoyed it. there was a real sense of how refreshing it was for somebody to be talking about religious freedom, affirming the values of christianity, but also other faiths. the importance of coming together, to be unified, and i

have to say that if you're judging him on individual moments, yes, there were some classic donald trump moments. i can see that. >> you're talking act the apprentice rates? >> yeah. i don't think any of us expect him not to still be who he is, but i would also say overall, if you read the whole speech or if you watch it, more importantly, the tone is actually quite measured. he's being very generous. he's talking about peace loving muslims being slaughtered and we want to help them. we want to bring people into our country, but we need to be careful and safe about how we do it. it's a better trump. a trump i want to see as president with a few moments. >> it's interesting. when i woke up and was looking and reading stuff all throughout the day, a lot of the coverage online was about the celebrity apprentice line, but it's interesting to hear your perspective and that of other people in the room. sister, i hear you feel differently. you feel -- well, what do you

think? >> well, i must say that i felt like he was off the mark. he really didn't address the issues of faith. and for me, at the heart of faith is pope francis's and jesus's urging to welcome t others. at the heart of faith is that, and he -- president trump basically skirted that issue. and to have done it just in the face of instituting the muslim ban, of stopping refugees from coming in and devastating so many families around the world, well, that made me think he's totally tone deaf. but he also didn't understand what's at the heart of our faith. that we're the best when we are together, and when we do welcome in the immigrants. >> i think a lot of people see things through a particular lens, whether it's their own religious beliefs or political

beliefs. it sounds like some of your thoughts on what he said are based on a disagreement over policies over what the president is elaborating on. is that fair to say? >> i think that's fair to say, but given the one example, the policy example that he did say about overturning the johnson amendment, and what that majority is is the prohibition for churches to endorse candidates. and what people may not think about is the fact that if that's overturned, that means that churches can use their charitable contributions which are tax deductible to the donors, for political advertisemen advertisements, and quite frankly the issue is the fact that churches get this tax benefit, then they should be limited in their participation in physically participating in that political process. individuals can still use their voice but not in their church

perspective. and it's that mixing of church and state that i think is problematic. >> right. i should point out, you were kind of a never trumper until i think about a week before the election, and i think it was mike pence who sort of finally made you decide to support the ticket, joel, so it's interesting that you felt that early on but the lens through which you're seeing what the president said tonight or this morning was different. clearly you feel differently about that amendment? >> yeah. because, look, i was. i was a never trumper through 16 different candidates. i readily concede that. his choice of governor pence to be vice president caught my attention, because i've been a friend of mike and karen for a long time, or the vice president and the second lady, and i really like his style, and when i watched him more and more sort of embracing the way pence approaches things and putting him more involved in policy, i like that.

to be clear, i think there's a difference between being a cynic and being a skeptic or, you know, in an evangelical way of looking at it, this was a marriage i wasn't sure should happen, but i want the president to succeed. cynics are unable to hear anything good that the new president is saying. he is saying we want immigrants in our country. we just need to have a process to do that right. and we will fight radical islam, he didn't use that term, but we need to help muslims and christians dying. and the king of jordan was in front of him. and it was an excellent speech overall. >> i appreciate your perspective and sister as well. thank you so much. we appreciate it. coming up next, what uber ceo is doing in response to president trump's execiutive order. the travel ban. he joins us on how the order is being received among islamic

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to break with the trump administration over the

immigration order today dropping out of the business advisory council. there's the question of whether it's counterproductive. we want to talk with it about radical, my journey out of radical islamism. thank you for being with us. there was someone on jack tapper yesterday saying essentially the argument that isis, that we shouldn't be upset about this ban or worry about how this ban is being seen or use bid isis, because they want to kill americans anyway. it's not as if we should be concerned that it's going to be a propaganda tool for isis. what do you say to that? >> if we don't control the narrative, then isis will be able to use anything we do and anything we don't do as a a tool. they also used angela merkel's open door policy, but we can't get away from the fact that they will use this as a propaganda tool, and it's being received

and heard by muslims as a muslim ban because of how trump campaigned and called it this in his campaign. >> so even though they're saying it's not a ban and this is temporary to reassess things, ev even though the syria thing seems more permanent for the near future. that is being received, you think, as this is a ban, this is america against islam? >> well, and the reason is because of the -- look, everyone knows what trump says he was trying to do, but it was an incredibly clumsy way of rolling this out, and of the seven countries, we've discuss third down enough, the seven countried named didn't mention saudi arabia, where 15 of the 19 hi jackers were. it didn't mention britain or france where we've seen that terrible summer of violence last year in france by french

citizens or britain where the shoe bomber attempted -- he's the reason we have to take our shoes off at airports. it's clumsy, and actually more importantly, that there were two voices in america that i know that are challenging extremism from within muslim communities. one is somali, and the other ira iraqi. both would have been banned by the measure. >> it is interesting, because really one of the few people who directly came from overseas who was involved recently in an attack was the wife in the san bernardino attack, and she came from pakistan which is not on this list as you said. >> exactly. and one of the attackers came from egypt. the 9/11 attackers. the other two from the uae. people are wondering why these seven countries were compiled. the answer we're getting is these countries happen to be unstable. we can't vet refugees coming from the countries. i asked the question if refugees and asylum seekers and people

fleeing wars aren't coming from unstable countries, where should they be coming from? stable countries? >> in terms of fighting the narrative, what can the trump administration do? >> well, we do need a very clear understanding that we're engaged in an ideological struggle. we know that my criticism of the previous administration has been there's been too much emphasis on military and legal approach. we need to start to recognize we're dealing with islamist extremist. you can't fight an ideology unless you distinguish it and name it. the other thing concerned that trump is relatively okay with naming it. if he's going to charge it at the state department and name it challenging radical muslim, where is that right wing or

white supremacist terrorism. we saw québec. we have to use a strategy that includes all forms of extremism. >> to be continued. thank you very much. ahead, how steve bannon's views on islam may be shaping trump administration policy. what i love most

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these are early days in the trump white house but it is already clear that steve bannon is a major force field in the oval office.

"time" magazine put him on its cover, calling him the great manipulator. the story inside is headlined "is steve bannon the second most powerful man in the world?" bannon's actual title is chief white house strategist. he's a key member obviously of the president's inner circle who now has a seat on the national security council. today house minority leader nancy pelosi called bannon a white supremacist and said putting him on the nsc is making america less safe. bannon as you may know is the former chairman of breitbart news the far right media outlet that bannon himself has touted as a tablet of the alt right which espouses extreme views. bannon hasn't spoken much in public since the election but in the past he's talked at length about his views on zblimz and refugees and immigrants. gary tuchman tonight reports. >> reporter: nine months before steve bannon joined the trump campaign he had this to say about screening refugees from syria. >> i don't understand. what do you mean vet? why not just -- why not just stop? why are you going through all this thing on vetting? the opportunity cost of vetting. >> well, vetting's important

because we don't know -- >> no, you only vet -- commander, i only vet if you're going to let them in. why even let them in? >> reporter: his concerns over immigration and islam apparent in hours of interviews conducted by bannon for his breitbart radio show in 2015 and 2016. >> i think that most people in the middle east or at least 50% believe in being sharia compliant. >> reporter: even harshly criticizing former president george w. bush for calling islam a religion of peace. >> only the dumbest -- the second dumbest comment that one of the dumbest presidents in the history of these united states. that would be bush 43. shrub as they call him. he made the dumbest, being that islam is a religion of peace. >> reporter: bannon's views on islam leading the way for his views on what he terms a war against the judeo-christian west. >> people today say 9/11 they're all sitting there going hey, what happened? what went on? how'd this happen? why do they hate us? i said they've been fighting us for decades. look at the run-up. they want to know why guys like

donald trump and nigel farage are on the rise? because the elites in this country are too gutless. they're too gutless to face the enemy that's trying to destroy us. why is it that president barack hussein obama, who went to harvard law school, went to columbia university, and has been hailed by the mainstream media as the brightest, most brilliant guy ever to sit in the white house, how can he not see that we're fighting a global existential war? >> reporter: and he repeatedly raises the conspiracy theory of an underground group of islamic supremacists infiltrating american institutions. >> do we have a fifth column in this country in the government, in the media? the president of the united states will not criticize islam. mrs. clinton will not criticize islam. ow get a sense that the media in the west, and i mean in london and in the united states, is almost working under the precepts of sharia law right now? >> reporter: bannon's preoccupation not ending with muslims in the u.s. he cautions about all

immigrants. >> don't we have a problem, we've looked the other way on this legal immigration that's kind of overwhelmed the country? when you look and it's got 61 million, 20% of the country is immigrants? is that not a massive problem? >> reporter: a problem as he sees it. and something the white house, where he holds a position of influence, has wasted no time in addressing. gary tuchman, cnn, atlanta. >> joining me now is trump biographer tim o'brian author of "trump nation the art of being the donald" and executive editor at bloomberg view. obviously we just heard bannon's comments on immigrants, on muslims, on islam. sean spicer the other day said look, the views of bannon and the president are different when it comes to islam. but bannon is his top adviser. i mean, he has the president's ear perhaps more than anyone else. >> well, and they can try to parse this difference between donald trump's view of muslims and steve bannon's view of muslims. but it all takes place ultimately in policy. and trump allowed bannon to roll

out an executive order banning immigrants from seven mostly muslim countries and has put that out in play. if there's any daylight between bannon and trump you wouldn't know it through that order. and it's an order in many ways that's profoundly 11th century. you know, 25% of the population -- >> they say it's temporary but of course remains to be seen what happens. >> right. but it's expression a worldview. and i think you can expect things like this to come out of the administration. >> one of the criticisms that candidate trump liked to level against hillary clinton was that she always would go to advisers, her adviser, she would always consult advisers first before making any decision. and in fact his major selling point was he's a decision maker. what we're hearing, though, is this role that bannon has and other senior advisers seems to fly in the face of that. >> he said i'll come ton the white house and i'll be a great

manager and i'll be a great deal maker. those were part of the twin selling points. but the reality is he's never been a great manager. he's never liked process. he has a short attention span. he's not intellectually and emotionally disciplined. and we're seeing all this surface now in the white house. >> he would always talk about his 10,000 employees. but the trump organization itself was actually pretty small. >> it's a very boutique operation run out of the 26th floor trump tower. it's never been big. the only big thing he oversaw was his casino business and he drove that into the ground. and you're seeing the same thing happening now in the white house. he's relying primarily on a tight group of advisers. i think jared kushner and ivanka or jivanka, if you work are going to be the people he's going to speak to at the end of every day. and that means a lot of other talented people aren't going to be in the mix. people like rex tillerson or general mattis. >> you wrote a piece for bloomberg view i thought was very interesting because it sort of looks at how donald trump does not like other people getting a lot of attention and maybe it's fine for a little while but after a while, you know, chris christie, giuliani,

they sort of disappeared like somebody got the spelling wrong at the charlie brown spelling bee. they just disappear from the screen. the question is will that happen to steve bannon if he continues to be on the cover of "time" magazine? >> bannon is a survivor. he's clearly stayed in the background. he doesn't like to give interviews for the most part. but he had a coming out of sorts over the last week because of the executive order and because he just got this very powerful role on the nsc. and i think he's now very visible. he's on the cover of "time" magazine. trump likes advocates. he likes loyalists. he likes people who will advocate his viewpoint. he doesn't like people who get more air time and more attention than he does. and that's historically been the kiss of death for anybody who's an adviser to him who isn't a family member. >> tim o'brien, thanks. >> thanks, anderson. >> we'll be right back. so we have extra sets of eyes on our wells every day. because safety is never being satisfied.

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all right, so time to hand it over to don lemon for "cnn tonight." i'll see you tomorrow night. president trump's warning for iran. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. the president planning additional sanctions on ter sxn refusing to rule out military action saying "nothing's off the table." that in the wake of the political firestorm with one of our closest allies, australia. and trump's complaint to mexico's president about that country's handling of what he called tough hom brees. and trump's long time friend howard stern said this on his sirius xm show. >> i personally wish that he had never run. i told him that. because i actual