welcome to "inside politics." >> i'm john king. president trump is in brussels for his first nato summit, a gathering with fresh urgency because of the bombing in england. moments ago the president met with the prime minister of belgium. he said we will win. we'll bring you thosera, as soon as we have the tape. fresh tensions at this meeting, too. british officials mad. details about the suicide bomber were leaked by american sources. >> it is irritating if it gets released from other sources. and i have been very clear with our friends that that should not

happen again. snug big news back stateside. the president getting new lawyers because of the special council investigation and his former national security adviser pliblg flynn faces new pressure, too. more subpoenas today for documents detailing his election year russia contacts. >> the walls feel like they are closing in on the trump administration right now. i'm not sure that they can hold them off much longer. >> plus, today's an anxious day for republicans. a new report card on the new gop health care bill is due any minute. the big budget cuts proposed by president trump being framed by democrats to you as heartless and has more promises broken. >> simply put, the trump budget takes a sledgehammer to the middle class and working americans, lavishes tax breaks on the very wealthy and imagines all of the deficit problems away with fantasy math. >> with us to share the reporting and insights ashleigh

parker of the "washington post," perry bacon of 538, kelsey snell of the "washington post" and dana bash. president trump is in brussels this hour preparing for a big nato summit with new urgency because of another terror attack in europe authorities today said the 22-year-old suicide bomber who killed at least 22 people at a concert was known to security services and suspected of extremist ties. >> i think it's very clear that this is a network that we are investigating. >> cnn's barbara starr reports military officials assigned to the pentagon's african command believe salomon an badie returned to the uk just days before the manchester bombing. muhammad leila has the latest. what are authorities saying? >> good afternoon, john. authorities are saying that that is just one of the leads they're looking into. very fast-moving investigation.

we now know there are four people currently in custody as part of this investigation. and we also know as that sound clip mentioned earlier that police are no longer treating the attacker as a lone wolf and believe there was a network behind this. there is now a frantic scramble to find any possible co-conspirators, collaborators anyone who might it be potentially planning another attack. to that end, we know that the terror alert is at the highest it's been in almost a decade and the effect of that is that there are now armed soldiers patrolling parts of the united kingdom, 1,000 armed soldiers, in fact. police say those soldiers are there to protect some high profile sites and their presence freeze up investigators to pursue other leads in terms of this possible terror network that they're waiting for. of course, while all this is happening, unfortunately, the very real human toll is starting to be revealed, as well. we're getting more names of more victims including a young schoolgirl who went to school

about an hour away from here. she was just her school was just told today the terrible news and we know that there are parents involved, as well who leave behind children who have now been named among the 22 people confirmed dead. john? >> muhammad lila, very important point at the end there as we try to figure out the investigation and where it goes. this network talks about we should never forget the victims. let's bring the conversation in the room. this is a horrible event in manchester that happens by coincidence as the president prepares to go to the nato summit. we know the president is skeptical that nato countries are willing to put up more resources for the fight. does much of that, the sort of reviewer mirror skepticism, doubts, even animosity from the campaign get set aside now as the president goes in you would think the prime minister of the uk with this is an urgent concern. we need to figure out how to adapt the nato alliance not to a

war in afghanistan but in the central stefz europe. >> laid the groundwork for the changing in tone on nato in the white house when he had the nato leader there and he said, point blank, i said during the campaign nato is obsolete. i no longer think that nato is obsolete. he goes in with that change already. my sense is that it's much more -- the sort of confusion and concern about the trumpcration is much more about where they are right now and what's going on and whether or not they can really believe what he's saying about nato or anything else, given frankly the chaos that everybody in the world sees happening on the home front for president trump. having said that, look, i mean, these countries understand that there is a very big threat on their soil and it unfortunately happened in the most horrific sense, just a few days before this meeting is going to take place.

so there's no question just from our experience in covering these summits that that is the kind of thing that can focus leaders no matter their differences, no matter their past like nothing else. >> and top dana's point also, vice president pence, the president sent him ahead very early on to brussells to reassure the allies to reassure sort of some of the strength towards nato. the president slightly changing tone although again we never know what will happen and you do have diplomats calling back to the u.s. trying to understand if the president tweets something or says something, what exactly does it mean. i think you're right that there is nothing like terrorism to focus alliances and allies and in a way, this is something president trump is very strong on with his base back home on the early portion of his trip, you saw him hitting these points in saudi arabia and israel. in a way it makes the latter part of the trip that had the potential to be awkward easier for the president because it's territory he's comfortable on.

>> i want you to listen to rex tillerson on air force one on the flight from rome to brussels that a lot of diplomats rolled their eyes during the campaign or got squeamish when the president said nato was obsolete. his point was he thinks they're not keeping their commitment to spend enough of their budget on defense spending. rex tillerson says the president is going to make sure that the allies pony up. >> well, as the president has said, he really wants to persuade nato members to step up and fully meet their obligations under burden sharing. the 2% of gdp was a target they all agreed to. you can expect the president to be very tough on them saying look, oat u.s. is spending 4%. we're doing a lot. the american people are doing a lot for your security, for our joint security. you need to make sure you're doing your share for your own security, as well. i think that's going to be it the core of his message to nato. >> get tough on them. you hear from the secretary of

state. some of this was already happening. president obama and president bush complained about this. there's no question of president trump's heavy public focus convinced some of the european allies we have to do more. that plays well back at home. the president essentially saying we're not footing the bill all the time. >> the president sent a big message with his budget saying i'm going to do more to spend on military and defense. that is a major focus of the noncutting side of the budget they put out this week trying to send a message to allies we want you to pay more but we're also going to pay more. that does well for his base who they're very focused on this anti-terror fighting isis and feeling security back home. >> if you're a trump voter and democrats cringe at this, you believe president obama was weak and with drew from the world and president trump is a strong leader wants a strong nato alliance on his terms. >> sounds like he's not going to discuss which is an issue the allies are concerned about.

it's something that was going to be heavy on terrorism before and will be even more so now. >> one of the subplots is a lot of people asked this does the president get it in the sense he's the commander in chief. he gets every day the world's most sensitive intelligence brought to him. there are questions how he handles it. now there are questions about the fbi or other u.s. intelligence agencies. let's start there. the home secretary in the uk, their homeland security secretary is furious and says this is investigation was playing out, there were reports attributed to american officials naming the suicide bomber saying other things in the early intelligence sweeps who is this guy, where is he from, what does he know, is he he part of a network. there were details leaking out attributed to american officials that that were compromising the british investigation. >> the americans of course, you talk about the not wanting to compromise the investigation, a lot of information has come out from america rather than from

the british police or security services. >> yes, quite frankly. the british police have been very clear that they want to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity. the element of surprise. so it is irritating if it gets released from other sources. and i have been very clear with our friends that that should not happen again. >> this is remarkable. it's remarkable. the number one, the victims. number two, the investigation. but to have a cabinet secretary of the closest american ally in the world on the big stage in europe essentially saying what are you doing? stop. that is remarkable. >> so it's remarkable on its face just on that level if there was nothing else going on with regard to complaints about leaks on intelligence. but if you look at that and then know what we have been reporting about the president going bonkers on the former fbi

director and others about leaks, which he felt really hurt him vis-a-vis classified information about the investigation into russia ties, there's an irony there that is almost unbelievable. >> and then there's the added wrinkle of the president himself, the israelis being furious that the president himself in an oval office pleating with the russian foreign minister and ambassador to the united states sharing code word israeli intelligence about isis. now everyone's trying to put the best light on this because israel is a good ally. the prime minister helping the president saying we'll push this behind. listen to the israeli defense minister on israeli radio today. i will not confirm or deny that it happened. he says we have made a pointed correction. there is unprecedented intelligence cooperation in the middle of the sentence there, we have made a pointed correction. gee, what's he mean? >> well, one thing that's fascinating about president trump and intelligencing in

general is that he has a very -- he started with a very fraught with the intelligence community. as he came into office, he values the daily presidential briefing. it often runs far over 30 minutes and he likes to have his top people there in person. so director pompeo, director coats, mcmaster all in the oval office every single day. he's asking questions, he's engages. sometimes when he does retain the information, he divulges it to the russians which it seems like it's his right as president to do. sometimes he fails to grasp the nuance. all intel points russians meddled in our elections. other day the president said the maybe it was china. that raises concerns with the intelligence community. >> still if on the question of russia. everybody sit tight. up next, a few months ago donald trump called the pope's comments

about him disgraceful. today's meeting was, in the president's words, fantastic. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪

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tylenol® welcome back. proof today at the highest levels that talking is better than tweeting. even if you have big differences. maybe especially if you have big differences. pope francis welcomed president trump at the vatican. while we have scant details of their private conversation, the president made a promise as he left. >> thank you very much. i won't forget what you said. anything i can do. >> always fascinated to see the pictures. later white meeting italy's prime minister the president

said of his time with pope francis. >> he is something. is he really great. we had a fantastic meeting and we had a fantastic tour. it was really beautiful. >> given the history, most of that history played out on twitter, a fantastic meeting was hardly guaranteed. the pope among other things tweeted during last year's campaign that someone who wants to build walls and restrict immigration is not christian. the president in turn labeled the pope's sleight disgraceful. so this is diplomacy. and having been at a presidential meeting with the pope, it's something else. i don't care whether you're catholic, christian, muslim, jewish, agnostic, atheist, there is something magical about it. >> the fact is he didn't tongue lash the president in public. that has happened in the past. we were covering george w. bush during the iraq war and pope john paul was one of the first if not the first world leader to come out and really slam him sort of face-to-face about the iraq war.

i do think that this is remarkable. you're right. to see these pictures, it's, you he flow, you have to have absolutely no sense of awe to not say it's really cool to see a pope and president no matter who they are together. >> and a president who does not often seem genuinely humbled. >> exactly. i do recall when we were talking about this in the break back during the campaign during the primaries some of the now president's republican opponents sort of shrugging their shoulders when the two of them, donald trump and the pope went up against each other. from their perspective, they said donald trump won. they said okay, we're done. >> and interesting, there's been a lot of questions about the president's first trip on the world stage. a lot of the president's critics are trying to finds moments to criticize. you have to look at the pictures, whatever your political persuasion and quib the white house props here. this was well handled including the exchange of gifts. when the pope spoke to congress, he quoted from martin luther

king. part of the president's gifts were five original bound books from martin luther king, one of them signs by dr. king. the pope in turn gave the president a medal with an olive branch on it for peace and also a signed copy. here's where politics plays in, a signed copy of his encyclical on the environment and climate. rex tillerson confirming after the fact in the private meeting the pope brought up climate change and urged the president to stay in the paris climate accord. so the pope doing politics privately. >> the pope seems to understand what a lot of donald trump's top advisers have learned. oftentimes if you're the last person to talk to the president on an issue, you can kind of sway him. and who knows what will happen with the president on climate change and the paris accords. he's been very critical. it was a very savvy sort of subtle move by the pope to sort of get in donald trump's ear, plant this document with him and you saw president trump saying i'm going to read this. we know this is not a president who reads a ton.

it remains to be seen. i think it was a very smart move by the pope. >> the it sounds like trump was not only excited going on the trip but now there, he's being treated like the president. people who used to criticize him and call him unchristian and now dialing down the critique. i think he might be -- i'll be curious if he wants to go on more foreign trips he gets because he's escaping criticism here. >> people in washington have been watching closely. there was an idea the president would learn on the job and we would see the evolution of this president. a lot of people saying they're seeing that happening in realtime while he's abroad. >> you mentioned that pope john paul did tongue lash president bush in his presence and dick cheney once on a visit to the vatican. but president bush never dwelled on that and understood the power of the pope and his respect for the vatican and for the holy father but also the power of catholic voters back lear in the united states. president bush was not going to

pick a fight. donald trump tweeting honor of a lifetime to meet his holiness pope francis. i leave the vatican more determined than ever to pursue peace in the world. a very different tone from candidate trump. number one, that's respect. you see the president genuinely lumabled to be in the presence of the holy father and a very smart president understanding that you want to point out back home this is a good meeting and went well. >> the tone from him, think about the number of positive tweets like that he sent out in this -- he seems moved from it and seems to have enjoyed the experience and seems to be viewing himself in a different way. he's leader of the world right now in this moment. >> you remember, you made an interesting point about the last person who speaks to the president. remember whether he met with then president-elect trump met with obama during the transition and president trump left the meeting with wow, i learned a lot. most of that if not all of that, but most of that has been since

discarded by events. trying to be nice. >> a little bit of wiretapping. >> i was thinking the same thing. barack obama is not the pope. >> that's my point. >> in terms of the impact. >> if you're in the meeting next week or while you're sitting at the g-7 ornate toe and paris cops up, does donald trump channel his inner steve bannon which is get out, his epa secretary administrator which is get out, pull out of the paris accord or does he channel the pope and say the holy father asked me to think about this. >> steve bannon is going to talk to donald trump more than the pope is. the problem is trump tends to listen to what they say. he thought obama was smart when he met with him and then got away from him. >> it's already clearly so strained and so unclear which way the president wants to go on the paris accord climate change issue because they've delayed

the decision so many times. it's not as though he's going to do a 180. he's clearly torn. >> there's so few people the president truly respects. many of them are billionaires, people who have as much or more money than he does. that's one of the parameters to get respect. the pope is another one of these people, even when is you saw them feuding during the campaign, you could see the president walk it back and he wasn't comfortable going to war with the pope. but i do think the pope will loom large in his mind at least for the next few weeks as he goes forward. >> there's something so insulating about being gone. he isn't in the presence of all the people who have his ear and not in meetings with cabinet secretaries who were chosen for their conservative bona fides. i wonder how much that changes things. >> that is one you can count them on one hand where you're in that place and you realize you're in a special place on planet. new developments in the russian election meddling election.

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breaking news related to the manchester bombing. british police now say a fifth suspect has been arrested in connection with the bombing. they will not release the suspect's name or say how he was connected to the bombing. our understanding he has been taken into custody by greater manchester police. a 22-year-old suicide bomber but the british police making a fifth arrest in conjunction with the attack. more new details as soon as we can get them. back here in washington, several new important developments in the russian interference in the election. cnn has learn add the president is moving ahead with a recommendation to hire an outside legal team to assist him. now that actions he took as president are part of the special counsel investigation. mark kasowitz who has represented trump in several cases over the past 15 years is in line to be a senior member of the new team with more hires likely quickly. in congress, pressure ratcheting

up on michael flynn. let's get to phil mattingly live on capitol hill. both in the house and senate intelligence committees developments focusing on michael flynn. what's new? >> that's exactly right. if there was any question at all whether or not either committee would ratchet things back a little bit because of the appointment of a special counsel, that has been blown apart over the course of the last 24 hours. the senate intelligence committee, two days ago, genera flynn, former nationality security adviser informed the committee he would be invoking his fifth amendment privilege and not turning over personal documents. the committee responds in going after more documents and what we're told according to a source close to the committee they issued two subpoenas yesterday not seeking personal documents instead targeting two specific flynn businesses, a much more tailored subpoena and their argument is business documents cannot fall under the umbrella of that fifth amendment privilege. as you notes it's not just the senate intelligence committee continuing to pursuit documents.

also the house intelligence committee. they have also been rejected by flynn's counsel in terms of their initial ask. they will now also be pursuing a subpoena. as you know the, john, this isn't going anywhere anytime soon not just on the federal investigation side but also on the capitol hill side. >> phil mattingly live on capitol hill. thank you. democrats pouncing pouncing on more legal troubles for flynn. in their view, the broader the investigation drags on, the bigger potential danger for the president. >> i want to know what will the what the vice president knew.w - i want to know -- i also want to know what the attorney general knew and i want to know when they knew it about flynn and whether you want to the admit it or not, whether others want to admit it, there is an air of deception going on. all you got to do is look at what the president has been doing over and over again. >> you hear the lead democrat there in the house oversight and reform committee elijah cummings

who has been out there being so aggressive in what they're saying. they are in part because their base is demanding they hold the president accountable on this. what does it mean that you have now -- there was a question, would the committees on capitol hill pause and let bob mueller get up to speed, ask him for guidelines, where can we go, where shouldn't we go. you see for now on the house and senate side republican-led committees full speed ahead when it comes to pressings not just flynn for documents but other witnesses, as well. >> republicans aren't saying anything close to what elijah cummings just said. put their relative silence aside, it's their actions that matter. both on the house and senate side they are being aggressive and trying to get not just testimony but more importantly documents from michael flynn and to the point where on the senate side, the republican chair of the intelligence committee who many even republicans who wanted to investigate this were quietly

rolling their eyes and saying is this guy really committed to this investigation, talking about richard burr is clearly committed now. standing side by side with the top democrat yesterday saying that it is possible that if michael flynn doesn't give the documents that they want, they will hold him in contempt of congress. that's pretty significant. >> even the subpoenas are embarrassing to the white house. if you're talking about contempt, that's a signal this was a very trusted adviser of the president, someone he still says he wishes he didn't fire. >> we've been seeing burr and warner being in locke step with one another. i've not seen anybody on the hill question whether or not there's communicating well or sharing information. there's seriousness to the ways senators particularly republican senators are responding when reporters ask them questions. when this started they wanted to avoid, avoid. they're getting closer and closer to saying things that call into question what the president is doing here.

>> that republican attitude philosophies i guess, whatever you want to call it has changed over the last ten days to two weeks in part because of things the president has said and leaks including his decision to fire jim comey and subsequent reporting that comey had taken notes and believed the president was pressuring him or suggesting he shut down parts of the investigation. that's where republicans starting to pull back a little bit. this part is both funny and not funny in the sense we are told from reporting that in a meeting with russian diplomats the president of the united states called jim comey a nutjob. the man he had just fired a career prosecutor, public servant that he called him a nutjob. what happens to republicans in these cases like speaker paul ryan during an interview with axios this morning, the president says things and guess what, leading republicans get asked them. >> the former fbi director jim comey, does it concern you that the president referred to the former director as a nutjob. >> yeah, i don't agree with that

and he's not. i like jim comey. i know that there are people on both sides of the aisle concerned about decisions he made. i think he was put into an impossible position. >> breaking news, the house speaker does not think jim comey is a nutjob. in fact goes on to say i like jim comey and he was put in an impossible position. my point is, you see his jaw locke up when mike allen was asking the question. this is a nightmare for republicans and this is the scenario when they go home to districts or confront a reporter in washington is they have to have aides them them what has the president tweeted or said in the last 15 minutes that i'll get hammered about. >> it's astonishing watching people get off the trains, senators the doors open, they see reporters and say oh gosh, what happened now. i've had those words said to me on many occasions in the past few weeks. they're not prepared. >> they feel like they're being put in an unfair position by the president. >> absolutely. it's not just a nightmare for republicans. although it certainly is that. it's a nightmare for the white

house. this is an investigation for whatever reason the president desperately wants to go away and as it proceeds and as more documents come out or subpoenas are issued or more leaks come out, what he does is he sort of does this bad behavior that got him into this situation in the first place. he causes up intel chiefs and asks them to pressure the fbi to drop the investigation. the real concern for republicans is having to deal with this and get asked about this every day. for the white house, as the president's mood spirals out of control, is he going to move closer to obstructing justice in a tweet or private call. that's the real risk. >> because of his frustration do his impulses lead him to dance on the line if not cross the line. the president has said this isa hoax, this is phony. at one point he said there were no contacts. we've learned about dozen of contacts between trump associates and the russians. yesterday, quite serious testimony from the former cia director john brennan who gave the most detailed about the level of concern he says he had

when he was looking at the intelligence coming into the cia about contacts between trump associates plural and the russians during the election. >> frequently individual who's go along a treasonous path do not realize they're along that path till it gets to be a bit too late and that's why again, my radar goes up early when i see certain things that i know what the russians are trying to do and i don't know whether or not the targets of their efforts are as mindful of the russian intentions as they need to be. >> now, if you're a trump supporter you say john brennan is one of the guys the president was attacking comparing to nazis, blaming the intelligence community for leaks and john brennan that's his payback. if you know john brennan, he served in the bush administration and 25 years a cia agent and operative. when you hear him say treasonous path and things that worried me that i felt an obligation to pass onto the fbi, that makes

you, that, gives you pause. >> the hearing yesterday, treated like a hostile witness and tried to prosecute his comments. knowing he was an obama appointee. the detail he gave was hard to refute at times. he had a lot of detail and seemed genuinely concerned about russian interference. i don't get the sense he wants to take trump down. it's more like he said he's a long time person in intelligence in national security. i think his credibility matters. brennan and people like richard burr are talking about the issues more in a havea civic wa. it's hard for trump to dismiss the comments he's making. > we heard the word treasonous which was a jarring moment. was not an accident. he was very careful with his words and used that on purpose. >> repeatedly said when pressed by republicans you have this information. i can't talk about it in a public setting. you've seen classified information which may go back again to the thing you two were

talking about is the republicans have taken steps away from their president in the past week, endays. there's a reason for that and an they know it better than we do. next, it's report card time for the latest republican health care bill and the president's new budget bill is also getting graded. here's three letters. doa. you do all this research on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. your insurance company raises your rates. maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $509

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welcome back. the burden and the political risks of governing are front and center for republicans today. we're waiting for an important report from the congressional budget office which later today will offer its score of the latest gop health care plan. it means its latest projections how many people will lose coverage under the plan whether premiums will go up or down, what impact on the federal deficit. that plan is unpopular and as the senate debates changes there's a new trump budget toss into the mix and more dicey political choices. the trump blueprint asks republicans to significantly roll back the social safety net and proposes $1.7 trillion in

mandatory cuts to nondefense spending. $193 billion in cuts from the food stamp program. $800 billion in reductions in the medicaid. that's including that health care bill. and it says it would balance the budget over ten years. the budget director nick mulvaney says it's time for washington to rethink how it writes its spending plans. >> i think for years and years, we've simply looked at a budget in terms of the folks who are on the back end of the programs, the recipients of the taxpayer money and haven't spent nearly enough time focusing our attention on the people who pay the taxes. i've got a couple questions yesterday about compassion. compassion needs to be on both sides of the equation. you have to have compassion for folks receiving funds and compassion for folks paying it. >> i get it. and if you're nick mulvaney and this was the message you believed as a house member who left one consecutive group to

join a more conservative group and is from a district where you can sell this argument and in a lot of america, you can make the case to anyone the government should live within its means. the problem is, how to get there. and so dead on arrival from even republicans. never mind the democrats to this budget. however, it is a blueprint from the president of the united states that essentially republicans say they'll use as a guidepost and it includes some pretty unpopular spending cuts. >> we're calling it a blueprint from the president. i'll be curious if he defendses these cuts. this is a budget mull veiny wrote, a very conservative person. he's called for these kinds of cuts. the president in the campaign didn't call for these cuts. the budget is a smarting point. i'll be curious if trump starts negotiating once he gets back. >> i don't think nick is going rogue here. he is one of the people we view -- what he told the president is you have to lay down a bold marker here if you're going to get change. he got the president's permission to break a big trump

campaign promise on medicaid spending, on social security disability payments. >> a promise not to cut entitlements. a promise not to cut entitlements but beyond the entitlements if you kind of look at the kind of voters, americans that some of these cuts would hurt, many of them are trump voters from trump districts. so you know, it will be interesting if and it's a big if, any of these really go -- become law, any of these become law whether or not there will be backlash from people who say okay, i voted for you because you were different and because you were politically incorrect and because you were going to build a wall and because other reasons. but i didn't really think you were going to cut my help that i get from the federal government. >> you said the lobbyists convinced washington to help the big guy and i'm going to go in and fight for the little guy. if you're a trump voter it could be medicaid, social security disability benefits.

the two republicans who care the agriculture committees say sorry, we'll rewrite your bill. other republicans saying we'll use this as a general guidepost but we don't like this. listen to lindsey graham. the state department would lose funding under the trump blue print. you can say that's a bad idea or you can say this. >> yes, definitely dead on arrival. this budget if fully implemented would require to us retreat from the world diplomatically or put people at risk. you have a lot of benghazis notice making if this thing became law. >> excuse me? a lot of benghazis in the making if this thing becomes law? that's not only -- that's republican, bing. >> he went further later. he said what he thought instead we should be doing in congress is he thought republicans be cutting a spending deal with democrats. that is a huge thing to say on the day the president's budgets comes out. mitch mcconnell the republican leader of the senate, john

cornyn is, lindsey graham and john mccain saying this budget, let's not talk about it but let's talk about a spending deal with democrats. >> trump cabinet members on capitol hill telling it house republicans abandon your speaker. he has the central element and they are saying abandon your speaker, run from him. we need to you pull the plug on speaker ryan's big dream of tax reform. speaker ryan was asked about his relationship with the president. >> you told me one time that president trump referred to you as a boy scout. what did he mean by that? >> i took it as a compliment. i don't think it was meant that way. yeah, we're just different people. you know? >> that was washington's best psychiatrist, mike allen putting paul ryan on the couch. what do we make of that? it's hard to be him. whether you like paul ryan or not, it's hard to be him. >> it's incredibly hard to be him. he came in thinking he sort of had the upper hand because the

president was not a legislate your eer, not a policy wonk and he sort of felt like republicans won, republican house, senate, president, it would be open season for in the weeds policy bills. that's not what we've seen at all. the president may not be detail oriented but he's not going to be rolled by house republicans and certainly not ryan. >> the old we'll pass them, he'll sign them has proven not to be true. president trump getting high marks on his international trip but there are some spots where he's getting upstaged, you might say. the first shampoo with active pro-v nutrient blends fueling hair 100% stronger that's instantly smoother and tangle free. because strong is beautiful.

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fmy doctor recommended ibgard. abdominal pain and bloating. now i'm in control of my ibs. nonprescription ibgard - calms the angry gut. welcome back. of course, it's not just president trump making his debut opt world stage this week. the first lady gets her first chance on the diplomatic circuit and getting rave reviews speaking with a group of women or today at the vat canning alongside the president.

melania trump has been more visible this week than any other point during this presidency. the first lady got a chance to dust off italian talking to kids at a children's hospital in rome where she signed bandages and it's a global phenomenon took selfies. it's been interesting and fascinating because she's been in washington so little because her son baron is still in school in new york to see her so prominent. it's the first time we've seen her every day. >> she's been a behind the scenes president, a nontraditional role for a first lady. one thing she did very well which michelle obama showed us you could do is send a statement and message not by saying anything through your fashion choices. you saw in the middle east the media there in saudi arabia what she wore. she didn't cover her head. lots of american women who go over don't wear the abaya. but her fashion choices sort of represented an americanized version they thought of the abaya. it was modest, discreet, fit in

with that look. and she won rave reviews without having to say a single policy iota. >> never mind the president criticized michelle obama for not doing that back in the day. there's one moment that had the internet almost broke the internet. i want to play it here. i want to -- we keep wondering if the internet can be broken. watch. >> oh. >> i told perry during the break, i there the men should stay out of this. >> i want to hear it. >> no way. >> stay out of this conversation. >> perry. >> i tend not to -- without knowing more details. i have no idea what she was doing. >> i'm going to be counter culture here and give her the benefit of the doubt that it wasn't what we think which is get away from me that it was more you know, we were talking during the break, this is -- it's not an appropriate moment. >> there's a color guard out there playing the anthems.

this is a walk respectfully side by side moment. not a couples moment. >> i can see everybody tweeting right now. >> how dare you defend. anyone else? last word? >> she understands. look, she understands moments. she understands where the cameras are and aside from that very real you know kind of winc at the inauguration, this was probably not that. >> remember we're waiting to hear the president meeting with the belgian prime minister. we should tape of that moment any moment. the news continues with my colleague wolf blitzer after a quick break. ee: look, she's sweet, she's got natural stevia, no bitter aftertaste, and zero calories. all the partners agree? even iced tea? especially iced tea. goodbye, sugar. hello, new splenda naturals.

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hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington, 6:00 p.m. in manchester, 7:00 p.m. in brussels. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. right now, we're following developments on two critical stories. first, former national security adviser michael flynn is now refusing to turn over important documents to congressional investigators. and this could lead to more action from congress as they try to get to the bottom of allegations of possible collusion between russia and the trump campaign. all