a gig-speed. a gig-speed network. it's like 20 times faster than what most people have. i'd of said... i'd of said you're dreaming. dreaming! definitely dreaming. then again, dreaming is how i got this far. now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. to our viewers in the united states and around the world, welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. a busy hour of breaking news ahead, including a big departure in the president's russia legal team. a top attorney heads out at a fascinating moment. plus the president just minutes away from slapping big trade tariffs on china. it's an overrated trade promise

but china will likely get hit big in beijing. and the spending bill again leaves the dreamers in limbo. the president's lead counsel in the russia election meddling probe, john dowd, has now resigned. cnn confirmed that news. the news first reported by the "new york times" comes amid public disagreements over the president's legal strategy. just days after the president crossed the threshold, personally targeting the special counsel robert mueller on twitter. we're joined on the phone right now by maggie. maggie, why? we knew there was disagreements, we knew there was tension. why now? >> because it's become clear that the president is seeking his own counsel on almost all matters, and i think he does not

believe john dowd going aggressively on special counsel is a wise move. it is something we've seen repeatedly on people whether they're in the legal team or white house staffers, that there is a limit that people want to have damaged with this president. i think as is also the case with this president, the president has also lost patience with john dowd. while it was the president who wanted to go at mueller this weekend and dowd complied with that, the president was not really happy with the statement that was given to "the daily beast" saying the investigation should end, so he then took matters into his own hands and started tweeting later on. again, he believes he is his own best messenger. it's becoming clear this investigation is not going away. the president was told repeatedly that it would by the end of 2017 or soon after. more subpoenas were dropped

recently. the president received programmers to questions that muell mueller wanted to ask him in an interview. this is going to go on for a long time. >> and maggie, the sentence that said the president received parameters to questions. he wanted john dowd to work with the special counsel. but i don't think you should sit down with the special counsel, mr. president. do we have any indication yet as to whether the president is now more willing to sit down or not? >> the president goes back and forth between believing that he can essentially sell anyone on anything, that he would be able to do the same with mueller to recognizing that there would be massive dangers in walking into this meeting with mueller's investigators. you know, there is -- we hear constantly from trump's team, you know, mueller is trying to set a perjury trap. one close trump adviser said to

me privately, the president is a walking perjury trap. he can get himself there on his own. i think it becomes more resistant to having an interview and then it sets up the question whether mueller would subpoena him in that case, and we'll have to see. >> we'll see in the days ahead. i know it's a busy reporting day. maggie haberman, thank you for taking a few minutes to break this news with us. mary katherine hemm, the federalist and phil mattingly. >> a more agressive lawyer has gone on fox news and said this is a setup. the president was being framed, essentially. he told gloria borger, quote, i love the president and wish him well. that's what john dowd said on the way out. what does it tell us about the president's mindset at a very important moment in this

investigation? >> this is really a pivotal time for trump and his negotiations with bob mueller about whether h's going to sit down for an interview. what i think is so interesting about this is that john dowd wasn't unaggressive. in the disagreements between john dowd and ty cobb, john dowd was the more agressive one. doesn't want the president to sit down at all with bob mueller. my understanding of the debate between the lawyers is they all have the same goal. they all want to avoid the president sitting down with mueller if they can. but if they can't, they want to try to limit the scope of that interview to the extent possible, either to written questions or to a very narrow scope in terms of a verbal interview. it's their tactics that differ, and i think that's what you're going to see. joe digeneva taking a much more tactic lead with the governor. >> we saw this happen on capitol

hill, phil, in recent days. the pundits on the sunday shows, a lot of people criticized john dowd saying, why are you being so quiet? then he called mueller a man with integrity, he is conducting this investigation to great ability. now we see chaos on the legal team. >> this is uncomfortable on capitol hill, as you know. he had a very clear point that he wanted to make. yes, he had been criticized for holding out for a couple days, but he also backchannels to the white house. he's also pretty close to mr. mcgahn, the white house counsel. it caused a lot of people to step back and say, whoa, but they also appreciated that because they would like things to be tamped down a little bit. it signals a shift in posture and a posture more on the lines of what we've seen from the president on twitter in the last

couple days. it does worry people on capitol hill. they would like him to just let this be. they're heading into a midterm season, they just want to focus on the message or the tax bill or anything else that's been happening in the last four months. this leads to the types of things they worry about will lead to a constitutional crisis. >> the president has been very aggressive, crossing into new territory this past weekend in going after mueller by name. but aggressive from the beginning, witch hunt. most of that is political, trying to undermne public credibility of the institutions, public credibility of the investigators. john dowd has been very aggressive, you're right, more quietly. this is a statement john dowd issued on friday. if this is not aggressive enough, what is the president looking for? i pray that the acting attorney general rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the fbi office and

bring an end to alleged russia collusion investigation manufactured by mccabe's boss james comey based upon a fraud he not and corrupt dossier. that's pretty aggressive there. if that's not aggressive enough, what is the president looking for? a sledgehammer? >> i wish i knew the answer. i don't pretend to understand his psyche or his legal strategy. but what we do know is it wasn't mueller who was fired, but it was a voice for sort of tamping down public criticism. so you've lost that part. there is a pattern here in this cabinet of him sort of stringing against his first picks that lead these things and perhaps going with somebody who has more gut level aggressive. if he's got someone who believes in him or he believes likes him, he's more willing to listen, but it's really scatter shy. >> it seems like the president wants to surround himself with

lawyers that have the same view he does. he's been advised, don't go with mueller directly, hunker down and we'll beat this. now we have a juggernaut on fox news saying there are people on the fbi who are trying to frame donald trump, end quote. you could view the legal strategy as one and the same with the pr strategy, because whatever happens with the legal issue, it's going to be congress that probably have the final say on this. he's gone a long way convincing his party, at least, to doubt this probe. >> you can say those things on twitter, you can say those things on cable news. when you're sitting down for an interview with robert mueller and his team, if the president does that, and they have recreated every meeting. they have a timeline of every conversation to the minute detail. it's a little difficult to go off where they have gone. a big shake-up with the president's legal team.

john dowd is out. when one big name goes, you see other shifts as well. when we come back, the house will be voting soon on a massive spending bill to keep the government open on the floor of the house. we'll come back to that. we're also monitoring the dow jones. dropping. we see the president announcing new tariffs against china. they appear out of nowhere.

my secret visitors. hallucinations and delusions. the unknown parts of living with parkinson's. what plots they unfold, but only in my mind. over 50% of people with parkinson's will experience hallucinations or delusions during the course of their disease. if your loved one is experiencing these symptoms, talk to your parkinson's specialist. there are treatment options that can help. my visitors should be the ones i want to see. copdso to breathe better,athe. there are treatment options that can help. i go with anoro. ♪go your own way copd tries to say, "go this way."

i say, "i'll go my own way" with anoro. ♪go your own way once-daily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators, that work together to significantly improve lung function all day and all night. anoro is not for asthma . it contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. the risk is unknown in copd. anoro won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, glaucoma, prostate, bladder, or urinary problems. these may worsen with anoro. call your doctor if you have worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain while taking anoro. ask your doctor about anoro. ♪go your own way get your first prescription free at anoro.com.

i wanted to get new blinds, about what kind i should get, and she mentioned i should visit blinds dot com. great quality for an incredible price, that's where i got my blinds.

(vo) with blinds dot com, you get a free online design consultation, free samples, free shipping, and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. i give the customer confidence by being there every step of the way. we make it really easy. that's what i love to hear! (vo) go to blinds dot com slash tv right now and when you buy one blind, get the second 50% off. welcome back. more breaking news in washington today just minutes before a must-pass vote. the massive 2,323-page spending bill -- you heard that right -- barely speaking past the house moments ago. never mind that they haven't read the plan. why would that matter? it's only billions of dollars of

your money. $700 billion for the defense department, 21 billion for infrastructure projects, 4 billion for opioid crisis, 2.3 billion for school safety programs, 1.57 billion for border security, fix nics gun legislation. the question now, does speaker ryan have the votes when this comes to the floor momentarily? >> yes. he does. and i think the difference between the procedural vote that we saw that was awfully tight, so tight that they slammed it home before everybody had actually voted, these democrats will be voting for this. i think that kind of underscores why this bill, so massive, even though it's supported, and the terribly ugly process that was very fast, i think we got it, what, at 8:05 last night and they'll be voting in the house shortly thereafter? this bill has major wins for both parties, so to speak.

people would laugh at you if you suggested this was possible during the obama administration years. for what you're getting on the defense side, people would laugh at you. this is all about spending and that means a lot of people are getting a lot of things they want for their districts and their states. that means it will pass the house, and at some point, according to senator rand paul, it may not pass, too. >> senator rand paul may try to run the clock out. we'll see how it goes. you have a republican house, a republican congress, a republican senate and you have a bill on spending that barack obama could never get across his desk. speaker paul ryan says it will pass because, in part, the president supports it. >> it was important for me to explain these things, and on big bills that's typically what i do with the president, walk him through the contours and the

legislation we pass. yes, he supports the bill, no two ways about it. >> yes, he does, but listen to conservative jim jordan here. well, he supported it because it's the only option you gave him. >> it's the only bill they put in front of him. put a good bill in front of the president and he would support that, too, i know he would. let's not bring the worst bill i have seen in ten years in congress to the house today. let's put out a bill that's conservative that the people elected us to do. >> are they cranky about any bill, or do they say, wait a minute, we won the white house, we took back the senate majority, why aren't we being spending conservatives? >> it's mostly the spending increase they're upset about it. the fact it's billions of

dollars, they're okay with that, but it's many spending increases. there is kind of funding for the gateway project infrastructure in new york, there is kind of funding for what can be used only for fencing and repairs. >> forgive me for interrupting, but for those of you watching at home and around the world, just the way you kind of pay your mortgage, you kind of pay your kids' tuitions, you kind of watch it. that's why i hate this town. >> what i'm told is the republicans made an offer to the tune of $25 billion in exchange for a three-year protection for the people enrolled. the government countered saying it needs to be a pathway to

citizen ship for all the message that is available. is it possible we're having this conversation today, we'll watch the vote in the senate. they'll keep the government running, we assume, that this is the last big act of the first trump term, if you will? if the government takes back the house, the president will get less in any future spending. >> the conservative criticism of this bill, john, cervical critics have a point. they're being consistent of their consideration of the trump administration. and the budget that the trump administration recommended, which never holds any water, it doesn't resemble this budget at all. the president who is on the phone often with people like jim jordan, freedom caucus leader

mark evans. paul ryan had to speed up to the white house and calm him down. he was explaining this to the president. ultimately they did get him on board, but it wasn't before they would get upset about things. i think ultimately you won republica republicans, and yes, to your question, this will be the last major piece of legislation passed in 2016, no doubt about it. >> the president is in a whole new world. he's only getting pennies. is it possible, like the house health care bill, the more he learns about it, will he come out and call it mean?

. this is where i usually work. it's often dishonest. yay, we have a bill! he'll find something to be mad about it. clarifies a 22-year-old surviving gun violence. that's significant for the president. a glitch is an agri business. that's a big thing. it shows they're not following the republican strategy of refusing any technical corrections, refusing any fixes like with the aca and making people feel the pain of their mistakes. they're not about to go along with this. next up for us, president trump could start a global trade war in the next few minutes. and the dow is down nearly 400 points. guess what? the market is falling. the president's tough talk on

trade.

internet providers promise business owners a lot. let's see who delivers more. comcast business offers fast gig-speeds across our network. at&t doesn't. we offer more complete reliability with up to 8 hours of 4g wireless network backup. at&t, no way. we offer 35 voice features and solutions that grow with your business. at&t, not so much. we give you 75 mbps for $59.95. that's more speed than at&t's comparable bundle, for less. call today. comparable bundle, for less. it's hard to get all the daily that's why i love fiber choice. it has the fiber found in many fruits and vegetables,

all in a tasty chewable tablet. fiber choice: the smart choice. welcome back. just moments away from a very big announcement. the president will announce new trade tariffs with china. they're harsh, perhaps to the tune of $50 billion. investors clearly worried about a possible trade war. you can see now 361, 363 points. the dow was down more than 500 points at one point as we wait for the president. beijing made it clear they do not want a trade war, but they also said they're prepared to retaliate. trump's team says this is not about fighting, it's about fairness. >> talk is not cheap with the chinese, it's actually been very expensive, because while we've been talking with them since 2003, they've been robbing our technology blind. all we want, maria, is fair and reciprocal trade, and i think

the american people deserve that. they finally have a president who is going to give that to them. >> the president did promise this in the campaign. if you asked him about it, he thinks the reason he won all the states that went from blue to red, he said i know you guys think we're screwed about trade, i'm going to do about it. the bad thing is many people thought they could talk him out of it because it's bad blood. >> he can say -- the white house can say they don't want to fight, but you don't go after 10% of chinese exports with the united states without retaliation. the irony of trade politics, i will say, the complicated thing about this is the down side is very well understood. you look at a plant in your neighborhood that's shut down and jobs lost, you make the

connection to trade. but the positives are not well understood, which are chieap goods. how many people go to walmart and buy goods because they're cheaper? >> we're sitting in washington, d.c., and we're almost not qualified to talk about this. look at the headline in the des moines, iowa register today, iowa farmers hope china's need for soybeans will save commodity from trade war. so is the president, in keeping a promise, is he helping himself down the road? top pork-producing states. the top five, three of them, iowa, nebraska, minnesota, illinois, indiana. top sorghum-producing states.

is the president hurting himself? >> they were timid about leaking out in publications that those were the products and those were the states intentionally they were planning on hitting when they decided to fire back. we talked about this a lot with the steel tariffs and the aluminum tariffs which is different in terms of scope and scale and targeted approach in terms of going after china. this is what the president promised, this is what the president said he would deliver. and while he's going much bigger than think people on his staff wanted and trade policy on the hill wanted, he said he's going to do it, and he hasn't seen, at least to this point, major repercussions about what he has done despite what people warned about. everyone seems to amp things up to 10 or 11 on everything he decides to change on foreign policy. if it hits only a 4 or 5, he's going to go, this is everybody screaming and crying and it never comes to anything.

>> i'm the president, i'm right ask you're all wrong. >> he's had advisers tell him you can't move the embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. war about happen throughout the middle east, americans will die. people told him he can't withdraw from the paris climate accord. he certainly didn't believe it would cause a major crisis. but the president is right, that he was elected because he was the only republican in the primary to talk about trade. and he helped ted cruz shift his position? he's right that he won, but what you heard critics say is they were selling him a bill of goods. trade deficits are not the reason manufacturers are shuttered and so on in rest belt states. >> anyone will tell you the best way to get to the president is

to make it personal. how it affects you from a political standpoint, how it affects the election. the unemployment rate is at historic lows. the stock market taking a hit today because of concerns about this have been skyrocketing. a lot of people say the economy is going gangbusters and might be getting better. if all goes according to plan, this might suggest that the united states economy in 2019 and 2020 will be the healthiest it has been in half a century. if you're a politician and you're running for reelection in 2020, that's gold. so a lot of people are saying, why would you potentially mess with that, mr. president? >> if it ain't broke, don't fix it. i think there will be bad effects from this. the folks affected may not blame him for that. on the other hand, the pennsylvania '18 race, the upside of this politically on the ground is not as great as one might have imagined. there will be bad effects, though. >> do his supporters give him credit following through on a

campaign promise that he said he was going to do, or do they represent the economic backlash? >> it might help some people here r here, manufacturing and the like. >> one more thing. he also announces, to your point about 11, he announces a plan close to an 11 and then he announces these will be areas that are exempt from this in big areas of steel. >> don't just follow the words, read the paper. we're waiting for the president to come out. we'll bring it to you live when it happens. next the war of words between the president and the former vice president.

for all the noses that stuff up around pets.

there's flonase sensimist. it relieves all your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. and when youod sugar is a replace one meal... choices. ...or snack a day with glucerna... ...made with carbsteady... ...to help minimize blood sugar spikes... ...you can really feel it. now with 30% less carbs and sugars. glucerna.

he's a nascar champion who's she's a world-class swimmer who's stared down the best in her sport. but for both of them, the most challenging opponent was... pe blood clots in my lung. it was really scary. a dvt in my leg. i had to learn all i could to help protect myself. my doctor and i choose xarelto® xarelto®... to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner... ...that's proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots from happening again. in clinical studies, almost 98% of patients on xarelto®

did not experience another dvt or pe. here's how xarelto works. xarelto® works differently. warfarin interferes with at least six blood-clotting factors. xarelto® is selective... ...targeting just one critical factor, interacting with less of your body's natural blood-clotting function. don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor as this may increase risk of blood clots. while taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. it may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. get help right away for unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. if you've had spinal anesthesia, watch for back pain or any nerve or muscle-related signs or symptoms. do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures and before starting xarelto® about any conditions, such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. you've got to learn all you can... ...to help protect yourself from dvt and pe blood clots. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. there's more to know.

on our political radar, the house intelligence committee says the russian investigation is over. politicians voting in party lines to end the probe on the russian investigation. they said they found no collusion in russian meddling. democrats say they're not finished. >> the majority was not interested in ending an investigation even though the flaws have become so apparent over the course of the last week. >> ohio governor john kasich says the republican party is his vehicle, not, quote, his master. he was talk to go moderate republicans in california about a run in 2020. some asked him if he would try

to run as an independent. he said all options are on the table. ben sasse tweeting this. total dysfunction. dc is about to add $1.3 trillion to your debt like it's no big deal. happy thanksgiving, america. it's march. here's the vice president threatening to cold-cock the commander in chief. >> a guy who ended up becoming our national leader said, i can grab a woman anywhere and then said, i made a hiss tak. they asked me if i'd like to debate this gentleman, and i said no. i said, if we were in high school, i'd take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him. >> the president responding with this. crazy joe biden is trying to act like a tough guy.

actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me for the second time with physical assault. he doesn't know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. lawyers were forced to join the president's legal team. they include ted olson who has worked for multiple presidents. the president has been reaching out to try to add new lawyers. his top attorney on the russian meddling defense team, john dowd, resigned. turmoil. chaos. turnover. you see it in the administration itself, you see it in the presidentie legal team. those are big names. they've been approached. haven't come in. where are we? >> well, as one person said to me who knows ted olson, his interest in joining the trump

team was about zero. so i haven't gotten any indication that it's true that the trump team is reaching out to people. it's clear that the president is dissatisfied with his legal team, unclear that he's having much success, joe digenova aside, bringing in heavy hitters. >> they would be heavy hitters. >> it mirrors what's happening inside where people are leaving, but i think it's hard bringing people in. >> if you're a lawyer and you can't ever figure out what your client is going to do, if he'll follow your advice or if your client will start an all-out nuclear war with the special counsel, maybe you're not ready to take that on. i think that's what you hear from people on the policy side, the foreign policy side as well. they're not sure they want to go work for someone or with someone who is very unpredictable in the ways he deals with the issues

that are most important at the time. >> think about what you're saying there. to be an attorney for the president of the united states is a big deal. could be very helpful to your career, in most cases. some of these guys already have good careers, but good for anybody else they brought in as well. >> it should be a very coveted job to be the president's lawyer and the fact they're not. to the biden statement, remember parents who were worried about explaining the ken starr story to their children? now we have a president who is being put under sexual allegations and russian probe investigations. this is the president in 2018. >> in the year of 2018, the grand american experiment comes to an end with an old man fight in a kiddie pool of jell-o. i think that's what the pundits

intended and it's probably what we deserve. >> i have nothing to add to that. thank you, i think. up next, fresh words in washington about a big changing of the guard in mississippi. >> mississippi has had five senators over the past 71 years. one, two, three, four, five over 70 years. the history of this moment is not lost on me, governor. who's stared down the best in her sport. but for both of them, the most challenging opponent was... pe blood clots in my lung. it was really scary. a dvt in my leg. i had to learn all i could to help protect myself. my doctor and i choose xarelto® xarelto®... to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner... ...that's proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots from happening again. in clinical studies, almost 98% of patients on xarelto®

did not experience another dvt or pe. here's how xarelto works. xarelto® works differently. warfarin interferes with at least six blood-clotting factors. xarelto® is selective... ...targeting just one critical factor, interacting with less of your body's natural blood-clotting function. don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor as this may increase risk of blood clots. while taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. it may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. get help right away for unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. if you've had spinal anesthesia, watch for back pain or any nerve or muscle-related signs or symptoms. do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures and before starting xarelto® about any conditions, such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. you've got to learn all you can... ...to help protect yourself from dvt and pe blood clots. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. there's more to know.

we need to be ready for my name's scott strenfel and r i'm a meteorologist at pg&e. we make sure that our crews as well as our customers are prepared to how weather may impact their energy. so every single day we're monitoring the weather, and when storm events arise our forecast get crews out ahead of the storm to minimize any outages. during storm season we want our customers to be ready and stay safe. learn how you can be prepared at pge.com/beprepared. together, we're building a better california.

in our country. closed, shuttered, gone. 6 million jobs, at least, gone. and now they're starting to come back. you see what's happening with chrysler, with foxconn, with so many companies wanting to come back into the united states. but we have one particular problem, and i view them as a friend. i have tremendous respect for president xi. we have a great relationship. they're helping us a lot in north korea. and that's china. but we have a trade deficit, depending on the way you

calculate, of $504 billion. some people would say it's really $375 billion. many different ways of looking at it. but any way you look at it, it is the largest deficit of any country in the history of our world. it's out of control. we have a tremendous intellectual property theft situation going on which, likewise, is hundreds of billions of dollars, and that's on a yearly basis. i've spoken to the president, i've spoken to representatives of china. we've been dealing with it very seriously. as you know, we're renegotiating nafta. we'll see how that turns out. many countries are calling to negotiate better trade deals because they don't want to have to pay the steel and aluminum

tariffs, and we are negotiating with various countries. mr. lighthizer, mr. ross. we are just starting a negotiation with the european union because they really shut out our country to a large extent. they have barriers that they can trade with us but we can't trade with them. they have very strong barriers, very high tariffs. we don't. it's just not fair. nafta has been a very bad deal for the united states, but we'll make it better, or we'll have to do something else. the deal we have with south korea is a very one-sided deal. it's a deal that has to be changed. so we have a lot of things happening. but in particular with china, we're going to be doing a section 301 trade action. it could be about $60 billion, but that's really just a fraction of what we're talking

about. i've been speaking with the highest chinese representatives, including the president, and i've asked them to reduce the trade deficit immediately by $100 billion. that's a lot. so that would be anywhere from 25%, depending on the way you figure, to maybe something even more than that. but we have to do that. the word that i want to use is reciprocal. when they charge 25% for a car to go in, and we charge 2% for their car to come in to the united states, that's not good. that's how china rebuilt itself. the tremendous money that we've paid since the founding of the world trade organization, which has actually been a disaster for us, it's been very unfair to us.

the arbitrations are very unfair, the judging has been very unfair, and knowingly, we always have a minority and it's not fair. so we're talking to world trade, we're talking to nafta, we're talking to china, we're talking to the european union. and i will say every single one of them wants to negotiate. and i believe that in many cases, maybe all cases, we'll end up negotiating a deal. so we've spoken to china and we're in the midst of a very large negotiation. we'll see where it takes us. but in the meantime we are sending a section 301 action. i'll be signing it right here, right now. i'd like to ask bob lighthizer to say a few words about the 301 and where we are in that negotiation. and we're doing things for this country that should have been done for many, many years. we've had this abuse by many

other countries and groups of countries that were put together in order to take advantage of the united states and we don't want that to happen. we're not going to let that happen. it's probably one of the reasons i was elected, maybe one of the main reasons, but we're not going to let that happen. we have right now an $800 billion trade deficit with the world. so think of that. let's say we have 500 to 375, but let's say we have 500 with china but we have 800 total with the world. that would mean that china is more than half. so we're going to get it taken care of, and frankly, it's going to make us a much stronger, much richer nation. the word is reciprocal. that's the word i want everyone to remember. we want reciprocal, mirror.

some people call it a mirror tariff or a mirror tax. just use the word reciprocal. if they charge us, we charge them the same thing. that's the way it's got to be. that's not the way it is for many, many years. for many decades, it has not been that way. i will say the people we're negotiating with, smilingly, they really agree with us. i really believe they cannot believe they've gotten away with this for so long. i'll talk to prime minister abe of japan and others, great guy friend of mine, and there will be a little smile on their face and the smile is, i can't believe we've been able to take advantage of the united states for so long. so those days are over. ambassador lighthizer, thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. president.

first of all, for those of you who don't know, section 301 is a statute that gives substantial power and authority to the president to correct actions in certain circumstances, whether it's unfair practice policies with our trade partners. in this area it's technology. there's 44 million people who work in high technology areas. no country has the most intensive technology industry as the united states, and technology is really the backbone of the future of the american economy. given these problems, the president asked usgr to conduct a study. we conducted a thorough study. we had hearings, we reviewed hundreds of pages of documents for the businesspeople. we had testimony, and we

concluded that they require licensing at economic value of state capitalism where they go in and buy technology in the united states in non-economic ways and they have cyber theft. the president has analyzed it. he has concluded we should put in tariffs on appropriate products. we can explain later how we p l peel. because one of the actions here does involve a wto violation for the future of the country. really, across industries, and i would like to thank you, mr. president, for giving me the opportunity to work on it. >> secretary ross? >> actual property rights are

our future, and it's no accident that in june of this year, the new york trade office will issue its 10 millionth patent. there is no country in the history of the world that remotely approaches that. so the steel and aluminum actions we've taken deal more or less with the present. this action on intellectual property rights deals with the future. so today's problems and other problems that will be forthcoming. that's why these are so important and so important in unison with each other. we will end up negotiating these things rather than fighting over them, in my opinion. >> thank you, mr. president and

our honored guests. this action says we plan to put jobs and americans first. the action under 301 also says the era of economic surrender is over. the united states of america is taking targeted and focused action to protect not only american jobs but america's technology, which will power and drive an innovation economy for decades to come. it is just one more step of a promise made and a promise kept by president trump. >> we'll sign right now. i just want everybody to know for a second time that we're in the midst of very positive negotiations. positive for the united states and also very positive for other countries also. we have some of our great business leaders and leaders, period, right behind me. i may ask marilyn lockheed, the

leading women's business executive in this country according to many, and we buy billions and billions of dollars' worth of that beautiful f-35. it's stealth. you cannot see it. is that correct? >> that's correct. >> it better be correct, right? marilyn, please say a few words. >> thank you, mr. president. i would just say that this was a very important moment for our country in that we are addressing what is a critical area for the air space and defense industry, and that is protecting our intellectual property. as has been expressed, that is a threat to us. if we have that stolen from our companies because that is the lifeblood of our companies, so we very much welcome this action on the part of the trump administration and president of the united states. thank you.

>> this is the first of many. this is number one but this is the first of many. >> thank you all very much. marilyn? >> would you like to testify for robert mueller? >> thank you. >> the president of the united states declining to ask reporters' questions following that little signing ceremony. we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. the president has just announced

$60 billion in new tariffs aimed at china. right now a very significant developmen development. the president said at the very end of his statement, this is the first of many, announcing more tariffs. he went against the surplus with china and the united states. he went against the free trade agreement. he said all these agreements are horrible for the united states and he's only beginning to fighting for europe, asia, places that have surplus in the united states. joining us, analyst gloria borger, trump economic advise stephen moore. the markets aren't very happy with word of these tariffs. ronna, let's start with you. the fear is that china will

retaliate specifically with u.s. exports to china. that's the major fear right now. this could lead to a major trade war. >> yeah, i have no doubt there is going to be retaliation. i'm sure the chinese are going to target important and iconic u.s. brands. there's already been discussions of that. the big fear, of course, is that this is just the beginning of a more global trade war. you know, we've already heard trans-atlantic fighting europ n europeans if they get involved. trade wars don't have winners. the president said trade wars are easy to win. they don't have winners. trade wars were prolonged in the last 20 years. you see u.s. jobs, u.s. companies be losers. i'm already fielding concerns and complaints from a number of ceos, industry groups, about the president's action. >> stephen moore, what do you think about the president's announcement that this is the first of many. it looks like there could be a major trade war which would result in enormous implications for the united states and higher prices for