wolf starts right now.hello, i'. it's 1:00 p.m. in washington. wherever you're watching around the world, thank you for joining us. the president declares any dreamer deal is dead. claims the country is being stolen with caravans heading to the united states. the beginning of a possible trade war. china now retaliating against president trump's new tariffs, slapping billions of dollars of taxes on u.s. world products. what happens from here?

and local news anchors across america required to read a script that echoes president trump's rhetoric against the news media. first, the president sounding off on twitter outbursts, unleashing on everything from undocumented immigrants, daca, amazon and the fbi injustice, calling the fbi and justice department actions, quote, an embarrassment to our country. all of this after a weekend spent with close allies in mar-a-lago down in palm beach, florida without his chief of staff, john kelly. cnn's chief white house counter jim acosta is joining us right now. jim, you just heard from the president. you had a little q and a with him. what did he tell you? >> reporter: that's right, wolf. we have no white house briefing today, so we wanted to ask the president questions about all these tweets he's been posting for the last 24 hours. and one of the big topics he's been pounding over the last day

or so, as you noticed, wolf, is daca, the program that protects young, undocumented immigrants from deportation. we can show one of those tweets from early this morning. he basically says daca is dead and that democrats are responsible for this. he says daca is dead because democrats didn't care or act and now everyone wants to get onto the daca bandwagon. the president trying to link that program to his desire to build a wall on the border with mexico. so during the easter egg roll event here at the white house, i asked the president should the young recipients of protection under daca program be concerned they're going to be deported? and here's what he had to say. >> reporter: mr. president, what about the daca kids? should they worry what's going to happen to them, sir? >> the democrats really let them down. they really let them down. they had this great opportunity. the democrats have really let them down. it's a shame, and now people are taking advantage of daca and that's a shame. it should have never happened.

>> reporter: didn't you kill daca, sir? didn't you kill daca? if you notice there at the end, wolf, i tried to ask the president a follow-up question, didn't you kill daca? the president, of course, ended the daca program that was started under president obama. so it is rich to hear the president go on and on blaming democrats for problems with the daca program when he's the one who ended it to begin with. the president, of course, as you saw there, did not answer the question. >> why is there no white house press briefing today? certainly lots of questions for the white house. >> absolutely, wolf. and one of those questions would obviously be this apparent invitation that the president extended to vladimir putin to have some sort of meeting potentially over here at the white house. that is something that the white house press secretary, sarah sanders, confirmed early this morning. but as to why there is no press briefing, wolf, it is a bit of a myste mystery. they have said in the past that when the president speaks to the cameras, he is basically

speaking on behalf of the administration on the message of that day. so in those instances, they feel like they don't need to have a press briefing. but as you and i both know, there have been many occasions where the president has a spray or something in the oval office, talks to reporters a little bit and they still have a press briefing. there are a number of questions that need to be asked, one of them being this daca issue. but wolf, as you saw early this morning, the president likes it when the news sort of fits his tailored message. that is why it's no mystery, i guess, that he was defending sinclair broadcasting early this morning and going after news outlets like our own which, of course, like to ask those questions they don't want to answer at the press briefing. >> all right, jim, thank you. jim acosta reporting from the white house. we're also following the progress of that caravan . the caravan, as it's accident call -- as it's being called, seek

asylum either in mexico or the united states. leyla santiago is in mexico. leyla, what else can you tell us about the movement of this group? >> reporter: let's talk about where they are right now, wolf. they are in wahaka, and that's about 200 miles south of the mexican border. families, children, men from central america now in mexico trying to make sense of this caravan. during this holy week in mexico, they're usually talking about these sort of pilgrimages that have become so symbolic over the years as an annual tradition that many use it to make a statement. so in this group in particular, this group out of san diego, they're getting a lot of attention because it's quite a big group. we're talking about more than a thousand people who started in

chiap, right there in the southern part of mexico on the border with guatemala, and they're making their way up. the goal for them is to raise awareness of these issues with the immigrants and what's happening right now from their point of view in central america. and some, we're told, will make it to the u.s.-mexico border, and they plan to seek asylum upon reaching there. when that exactly will happen, we know that organizers right now are in a meeting trying to decide what their next move will be. still a little bit up in the air as to what they're route will be and when they will arrive, wolf. >> leyla santiago in mexico city, thank you. joining us now to discuss this, diplomatic analyst john kirby. senior analyst and political analyst and chief political analyst, gloria borger. the president spent a large part of the weekend meeting with some

of those dangerous reporters, some of them affiliated with fox news. he's hearing what they have on their minds and it's clearly reflected in some of the tweets and statements. >> it was kind of like a meeting in the fox green room, all these people coming to mar-a-lago to meet with him and to let him know his base was unhappy about immigration, mentioning ann coulter who had been tweeting about this, for example. suddenly you see this flurry of tweets from the president. it seems to me that it's really reflective of the fact that this is now donald trump's sort of version 2 taking over his own white house, bringing in people he feels comfortable with, who agree with him on everything, and listening to them. we know that chief of staff jim kelly was not there with him thm weekend. so you can just imagine the peop

people. >> everybody wants to get in on the daca bandwagon. he's going on and on and on, molly. i want you to listen to what he said about daca, though, the dreamers in the past. >> it's a very tough subject. we're going to deal with daca with heart. >> this should be a bill of love. truly, it should be a bill of love, and we can do that. >> now he's walking away from that, he's saying it's dead. >> it was already dead, to be clear. i think only in donald trump's mind was there still a deal on the table and some kind of negotiation happening. in the democrats' mind, he walked away from that some time ago. but it's true that in the past he seemed motivated primarily going back to his inauguration when he told dick durbin that he cared about these kids. now you don't see that in his rhetoric. he seems to have just decided

that because this is a political matter that he's dissatisfied with, he is dropping it, and so -- and then going further and further on all these border controversies, calling for new immigration legislation that i don't think even has support from his own party in congress, and i think as gloria was saying, what john hill knows is the people who feeds the information to his mind, and when he's getting the information in his ear that are concerned with this kind of thing, that's what he'll be saying. >> he's also going after the department of justice and the fbi, john. his latest tweet, quote, so sad that the department of justice -- justice is in quotes -- and the fbi are slow walking or not giving the unredacted documented requested by congress. an embarrassment to our country. here he is accusing the department and the fbi of being an embarrassment to the united states. >> the real embarrassment is

this constant criticism to the fbi. who the owner said, we have always worked up to the task. and when they were making copies of all those e-mails of hillary clinton, this was a time-consuming bit of work to get through. but it's sin. there are men and women across this country who have no other job than to protect and defend their fellow citizens. >> he's walking a fine line because he's attacking the fbi, but he will say he's attacking leadership but not the hard. people in this country respect certain institutions. one of them is the justice department. the other one is the fbi.

these are the. if he is continually attacking them -- and we know what that's ball, too. >> he nominated jeff sessions to be the attorney general, he views them as having betrayed him by not protecting him. in his view the only purpose of all of these people is to serve as his personal lawyers, his personal enforcers. they're doing their job according to what they view is the letter of the law. i spent time with jeff sessions in my profile last week in time magazine. the president's threats are starting to sound a little bit

empty, because if he were to fire any of these people, it would be a huge outcry, i think. you mig they are so crucial to revealing the word of law. >> you know what? he's the president. he can fire them. >> but how many. at some point people are going to have to say, these are your people running the show here, so if you don't like the way law enforcement is being run, fire them. >> i think it has a deleterious effect on the rank and file, too. even though they targeted these tweets, they're feeling that. we now learned in the recent

months, the president and president putin not only talked about meeting, but the president invited him to come to the white house for a meeting. this comes at a time when they just dispelled. this is regress, he's becoming further isolated from the international community. it freight. maybe there is the sense that he can be the good cop while everybody else can be the bad cop. i think that might be his thinking, i'm not sure. >> there is a vast difference between kim jong-un and vladimir putin. >> i don't think the president is going to fight kim jong-un to the white house. >> i'm not defending it, i'm

just sort of trying to get into his mind. >> they will come after a series of pre-summit discussions. >> i would be pretty surprised if kim is invited to the white hou house. >> there is nobody who wants this more than vladimir putin, right? it's a huge political victory for the president to just sort of agree to things out of the. >> it looks like we're getting taken advantage of. for that stunning video of local news anchors in the united states, reading a script of the conservative owner of thosely. slapping the u.s. with nearly $3

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china firing back at the united states making good on its trade threats. the country slapped tariffs on 3 billion worth of u.s. exports to china starting today. it's a direct response to president trump's steel and aluminum tariffs. what does all this mean? this is a serious international issue unfolding right now with enormous ramifications.

>> absolutely. this is a huge economic commerce impact. this is where china says it was going to go and then it's quickly making it happen. >> let's talk about specifics. break tall down. >> the u.s. exports a lot to china, $550 billion in 2017, so that puts a lot of u.s. products and services at risks to tariffs. what china gets is two sets of tariffs. 50% of fruit and wine, and 25% which takes a hit. >> if you look at all the exports involved, that's a lot of money. >> farmers are upset about it, they hammered u.s. officials last month in hearings about this. they didn't have a great answer about how they would make this better, so this is a real concern in places like iowa, in places like north carolina, in

places like ohio where they actually do have a lot of pork production. >> these are states that the president did well in, but the farmers and others will be hurt as a result of these tariffs. the $3 billion that china announced today, that's only just the beginning if this continues. >> if you talk to trade experts, one of the things they talk about constantly is china is very good at targeting pain when it comes to its own tariffs. we could see even more of this. next could be tech companies, other big things that the united states exports like airplanes. we could really see a broadening impact if this escalates on both sides. we are still waiting to see where the trump administration is actually going to put its tariffs on chinese products. >> and these chinese products, if there's huge tariffs coming into the united states, could involve u.s. consumers having to pay more if they buy these products.

jeff bazos tweeted, only fools say the post office makes money without amazon. they lose a fortune. lt's talk a little bit about this tweet. is it accurate? >> first off, it really depends on the way you view the relationship between the post office and amazon. it's true that some reports have found that amazon could pay more for what it gets from the postal service, but the postal service says that it makes money on its contracts with amazon. so this is a level of presidential involvement and negotiations we've never seen before. he wants to renegotiate the postal service's contract with one company. >> he also said because amazon selling the lines directly to the customers screws them over. but some say they don't want to

deal without amazon. >> these are the tradeoffs. you are losing some local jobs where amazon screens some jobs in different ways. >> thank you for that. a conservative media giant ordering local news anchors to read scripts that attack the news media. hard to believe this is happening. plus, was the veterans affairs chief fired or did he resign? the white house refutes that it terminated david shulkin. you'll find out why the semantics really matter. from scandalous romance, to ridiculous plot twists. (gasping) son? dad! we also know you can avoid drama by getting an annual check-up. so we're partnering with cigna to remind you to go see a real doctor. go, know, and take control of your health. it could save your life. doctor poses!

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appeals process. both sides agreed not to hear the appeal, though, until september. zervos' former attorney, gloria allred, withdrew from the case last week. more on that story coming up. president trump jumped to the defense of sinclair broadcasting on twitter this morning. so funny to watch the fake news networks, he writes, among the most dishonest groups of people i have ever dealt with, criticized sinclair broadcasting for being biased. sinclair is far more superior to cnn and even more fake nbc, which is a total joke. a promotion campaign echoes the president's anti-fake news campaign rhetoric. >> our greatest responsibility is to serve our treasured communities. eastern iowa communities. mid michigan communities.

we are concerned about trying to tell responsible, one-sided stories. let's discuss this with editor at large chris lizza. hard to believe sinclair is doing this. they own many networks and they're trying to force their employees to echo what trump says about the fake news community. >> i would remind people how big a deal local news stations are. these are people that come into your home that are trusted every night. my parents watch the local news every night. i still remember the people, my local tv news anchor. this is a big deal. take president trump out of it for a second. a large-scale media company, as you pointed out, of 170-plus stations demanding that anchors across all of those stations

read a preprepared document, statement. whatever that statement is should be a little bit concerning, particularly when it echoes what we know is one of donald trump's hobby horses which is the news is fake and people -- there's too much falsity out there. what's false? what's fake? absolutely something local in national television should cover. but allegations and then repeating this word for word i think is somewhat dangerous. >> they wrote this for the anchors to read, and if they didn't read it, they presumably feared they might be fired. >> i think people think the media, well, they can just say no. sure, but ryan noble, who is a colleague of ours, who was a local anchor in virginia before coming to cnn, he said, these are people's jobs. so there is a concern if they lose their job, they lose their ability to pay their mortgagemo

or send their kid to college. that's why this is so insidious, i think, is when you make demands everyone says, they should just stand up and not read it. well, if you're talking about your well-being, your livelihood, medicine, education, all those things that depend on you having a job, it puts these people in a very, very difficult position. again, i just think the idea of making people who are a trusted news source in their local communities read something, unless that thing is -- >> what's president trump's connection with sinclair? >> i think -- sinclair is a place that trump has praised. he has been encouraging of, as have the people in and around him. they have a more conservative bent, but in my opinion, take it out of politics. just remember the idea of news people, reporters, journalists

being forced to read something is a dangerous precedent. >> it's one thing if they personally believe in what they're reading, but if they are personally disgusted by being forced to read something that they totally disagree with but they're doing it in order to make a living, to save their jobs, the tv stations put these reporters in a very, very precarious position. >> local news stations always do this kind of thing. it's clearly labeled, this is an editorial, this is what i personally believe. to pass it off as the voice of the station, that holds a lot of sway for people. again, local tv anchors are always among the most trusted people in any community. when you force them to say things like this, it's a dangerous precedent. >> it certainly is. hard to believe it's going on. a wave of teacher strikes spreading right now in america. kentucky and oklahoma teachers walking off the job. they're demanding better pay,

better benefits. we'll take you there live as the crowds start to build. plus, a democratic congresswoman demanded one resignr to be resigned. we'll talk about that in a minute.

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president trump, as part of an easter monday twitter o outburst saying any deal of daca is dead, saying it's all the democrats' fault because they didn't act. democrat from maryland, already a 2020 democratic candidate.

thank you very much for being with us. >> thapnks for having me. >> it's all your fault. you're a democrat who ended the daca dreamer status here in america. how do you feel about that? >> well, it's not true, and the person who started the whole thing was the president who started the determination of the daca program. he started this whole daca program. 90 percent of the american people support the dreamers and want congress to act to get something done. i don't think it should be off the table. if anybody is taking it off the table, it's the president. he started it. he should be working with congress on a bipartisan basis to find a solution. >> do you think there's a solution out there? right now it doesn't look like it's going anywhere. he wants funding for a wall with mexico, he wants other aspects in exchange for allowing the daca recipients to stay. >> the solution is to do what america wants. 90% of the american people, 90% -- this is not even a close

one -- support a dreamer framework which effectively takes the daca legislation put in place by president obama, which president trump ended, they want that to be the law of the land. there is clearly a deal. could there be a larger deal around border security and the daca program? absolutely. i think democrats, including myself, are very supportive of border security measures. should it be a wall? which most people, including myself, think it's a terrible investment, no. >> let's talk about amazon right now. he tweeted going after jeff bazos. only foolz or worse are saying that our money losing post office makes money with amazon. they lose a fortune and thisly be changed. also our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country. not a level playing field.

>> that's very verks dang, very. that's one problem with it. the second problem, it's clearly an attack on the free and independent media. jeff zavos, the ceo of amazon happens to own the "post." the president clearly disagrees with the coverage of the "post" which i think is one of the finest papers in america, and he's attacking him. so he's attacking amazon to get at jeff bazos who owns the "washington post." those two things should be concerning to every american. >> and they don't go into a retail shop if they want to buy things on line. what's wrong with that? >> capitalism is creative and it's destructive. there is a role in government to help with these transitions, which we haven't done a good job at, but amazon is helping many americans. sure, it's hurting some people.

this is artificial intelligence generally. if the president wanted to lead that conversation, that would be terrific. if he wanted to actually talk about whether the post office is charging amazon the right kind of fee for its delivery services, what he should do is have the gao do an analysis of this, right? he should come to this debate with the facts. he's basically relying on one research analyst report from a wall street firm. research analysts can be right, they can be wrong. a whole bunch of other independent analyses actually say they're charging the right prices for their delivery service. but do it in a presidential way. say, i want to make sure the post office is charging fair prices for amazon users. >> let's talk about veteran affairs. you've been active in veteran affairs for a long time. what do you think about the way this transition has taken place? >> the va is one of the issues i hear about from my constituents the most. there are clearly issues in the

va. the va needs deep structural reforms to improve its service to our veterans, and it should be a top priority to our country. this circus around, was he fired, did he resign to me is almost irrelevant. what we should focus on and what a good president would be doing is managing the affairs of the country. the va is the second largest agency that we have in the u.s. government, and what we should be focused on is, what can we do to make sure the va full fills its mission and delivers the finest health care to our veterans? i think there is privatization in vet care, but we shouldn't mess with it. >> and a congresswoman kept on an aide even after she knew he was accused of abuse. she kept him on and now she wants an investigation.

what do you think? >> we should make sure our offices are safe for our employees. congressional offices aren't that big. it's eight to 12 people on the hill, and it's our obligation to make sure it's safe for employees. that clearly didn't happen in elizabeth's office. she says she made a mistake. i think she should be having a serious conversation with her constituents about whether they really trust her to go forward in this job. >> michael currant at the local newspaper said she should resign. >> she should be talking to her constituents, right, and explaining her side of the case and answering some really tough questions and making a decision about what her future is going forward. >> congressman delaney, thanks so much for joining us. >> appreciate it. other news we're following, the north korean leader kim jong-un making a public relations push from his visit to china to a pop singer concert. what's behind it? we'll explain. plus, thousands of teachers

walking off the job in two states, demanding better pay and benefits. i'll speak live with one who also says she has to work as a surrogate mother to make ends meet. here you go little guy. a cockroach can survive submerged underwater for 30 minutes. wow. yeah. not getting in today. terminix. defenders of home.

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teachers in kentucky are rallying today at the state capitol forcing schools to be closed for a second day. they are protesting changes republican lawmakers made in their pension plan hidden in a bill about sewage services. republicans say the changes are critical to fixing the pension crisis in the state. the bill voted along party lines

now sits on republican governor matt bevin's desk. he's expected to sign it. schools are also closed in oklahoma today. this is oklahoma city right now. look at these pictures. more than 30,000 teachers, elementary school, high school teachers walked off their jobs and they are rallying at the state capitol demanding more education funding and better pay. according to the department of labor statistics, wages for teachers in oklahoma are thousands of dollars below the national average. last week governor mary fallon approved raises between 15% and 18% and added $18 million in school funding, but teachers say it isn't enough. joining us now is a teacher who is thinking of quitting her job as a result of the pay. allison kubot joins us. thank you so much for joining us. we have heard from other teachers in oklahoma who had to work up to six jobs to make ends meet. what have you had to do?

>> well, i hold several jobs. i work as an event coordinator in member management at an event venue. i drive for postmates, a delivery service, and i have sold hillary clinton and beauty products. i'm also a surrogate. >> tell us about being a surrogate. you need that money in order to make ends meet because you can't make a living being a schoolteacher. is that right? >> well, i do all my work because i love it. that's part of the reason i'm a surrogate also. it definitely helps lift a burden for my family. but, you know, just like any work, why i chose to be a teacher. it's not all about the money obviously. i do need the extra income, yes, to help pay some of the most basic bills. >> these increases that they are trying to put through, is that going to be enough?

>> well, it's kind of a two-edged sword. while we are thankful that they have put this initiative and mary fallon signed it into law and that's amazing, but at the same time they were turning around and repealing parts of the bill they had just passed. it's hard to say it will be enough until we see it happen. it's hard to take them at their word when our legislature has over and over again said they are proteacher, pro education and most of them are voting to make it look like they are and then turning around and changing the narrative. they wanted this bill to be enough to stop what's happening today, but when they turned around and started underfunding it immediately, it doesn't work that way. they are trying to make it look like we are greedy and it's all about a pay raise. the majority of teachers are here for funding.

>> it's hard to believe it's not just oklahoma or kentucky. it's states all over the country now where schoolteachers, there is nothing more important than educating the young people of america. schoolteachers can't make a living doing their jobs. we haven't yet heard president trump comment on this. he comments on a lot of topics, tweets about all sorts of issues. what would you like to hear from president trump? >> i would like to hear messages of support from all levels including president trump. the lip service isn't enough. we have to see action happening. we have to see the funding back in the classrooms. my public speaking textbooks talk about going to your librarian to talk to you about this new thing called the internet and how to look up information on micro fiche. those are the things we need funded. i need new textbooks.

i'm not the only one. my english outreacteacher frien buying their own novels. it is nice to hear that people are pro teacher but what we need is action. >> good luck to you and all the teachers in oklahoma, kentucky, all over the country. once again, nothing more important than educating the young people, the teachers are so critically important. hard to believe in this country they can't make a living doing such critically important work. good luck to you. thank you very much. >> thank you so much. as the president suggested the u.s. will be leaving syria very soon. new details emerging about a capture or kill operation that took the life of an american soldier.

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about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of a u.s. and british soldier in syria. the pentagon says master sergeant jonathan dunbar and british soldier matthew tonroe were on a mission to kill or capture on isis member. they were killed in on a ied blast last week. the u.s. maintains 2,000 u.s. troops but president trump wants them to come home, quote, very soon. our senior international correspondent frederik pleitgen is in damascus for us. give us a flavor of what you are seeing and hearing, fred. >> reporter: wolf, you know with this decision by president trump or some of the things he's saying there are a lot of allies of the united states on the ground questioning whether or not america is actually in it for the long run, whether or not america will play a meaningful role in syria in the future. you look at those predominantly kurdish militias that did a lot

to fight isis. a lot of them are angry president trump said america wants to pull out very soon. the big winners in all of this certainly are iran and russia. especially at the russians here in damascus and other places as well. some of the groups that were fighting alongside the u.s. are already making contact with the russians seeing what syria is going to hold in the future. then here in damascus right now there are rebel groups that are getting out of the territories that they held going to other places. all of that's being circus mastered by the russians. they have very large power and many believe they will be the ones to determine the future of this country. in fact, tomorrow there is a big summit that's going to happen. the countries at the table are turkey, russia and iran. america not there. >> america not there. clearly, fred, the president wants the u.s. troops out of there as quickly as possible. he'd like them out of iraq as well. there are about 5,000 to 10,000 u.s. troops in iraq, 2,000 in

syria. wants them out. we'll have much more coming up. frederik pleitgen in damascus, be careful there. that's it for me. thank you very much for watching. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in the situation room. for viewers in north america, "newsroom with brooke baldwin" starts right now. here we are. i'm brooke baldwin and you are watching cnn on a monday afternoon. breaking news. president trump escalating his war against american internet giant amazon. look at this right now. the stock has plummeted down 700 points effectively the entire financial market is down, at one point deep in the red. trump tweeted this. quoting him. only fools or worse are saying our money-losing post office makes money with