long process and i think we'll hear more next week from mark. >> lori, thank you so much for that. and thank you for joining me. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. ♪ welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. t the epa says it's even wrong to ask the president about a $50 million deal. the president says he's not happy. and the white house can't answer the basic questions about the president's calls for troops at the u.s.-mexican border. but it does have tough words

from u.s. democrats that think it's a bad idea. >> if congress is so concerned, maybe they ought to show up and make legislation that would fix these problems instead of blaming the president to do something about it. we would like to see them work in partnership and do something instead of complaining about it. >> i will gladly work with the president when his ideas aren't stupid and detrimental to the united states. >> we begin with that debate and mixed messages from the president about the u.s.-mexico border and the u.s. coming up with plain for a tro-- a plan f troop deployment. here's the odd message today. a morning tweet praising the government of mexico for disrupting a caravan of people making their way towards the united states border. that a day after the same president insisted the threat of that caravan is among the reasons there is a border crisis that warrants deploying the united states military. now, the administration says the troops are coming but that it

can't answer the most basic questions is proof of chaos yet again after another presidential announcement not worked through the normal policy process. for example, fair question, right? are we talking about armed troops or just logistical support? >> what i want to hear is what the government want. we want to get to border security, so we'll do everything we can to do it until and when congress acts. >> let's try another question. if the president announced a plan, the administration must have a number of troops in mind. right? >> we don't, and that's just because we set each location and work with the governor on how many people. we'll let you know when we know. >> do you know when you'll know that number? >> i'm going to get on phone calls right now. >> get on the phone right now. with us to share the reporting and their insights, cnn, phil mattingly and jackie zinich with

"the daily beast." the president this morning praising the governor of mexico for taking steps the administration wanted. please break up this caravan so these people don't make it all the way to the border. saying, yeah, it's unacceptable, but border crossings are pretty low historically. i thought you supported the border in a crisis. that doesn't sound like a crisis. >> i think what we're seeing here is a couple different forces at work, and one of them is the president's desire to return to the 2016 election base message that he felt was core to his election, core to his support, kind of core to his ideals. but the other is an understanding that there are multiple things tied to relationships with another country, everything from nafta and trade to being able to do a big trip in a week or so and wanting to be in a good place with mexico. you see this tied back to the core of the election kind of

tied with the reality that one spirit ties to your relationships in a broader, global sphere. so there is a lot of mixed messaging by the president, and it's up to the administration precisely how this is going to work. >> is it nuts to think -- people in the country, people involved have a debate about do you need the national guard, do you need coverage at the border. is it too much to ask to say, we're going to ask men and women who serve to go down to the border. we're going to ask the governor involved to activate those troops because that's how the process works. so when you make that announcement, shouldn't you know how many you need, what they're doing, whether they're bringing guns or not or whether it's just logistical support? i love how the president announces something and then his team has to figure out how to do it. >> it's different. this has been the case with you name the number of issues, trade being the most recent, like the

tariff stuff where the president has an end game. more than anything, the president wants action. when you look at the border, when you look specifically when it comes to national guard at the border, in 2006 president bush and also president obama actually made this happen, as long as you get the governor to sign off on the troops. on capitol hill they had a briefing. what do you hear right now? do you have numbers? do you have cost? do you have duration? the answer seemed to be no. well, this is what happened in 2006 and they seem to be modelling after that in terms of numbers. so is that the number? no, we're just using that as a model. there is a model out there that they can pretty much use almost cook cookie cutter and shift into that, and i think that's what

most people are waiting for. >> it's supposed to be like your policy going forward. >> it's supposed to be a stopgap, right. >> eventually he'll have to go to congress to get funding. >> the governor -- the republican governors in those states are happy to help the president. they also will do border enforcement, but they're not going to do it unless washington pays. >> this comes after that omnibus signing where people in the house were very aware that that's not how it worked. then you have immediately after the president going above and beyond from those advisers, making those tweets a security message which he knows they like. it comes at a time when they knew there was some pushback on those core base numbers that they care so much about, and then they went back to the red meat in terms of immigration. >> even the president can see more political incoming than the fact he sees this caravan which

has been an annual event going north. they put it this way. in the 2018 midterm elections, he seems increasingly desperate to find ways to compensate for his failure to deliver on his promise to build a big, beautiful border with mexico. he did get a small down payment on his wall, and even the republicans say it's not really going -- it won't be that fancy as a big, beautiful wall. >> you can even go back to the immigration debate which failed so disastrously regardless of what your position is on immigration. everything the president wanted, whether it was interior enforcement, more money on the border for technology and personnel, or whether it's the wall itself hasn't come to fruition up to this point. it's worth noting when you talk to republicans they say, look, we got 33 miles of new

construction, we got $640 million for construction at the border. that isn't nothing considering where the democrats have been, but when you're the president and you're hearing from the base and fox news, you're hearing from people saying, this is not only a waste of money but this isn't doing near what you promised on the campaign trail, this is what got him into the white house, that is a problem. >> a 45-year low of illegal crossings at the border. the president is saying, we're getting tough at the border. the perception that we're getting tougher is to keep people from coming north. this is the month-to-month numbers from february to march. there was a big jump if you look at the most recent numbers, but that's because they went down so much in the first year of the trump presidency. you see 2017 right there. in the first year, all the numbers were down. i think there was anticipation. this president campaigned on

immigration. this president is going to be tough. we have to be careful if we're going to cross illegally to the united states. but if you look historically, i get the president's point. he has every right to say that's still unacceptable. he can make that point. the question is, is it at a point where you activate the national guard, which is normally for emergency circumstances? >> clearly this is a political move, but it's a political move that caomes around the daca situation, and it got such a backlash among that core consistency among his base that he seems to be compensated for it. at the same time, when you see the calibration on using the words for mexico, it is an attempt to preserve a relationship on the trade front now that he's got larry kudlow coming in and so many aspects of a team to try to balance that democracy, and he needs to make

a domestic standing with his audience while providing wiggle room to maintain that presidency with mexico. >> he also uses daca as these immigrants allegedly coming over the border, which isn't true. he has also tried to link daca to gang violence. that's not true, either. even if he wanted to do daca, he made it harder for himself by linking it to all these things his base is up in arms about. >> to your point about the base, there is no question the president is responding to criticism from his base here. the democratic governor of oregon, do your geography. you won't find that along the mexican border -- to the northwest. he said if the president asks me to provide guarding at the mexican border, i will say no. welcome to the midterm election. >> it also stands in contrast

with what national republicans want to make their stand for. it was for the tax bill and the financial issues on health and the economy, and then you have the president doubling down on tweets on immigration, on daca, on gang violence, so we see that in backlash. >> he thinks, just like in 2016, he thinks he's right and the establishment is wrong. we'll see in november. won't be soon enough for me. up next, he struggles to quiet critics over looming ethic questions. are scott pruitt's days numbered, or does the president still have his back? neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. with the fastest retinol formula available. it's clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. one week? that definitely works!

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welcome back. scott pruitt losing one of his closest aides in the environmental protection agency as the president tries to protect his ethics. scott pruitt is a key player in

the role of several environmental policies is resigning. that a day after the white house made clear it's not happy with pruitt. atop the complaint list, his decision to accept a low-rent deal for an energy lobbyist. pruitt here bristles at the thought his $50 a night combo deal is cheap. >> the president wants to drain the swamp. is draining the swamp renting an apartment from a lobbyist? >> i don't think that is remotely fair of a question. >> he said it's just like renting a room on airbnb. we'll know soon what the president thinks. >> why is the president not okay with this? >> the president is reviewing the situation. we've had a chance to have a deeper dialogue on it. we'll let you know. we're currently reviewing that here at the white house. >> the "washington post" has some new reporting on this.

tweeting, the white house told pruitt not to do tv but he forged ahead, per senior officials. fox interview seen as a disaster in the building, meaning the white house, and senior white house officials believe he was involved in staff raises, contrary to what he said. >> we reported yesterday president trump was asking lawmakers, what do you think about pruitt? at this point no indication that he is planning to cover this, but if you look at the past patterns of high-ranking staff or cabinet members that have faced a turn in fortune. you have the president letting it be known that he's reached out to lawmakers or others to ask about scott pruitt. >> and kudos to henry for asking the right questions and not backing down when senator pruitt said, i can't believe you would

ask me that question. what do you mean? he leads an agency with taxpayer money, he's renting a condo from a lobbyist. >> i can't even imagine what $50 in washington would buy you from airbnb. >> even then, it's a lobbyist. give me a break. >> not only a lobbyist but a lobbyist who devoted money to his campaign in oklahoma. john kelly, that phone call, wasn't as nice as the white house would lead you to believe. he was basically saying, is there anything else we should know? and the fact you have pruitt going around the white house and apparently gave him raises, anyway, now this about him defying the white house and going out and doing interviews, this isn't going to sit well with this president. >> in addition to the condo deal, they asked him about raises. they tried to get raises for a

couple top officials at the epa. the white house said don't do it. somehow she found money in a different fund to give raises. scott pruitt says he had nothing to do with this. >> why would gu arouyou go arou white house to give two raise -- >> that was not me. i found out about it and changed it. >> will someone be fired for that? >> i don't know. >> you don't know who did it? >> i found out about this yesterday and i corrected the action. >> this is the "i don't know." he is the administrator, meaning the ceo. things happen, but if you sit down for an interview you might get asked about it. you should find out the answer before you do. the president himself and republicans on capitol hill like the job he's doing. democrats don't like it, some moderate republicans don't like it, but some business people think this is great. they like the agenda, they don't like some of the personal conduct, the ethics questions, the spending. if the president were to remove

him, he's ready to confirm a new secretary of state, a new cia director, a new secretary of veteran affairs in an election year. all three of those are dicey at epa. >> i asked a senior republican about this, and he makes a point that the president was trying to call larwmakers and get a sense of where people are. he said this is a farce, and i said, you mean with the epa or the administration? the answer was yes. scott pruitt has a ton of people on the outside. if there's one reason he's currently administrator of the epa, it's because of the outside groups that support him, plus the lawmakers on capitol hill, excluding moderate republicans, are extensive in their support for him and are vocal in their support. but you also have logistics for what's going on in the senate. they are going to be held the next couple months by democrats who want to make this a huge

issue in a campaign year. not only that, you have the epa administrator doing things democrats absolutely loathe -- which republicans like him -- and real concern i've picked up on capitol hill right now that it doesn't matter who they nominate for that position, that position might not get confirmed. you lose a couple republicans, you have problems. you have stacked-up major nominations, all of which will take major work on mitch mcconnell's part to get them through, then you have another one that might not get through at all, that has people on the hill very frustrated. lawmakers telling the white house, please don't do this right now, we don't have time for it. >> but the climate is so interesting in the sense that here's rand paul, to your point about the policy, rand paul tweeting, the epa administrator

is likely the bravest and most conservative member of trump's cabinet. we need him to help donald trump drain the regulatory swamp. giving raises to people with more money than the guy reading about this in omaha or anywhere else makes for a living. we have republicans saying, we need to ask more questions. >> senator scott and i were talking yesterday about how much we would enjoy a $50-per-night condo access. in washington, they want to have a hearing. my bias is toward getting the information and the facts first, whether it is tom price, whether it's regular use, whether it's tom zinke who happens to be a friend. whether they're spending money on doors or dining room tables, we have the obligations to ask those questions. >> dowdy is liberating somewhat

and not seeking for reelection, but they need the paperwork. >> we've seen this about the dining set and shulkin, and now we have some questions where you see republicans on the hills coming out and saying, we need some oversight. this is a president who has not been very concerned about the logistics of what the hill wants, who has not been very concerned about the practicality of the issue. he fired a secretary of state and national security adviser as there is about to be a meeting in north korea with kim jong-un. these are personal decisions for him, so we are looking at a point where, if this continues to roll on, or even these pleas from congressional republicans may not be enough. >> this is the kind of stuff voters don't like about this town. up next, it's an old question. follow the money. why is robert mueller's team now

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welcome back. i want to turn now to an unusual turn in the russia investigation today. cnn reporting exclusively that special counsel robert mueller is following the money, you might say, right to the oligarchs' doorstep. we're talking about a private plane. mueller stopped and searched the electronic devices of at least one russian man when his private jet landed at a new york airport. another russian man was stopped during a trip to the united states, though it was not clear if the second man was searched. mueller also reached out to a third man asking him to submit to an interview request and turn over some documents. why the interest in russian oligarchs? explain what might be happening,

shimon. >> they're looking at whether these russian oligarchs were using straw donors, whether someone was giving money to u.s. citizens as a way to donate to the trump campaign and also the inauguration. as you know, it's illegal for foreign nationals to directly or to in any way indirectly donate money to a u.s. campaign. and now the mueller team seems to be zeroing in or has some interest in knowing if any oligarchs or anyone in russia was using straw donors to make some of these donations, sort of circumvent some of the u.s. laws. the other thing is certainly they want to know about any other interactions with people in the trump campaign and people in trump's orbit that perhaps some of these oligarchs may have had in the last several years. given the aggressiveness this is undoubtedly a pretty big deal for the fbi to monitor some of these oligarchs for when they're

traveling to the u.s. and then trying to make contact with them. as you said, one of them coming to an airport in the new york area and the fbi agents were there waiting for him and essentially questioned him and gave him a grand jury subpoena. it's unclear if he ever appeared before the grand jury, but certainly all of this shows us that the focus here is on the money, john. >> focus on the money. shimon, appreciate it. we talk about how reporters come out of these interviews and are stunned by the amount of detail they have. they're tracking the flight -- knock, knock -- when the plane lands? that's a big deal. >> it is a big deal, and mueller's team has been very careful about being very discreet in terms of sharing with the public any of the work that they're doing, but you can get from glimpses of this sort of big picture assessment of the depth, the breadth, the scope of

what they're looking at. at the same time, you see them certainly trying to encourage witnesses to cooperate, to be cooperative, and so there is kind of this dual track of a merciful approach and yet an unrelenting approach in terms of the search for where the money is and where the connections are. >> you're right, there is so much we don't know. what do we know? we know that theshells are a big draw.

we have mr. himes to talk about this. >> it's sort of hard to understand when we think of wealthy people in this country. the oligarchy is not a name in the united states. russian banks, russian businesses and oligarchs kept coming up as circling around the campaign and the election in general. >> it's all the more interesting when you remember michael flynn, the former national security adviser, who had dealings with russia as a prooivate citizen, k duri -- and during the campaign has flipped. now the fbi, the special counsel's team talking to these oligarchs. >> the fbi knows so much more than we could possibly know

about this investigation, and that's why it seems more foreign officials are getting wrapped up in this. they're trying to put something by mueller. not a good idea. >> i used to work for the associated press before i came here. i called it the family wire. i don't know if he'll read this story, but if he does, it will tick him off. it talks about his tough tactics against those who don't cooperate. george papadopoulos now tweets smiling selfies. george papadopoulos, now tweets smiling beach selfies with a mykonos hash tag. rick gates, for weeks on home confinement with electronic monitoring, gets rapid approval for a family vacation and shaifz down his potential prison time. michael flynn flies cross country to stump for a california congressional candidate and books a speaking gig in new york.

>> those are somehow affiliated with trump organizations and the trump administration. and there is a signal that if you do get wrapped up in this, and if mueller's team raps on your door, if you're forthcoming with information, there is life for you on the other side of the rainbow. maybe not for paul manafort, but the other individuals. >> that's right, the flip side we're talking about is paul manafort who has been steadfast in his plea deals. he is not flying across the country. he has had more charges added on and is going down by the special counsel. the scope and the breadth of it all, we continue to see people moving in a direction that was not most likely. we're nowhere near that and it's continuing to branch out in new

directions which we don't know the end deal. >> we know it has done this, and still there is so much we don't know. we know it's grown and it's broader and deeper. up next, mark zuckerberg agrees to testify on capitol hill. just what members want to hear from the big boss at facebook. ae wiggle room in our budget. i wish our insurance did that. then we could get a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey, welcome back. this guy, right? (laughs) yes. ellen. that's my robe. you could save $782 when liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance.

topping our political radar today, president trump leaving the white house any moment now. he's heading to west virginia this afternoon to promote the big tax cut law he signed last year. he'll be in white sulphur springs for a roundtable discussion with local families and business leaders. the white house says we benefit from that tax law.

pat morrissey will also be in that meeting. he is a senate candidate and has ads like this. >> let's not just change washington, let's blow it up and reinvent it. that's better. >> this cheeky response from one liberal group that helped morrissey's wife, a washington, d.c. lobbyist, is okay. first they hope to take on incumbent joe mansion in november. mark zuckerberg has a date with congress. two of them, in fact. next tuesday zuckerberg is scheduled to testify jointly between two senate members. after this from the social media giant, a new disclosure that a worker working with the trump campaign accessed data from 78

million facebook users. original estimate, 50 million. zuckerberg had a call with reporters last night. >> we're an idealistic and optimistic company. for the first decade we really focused on all the good that connecting people brings. but it's clear now that we didn't do enough. we didn't focus enough on preventing abuse and thinking through how people could use these tools to do harm as well. >> a little test run there of what witness mark zuckerberg will say when in the chair first before the senate and then the the house? >> yes. no question about it. there are strategies to these hearings. there are strategies to being witnesses at these hearings. you have to apologize, you have to accept that you're going to get the living you-know-what kicked out of you for a large period of time, especially when you go to a house panel who wants to clip youtube videos for the upcoming election. we talked about this a little earlier, what is facebook's strategy as they go into these hearings? because you need one.

you absolutely need one, particularly for someone like mark zuckerberg who doesn't like public appearances, does not like tv appearances, and how straightforward will they be for stuff that they're still trying to figure out the full depth of it. >> and president trump was slow to acknowledge russian involvement. then they changed their story. just last week they went from 50 million to 87 million in terms of cambridge analytica. it's probably to keep from being aggressive aggressively evaluated, to do you keep things going in the meantime? >> yeah, i think it was about saving money. things are moving so quickly. there are so many competing

interests, groups that want to overtake facebook and be the next place everybody goes. that can tend to knife you in the back. all the democrats wondering if they got too close to tech and whether it will hurt them in the administration. whether it will bleed into things like the russian election. there are so many factors, everybody trying to cover themselves. he's going to be a very lonely person in a very dangerous setting. >> i think both sides are going to come at some aggressive questions here. next, farm state republicans not very happy with the president threatening a trade war with china. well, neither are a lot of trump voters. activia may help support my digestive health, so i can take on my day. activia. now in probiotic dailies. i'm the one clocking in when you're clocking out. sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable.

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welcome back. talk of a trade war is not playing well in the heartland, including trump country. you know the old cliche? how is it playing in peoria?

off to ohio. the columbus dispatch warning, ohio exports to china in lieu of trade war. indiana, iowa, minnesota. with those headlines comes more and more of this. worried that the president is so into keeping his campaign promise that he's ignoring the people here at home. >> you're going to see some incredible numbers with regard to the success of general mattis and others with the isis situation. the numbers are staggering how successful they've been and how successful the military has been. >> that was the president talking about isis. what we were going to show you was congresswoman vicki hersler saying this is hurting farmers

at home. senator joni ernst from iowa, i need for him, the president, to understand this is hurting the midwest. senator from kansas, it seems the president has an intrinsic believe in protectionism. senator from oregkansas, i don' think we're headed to the right place on trade policy. when you have elected officials saying ouch, think it could make a difference? >> they're running ads on pretty much every cable network that if you have a farmer saying, i like president trump, i voted for president trump, but these new trade tariffs could really hurt me, and in think members are going to keep amplifying that

message, because this could hurt farmers in the u.s., exactly where president trump's base was. and i think farmers thought the president wasn't going to do this. he liked some of the other things he was saying, but they were hoping when it came to china he wouldn't go this far because the people around him would say, mr. president, this isn't the right thing to do. they seemed to have underestimated him. the president is doing exactly that. >> we haven't heard a peep because we know he doesn't like this. here's ron moore who is a farmer and chairman of the american soybean association quoting in the dispatch, it doesn't sound like he's listening to the people who helped him get elected as much as we would like him to. when agriculture becomes successful, rural america becomes successful. like it or not, we are a global

market. we have to have export markets to continue to grow the rural economy and to continue to grow rural america. >> everyone could have seen this coming. here's the person to watch. larry kudlow, replacement at the nec beginning his new role. we saw him earlier this week for the conference with the baltic leaders. he's beginning to engage a little bit on tv, a little bit mixing it up with reporters, but he's going to be a really important voice in influencing what the president does and how the president talks about this. >> and hear kudlow says, everybody calm down. these aren't active tariffs. it takes months to get in place. he's saying, we need to negotiate with china, negotiate with others. we just needed to send a signal. that's what the president does. he disrupts a huge dust-up and says, don't worry, we're going to work with them.

larry kudlow says he has to do this. >> presidents have to lead. i've been around a while, i've worked with the president five years ago. he has to lead. he didn't create this. china created this. don't forget that. >> he's right. he's right on the facts. china is not a fair actor, a good actor in the global trading market. and the president campaigned on this, he has every right to stand up to china, every reason to stand up to china, but the question is, is announcing this scaring farmers, injecting volatility in the markets and then saying, don't worry. do you have to do it that way, upset the farmers? >> it might not be the right way to do it, but it's the trump way to do it. in the last 24 hours, talking to market competitors in my old job

when i was covering econ, they said, look, this is what he does. larry kudlow kind of put truth to that statement when he came out and spoke. i would note two small things. go to bloomberg and look at their data visualization in terms of where the impact of this is actually going to be. it's my former employer, current employer. it's a great way of looking at the clash of the two great things about president trump, his moral instincts and his gut instinct on trade. how that is going to shape up in the next few weeks is going to be interesting. >> your point on kudlow, though, the market was down 5 to 10 points yesterday. kudlow got on and said, everybody calm down. this is just a plan, it's wanno deal yet. president trump is at trump base andrews at the moment, heading

down to west virginia. he'll be talking tax cuts there. when we come back, the president is mad because syria wants to keep our troops there. but he's letting them do it for now.

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just tap and go... for the best savings on flights, go to priceline. watch what the president does, not what he says is a viable trump administration rule. and searing policy is today's glaring lesson. the president wants to bring troops home, but he got irritated in a tuesday meeting when most of his team pushed back. what did the president say? we're told he said syria is a mess. the deployment is a waste of money and no good ever comes from american military ventures in the mideast. what did he do? he told his team the mission can continue for now. the president is mad, he doesn't want to be there. he publicly said several times it's time to get out. what's the deal now?

officials say he wants a plan to get out in six months? >> let's just say as a candidate, he was pretty critical of previous presidents who announced their timeline, so let's take that with a grain of context also. but i think the president is running up against a reality which is it's much easier to campaign on principle than it is to govern because there are so many pieces to governing. if the u.s. pulls out, declares victory right now, syria pulls out and everybody on the border goes flying back in, children perished for nothing, et cetera. and then on top of all of that, if he does decide to go through with threats to withdraw from the iran plan and then just turns syria over to the iranians, the russians and assad, he's going to have a lot of questions to answer, maybe not from his domestic political base, but from the rest of the country and republican leadership in the world and it may affect midterm elections. he's got a very complicated decision on his hands. >> and his impulse, america

first, i don't want to be there. i looked at the bush administration, i looked at obama. this isn't going to work, why are we there? now you create a vacuum and he'll get blamed if something bad happens. >> that off the cuff remark that he said before going through with his advisers and kind of running through this normal protocol, that's what put him in this situation he's struggling to get out of. thank you for joining us on "inside politics." we'll be back tomorrow. wolf starts right now. hi, i'm wolf bliltzer. it's 12:00 noon in washington. following the money trail. the special counsel eyes a new target with one big question. did russian