. the evolution of cancer care is here. learn more at cancercenter.com/experts appointments available now. >> thanks, robert, and dagen. stuart, over to you. stuart: good morning, everyone and welcome to the most dynamic, can-do presidency of modern times. this is action tuesday. actually it started already. as of right now, president trump is meeting with executives from ford, gm and fiat chrysler. he's keeping the focus on manufacturing jobs here in america. he may be waving a big stick, border taxes. two hours from now, the president signs more executive orders, don't know how many or what they'll deal with, but if they're anything like yesterday, the effects will be far-reaching. later, he pushes his

legislative schedule, meeting with senate leaders from both sides of the aisle. could be a clash coming here. senator schumer is delaying confirmation of some cabinet picks and mr. trump is not happy with that. late afternoon, the senate republican leader goes to the oval office, no press allowed. could be the president reveals to mitch mcconnell his choice for the supreme court. could be. whoa! what a day of action. president trump dominates the news, the media is left nipping at his heels. get ready for another nonstop action day. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ >> all right. this is breaking news, just coming to us. the new york times reports that president trump wants to keep james comey as fbi director. know anything else. ashley: this is interesting,

three years into a 10-year appointment. there was a lot of speculation, would comey stay or go? don't forget he was lambasted by republicans for not going after hillary clinton, investigation into her e-mails, upset democrats and then blamed comey for trump's victory by revealing to congress where he was on the investigation into those e-mails ap that famous letter. very controversial figure. what's fascinating, trump's decide today keep with comey even though his agency, the fbi is investigating some of trump's associates. liz: including paul manafort, and over the e-mail server announcements. stuart: what a way to start action tuesday? we got it first. we're calling it a day of action, tuesday's action day. mr. trump is meeting with automakers right now there in the white house. mr. trump threatening a very

major border tax. watch this. >> we are going to be imposing a very major border tax on the product when it comes in, which i think is fair. which is fair. so a company that wants to fire all of its people in the united states and build some factory someplace else and thinks that product is just going to flow across the border into the united states, that's not going to happen. stuart: i see this, as, liz peek is here with us, i see that as the big stick, you beat them over the head with that, threaten them with that. if you don't bring jobs here and keep them here, big stick. >> absolutely, it's a negotiating tactic and a carrot on the table which he reinforced over the weekend that taxes are going to come down on korcorporations. he's not saying if you're already there and your supply chain emanates out of mexico, he's saying if you close a factory now under my, you know, presidency, and move out of the united states, you're going to

suffer for it and you know what? across the country, people are cheering that hard line on basically standing up for american workers. stuart: what have you got to say, liz. liz: it's interesting, president obama back in june, when he was basically campaigning for hillary clinton in indiana said no way trump can bring back carrier jobs, right? and he was going after trump saying it's impossible, it's not going to work, but now he sees it happening. whether they plan to do it or not, companies are making these announcements. stuart: i see this meeting, ashley, inside the white house right now. ashley: yes. stuart: as a follow-up, it's a checkup, what are you doing? i warned you a long time ago, what are you doing? that's the way i see it. ashley: he wasn't using a stick with the automakers, using a baseball bat and don't forget, ford scrapped the plan to build 1.6 billion dollar plant in mexico. they know well, sergio mark chone e y --

marchionne says all i want is clarity. >> there's other negotiating chips, the fuel standards imposed on the industry are basically even moving ford and more draconian. liz: that's why the automakers are making cars in mexico, the fuel standards, cheaper to build lighter cheaper cars in mexico due to the things imposed on them as liz pointed out. stuart: i'll be interested what the automakers say when they come out of the white house. will they go in front of the cameras? >> we saw with the last meeting of ceo, the head of dow chemical says, i'm cheered by this. and is government that we can work with. and the automakers not so chummy, but they're going to be competing to see who gets along. ashley: get out there and say, what a wonderful it is and how wonderful our president is.

liz: a person close to ford and wall street journal if you oppose trump and what happens to your stock? reporting that. stuart: pete is with us, thank you for joining us. i want to go back to the breaking news literally a couple of minutes ago, the fbi direct james comey told his top agents from around the country that president trump asked him to stay on the job. talk about action tuesday, there's action for you. what do you make of it? >> president trump sticking to his word. i'm going to talk to director comey, and hear him out and make a decision after that. he sat down with him and heard about it and comey hit not inattention untilly in either direction and give him credit for being willing to hear somebody out and keep them there. i think it's good because it doesn't politicize the fbi. he doesn't need any more of that perception per se and i

think it's a good move. stuart: you say it's a good move on the part of president trump. that's it? >> yeah, listen, he said i'm going to-- i'm going to hear him out and see what he has to say. they have a private meeting, don't have a full readout of that, and if he's confident in the fbi director then why rationally move for a change right now. stuart: i can see it coming a mile off, the conspiracy theorists are going to be all over social media, trump keeps comey because he wants to cover something up. i'm not saying that, please, but i can see that coming a mile off. >> although comey is leading an investigation into some trump allies as liz mentioned earlier. so, he was going to be damned if he did, and damned if he didn't on this decision. liz: and what if hillary won, what would she have done with comey? >> i'm not sure he'd be in office. we're waiting for tape, tape of mr. trump meeting with automakers and their executives. as -- we've heard that

mr. trump has not yet arrived in that meeting. so, it will take place in the building, right there. that's the white house and we'll bring you more news when we get to that one. let me get to the markets today. we are going to open ever so slightly higher. futures suggest an 8, 9 point gain for the dow industrials. fairly flatover all. not much market news thus far today, but look, it's a rock and roll day. who knows what comes down the pipes minutes from now. this is the news business, very happy with it. here is the thing that caught my attention first thing this morning. president obama reportedly sent 221 million dollars to the palestinians just a couple of hours before he left office. he tried to do it very quietly, almost in secret. pe pete, why did he do it quietly

at the last second. >> because the american people don't support his position and blocks in congress. and he did it in the last few minutes, in some ways the last few moves. his last sentiment. any pro israel moves he felt like he had to do. this is where his heart has been, the international left is, it's with the palestinians and it's money there for the two-state solution, the last gasp of the two-state solution, they knew trump is coming in and make a change and do whatever they could under the table, but i think a lot of that. 220 million. stuart: yes, the my money. >> but the moves of trump's administration-- >> i'm outraged at this. this is my money, our american money going the very last second, very quietly, to people who are not doing america much good. that's my personal opinion i'm--

>> it's outrageous, i'm glad he's gone. it's the last thing he could do, he put-- he didn't get a chance to close gitmo, thank goodness, but slid stuff like this through at the last minute. that's not going to happen under the trump administration and em bolden him to move from embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. >> it's fascinating stuff. you're all right. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. stuart: appreciate it. and to the latest of president trump's cabinet hearings. the senate energy committee announcing it will indefinitely delay confirmation votes on interior secretary nominee ryan zinke and no reason for the delay. they say it will remain in effect until-- >> indefinitely? >> don't get it. no reason given. there you are. new development on brexit. the british supreme court ruling that the u.k. cannot

leave the european union without first getting a vote from parliament. i don't think that really changes things that much, but that's what they've just ruled. does it change anything? >> no, no, they'll still vote. they can't negotiate until the m p's give a say so that it's okay. stuart: parliament gets its word in there. i'm sure napolitano would approve of that. [laughter] then we have mr. trump warning companies, you want to make your product overseas and sell here, you can get ready to pay a major border tax. what does a free market guy like judge napolitano think about that? we will be coming to napolitano very shortly. ash, what have you got? >> on executive orders, coming thick and fast. president trump, we are told and sources confirmed, will sign executive orders taking the keystone xl and dakota pipeline out of mothballs. liz: we said this was coming,

reported last week. stuart: now it's formal. liz: yes, now it's formal. stuart: in mothballs. >> this is great, labor unions and workers are going to be applauding and these are three of my top five things he's done in the first two days, i am so thrilled. liz: the obama state department had no problem with the keystone pipeline. >> exactly, multiple years of investigation, no reason to oppose it and by the way, the second largest world oil reserves in the world are in the tar sand. it's ridiculous to think that they're not going to be developed and now they will be. liz: is this a chip for trump in his nafta negotiations with canada? right, and mexico? >> maybe, who knows? i really don't know that, but this is a complete reversal of all the nonsense that we've been in for years and years and years and years. liz: let it be noted 12,000 miles of pipeline was constructed under the obama administration. stuart: most people don't know that. they never told them that.

ashley: now they know. >> political issue. stuart: i am getting bent out of shape. i need judge napolitano to calm me down. [laughter] he's the man for that. >> rarely. [laughter] . stuart: i want to know, you're a free market guy, a libertarian guy. >> that's good. stuart: what do you make then of the president saying to the automakers and to any other manufacturers, you make your stuff over there, and you bring it back here, i'm going to stick you with a whopping great border tax. what does is man like you think about that? >> start out by saying i love the president, i am happy he is in office and i'm ecstatic and some of the things he's done, and utterly revolutionary and told government workers-- but if you want to sell me something and i want to buy it, it's none of the government's business interfering. stuart: you don't agree with any kind of-- >> that's my basic belief. that's the constitution's premise on economics.

stuart: so a border tariff, a border tax is unconstitutional? >> no, it's constitutional, but it is immoral. it's immoral for the government free trade, but does it have the authority to under the constitution, the express authority to do so, congress, not the president. stuart: in all other respects you think what mr. trump has done is fine and dandy, but the border tax is an affront on morality? >> he can't do it on his own. but he's threatening to ask congress to vote on it. if they pass it and it's signed into law it's valid and constitutional. it will interfere with the free market and make things more costly and punishes managers of money for doing best to give money to manage. stuart: it might encourage employment of americans in america. >> and raise prices. stuart: how do you know that? >> well, if it would cost less

money to build cars in mexico, why would they build them in the u.s.? >> because they've got productive facilities which are more productive and create better products at a lower price, given american labor, american factories and american technology, and american energy. >> i can't imagine that a person-- let's say you're the chair of general motors, why would you want to build a product in america if you could build a better one cheaper outside of america? >> because i owe the american taxpayers, general motors, i owe the american taxpayers 12 billion dollars and want to get on the ride side of our new president and i'm working to bring those jobs back to america. >> you sound like a politician. stuart: moi? >> my argument is less complex. i want to buy, you want to sell. the government is involved it makes it more costly. >> and the same thing can be said about fuel standards.

i want to buy a car with no fuel emissions standards, i can't do that either because the law of the land is that we're protecting consumers by putting in tough fuel standards. >> i don't know what that has to do with general motors building plants. >> there's no free commerce between individual and companies in this country. there are all kind of regulations by your standards are all immoral. >> yes, yes. >> we vote on that. >> yes, because the only truly moral commercial transactions are those that are voluntary and no one boys the government voluntarily, they do so for fear of the consequences of not obeying. stuart: i think it's time i recap the action. >> didn't you say you wanted to-- . [laughter] >> mr. trump, we've now learned, has joined the meeting with the executives from ford, general motors and fiat chrysler. ashley: i want to know what the judge thinks about comey. stuart: i never thought. hold on a second, judge. let me repeat for our audience what we've seen so far today. there's a meeting in the white house right now, auto

executives and president trump, that's going on now. second story, the keystone pipeline, mr. trump will sign an executive order later on today saying it's out of mothballs. ashley: back on-line. stuart: back on-line. that's item number two. number three, the new york times reports, judge, and this is for you. >> yes. stuart: the fbi director comey told agents that president trump asked him to stay on. what do you make of that? >> he has a 10-year term and four years into it. the president is not going to fire him. can the president fire the director of the fbi? yes. if you asked me what i thought about james comey remaining director of the fbi, i would have said it's a nonevent, of course, a great director and great reputation. he has sullied that reputation in the past year because of the fbi involvement in politics and refuse to press for the indictment of mrs. clinton notwithstanding powerful evident of her guilt which he

outlined. president trump apparently wants to turn the page on that. stuart: he stays according to the new york times. on your screen, the pipeline of transcanada, the builders of the keystone pipeline. that stock just went up. it's gone up. it's not a huge jump by any means. you're going to be up about a buck, buck and a half. ashley: 2%? >> 2, 3% for transcanada on the into us that president trump is going to sign an executive order which okays the keystone pipeline. it's clearly an action packed day in politics. not so much in money. we've got a muted open for the market. a gain of about 6 points. the preview of the market right there. up about 6 points, 5 points. that's not a whole hill of beanies, is it. liz: no, but as the gm and auto maker meeting with president

trump unfolds, the global times warned it could target, apple, gm, boeing and starbucks with a 45% tariff if trump does his 35% border tax. stuart: hold on, let me hold on for a second. you're reporting what the chinese communist newspaper is saying. they're saying if we stick a big tariff on their products coming to america, they could stick an even bigger tax on america's products going to china. liz: correct, a 5% of s&p 500 comes from china and gm is pushing forward with plants and factories in china. could china retaliate? could there be a trade war, that would be disastrous. stuart: they can-- >> liz peek i'll steal what you're saying and give you credit. t the who doesn't allow 35%,

unless trump blows that up and-- >> gm gets 30% of sales from china. >> let's just remember though, we have something to spend on trade policy. it's half a trillion dollar a year trade deficit. all these countries around the world that are griping about us changing the rules, guess what, folks, we need to change the rules. this is a big drag on our economy, something that's gone on for a very long time and has not been addressed. liz: maybe they're opening bargaining chips. stuart: i think so. ashley: take something in the middle. stuart: that's the way the game is played. >> art of the deal, yes. stuart: you state your position and you come out strong and then the other guy states their position and come out strong. ashley: somewhere in the middle. stuart: and sooner or later you come together and make a deal. if you don't make a deal-- >> basically what's happened. stuart: could be. and look who is here, ladies and gentlemen. maria bartiromo is joining us for this hour, and she comes in in the middle of an extremely busy day. i know you've heard all of that.

comey stays with the fbi under president trump. the president is meeting in the white house now with the auto executives, and momentously he's going to sign an executive order that says, yeah, let's build that keystone pipeline, at least let's take it out of the mothballs, where do you want to start. maria: let me add on to what your fantastic panel is staying and odding two cents there. president trump would never have been able to threatened the border tax if the u.s. had been part of the tpp. he needs the carrot and stick in order to get the countries do what he wants. he needed to make it real. he's been promising to pull out of the tpp. got to say, businesses across the world are worried about this. fred schmidt ceo of fedex was on the show, during the commercial break, maria, you want to start world ward iii,

have a trade war. president trump says i'm a free trader, i just want it to be fair trade. we know how china is with the united states. stuart: he's going straight at it. the chinese are responding, you could say this a trade war is the back drop to trading today. liz: billionaire investor jim rogers, to maria's point, sell stocks, watch out. >> the world bank concluded that vietnam and japan and malaysia were the winners of the tpp. the united states almost not at all. so we have continually sat down and look at the korea trade pack, supposed to be 75,000 jobs, cost us 75,000. we don't get it right. whoever is at the negotiating table doesn't work in our best interest. fine, this is gone, we'll do a different deal. maria: what i like about what trump is doing now, he's got tunnel vision and that tunnel

vision is economic growth and american jobs. whatever it is that's going to lead to those two things, he's going to do. he's not concerned with what this means for china and what this means for southeast asia. >> let political leaders on the left oppose that and see how that works out for them in the next round of elections. stuart: the union leaders walked into the white house, and when they came out they were astonished at the level of respect. >> they why jubilant and never seen anything like this. they were so happy with the meeting and those were the steel workers, the machinists and these are the guys who have been left behind by the democrat party. i've got to say, why aren't they at the table. why aren't the democrats stepping up with the new voices that could energize and get excited about? >> and tip o'neill with reagan and newt gingrich with clinton. and both of those guys made more jobs than obama did, but you don't have the opposition party anywhere.

maria: they're too busy. liz: it's ridiculous. >> energy politics saying that-- there was a column about it. >> the same left behind that democrat union factory worker in the dust. guys m pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan that trump won. maria: and meanwhile, asking crazy questions in the confirmation hearings and some of the questions have nothing to do with the job at hand. remember last week one of the senators asked steven mnuchin, can you confirm your boss is known for firing people? what? what? how about doing homework? you're talking to the incoming treasury secretary. ashley: republicans should love it, they're exposing themselves for what they are. liz: stuart is letting us run here. [laughter] >> normally i'm in the middle of this panel normally and i'm like, what do you think about this and what do you think about that? i have totally lost control of this program and i'm glad i have because we are a fiery program. we feel about things. ashley: yeah. stuart: we feel it.

we're not a program of bare stark facts, we're a program of emotion and point of view, that's why people watch us, right. maria: that's why you're the number one show at this time crushing the competition. stuart: let's not get carried away, maria. but you're right. maria: just saying. stuart: we've got five minutes before the stock market opens. we're expecting a modest uptick at the opening well and i'm surprised at that. i would have thought that the news background would have produced a sharp move either up or down, a sharp move. i would have expected. we've already had talk of a trade war. liz has brought us what the chinese communist newspaper is saying, we'll hit you with heavy taxes if you hit us. that's the back drop here is a trade war. we're seeing president trump meet with auto executives. we're told he'll wield a big stick for border taxes. that's not good for the market. i don't think it's good are to the mark, is it? >> i think in following through on his campaign pledges is good for the market.

in the last month we've had backtracking and back in the market as people begin to assess, can he really do this? on the left there's incessant alarms, that it's going to crush the economy, he's not going to follow through, won't be able to get it through congress. what we're seeing yesterday and today, beginning to move in the right direction. by the way, we haven't talked about the freeze on federal hiring. i think that is incredibly powerful, all across the country, they look at these agencies, 70,000 people in the state department. they're saying what do they do for us? >> just give you 30 seconds on this. most people in the market wanted the tax reform to come first. looks like obamacare repeal and replacement comes first, there is some disappointment in the market because of that. momentarily, i'm going to show you tape from the white house of president trump meeting with the auto executives. is that correct, justin? listen in.

>> we have a very big push on to have auto plants and other plants, many other plants, you're not being singled out, mary, i promise. [laughter] to have a lot of plants from a lot of different items built in the united states, and it's happening. it's happening bigly. we had whirlpool up yesterday, and we're talking about construction facilities and it's not the construction i want, although that brings job, it's the long-term jobs that we're looking for. we're bringing manufacturing back to the united states, bigly. reducing taxes substantially and reducing unnecessary regulations, and we want regulations, but we want real regulations that mean something. mark and i were together yesterday and i think we had that. we are going to make the progress much more simple for the auto companies and for everybody else that wants to do business in the united states. i think you can find this to be very inhospitable to extremely

hospitable. i think we'll go down as one of the most friendly countries and right now it's not. we have friends that want to build in the united states that can many, many years and can't get their environmental permit over something that nobody heard of before and it's absolutely crazy. and i am to a large extent an environmentalist, i believe in it, but it's out of control. and we're going to make a very short process. and we're going to either give you your permits or not going to give your permits, but you're going to know very quickly and generally speaking we're going to be giving your permits. we're going to be very friendly. and it's an honor to be with you today. and maybe we'll start with mark, because we got to know each other pretty well yesterday. will you have any-- excuse me? oh, would you like to stay longer? you're not supposed to ask questions. you're not supposed to ask questions. >> it's about james comey--

. [laughter] >> there's always one. there's always one, jonathan, right? got to be one. thank you very much. thank you. stuart: i'm laughing because, along with everybody else, that's how you deal with the media. i think it was jonathan who tried to ask a question. mr. trump says there's always one. and then he cleared them all out as you can see. we're running up to the opening of the market and let me paraphrase what president trump had to say with meetings with auto executives. we're going to make them extremely hospitable to build factories and plants and one more thing, president trump said environmentalism has gone absolutely crazy. it is out of control. . ashley: he says i am an environmentalist, but it is out

of control so he got that-- >> guaranteed what the media picks up on. maria: that will be the headline. the greenies are running a religion and that from mr. trump is blasphemy. i digress, five seconds to the opening bell on wall street. i can hear it ringing in the background here. [bell ringing] >> trading is beginning. we're up 4, 5 points and 11 points, it's a very, very modest up-tick. 13 points now, and that's where we are. the back drop to the day's action on wall street is really action in the white house. action from president trump. it was a day of action on monday, it's been a day of action today. all kind of breaking news going on and what have you got? >> goldman sachs just went bullish and general motors rising the price target to $31. stuart: let me repeat.

goldman sachs going bullish on general motors, going to 41-- >> 31. they'll well over 30 and they-- >> they've got a wrong, what they're saying, let me move my target price up so i don't look like i'm wrong. liz: they finally went from bearish to bullish. stuart: we're off and running and dead flat for the dow industrials. can we see the automakers, please, have a look at their stocks. they've not finished that meeting there at the white house and we haven't heard from the executives as they leave, but none of the less, there we go, ford, gm, fiat chrysler, all of them up. fiat chrysler, especially, 4% higher. general motors is at 36, that's interesting that goldman sachs would say, oh, they're going to go to 31. >> they were at 29. stuart: i got it, i got it. ford is at $12 a share. i'm not seeing that much reaction except in fiat chrysler.

who do we have on this auspicious. mike murphy op my left. physically. and we're down 9 points. pretty flat opening. which individual stocks do we have to talk about in the early going. i want to know what's moving. i know we've had five dow components. let's start with transcanada, that's the company that will build the last leg of the keystone pipeline which mr. trump is going to sign onto with an executive order taking that out of mothballs. transcanada stocks are a modest gain. and how about apple? where is that is $119 a share.

we had a company there, was it barclays has downgraded apple. they've downgraded them. so, it's dropped what, 34 cents and dropped below $120 a share. where were we with alphabet. record high yesterday, whoa, will you look at that, that's another all-time high. mike murphy. >> yes, sir. stuart: explain why alphabet is at $847 a share. >> people are seeing growth opportunities here. you see a slight pull back in apple on a price target cut from 119 to 117. people are seeing companies like alphabet where they can see growth. year to date, the nasdaq is outpacing, so the tech companies are outpacing the dow and the s&p 500. they're up 3% year to date. the people are looking for growth there and you get the growth in alphabet. >> growth in those companies which have already gone to the moon. you know what? they're the ones on the cutting edge, doing the new things, investing in new companies, companies that are going to

change the way the internet of things, internet of everything. change the way we live our lives in the future. >> now, the bottom line for most company's stock performance is the profits which they report. i'm going to turn to maria, forgive me, i'm going to use you as a reporter on the profit front. what are we seeing so far? >> mike has hit the nail on the led because it's about growth and seeing the interest in the stock market as well. fourth quarter so far, most companies are putting better than expected earnings and the growth rate in terms of earnings for the s&p 500, 4.4%. not much, but get this, stuart, first quarter, 17. expect today see profits, profits up 13%. >> a big deal. ashley: even with the strong dollar. that's their expectations, because of the expectations of the policy changes coming out and the anticipation that businesses are going to look at the environment and say, you know what? i'm going to start taking stuff off the shelf. let's do that investment that we want today do that we've been sitting on cash because i've been handcuffed for eight years. stuart: you are going to move

the market because when that appears, i'm sure it's appeared already, you're going to help it along. when the market learns that you're going to maybe get a 13% jump in corporate profits in america, that would take into an all-time high by a long, long way. maria: we'll see. stuart: the markets should respond positively. i can tell you now, microsoft is up 44 cents, ladies and gentlemen. [laughter] . >> adding to maria's point is regulation or the lack of regulation. ♪ >> i think that pulls back and the companies is more profitable and. stuart: microsoft is at 63.17 per share, i own a little bit of it. that's very close to its all-time high which is around $64. ashley: the trumpets. stuart: we muted the trumpets. show me amazon again. [trumpets playing] >> that's for microsoft. and the first oscar nomination.

maria: original content at amazon. stuart: what's it for? "manchester by the sea", that's an amazon movie. maria: original content. no, not "manchester by the sea", but amazon has original content and jeff bezos was at the golden globes. stuart: sort this out for me, please. what was amazon's oscar nomination for? >> we're hitting google right now. stuart: okay, we're having a conversation that viewers cannot hear. talking with my viewer justin. why are we saying that amazon has an oscar nomination? >> it says amazon's "manchester by the sea". stuart: that's their movie? i'm told you it's a great movie. liz: it makes you cry, maybe not you, but makes you cry. stuart: can't wait to see it. i'm intrigued by amazon, mike murphy. >> as am i.

maria: going to see it on your amazon prime. it's going to your-- >> just starting to binge-- >> sorry, mike. stuart: would you buy amazon at 818? >> i wouldn't, alibaba closest to a competitor that amazon has has come out with earnings and growing their cloud services. amazon's cloud services, growth area. alibaba calm-- came out this morning. don't bet against amazon, stuart, that's a fool's game, but i think the stock is a little bit extended, but for the long-term amazon, if you own it, you want to hold onto the stock. stuart: amazon is now at 818. they've got a movie studio that produced "manchester by the sea", that's the connection. fast, can we see facebook? i have got facebook 129 a share and up a little bit this morning. you think that that's going to be the trillion dollar company of the future.

>> the growth area of the future. if you could only pick one that's the one i'd pick. stuart: i want to go to nicole. lockheed martin is looking down the road, their expectations for the future and don't think things are so rosie. what's going on with the stock? nicole: what's interesting about this story, first of all, the stock is down 2, 3% this morning and they did come out the back half of 2016, but the outlook is lackluster or conservative, what whatever you want to call it, it's below the analyst estimates. what's interesting, don't forget the ceo gave a personal commitment to the president that they were going to lower the prices of the f-35 jets. the fighter jets. interestingly enough, they said they're dropping the cost of their lots and making these and that they are on track to reduce the unit price 60%. so i have to look more into it, but it looks like they're getting ready to cut the prices

to just go right in line with what donald trump asked them to do. and don't forget he asked them to cut the prices and said he would consider boeing or others, and you see the stock coming back. so tight on the outlook. stuart: interesting, bending to pressure and the stock is down 2 1/2%. we had a ruling by britain's supreme court this morning, which said, if the brits want to get out of the european union, you've got to have a vote in parliament first. that's new. i don't think that makes much difference to our politics here, and i wonder if it makes any difference to any stock, anything to do with wall street at all. you're shaking your head. >> you could argue it adds a little bit to the uncertainty, but then they're not going to do anything different. they'll get a billing within days and deadline to start the negotiation will still be at the end of march. it's just the m p's feeling left out. stuart: and the pound sterling a buck 24 is where it's at. i think it's time for you and i

took a trip to london. ashley: it's getting cheap, take advantage. stuart: i remember in the 1980's before you were born, a long time ago, the pound was down to $1.05. it was virtual parity and i went over there with my american dollars. ashley: yes. stuart: and lived like a king. ashley: empty suitcase. >> you know what i want to see. i want to see what happens with theresa may and president trump trade betwn the u.s. and u.k. and what it means for financial services. there was conversation last week in terms of theobs and will there be a free flow of people between the u.s. and u.k.? that's going to be important because i mean, all financial services have huge hubs in the u.k., specifically in london. stuart: don't forget, it was president obama who said, hey, you brits, if you leave, you get to the back of the queue. maria: now they're in the front. stuart: always in the front. liz: and the nafta fix put them at the front of the queue. stuart: there's an alignment between trade and foreign

policy around the world and brexit is part of it. theresa may is part of it. renegotiating nafta is part of it. i don't know where this things end up, but everything is in flux. ashley: it's a different landscape. maria: and the priority is jobs. liz: senate finances studied the issue of adding the u.k. to nafta. that study is out there. maria: the financial services companies have not made a decision. jamie dimon said a couple of weeks ago, we don't know what we're going to do in terms of our people in london and whether or not we need to move our hub to germany. ashley: maybe get the details, that's a ways off. stuart: answer me this, mike murphy. we've got pro business headlines from trump, he's going to make america a hospitable environment in which to do business and plant. why are the dow industrials flat? >> since he was elected the market ran up. they're flat and we're 1% off our highs, so we had a big

rally, 7 1/2% since maria called a bottom the night that donald trump was elected. and now we're settling in and churning here at these levels and stronger profits during the earning seasonings expect the market to take out the 20,000 number. ashley: i think there's a flight to the sidelines and donald trump is coming in with big talk as he did on the campaign trail, very much an action guy. and investors say how will it play out. liz: nafta was struck before the internet took off and on-line trade took off. a 1994 era deal and yes, mexico is one of our biggest trading, i think it's number two, bigger than the u.k., germany, i think china, japan combined, so, you know, if we-- as we realign, which stocks will have a rocky road. maria: i think we're in a show-me market.

at this point we're up since election night and 7% rally since election night. year to date we're in a show-me market. yeah, we believe you and now we want to see evidence and we want to see the tax deal. we know in the first 100 day, but it's not going to be implemented until the end of the summer. stuart: investors wanted tax reform first, like ronald reagan did. fax tax reform. maria: don't underestimate obamacare going away a major tax cut as well. let's face it, businesses have been sucking up the cost of obamacare, as a result turning full-time jobs into part-time jobs and not hiring as many as they could. so, repealing and replacing obamacare also falls in my mind under a tax cut. stuart: i wonder if the market is upset at the prospect of a trade war? >> yes, of course. stuart: this morning we've learned a little more about the big stick beating up companies with a border tariff, a border tax and then we heard the

response from china which said, you tax our stuff coming to america, and we'll tax your stuff going to china. boeing is vulnerable right there. liz: china could inflict sub standing, but not overwhelming pain, one analyst said, to our companies. that's the word on the street. look the way that the market is behaving, a negotiated solution, let's talk a big stick and come to a negotiated solution with our trading partners. stuart: you're saying, mike murphy, a lot of people are watching this program and geez, i've got this 401(k) money and my ira money, got to make a decision where to put it. are you going to say a broad-based stock market index is the place to go? >> 100%? >> yes? >> i don't think the trade war will impact profits. i think it's a renegotiation and getting favorable terms in the united states of america. if you're investing, that's going to help the bottom line, increase the earnings and

markets should go higher on that. stuart: and 4 1/2% upon fee yeah the chrysler. and when we got the tape between president trump and auto executives, sitting next to the president was sergio marchionne and fiat chrysler. i don't think that i am -- him sitting next to the president is the entire explanation for the rise, but nonetheless, doesn't do any harm. we're up 5 points, 7 points on the dow industrials, i'm going to call that a flat opening. the dow stalled after its big run-up at the election, stalled around 19,800. we're waiting for a breakout. we thought maybe today we'd get it after all of that action on trade and industrial policy. we thought we'd get it and we haven't yet. ashley: it's the trade rhetoric, that's the problem. stuart: what do you say, maria. maria: at this point i think we'll see a flat market until

we get more news and information on the trade war-- rather on tax reform. i will say this, don't underestimate what president trump is doing with the oil and epa regulations and that's representing the automakers as well as. you're going to reverse thousands of regulations put in place under president obama coming under the epa. it's going to help the automakers. stuart: i want to thank mike murphy and maria bartiromo. i thought it was going to be a huge dayn the market, not yet. thank you very mucdeed. i want to get back to president trump and let's focus on taxes. we may not get tax reform until late summer. grover norquist is with us, he's with americans for tax reform. what do you make of this, grover? i know you've been on our era lot recently, i'm worried that late summer, and by that i mean august, is a little late to be getting a tax reform bill in front of the president and signed. what do you say? >> well, the tax reform plan

that both trump put forward during the campaign and then has improved on since, and the house bill, all have tax rate reductions taking place immediately as in january 1st of this year. i think it's particularly important for president trump and the republicans in the house and senate to say, here is our outline of a plan, but it will take place starting now. so that because of expensing, one of the big reforms that both the house republicans and trump agree on, moving from long depreciation schedules to immediate expensing, people need to know now in january that you can go ahead and start making these commitments and making these decisions and you will be under the new rules. stuart: that's the full expensing side of it. so that -- that's very important because if i'm running a business and i invest a million dollars in a new computer system i'd like to know that i can expense, that is write off, the entire million dollars this year. if i know that, i'll go ahead

and buy right now. but what's the other side of the coin? tax cuts for individuals. if we don't get a tax bill signed by the president till august, i don't see any benefit in my paycheck or your paycheck or anybody else's paycheck until next year. is that correct? >> correct. well, you would be seeing-- no, no, no, you would see it in your paycheck as soon as it passes, it would adjust for the whole year, but once you go that it's going to be enacted, then you'll see that clearer. top rate's 33% instead of 43%. this is a big deal. the other rates are 25 and 12. every american who pays taxes will see a tax cut. you can calculate what that is for the year as long before the bill actually passes. stuart: what i'm trying to get at, when does the economy get a jolt, an immediate jolt from tax reform? and your answer is, we get an

immediate jolt as soon as we find out what's in the tax reform bill that president trump will sign, that's it. a quick jolt, that's what you're saying? >> yes, as soon as people can look at it and say their 218 votes in the house and 51 in the senate, they can start making economic decisions wisely, knowing what's ahead of them. so, the lower corporate rate is locked in, the expensing is locked in. there's parts of this bill that could change in the next two months, but the lower individual rate, the lower corporate rate, the lower rate for sub chapter c, s. corporations, that's 25% for small businesses, 42% cut in their corporate income tax that they pay through the individual level. you add that to expensing, this is strong. when did the stock market crash

over smoot holly? markets can anticipate ahead, both good news and bad news. stuart: fascinating. one more quick point. i am told that the death tax, estate tax at the federal level goes away and alternative minimum tax, which is tortured a lot of people for many, many people goes away. can you confirm that? >> yes, both of those are both in trump's plan and the house republican plan and have strong senate support. so, finally getting rid of the death tax originally put in to pay for the civil war, lasted ten years longer tha war did, and then it came back for world war i, and never went away. finally, it's going away. stuart: now, i'm listening carefully to what you're saying and the big picture seems to me to be that we will get, this economy will get a jolt this year as big as the jolt

president reagan delivered in 1982. accurate? >> yes, and reagan's tax cuts became fully effective on january 1st of 1983. in the next year, that one year, they created 4 million jobs. in october alone of this year, they created 1 is million jobs. so, and this is as big, i think perhaps bigger, because it's expensing and corporate rates and individual rates, it's a tremendous step in the right direction. you add that to the deregulation and speeding up of permits. stuart: it's a big deal. >> we should have a veg year. stuart: i want to tell you grover, pay back then, i was living in america, actually working for cnn, and that tax cut, that move by ronald reagan pushed me into america's middle class. it fulfilled the dream, because all of a sudden, i was keeping a whole lot more of the money that i was making. it wasn't a great deal of money at the time, but i got to keep

more of it and meant pushing me up the food change i'll never forget it. i remember the refund check i got, it was astonishing. enough to buy a new car, i would say. i bought a toyota. i wouldn't do that now, grover, believe me. thank you for straightening things out and you offered real clarity and we like that. >> thank you. stuart: yes, sir. check that market, now we're up a little bit, not much that. market scan, left-hand side of the screen. more winners than losers and the dow industrials are up 13 points. i might add that the big name technology stocks are doing very well, very well indeed. microsoft, especially. we will be back. ♪ i know you won't let me down ♪ ♪ 'cause i'm already standing on the ground ♪ your support te for walking me through my first options trade.

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>> if you're just joining us, we're bringing you news on executive orders that came down the pike. one of those will bring the keystone pipeline out of mothballs. it may yet be built. ashley: the question is what does that mean? there are questions out there

with fine details on this, apparently telling fox news from transcanada, who developed this pipeline, that they have not reapplied yet for a keystone pipeline permit. they withdraw it-- withdrew it under the obama administration. they are intent on reapplying. is it simple that they reapply and donald trump signs off? >> it's out much mothballs. liz: there's a legal dispute over the pipeline. there's legality over constructing it. and transcanada says give us $15 billion in damages. stuart: i wonder if that's why the stock of transcanada is up, 2, 3 points as we speak? not quite sure. we've got a flat market to slightly higher. that's what we've got. in the wake of a lot of breaking and developing news

stories. we just brought you the story about the keystone pipeline, looks like they're going to build it. we also have a story from the new york times, which says that james comey will be asked to stay on as fbi director. there's all kinds of angles on that one and we also have president trump meeting in the white house with the executives of the three american automakers, general motors, ford, fiat chrysler. i might add that fiat chrysler is up nearly 5%, they were in that meeting. general motors stock is up a little bit and ford motor stock up a little bit and no doubt the president, well, he did say and we know that, that he's going to make america a very, extremely hospitable environment. he also said that environmental rules were absolutely crazy and out of control. okay? >> well, the theme going i we are told is this, how to bring more jobs back to the auto industry. that was the overarching theme

with the automakers. >> we should be excited the things he's following through on, approving the keystone pipeline, is a good example. widely popular in the united states. that's something that most americans felt we should move forward on. he's not short of burning bridges and throwing things up-- >> hold on a second, paul ryan, i'm sorry, paul ryan just finished speaking on capitol i hill, he made a public announcement and he did invite the president, president trump to a joint session of congress on february 28th. that's important. that's what mr. ryan just suggested, joint session of congress to be addressed by president trump. that's the suggestion february 28th. laying out the opportunity for president trump to play out the legislative agenda that he's organized with both houses of congresses. ashley: and the opportunity for democrats to get on board. >> exactly. stuart: exactly, yes, 'cause so

far they have not gotten on board. >> and again, it's their voters largely that elected donald trump and so it's inconceivable that they're going to completely obstruct everything he wants to do for american workers, i don't know what they're thinking because it cannot help them rebuild their party. stuart: it's an extraordinary situation. 10:00 eastern time. we're one hour into the show and for mr. trump we're about six or seven hours into action tuesday. the man is up very, very early indeed. now, look, we have never seen anything like this before. an action-packed opening day for the new president, followed up today with more of the same, action on trade, this was obamacare the other day, jobs, manufacturing in america and a promise to roll back regulation and taxes. now, you would think that all of this action would be the focus of the media. look at this. main headline in the new york times, trump repeats election lie.

it refers to the president saying that illegal immigrants cost him the popular vote. that's the issue that the new york times runs with this morning. "the washington post" editorial page side steps all of mr. trumps action, instead refer to the contempt which they hold for the president. for the trump team. stuart: shame, sean spicer, a stalinist says richard cowan. people ask us why we give the media extra publicity. we do that because you need to know what the fourth estate is up to and i'm here to tell you that what they are up to is the deliberate running down of mr. trump and america. the battle lines are drawn. it will not ge the media hates trump. but the president has twitter. the media is bypassed. it is a whole new world. and, yes, the second hour of "varney & company" is about to stuart: breaking news. here we go, tom price,

confirmation hearing to head the department of department of health and human services, it is going to start momentarily. it will be all about obamacare, repeal it, replace it with what? we're expecting it to be hostile questioning from democrats, after all, mr. price threatens to repeal and replace president obama's signature legislative achievement. he wants to repeal it and he wants to replace it. when it makes news, we will be there. if mr. price announces any kind of plan to, with which to replace obamacare, you will hearing on this program. when we get hostile questioning, any kind of fireworks you will watch it happen. it will take place very shortly. first what have we got here latest read on housing market, existing home sales, lizzie. liz: disappointing read, 5.49 million. lower than the number expect and

annualized figure as mortgage applications hit a 13-year low. stuart: low. liz: because of higher rates. and threat of higher interest rates. stuart: whoa. you try getting a mortgage these days and the paperwork will kill you. liz: true. stuart: dodd-frank murdered community banks and small banks. liz: good point. stuart: 13-year low on mortgage loans. >> consumer confidence is a high. stuart: i missed that. that is important. >> absolutely it is important. very, very important. stuart: all right, the market has been open 30 minutes. i will show you some bigger movers that we're following for you thus far today. fiat chrysler, look at that. sergiosergio marchionne in a meg with donald trump. verizon reported slightly better numbers after the bell, 44 bucks

a share on yahoo!. that is up nearly 4%. gopro at $10 a share. 83 cents higher. that is an 8% bain, go pro. alibaba we all it the chinese amazon. and it is. rosy outlook for alibaba. big gain there. here are big tech names we covered consistently for the last two years. they have gone virtually straight up. took dip after the election. now we got facebook at 128. amazon, 8.16. microsoft at 63. we've got alphabet at $844 per share. i believe that is an all-time high. netflix getting in on the action. $137 a share as of today. we're calling it action tuesday. president trump held a breakfast meeting with the top auto industry executives. listen to. this. >> it is the long-term jobs we're looking for. we're bringing manufacturing

back to the united states big league. we're reducing taxes very substantially and we're reducing unnecessary regulations. now we want regulations but we want real regulations that mean something. mark and i were together yesterday, and i think we understand that we'll make the process much more simple for the auto companies and everybody else that wants to do business in the united states. stuart: you saw it right there. the president will make america a hospitable place to do business and build a factory. katie pavlich is with us. >> good morning. stuart: we're astonished yesterday, and today, days of extraordinary action and focus on jobs and manufacturing in america and a lot of other issues as well. the media is out there and nipping at his heels, tell us is this working for mr. trump as president his first full two days in office? >> i'm glad the word bigley is

used again by president trump. it is working for them. it is working for him. as much as you mention the media nipping at his heels. he is doing what he would do on day one, day two, to make the lives of americans better that will come not only now with these executives orders but also down the road with his congressional agenda and real tax reform. majority leader kevin mccarthy was on fnc channel earlier this morning saying they will have tax reform ready to go in couple months. they're moving quickly and politically, quite frankly they have to move quickly. bettering on your priority list done in the first 100 days, the first year. because then it starts to get into campaigning again and democrat are kind of back on their offense in terms of their attacks and knowing what their strategy is around stopping president trump's again day, katie, i will come back to you in a second. let me bring in aassador john bolton joining us this morng.

i want to talk about trade. we are upsetting all kinds of trade agreement, bringing in the brits, maybe to get a new trade agreement. does this amount to a real shift in our foreign policy, not just economic and trade policy, but foreign policy as well? >> well it could. trade policy and national security policy should be aligned. i think the problem with the tpp agreement that was, the u.s. withdrew from yesterday was it was a clumsy obama administration attempt with origins in the second bush administration to trade off economics and politics and it just didn't work. that is not to say we shouldn't be encouraging international trade, and encouraging international free trade. it's that when you try to make tradeoffs without really understanding what you're doing, you get a strategic mishmash. i think tpp was rightly put in the grave yesterday. but now we need a replacement for it at a strategic level, not

merely at a trade level. stuart: the renegotiation of nafta, the president is going to sign an executive order which lets the keystone pipeline go through. is building the keystone pipeline, finishing it part of the renegotiation of nafta? >> well, i don't think it is related to the renegotiation of nafta. there was no reason to reject the keystone pipeline to begin with and i think what's important not the relationship in trade terms between canada and the united states. there is a lot less controversial than the relationship in trade terms between mexico and the united states. and i think that is what a fair amount of this conversation with the auto manufacturers today was about. so we'll have to see how much actual renegotiation there is in terms of the world trade organization, nafta and others versus what trump said which i think is very important, making other nations meet the obligations they themselves have

undertook, undertaken in these various agreements, like for example, china, which is far and away the greatest violator of its trade commitments right across the board. stuart: katie, i will come book to you for a second, all kinds of news is breaking this morning, including what we broke five minutes ago, which is speaker ryan invited president trump to address a joint session of congress on february 28th. what you do you make of that? >> it will be a good chance for president trump to talk about the successes that he has had in his first month in office. it will also give him chance to lay out the vision for the future. i think that it shows paul ryan is willing to work with president trump moving forward and he wants to hear directly from the president and give him a opportunity to show that unity with congress on a national stage. we have seen them together, meeting and in various parts of washington, d.c., but for president trump to go up to capitol hill for the first time for an official address to a

joint session of congress will not only solidify the fact he is president, but solidify the fact they will work together as much as possible moving forward. stuart: the action is flowing thick and fast. i will ask both of you what we're reading in "the new york times" that james comey will stay on as fbi director. first to you, ambassador bolton? >> i think this is a mistake. i can understand some desire to have comey on, stay on for a grace period so it doesn't look too political, and maybe that is all that it is but if it is, if it is allowing him to stay in office for the rest of his statutory term i think it's a mistake. i think comey disgraced the fbi. he called its objectivity and non-political status into question multiple times. i say if this is just a tactical move, that's one thing. if it is giving him the remainder of his statutory term i think it is a mistake. i would throw him out.

stuart: that is strong stuff. katie, 20 seconds to respond? >> i would keep him in. i think james comey has demonstrated is he capable of weeding through politics on both sides of the political aisle. i think a lot of heat he received in the election year of 2016 should have been on attorney general loretta lynch and justice department, not on the fbi and the decisions that were made. i think he is man of integrity and character. i'm happy he is staying on despite the controversies of last year which benefited both republicans and democrats. stuart: katie pavlich. stuart: mr. ambassador, thank you for keeping us on top of a avalanche of breaking news this morning. thanks to both of you. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: as we said an avalanche of breaking news that is happening right now. president trump's pick for health secretary are facing tough questions. we expect who was tilt from dem can kratz who want to save obamacare. that gentleman, tom price, want to abolish it, repeal it, replace it. we'll bring you news when it

happens. and this, the latest photo of george h.w. bush and former first lady barbara bush. barbara has been discharged from the hospital. president bush is about to be moved out of intensive care of houston memorial hospital. liz: they have been married 72 years. stuart: i love it. mainstream media pouring hate on president trump. press secretary sean spicer says the coverage of the president is demoralizing. more "varney" in a moment. so those financial regulations being talked about? they could affect your accounts, so let's get together and talk, and make sure everything's clear. yeah, that would be great. being proactive... it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. (snap) achoo! (snap) achoo! achoo! (snap) (snap) achoo! achoo! feel a cold coming on? zicam cold remedy nasal swabs shorten colds with a snap, and reduce symptom severity by 45%. shorten your cold

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stuart: happening right now, tom price confirmation hearings. ta trans-pacific

partnership failed. mr. fields at ford motor

company, approves president trump walking away from that. mary barra, made a general and brief comment she was looking forward to the opportunity that the new business environment in america offered to companies like. liz: irony putting china nip late tore of currency a -- ashley: with that note, mark fields, ceo of ford also just saying there we're happy to be a part of this renaissance in american manufacturing. stuart: yes. ashley: that sounds like a trump statement, say the right thing. stuart: say the right thing. we have what that meeting did was move up the stock price of

the automakers. they had nice things to say when they came out of it. liz: nothing about the border tax. stuart: byron york with us. byron, i'm sure you just saw all of that. what do you make of it? this is the most extraordinary pressure laid on american business by an american president. he is not necessarily the friend of the corporations. he is kind of beating them up in many ways. he is everring them a huge carrot, a much better environment to do business but waving that big stick, border taxes. what do you make of all this? >> well, i'm looking at this politically and it is donald trump making sure that he keeps his top campaign promise foremost in what he's doing in his first few days in office. it is just jobs, jobs, jobs. meets with business leaders, meets with labor leaders and the car industry and talking about jobs all the time. he pulled out of tpp to protect american jobs. i think particularly his meeting

with labor leaders yesterday, many of whom said they had never been to the white house with barack obama there, is probably something that is going to stand him in good stead with democrats on capitol hill, when he finds a couple of issues that he can work with them with. stuart: monday and tuesday, you see as a hands down political win for president trump. my question is, where does this leave the democrats because i haven't heard very much from them? >> you know the president kind of, not just this president, the presidency kind of sucks up all the oxygen when the president is active. that is what happens now. there is no leader of the opposition party. i don't think the senate minority leader charles schumer really qualifies. where they are right now is just trying to slow-walk the president's nominees on capitol hill, trying to you know, come up with some sound bite about there being a swamp cabinet and billionaires and bankers, but right now trump has the initiative.

he can use it how he wants, and right now, he seems to be using it to keep his campaign promise. stuart: meanwhile the media is really, well, they're very much in sight because they're all over the place. but they're not part of this trump train. in fact they are very critical of it, and sean spicer, press secretary says that their attitude towards president trump is demoralizing. that is a strong word. what do you say about that, byron? >> i think we had an extraordinary scene at the first press briefing from sean spicer yesterday. and it wasn't that part about demoralizing. that wasn't in my view the important thing. obviously spicer had made a bad impression a couple of nights earlier when he came out and delivered this statement about the crowd size of the inauguration. everybody eyes on him, when he comes out. he comes out makes a lot of business of the day statements. he starts calling on reporters, the first person he calls on

"the new york post." he calls on the christian broadcasting network. he calls on fox news, fox business. he calls on american urban radio. and he ignores some of the big hitters in that front row in front of him. they don't get questions until much later. what you had happen, those first questions were remarkably substantive, they were about real stuff. not about inauguration size. they weren't about fighting match over this and that. they were about immigration, and about jobs, real substantive issues. stuart: you loved it. he no you loved it, byron. you really did. >> it was refreshing. stuart: very much so. thanks for being with us on a busy day. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: how about this? wall street executives selling nearly $100 million worth of their own stock since the election. that is more than at any point in the last decade. the dow is up 31. meanwhile new executive

action coming from president trump. more could be coming in 40 minutes. we'll tell you all about it. big news coming. more "varney" in a moment. ♪ your insurance company

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stuart: it is happening now, confirmation hearings from tom price leading department of health and human services. any headlines thus far? ashley: senate finance chairman of orrin hch outah, he said as we go through the process the objections i heard from the democrats on this panel have nothing to do with tom price's

ability to do the job, instead grossly exaggerating and attacks i'm seriously worried about what my senate democratic colleagues are doing as institution. however we get pushback from mr. widen the ranking democrat on this panel, who continues to ask questions about tom price and stock purchases. he said it just doesn't pass the smell test. it is hard to see this anything other than a conflict of interest, and abuse of the position. in other words, being a lawmaker dealing with pharmaceutical and drug companies while at the same time owning stock in them. stuart: nothing so far that implies any republican will vote against tom price and defeat him? ashley: no. stuart: he looks like he will get it? ashley: that is exactly right. stuart: according to "the wall street journal," executives at some of the biggest wall street banks sold nearly $100 million worth of stock since the election, more than at any point in the last decade. liz, why are they selling? liz: because the stocks had a real nice pop. the kbw index is up double

digits. that is straight stock sales, $100 million, is $350 million in shares sold to cover option exercises. so the bank executives enjoying a a sweet run. goldman sanction, jpmorgan, morgan stanley right now. >> that is a sweet run and a 1/2. you're quite right. tom price may face pretty tough questions at his senate confirmation hearings. when the fireworks happen, you will hear about them, promise to take you there. stuart: you won't believe what the woman running for chair of the dnc says her role will be if she is chosen to lead the party. ladies and gentlemen, get ready for, outrage. we will be back. ♪

stuart: president trump a man of action, so is defense secretary james mattis. he has gone straight to work on day one. emac, what did he do? liz: 31 strikes on isis in syria and iraq. 22 were in syria. in robing car, they went after two bomb factories destroyed them. tunnels in raqqa, destroyed them. tactical units, destroyed. attack bombers, fighters and drones were used. nine positions in iraq. notably mosul. the mosul is the deback toe capital for isis in iraq. went after them there as well. stuart: ply what a new administration makes. chick the big board. we're not up that much 30 points for the dow industrials.

19,829 as we meek. mr. trump met with automakers. green arrows for their stocks, especially fiat chrysler up 5 and 3/4%. good numbers at a homebuilder, this one, doctor. r horton, that stock is up 5%. gopro is a winner. if you have one of those karma drones, you can only replace the wrecked portion following a crash. that will save you money. i don't think that is why gopro is up 9% but a good story none the less. another all-time high for alphabet, $845 as we speak. >> mr. trump had a meeting with automakers this morning and peter morici is with us this morning. peter, if we get a border tack, or border adjustment tax, if we get either of those two things, don't we get higher prices in america, don't we? the. >> we need to separate the two. if we get border tax adjustments, part of generalized tax reform.

that is very important. if we have a 20% border tax, only affects retail prices by 10% because after all paying on wholesale, not retail. on top of that businesses will have better environment for manufacturing in the united states. so investment will come back. that will drive down prices. lower taxes will drive down prices. so i don't think we'll see long term the big bump that people are worried about. stuart: that is nice theory, peter, but the immediate impact of any kind of tax at the border is higher prices. i agree with you, look undo the road, maybe they're controllable, but the initial point prices do go up and i suspect consumers will not be happy with that. >> i don't know how much they will go though. they will not go up by 20%, i can guarranty you that. they go up in the range of 7 to 10%. if they are accompanied by more

jobs, they will be unhappy. the places where they're unhappy will be new york and california. the middle of the country will be happy. stuart: as a economics professor do you approve of carrot-and-stick approach? do you approve of that approach? >> i don't like bullying. i'm writing a column right now. i don't think it is the way to get us home though we have to understand, a lot of bullying goes on at our two largest competitors, two of our three largest competitors, and that's china and germany. in some ways this levels the playing field. a border tax adjustment, rebated on exports and apply on imports as speaker ryan point out levels what the other countries are doing, particularly the europeans and chinese. stuart: sounds good to me. peter morici, sorry to keep it short. i'm moving on. listen to this. sally boynton brown, a white woman running for chair of the dnc she says she will have a special role if she is chosen to

lead the democrat party. watch this. >> my job is to shut other white people down when they want to interrupt. my job is to shut other white people down when they want to say, oh, no, i'm not prejudiced. i'm a democrat. i'm accepting. i need -- i depend on you and people around our community to do that. so that i can go school the other people. [laughter] stuart: i really think we need to bring in brian kilmeade joining us live on the radio. brian, what on earth is going on with the democrat party? don't they understand why they lost? >> one thing i'm glad that i'm allowed to speaking, it is your show and sally boynton brown is not conducting it i happen to be a white person, evident that is a negative. she wants to train other democrats, if she becomes the next dnc chair, to be sensitive, communicate and shut their mouths if they are white. stuart: that is incredible. that is really extraordinary thing to be saying. especially when you realize

another candidate to chair the dnc is keith ellison, a far left guy who, that is the -- he wants to run the democrat party. what are they thinking? >> i have no idea. when you lose one of the best things you can do as team, a person, a organization, analyze why you lost, make it better, come back stronger. we're seeing before our eyes the problem was not them, i guess it is america. and it was debbie wasserman schultz and it was organizations so we got to get someone more to the left. where does that leave the joe manchins of the world, people that want to get stuff done? that want to reach across the aisle. they feel they have to join bernie sanders over here who isn't even a legitimate democrat. he is a socialist, who just caucuses with the party. stuart: where is the middle ground in the democrat party? it used to run the party. now, i can't identify anyone except maybe senator manchin? >> you know, stuart before we

became friends and our friendship really flourished, i don't know if you had a chance to tell viewers, i tell my listeners all the time, there was a guy named sam nunn. if you look at sam nunn, endorsing candidates and nominees two separate times for donald trump. he would straddle the line, be a democrat when it mattered but more importantly be for the country when it was important and strong on defense. we just don't see that anymore. my hope is that trump is blurring the lines to such a degree he will bring people together and leave democrats no choice but to go to his side. stuart: look what happened to the union leaders who fronted up to the white house yesterday, met with mr. trump, walked out around never been shown this respect for a long, long time. we've never been in the white house under president obama. there is a switch. that is politics turned on its head. >> tell you one thing, most underreported story looking back at this election, working class america in michigan, wisconsin, to a degree in north carolina

and of course ohio was never out of donald trump's column even though the governor, the republican governor wasn't with them. why? because he felt as though the billionaire felt as though he understood the worker much like they say on the job sites when donald trump was pure business and a builder, he would talk to the builders, he felt more at home with the men and women who were working for him than the financiers helping him get the money to build towers an complexes. stuart: brian, i'm glad we're friends. i'm glad we're both in the media. you really don't get this stuff any place else. mr. kilmeade. thanks for being with us. >> thank you very much. my radio audience thanks you too. stuart: got it. now this, former cleveland browns quarterback johnny manziel, is that the pronunciation right, johnny manziel, he offered advice and deleted his twitter account. cheryl casone, with the story, please.

>> i want to get your reaction to the tweet on this and shamed here is the tweet he president puts out. i know say notification section shop. bleep while drive you crazy, he kept going. ari fleischer tweeted, giving johnny manziel report for being on trump's team but, johnny manziel deleted twitter account. stuart: pressured, obviously. >> but why. stuart: haters to take a hike. that is what he was saying. >> you think he was pressured by trump supporters. stuart: no. >> by trump haters. there is another side of this. sports analysts actually believe he is worried about his comeback. he was at the patriots-steelers game on sunday. trying to get a job back in football. swears he is sober. stuart: did he have that problem? >> he told the spin on sunday he was sober.

this may him worried about his comeback. thanks for correcting me there are trump supporters and haters on twitter. people are getting thrown off of airplanes. stuart: i wish it was a football thing. liz: lady gauge ga going political at super bowl. stuart: don't say it. >> by the way, lady gaga said she would not be paid for the super bowl appearance. stuart: and this. corey lewandoski, trump's first campaign manager, his take on the media's constant attacks on our president. more "varney" in a moment. ♪

>> give him credit for, being willing to hear somebody out and keep them right there. i also think it is good because it doesn't politicize the fbi. he doesn't need anymore of that perception per se. so i think it is a good move. ♪ (bell chimes) ♪ nice work brother dominic. now we just need 500 more... translated into 35 languages, personalized oh and shared across the 7 continents. (other languages spoken) look abbot, i got it. it's a miracle. ♪

stuart: may i on offer an

opinion? it is my belief mr. trump had a very good start to the first full week as president. good start indeed. however the left continues to pour on its hate and contempt through the media. look at this. this is the headlines from "the washington post" op-ed pages, just for one day. here we go. early surprise from trump's team. shame. blue states are in for a world of pain. sean spicer's stalinist apparition. under trump, christians may have it easier. they will also be in grave spiritual danger. "new york times," here we go, repeat his lie about popular vote in meeting with lawmakers. coming former trump campaign manager corey lewandoski. cory, mr. trump set himself up to some degree. why did he talk about illegals voting in the election? why did he peck a fight about crowd size? do you think he should stop doing that?

>> you know, stuart, what i think is that the mainstream media has their own agenda is the problem. what i do know we saw the media perpetuated a narrative about the bust of martin luther king, jr. being taken out of the oval office which was wholly, factually inaccurate. it went out to 3,000 media outlets. oops, sorry. like the rest of this entire campaign has been, where time and time and time again media has been wrong. would i challenge anybody to go back and count the number of corrections that the "new york times" or "the washington post" has had to make over the course of this campaign. those are, about the trump campaign. those are things we know to be factually inaccurate, let alone so many other media outlets. we need to hold people accountable. stuart: you know the man. you know the president. united states. you know him very well. you managed his campaign for quite a long time. you expect him to change? i don't. i think it is going to keep on pounding, counterpunching when ever he has the opportunity.

that is the way i think it will go. >> you're saksly right. his ability to go directly to the people but social media and twitter allows him to put out unfiltered story. two weeks ago we saw the false dossier put together about him supposedly. it was perpetuated by a false media story in buzzfeed, a tabloid publication. mainstream media picks it up and lo and behold. it was wrong. michael cohen went overseas. michael cohen never went overseas. if donald trump doesn't push back through social media he will be crucified by the media. they don't like agenda he puts forth is america first and american jobs. stuart: we're watching the action unfold. yesterday was extraordinarily day of action. so far today, not even 11:00 in the morning eastern time, we've already gotten news of meeting with auto executives. we've already gotten news james comey is likely to stay as fbi

director. we've already gotten news that the keystone pipeline is probably going to be built. i have never seen anything like it before, have you. >> you know i had such a privilege being next to mr. trump, what i've seen him do so many times got more done in one day than most people get done in a month. that is the difference. fundamental and wholesale changes come to washington, d.c. what congress doesn't understand and these bureaucrats don't understand is, not getting things done is no longer an option. donald trump has been on the job for really two days, and what we know he is getting things done. his agenda is moving forward and he is bringing jobs back to our country. stuart: i'm sure you've seen this already, bring attention to viewers as well. yesterday the president met with union leaders at the white house. after the meeting, they had nothing but praise, this is union leaders, nothing but praise for mr. trump. roll tape. >> the respect that the president of the united states shows us, when he shows it to us, shows it to three million of our members in the united

states, was nothing short of incredible. and we will work with him and his administration to help him implement his plans on infrastructure, trade, and energy policy, so that we really do put america back to work in the middle class jobs that our members and all americans are demanding. stuart: corey, which democrat is going to go out and say those union leaders are absolutely wrong? who is going to say that? >> they can't of course. the reason that donald trump won this election because he connected with the middle class in states like wisconsin and pennsylvania and ohio and michigan and you know places where the democrats have left them. so, i know the president very, very well, and when he brings people in he brings people together because he want to do what is right for the american people right now. that is job creation. that is not republican idea. it is not a democrat idea. it is american idea. making significant investment in infrastructure so roads and bridges are safe so we travel on them. not a republican democrat idea, an american idea. let's bring america back to make

great again. stuart: i never seen anything like it before. i lived in america over 40 years. corey lewandoski, thanks for joining us sir. we appreciate it. see you again soon. >> my pleasure. stuart: it is action tuesday. yes it is. more executive orders will be signed top of the hour. moments away more "varney" coming up for you.

stuart: president trump says he will cut taxes for the middle class and for businesses. here is some of your viewer reaction. first off from vick tomorrow. how about a quick fix right now for us hard-working taxpayers? let us keep more of our money. andrew says this, 15, 20%, oh, it should be 0%. there should be no income tax on businesses. businesses never pay these taxes. they will only layoff employees or pass taxes on to consumers which in effect is hidden tax on the consumer. well, that is a fair point. ashley: it's a fair point. stuart: i think the good gentleman is agreeing with andrew napolitano. taxation is theft. ashley: exactly. we all feel that to a certain extent don't we. listen, we wanted the trump administration to come in and immediately go for personal income taxes that will put immediately money into the

pockets of us, you, everyone out there. that would be a huge stimulus for the economy. unfor the the natalie steve moore has been on this show. you've done battle with him, you know, we should be first. their argument is get business rolling. we will get to the individual taxes. unfortunately because i agree with our viewers we need it as badly as anyone. stuart: i think we have to wait. i don't think there will be a tax reform bill signed by the president probably until late summer. ashley: i think you're right. stuart: when we actually get more money in our pocket, that i don't know. ashley: let's hope at least retroactive to beginning of this year. stuart: oh, i pray for that. ashley: come on! stuart: all right, everybody, that is the tax issue. we'll be back.

stuart: 11:00 eastern time, and for this early rising president, the day began hours ago. it was action monday, now it's action tuesday. get used to it.

this president has energy, this president has drive. he's already met with executives from ford, general motors and fiat chrysler. it's a follow-up. mr. trump wants to know what the automakers are doing to bring jobs back, or else. a border tax? that was this morning. right now he's signing more executive orders. this is not some symbolic gesture. this is real change, as you will see. later today he meets senators from both sides of the aisle. mr. trump has a beef with senator schumer for theying the con -- for delaying the con fur mission of cabinet picks. oh, to be a fly on the wall. then a private meeting with the senate's republican leader. it is possible the president will reveal to mitch mcconnell the name or perhaps a short list of supreme court picks. maybe. bottom line, the president is moving forward at a rapid pace on all fronts. the media left behind. they are still whining about the

election or the march. it's fascinating. never before has a president done so much, so quickly, and never before have a president's opponents been in such disarray. the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ ♪ stuart: michael jackson, i believe. starting something, is that it? got it. stuart varney knows his music. >> who knew you were so contemporary? stuart: well, it was 50 years ago. [laughter] any moment now you will see president trump sign more executive orders. we know that he wants to wring bring the keystone and dakota pipelines out of mothballs. we though that already. there is more to come from these executive order signings. we're on it. cover you through it.

the dow jones industrial average on this tuesday morning is up but not by much, a 33-point gain, 19,833. however, you look at some individual stocks, and you do see movement. the automakers, that would be ford, general motors, fiat chrysler, they met -- their executives, met with president trump. they come out and praised mr. trump, and the stock price of all of them is up. especially fiat chrysler which is up 5.5%. we have five dow stocks which reported their earnings earlier, and so far we've got a significant gain for dupont, johnson, johnson, travelers, verizon and 3m, all of them are down. look who's back by popular demand? former goldman sachs partner peter kiernan. now, the president is emerging as very pro-business. that would be my opinion. i've never seen any president do

this kind of thing before. so why are the dow industrials not doing very much? >> well, there are a couple reasons. first, he's pro-business, but really he's clear with business. he's sitting down with the automakers and saying i'm going to give you these breaks, regulations, tax benefits, etc., but you've got to play ball with me, and what i expect is you're not making cars over there and selling them here. it's pro-business, but more than that he is being unambiguous about what he expects from these chief executives. i think the you see people taking some gains, i wouldn't look too much into the way this thing has declined certainly since the inauguration, but we're in motion full tilt. stuart: okay. what do you make of the executive order which i believe the president is about to sign? we know he's going to take the keystone pipeline out of mothballs. i guess that's opening it up to being built. >> here's what i make of it. we have 2.6 million miles of pipeline, enough to wrap around

the earth a hundred times. we're very comfortable with pipelines. these have been problematic for a whole host of reasons, but right this minute trudeau is meeting with his people in canada to figure out how can we build greater relations with the united states? he knows nafta conversation is coming, he's getting ready. this is all setting us up because, think about it, opec all of a sudden is working, it's functional. opec is functional. we need to be proto-labor, we need to be pro-u.s. development, we need to be pro-energy. we're a superpower in energy, and we weren't a decade or two decades ago. trump is trying to push that agenda. stuart: the prime minister is pushing so hard -- the president is pushing so hard on all fronts, pushing the nafta negotiation, canada, mexico, automakers. i've never seen anything like it before. >> both the president of mexico and canada are playing ball because they realize this man means business. stiewfer stuart watch out.

new sheriff. thanks, peter, stay there, please. happening right now, tom price, confirmation hearings. he is the president's pick to replace, to become be health and human services secretary and, therefore, relace obamacare. that's what this hearing is really all about. fiery exchange moments ago between mr. price and senator ron wyden. roll tape. >> you got in on private placements not available to the public. in these private placements, you bought over 400,000 shares at discounts that were as much as 40% cheaper than the price on the australian stock exchange. and you were sitting at the time on committees that have jurisdiction over major health care programs and trade policy. yes or no. doesn't this show bad judgment? stuart: they're going after him,

looking for dirt as opposed to the policy of replacing obamacare. >> right. the policy or his experience and everything else. in fact, orrin hatch, who is the chair of the senate finance committee here, just absolutely saying, look, this guy has all the credentials you need. you've got to move on. but this is a point that wyden has made. he's the top democrat on this panel from oregon, and all he wants to do is continually make the point that tom price had a conflict of interest as a lawmaker dealing with medical companies while he had stocks in those companies. he maintains he did not knowingly profit from any of this, but it's the one mantra that keeps being repeated time and time again during this confirmation process. stuart: we've brought him back because he knows a thing or two abt investing in health care. welcome back, ken. >> thank you. great to be here. stuart: now, they're going after tom price on the basis of his stock trading beforehand, etc., etc. do you think that he is going to be confirmed? >> well, tom price is a great choice.

he's a great choice, orthopedic surgeon, he lives, breathes health care for all his professional life, excellent congressman, so he's a great choice. so i think the reason they're going after stock trades is because they can't go after him as a person or for his policies or rationality, so they're looking for, i would say, relevancies, but other issues they're focused on. stuart: you as an investor in health care companies, and that's what you do -- >> right. stuart: -- hundreds of millions of dollars you've got going, does the repeal and replacement of obamacare factor into your investment decisions? i don't think it does, does it? >> it doesn't factor that much into the decisions, but you should bear in mind that obamacare is going to fail by itself anyway. whether they repeal it or don't repeal it, it's full of high risk patients moving into the insurance pools. so the pools are going through a death spiral. so they don't have any choice but to replace it. it's going to get repealed all

by itself, basically. stuart: death spiral, that's an interesting word. i think you're accurate with that one. ken, you are the chairperson of the american friends of an israeli political party. you have very close connections with israeli politics. i want to bring to your attention two items that were in the news this morning. first off, $221 million from the american taxpayer went to the palestinians in the last hours of the obama administration. they did this in secret. second item, "the new york times" says that israel on tuesday approved the construction of 2,500 housing units for jewish people in the west bank settlements. two developments. i suggest that those two developments suggest that we're radically realigning our political relationship with israel, and you say? >> it's about time. [laughter] we just went through eight years where president obama basically declared war on israel, intellecal war. and, basically, believed in the

false narrative of the palestinian authority. and, therefore, undermined our special relationship between america and israel. and president obama -- and also sneakily shipped $221 million which he had a legal right to do but it was certainly unethical -- stuart: yeah, that's my taxpayer money. i kind of object to that. i don't like it. >> right. also it rewards bad behavior at the palestinian authority. so president obama made a lot of mistakes, and president trump has to basically repeal not just obamacare, repeal eight years of mistakes. stuart: and he's doing it. >> yes. stuart: you're confident he's doing it, no question about it. >> no, he has to do it. he's a real american. he believes in constitutional bill of rights, he believes in american values. he's going to implement, return america to representing its values, core values throughout domestic and foreign policy. stuart: i just want to see if american jews vote for republicans in the next

election, but that's another story. >> that's another story. stuart: ken, thanks very much for joining us. thank you, sir. all right, more breaking news from earlier on this action-packed tuesday. fox news confirming that president trump wants to keep james comey on as fbi director. that's what's going to happen, folks. we've confirmed it at fox news. part of the president's action on monday, it was action monday as well, a meeting with union leaders. a group of people which suppord hilly clinton. they came out of the meeting praising president trump. next, special guest former deputy assistant secretary of the army van hipp. he says now that president trump's in office, he must not leave the forgotten americans behind. we'll be back. ♪ ♪ what with the dog size horse?

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stuart: president trump starting the week with a flurry of meetings and executive orders. listen to what one of the union leaders he met with had to say about him yesterday. roll tape. >> that address on friday was a great middle class address. i mean, it hit home for the people that have been hurting. you said it, people here in washington have made it. you know, the working class people had to hear something like that. stuart: working class people, you could call them the forgotten people in this past election. come on in, van hipp, former deputy assistant to the army. van, you've got a piece out, it's titled "mr. trump, now that you're president, don't leave the forgotten americans behind." would with you say that union people are part of this group of forgotten people? >> absolutely. and these are people, stuart, who paid their taxes, they go to church, they love their country, but they have felt the america

they knew and love slipping away. and they saw this last election, stuart, as probably the last chance to save this country. and he's off to a great start. he gets it, he's made some great appointments. and he's listening. he's listening to business, and he's listening to labor. and he's asked for the business community to come back in 30 days with real plans to help stimulate manufacturing once again in america. stuart: well, who else would you say joins this group of forgotten people? union folks, got it. working class people, got it, okay. who else? >> there's the people in the rust belt and in rural america. they're the ones who elected donald trump, and they're the ones that he can't leave behind. these are the forgotten americans. and i've got to tell you, two of his first appointments tell me that this president gets it. wilbur ross as secretary of commerce who just got voted out of committee a few minutes ago. there's nobody better to be secretary of commerce and help rebuild the economy in the rust belt of this country and in rural america.

look what this guy's done over the years. he's gone into, stuart, areas that have been decimated economically and bought distressed companies, rebuilt them, worked with labor, brought jobs back. look at peter navarro, his book "death by china" shows he really gets it and understands the threat that china causes from an economic standpoint. he served in the peace corps, he's got a heart and compassion for people. he's got -- stuart, i really believe those two people are the right men the lead the ident's economic team to rebuild our economy in rural america and in the rust belt. stuart: both of them are regular guests or were regular guests on this program. van hipp, good for you, i'm cutting it short because i've got breaking news about an important item, that will be mr. trump's tax plan. >> yeah. congressman kevin brady says -- of course, he's the chairman of the u.s. house tax committee -- says, look, a 15-20% corporate

tax rate that's been proposed as part of tax reform would increase significantly without the border adjustment tax provision. stuart: say that again. repeat it. >> the 15-20% corporate tax rate that's been proposed down from 35%, that would have to go up significantly if we didn't get the border adjustment tax provision. stuart: i don't, i don't understand. i don't get it. >> so the border tax, that's the amount of money that's paid, a tariff, if you'd like, on goods coming back -- stuart: that's the border adjustment. >> yes. in other words, how are you going to make up for the loss of revenue? stuart: got it. >> you've got to have that border adjustment tax in order to offset those revenue losses from lower corporate taxes. stuart: peter kiernan, what do you say to that? >> yeah, i think that's decent math. i'm worried, but i love the signaling. what it says, and this was

warned by sir james goldsmith 20 years ago. he said once you have people shipping what we turned into the united states was an exporter of jobs. we have to change that. >> it says to apple don't build your factory in china, build it here, get that 15-20% tax cut because if you do, we'll hit you with that border tax. stuart: yeah. it's the carrot, it's the stick. >> yes, but you can't have one without the other, according to kevin brady. stuart: and he's a powerful man, writes the tax code finish. >> and just to be clear, people say he's totally pro-business, he is not. he's being very clear, a lot of business people do not like this border tax idea. stuart: that's very true. he's not the friend of corporations, he's a negotiator with them on america's behalf. >> yes. and he's being very clear about how you win and how you please me and how you get where you want to go. stuart: news on a couple of individual companies and their stock price. kroger hiring 10,000 people. sounds like another win for donald trump.

it's a big number, 10,000. but -- >> but it is, it's just 2% of the work force, and be it's less than they hired last year. now, i don't want to throw total cold water on it, but it does show these companies very quick will publicize something that would be normally routine. because of the atmosphere, hey, look, we're adding 10,000 jobs. stuart: anytime you're going to hire anybody, you tell the world. [laughter] why not? smart move. >> once upon a time it was sugar-free, now we're hiring. [laughter] everyone's on the bandwagon. stuart: how about apple's stock? it's come below $120 a share. why? because barclays, they've downgraded apple. doesn't matter a whole hill of beans. we have new developments on brexit. the british supreme court ruling that the brits cannot leave the european union without a vote from parliament. bring you more on that in a moment. check this out. a showdown on the floor of the united states senate.

republican tom cotton clashing with minority leader chuck schumer over trump's pick to lead the cia. that was quite a confrontation. we'll tell you how it ended moments from now. ♪ ♪

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stuart: breaking news, coming thick and fast, president trump has signed five executive orders on a variety of things. ash, all five. >> pipelines, thurm one, keystone xl pipeline. he signed it. the dakota access pipeline, number three, expedite the permitting process for infrastructure projects related to the pipelines. also a couple more directing commerce department to streamline the manufacturing permitting process, and lastly, giving commerce 180 days to maximize the use of u.s. steel in the pipeline. no chinese steel here. let's use u.s. steel -- stuart: and as peter chimed in when we were discussing this, that's wilbur ross. >> absolutely. stuart: he made his money in steel, depressed companies, and he's probably put that in there. look, i want to dwell on two of them.

an executive order speeding up the permitting process for infrastructure projects. that's a verbig deal. >> yes. that's a huge deal. everyone said we were not shovel ready, so we had $80 million -- $800 million set aside because we're not shovel ready. >> obama said it. >> he said you get shovel ready. stuart: hold on, the commerce department, he's told them you speed up the permitting process for a manufacturing plant. >> yes. stuart: very necessary. >> my point was president obama himself said he was upset with his own stimulus plan because those jobs were not shovel ready. so the permitting process -- >> yes, but now, look what the president is doing. >> that's right. stuart: signing an executive order which will have an immediate impact. sorry -- also one more item of news for you. earlier today speaker ryan invited president trump to address a joint session of congress on february the 28th. >> right. stuart: president trump has just accepted the invitation. he will be there.

>> just one point, quickly. before the media freak out other the keystone pipeline, since 2010 under obama, the u.s. has built the equivalent of ten keystone pipelines, 12,000 miles for a total of 67,000 miles of pipeline in the u.s. stuart: dow industrials are up 54 points as we peek. the breaking news -- as we speak. the breaking news coming thick and fast, but we're keeping up with it. we'll bring you up-to-date this one moment, promise you. ♪ ♪

stuart: check the automakers' stock price because president trump met with the leaders of the big three earlier today. their stock prices up. joining us now, former reagan and bush white house aide ed rogers. ed, i know you heard this, but i'm going to repeat it for our audience. >> good. uart: he's just signed fiv executive orders, infrastructure permitting process speeded up, pipelines are going to go, the commerce department, speed up the permitting process, and you've got 180 days to use american steel in the pipelines. what do you make of this? >> i think that's great. i think where's this been? obama for eight years talked about shovel-ready projects that were a mirage, but this is going to grease the skids of a lot of

jobs, a lot of manufacturing. a lot of good's going to come from this. stuart: why didn't we do this before? if all it takes is signing an executive order -- >> obama and the democrats were anti-growth. they were against these very things for an environmental reason or some other reason, and so there's some low-hanging fruit for trump. stuart: but they turned us into a cannot-do society. >> don't wanna do society. stuart: that's no way to be. >> yeah. everybody ride a bicycle and live in a university town. but there's going to be real jobs for real people and real infrastructure, real assets that this country is going to have they wouldn't have had otherwise. stuart: now, ed rogers, you worked in the bush white house and the reagan white house -- >> i did, i'm that old. [laughter] stuart: so am i. and i never thought you were gung ho for trump. >> no. stuart: you weren't always with him. where do you stand now? >> i'm a good republican, and trump is doing good by republicans right now. stuart: you happy with the guy? >> yeah, for sure.

so far very good. stuart: have you ever seen this level of action in the very earliest part of any administration? i include ronald reagan in that. >> i've never seen this level of intensity in every category. with the early stage of an administration that your seeing in this -- you're see anything this one. everything from the relationship with the media to the affirmative actions that they're taking, the quality of the people being appointed to the cabinet. it's unprecedented, i'll give him that. stuart: as a good republican, a middle of the road republican, you approve of everything he's done? >> i'd be stressed to find something i don't like, and i'm sort of -- i have a tea party instinct. i have some tea party sympates. and even those, my right-wing alabama instincts are all satisfied by what's going on in this administration so far. stuart: all right. that's a good answer, ed. welcome back to the program. >> good to be here. [laughter] stuart: okay, sir. moments from thousand i'm going to show you videotape from inside the white house when president trump signed those

executive orders. as we told you, those executive orders deal with pipelines, the keystone pipeline, the dakota pipeline. they also deal with speeding up the permitting process. i think that's a very important point. so often in america you cannot do something because you can't move swiftly ahead so the costs rise. president trump wants to reverse that. he wants to say, look, you want to do this? you've got to go through the permitting process, but, by golly, we speed it up for you because we want you to do stuff. that's the president. roll tape. >> the construction of the keystone pipeline. something that's been this dispute, and it's subject to a renegotiation of terms by us. we're going to renegotiate some of the terms, and if they'd like, we'll see if we can get

that pipeline built. a lot of jobs, 8,000 job -- 28,000 jobs. great construction jobs. okay. keystone pipeline. this is with respect to the the construction of the dakota access pipeline. dakota access pipeline. again, subject to terms and conditions to be negotiated by us.

okay? this is construction of pipelines in this country. we are and i am very insistent that if we're going to build pipelines in the united states, the pipes should be made in the united states. so unless there's difficulty with that because companies are going to have to -- [inaudible] much pipeline is bought from other countries. from now on we're going to start making pipeline in the united states. we build it in the united states, we build the pipelines, we want to build the pipe. going to put a lot of workers, a lot of steelworkers back to work.

okay. we will build our own pipeline. we will build our own pipes. that's what it has to do with. like we used to in the old days. >> [inaudible] >> this is about streamlining the incred by cumbersome -- incredibly cumbersome, long, horrible permitting process and reducing regulatory burdens for domestic manufacturing. many of the people that we've been meeting with over the last long period of time, but yesterday and others, the process is so long and cumber orsome that they give up before the end. sometimes it takes many, many years, and we don't want that to happen. and if it's a no, we'll give them a quick no. and if it's a yes, it's like let's start building.

the regulatory process in this country has become a tangled-up mess. very unfair to people. that's a big one. >> [inaudible] >> this is the exe dieting of -- expediting of environmental reviews and approvals for high priority infrastructure projects. we intend to fix our country, our bridges, our roadways. we can't be in an environmental process for 15 years if a bridge is going to be falling down or if a highway is crumbling. so we're expediting environmental reviews and approvals. that's what this is.

okay? >> [inaudible] >> thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] >> [inaudible] the protesters out there? >> thank you, press. >> we're good, thank you. [inaudible conversations] >> sometime next week. i'll be making my -- stuart: hold on, what's the last point there? >> we'll be announcing next week. we have outstanding candidates, and we will pick a truly great supreme court justice. but i'll be announcing it sometime next week. thank you all very much. stuart: that was interesting news right at the very end there. the president will announce his supreme court pick next week. that's not that far away. and that's a very important pick, and i've no doubt there'll be a lot of discussion beforehand. let me go back to what he said about executive orders.

i picked up on one point especially and so did everybody around this table. the president said we can't be in an environmental dispute for 15 years whilst our bridges crumble. we're going to speed up the environmental review process. i love the sound of that, ash. >> the judge used exactly the right expression, common sense. it's not brain surgery, it's just getting things done. and it's not at the expense of the environment, it's just speeding the process up. >> it's a matter of will. we know how to do this, build great bridges and airports and roads. we have lacked the consensus and the will to get it done. >> well, you know, it gets trapped at the state and local level. so can the federal government push over that? stuart: the lawyers are going to be all over this. they will oppose any expediting of any permitting process. they'll go straight to court, won't they, judge napolitano? >> yes. and that is because of statutory language that permits it which means the pres shorten that time period on his

own. he needs changes in the law. right now the laws permit, encourage and reward all these environmental challenges. you want to reduce the number of environmental challenges, you want to truncate the time during which they must be filed, you want to shorten the time during which they must be ruled upon. only congress can do that. stuart: so you're saying that, essentially, it's going to be very, very difficult to speed up the environmental review process -- >> without congress. but he's got majorities in both houses. stuart: he would have to change the laws, he'd have to change the epa laws from congress. >> yes. because if the be epa and pursuant to an instruction from from him does not enforce the laws the way these environmental groups want, the present laws let them -- them -- drag the epa before a federal judge and have a trial during the course of which the project is stopped. stuart: yes. didn't he not just say that if you get the yes, you start to build? >> you need congress for that.

stuart: even though you're going to have the lawyers objecting afterwards. >> he said it, i agree with him, i couldn't agree with him more, but he needs the congress for that. he needs to change the statutes. >> i think there's one other thing, judge, i agree with you. he's got to in every state and municipality create a department of regulatory sanity. [laughter] that is insane, to get your nails doneyou want to be a nail salon owner in the city, it takes six regulatory regimes. >> can you use the words government and sanity in the same breath? [laughter] stuart: not you. hold on. i believe we've got larry elder with us. radio guy in southern california. you've been listening to all of this. what do you make of this man of action, monday action, tuesday action? what do you make of it, larry? >> well, judge, you can use the words sanity and larry elder in the same sentence. [laughter] >> amen. >> i'm pleased with what's going on, but donald trump needs

allies which is why he says i have a great relationship with congressional leaders. unlike obama, he's not walking into a senate where he's got a filibuster-proofenate. can repeal obacare on a straight line vote, bufor a replacement, you've got to have at least some help on the other side of the aisle. i think donald trump is a salesman, this is public relations. he's doing a great job. it's been dizzying, what's happened in the first few days of his administration. stuart: now, later on today president trump meets the leaders, meets senate leaders from both sides of the aisle. i take it, larry, that he will be pushing for a deal. he wants to deal with both sides of the aisle to get his project through, so it's going to be a very interesting meeting this afternoon, especially between him and minority leader in the senate charles schumer, right? >> well, that's right, but president trump has a lot of wind at his back. i mean, the majority of the american people are unhappy with

foreign policy, they want things to get done. and so if i'm on the other side, if i'm chuck schumer even though i don't happen to like donald trump, i don't want to be responsible for people losing their health coverage and if pr battle -- and the pr battle being directed towards me. after all, i was willing to meet you halfway, i was willing to compromise. you're the one who put the obstacles in my way. so when the american people -- and when you see all these stories on the media about who no longer has coverage -- i'm going to blame chuck schumer. that's what donald trump is trying to do. stuart: i'm going to put you on hold for a second, larry, because i want to look at the market. we have all of these pro-business, pro-growth moves from the president yesterday and again today. he's on our screens right now doing just that. pro-growth, pro-business. but the dow industrials are up only 50 points. can you explain that one, peter kiernan? >> i will. the market is anticipatory, and it saw this coming. that's why we had the rally from the moment the election results

were announced. we saw this thing go straight up. it's eased back a little bit, people taking profits. this is good news. stuart: i don't know why the oil driller ors are not up -- drillers are not up. they should be down. if you're going to build a pipeline to bring in a lot more oil from canada finish. >> then you don't need to drill as much. stuart: you're going to take the regulations away from the frackers -- >> right. stuart: -- surely, you're going toncrease the supply -- >> i think you've got rig counts that are up and an awful lot of exciting things going on in the oil business, and right now this is a chance for the united states to get back into its vision as a near leader in the international oil business. and these pipelines will help. it's not all going to stay here. we're going to process it, send it elsewhere. this is one of those things where there's an oil and gas dividend to be paid, and one of the ingredients is you've got to increase the flow of that black crude. stuart: larry elder, come back in, please. i want to comment on president trump's style. there was a lot of clarity.

he holds it up, shows everybody, wheels around, look at this. this is what it is. i thought he was a newscaster, larry. i thought he was looking for clarity this what he was reporting to the american people. what say you? [laughter] >> he's a showman. we've neverred had a president like this -- never had a president like this before. get ready, it's going to be four years if not eight years of very creative and interesting approaches to the job. stuart: you've got that right. we've got a tangled mess of regulations in america -- >> oh, do we ever. stuart: it's awful. >> and the president alluded to this, many of them he can't control because they are state and local. and in our home state of new jersey, the people's republic of new jersey -- [laughter] the regulations are so burdensome, so onerous, try to have your child build a treehouse in the back of your yard, and you'll involve the building inspectors. stuart: well -- you will. larry elder is laughing. he knows what this is all about, he's in southern california. [laughter] i'm going to break away because i've got breaking news on lockheed martin whose chief

executive has had several meetings -- >> yes, marilyn houston, at least two that we know of. saying they expect to deliver 66 f-35s this year. they're saying that they don't believe sales, earnings or cash flows are going to be hurt by the budget constraints coming from the trump administration. as we know, he questioned the costs of the f-35s and would like to see the costs come down. lockheed martin coming out saying we're going to deliver 66, that's 20 more than they delivered last year, by the way, and they say it's not going to, ultimately, hurt their sales as much as they -- stuart:'s stock's down $6, 2.5%. so there you go. the automaker stocks, they are up following meetings between president trump and the leaders of gm, ford and fiat chrysler. got that. the dow industrials are up 56 points now. there's the automakers. you got that? all of them nicely higher. fiat chrysler's now up over 6%.

ford's up nearly 2 %, 1.5% for general motors. and the dow, 56 points higher. what a day. and it ain't over. >> yeah, it isn't. stuart: "varney" will be back. ♪

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onliage of the president. -- coverage of the president. watch it again. >> i think over and over again there's this constant attempt to undermine his credibility and the movement that he represents, and it's frustrating for not just him, but i think so many of us that are trying to work to get this message out. it's a little demoralizing to turn on the tv day after day and hear can't do this, this guy's not going to get confirmed, no way they're going to go through. stuart: that's sean spicer talking directly to the media. now look at this. just some of the op-ed headlines in one edition of "the washington post" today. here it is. an early surprise from trump's team, shame. blue states are in for a world of pain. sean spicer's stalinist apparition. under trump, christians may have it easier or -- easier, they'll also be in grave spiritual danger. and how about this one from "the new york times," trump repeats his lie about popular vote in meeting with new york lawmakers.

>> sean spicer is playing this exactly wrong. i think the wrong thing you do is scold the press. what is donald trump better at than anyone i've ever seen who's running? he controls the narrative. get back in control. you did 20 things today, 20 things yesterday, let's get the people in the press talking about that and not how demoralized we are. i've got no bid for that approach. stuart: larry elder, what do you say -- holon aecon i've got breaking news. hold on, larry. here's what bernie sanders said about the pipeline -- >> oh, he didn't wait long after those executive orders were signed by president trump. this is in part bernie sanders says: today president trump ignored the voices of millions and put the short-term profits of the fossil fuel industry ahead of the future of our planet. i will do -- [laughter] everything i can to stop these pipelines and protect our planet for future generationses. >> does bernie not use oil in any product -- [laughter] stuart: i'll tell you one thing, he hates profit. profit is a dirty word.

we're going to go back to -- [laughter] peter kerr than just said the president should not be doing what he's doing, don't confront the media, sean spicer. what say you? >> i disagree, with all due mr. respect. i think it's about time that the media is confronted with their bias. we found out from wikileaks, stuart, that "the new york times," washington post were in bed with the hillary campaign trying to get her elected. they are biased, they are hostile to republicans, they're hostile to donald trump, and i think that part of the job of the president is also to sell your agenda. and you can't sell your agenda through a media that's hostile to you. so put the media on notice, let 'em know you're going to call them out when they lie, exaggerate, are unduly negative. i have absolutely zero problem with what sean spicer and the trump administration is doing so far. stuart: let's see if judge napolitano -- >> all right, this is a three-judge panel, and i'm going to break the tie. [laughter] and i'm going to vote with my

colleague, judge kiernan, on this one. i thought his behavior was reprehensible, and the best way for donald trump to overcome it is what he did yesterday and today. sign those orders, control that message. disregard the mosquitoeses that are sniping at your ear. stuart: you were doing okay until that. [laughter] >> the best pr, performance wins every time. stuart: totally wrong again, peter. [laughter] president trump'sic to lead the cia, mike pom pa pay owe, he has now been confirmed. got it. however, senators cotton and schumer had a con to frontation over the delay in his confirmation. schumer told cotton the senate had never previously confirmed a cia director on inauguration day cotton responded with this, quote: eight years ago i was getting my ass shot at in afghanistan. that's a snap from mr. cotton, senator cotton. so don't talk to me about where i was eight years ago. [laughter]

>> i wish i'd said it, you know? sometimes you say it and it makes you feel good. i'm not sure this isn't something that chuck schumer needed to hear. stuart: i think he did need to hear it, that's my opinion. larry elder, you're judge number two on this one. go. [laughter] >> it sounds very trump-like. [laughter] what cotton just now did. again, it's about time that these democrats are stood up. they've gotten away with murder for the last eight years under obama, they kissed his rear end like nobody's business. it's about time they got called out. stuart: let's see if judge napolitano -- >> you know, i'm not moved one way or the other way, it's a private conversation. had it been said on the record, it would have continued what i think cory booker has, unfortunately, started, which is senators going after senators in public and violating the rules of civility. this was a private conversation can that we probably wouldn't have known about had senator cotton not raised his voice. it's what he honestly believed, and chuck schumer was asking for

it. stuart: totally wrong, totally wrong. [laughter] what's wrong with vigorous interchange of powerful, emotional opinion? what's wrong with that? >> floor of the senate -- stuart: our democracy can't handle it? >> england does it every day. >> it's not the house of commons where you shout people down. [laughter] it's not here. stuart: i'm sorry, we're out of time. i want to bring you this -- [laughter] be quiet, larry elder, i can hear you. the latest photo of president george h.w. bush and former first lady barbara bush. ms. bush, barbara bush, has been discharged from the hospital. wonderful news. and bush 41 is about to be moved out of the intensive care unit at houston methodist hospital. he's been recovering from bacterial pneumonia. stay with us, we are not done yet.

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stuart: what was the most important action taken by

president trump today, peter keirnen? >> sum it up in two words, shovel-ready. stuart: permitting process? >> absolutely. stuart: larry elder, what was the most important move made today by president trump? >> i think keystone pipeline. we're talking about immediate jobs right away. a cash infusion of tack -- tax dollars. that is the biggest thing he has done today. stuart: got it, larry. judge? >> tone and attitude of power, things can get down without waiting for the bureaucracy and congress. stuart: not bad, judge. >> thank you, stuart. not bad, stuart. stuart: thank you for everybody appearing on yet another extraordinary program. where else do you get action like this, constant flow of action. larry elder, peter kernen, judge napolitano, thank you very much.

ash and liz thanks for enduring rehours with me. dow jones is moving slightly higher. no the a huge rally. it is upside move. we're up 62 points. we have charles payne in for neil today. charles, it is yours. >> take a little bit higher, neil charles: i'm charles payne in for neil. he will be in tomorrow. connell mcshane. reporter: he signed a executives orders and his supreme court nominee will be announced next week. on executive orders, we haven't seen details of it yet with the keystone xl pipeline and another with the dakota access pipeline