you don't want to see that. >> michael flatley. >> how about we keep it going online with some michael flatley dancing? foxnews.com/outnumbered, click the overtime tab or go to facebook live, we are back tomorrow at noon eastern. "happening now" now. >> jenna: we start with a fox news alert, new reaction as president trump withdraws from a signature trade deal of the obama administration. >> jon: senator john mccain calling it a serious mistake that will have lasting consequences. we are covering all of the news "happening now." >> what we want to do is bring manufacturing back to our country. >> jon: president trump gets down to work and has a full week as commander-in-chief. the new president schedules early meetings with business and congressional leaders. here from the white house with the first official briefing set for this hour. plus, i could be the first foreign policy test for the trump administration. a new warning from north korea as the rogue nation develops

nuclear weapons at an unprecedented pace. and severe weather causing devastation across the country. the flooding and at least rhymes translating entire communities to be destroyed. it is all "happening now." ♪ spacing we begin with president trump diving into his first full week signing three executive orders as the new press secretary gets ready to face the media again. welcome to the second hour of "happening now," we will expect that press briefing, i am jon scott. >> jenna: i'm jenna lee. sean spicer is such a kick that off about a half hour from now, after the aggressive first encounter with the press this weekend over the size of the crowd at mr. trump's inauguration among other things but president trump is moving along with a very busy schedule including meetings with foreign leaders and executive orders to withdraw from the trans-pacific partnership and a federal hiring freeze. all of this as his cabinet

begins to firm up. >> jon: we look at the latest from john roberts, john? >> good afternoon. we are expecting sean spicer's first official briefing today to be less of a lecture and tongue lashing that we got on saturday, but who knows? we will see how it goes. the president very busy this morning, president trump signing three executive orders, one as you mentioned withdrawing the united states on the trans-pacific partnership which is immediately making good on one of his central campaign promises as he signs the executive order that takes the u.s. out of that negotiation. he said he was "doing this for the american worker." also signing an order implementing a federal hiring freeze except for the military. he hopes to reduce the size of the federal workforce through attrition which will also free salaries as well, and he reinstated the mexico city policy, this prohibits access to u.s. family-planning dollars that support ngos that support abortion peer this thing has gone back and forth over the decades, ronald reagan

implemented it in 1984, president clinton rescinded it, bush reinstated it, obama rescinded it and you can say that president trump is reinstating it again. also focus on the economy today with business meetings in the roosevelt room as he did on occasion during the campaign, and again during the transition, he allowed some wiggle room and his corporate tax cuts saying that he would like to take it to 15%, but it may end up just a little higher than that. listen to what he said. >> now what we are doing is we are going to be cutting taxes massively for both the middle class and for companies, and that is massively. we are trying to get it down to anywhere from 15-20%. >> 15-20%, 20% would bring him right in line with the paul ryan tax plan. i talked to some sources on the hill who said what the president is saying here indicates he has a willingness to negotiate with

congressional republicans over what the appropriate corporate tax rate would be. still to come today, possibility of another executive order, this one regarding north american free-trade agreement but unlike this morning's executive orders come he could not just pull the united states out of nafta, he might indicate he wants to review. yesterday in the east room, he said he would soon be meeting with the president of mexico and with the prime minister of canada justin trudeau to begin the process of renegotiating nafta, listen to what he said yesterday. >> we are going to start renegotiating on nafta, immigration, and our security at the border. mexico has been terrific, actually, terrific. the president has been really very amazing, and i think we're going to have a very good result for mexico, for the united states, for everybody involved. >> later on today, congressional leadership will be talking about

obamacare among other things, that is the first big legislative agenda item, obamacare repeal and replacement has to be done before he tackles tax cuts because there is a whole flow-through that happens with obamacare. watch for that to be his first big legislative agenda item. >> jon: you have some new digs there at the white house. are you going to be able to keep them is the question, write? >> i tell you, we are going to hang onto them tooth and nail as hard as we can. we've had some discussions with the white house to say would it be the appropriate thing to do to kick the press out of the white house, we need to be here to be the american public's eyes and ears on what is going hot on here at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. one thing i would like to do is get out of this torrential downpour we are experiencing. >> jon: i will stop asking questions so you can do that. thank you. >> jenna: fair point. 1:30 eastern time is when we expect the press briefing. in the meantime, president trump telling the intelligence community they have his full support during a trip, after

facing criticism for spending much of the time going after the media. let's put that aside, lost in the controversy is the significance of the setting where he made those remarks, at the wall honoring fallen cia officers. we wanted to take a closer look at this somber memorial etched in marble. right now, there are 117 stars carved into that wall, honoring those who gave their lives for our country since the agency was first founded 70 years ago. we only know the names of 84 people these stars represent. the identities of the other officers remain a secret even in death, their wishes often too sensitive to reveal. not every fallen employee receives a star. in order to qualify, the death must either be heroic or inspirational while in the line of duty. >> jon: the white house moves forward after a contentious weekend including battles with the press and millions of protesters marching in cities across the country. today, president trump is hard at work and telling business leaders that tax cuts and regulation rollback is coming.

>> now what we are doing is we are going to be cutting taxes massively for both the middle class and for companies, and that is massively. we are going to be cutting regulation massively. we are going to have regulation, and it will be just as strong and just as good and just as protective of the people as the regulations we have right now. >> jon: jonah goldberg is senior editor at "national review" and a fox news contributor, david is a senior political correspondent for the "washington examiner." welcome. it was a fairly dizzying weekend, what stands out to you about the trump administration and their first days in office? >> i think it was, i am sure, particularly sean spicer would just love a do-over. the images we just saw, the reports about the pulling back on these regulations, tpp,

opening up nafta for negotiation, i may disagree with some of the policies, but politically, those are good stories for donald trump, that should have been the first story about the trump administration coming out of the inauguration with the possible exception of the speech at the cia which i thought in principle was a good idea, but the problem was bragging about crowd size and all of that that the administration after a very bad start particularly with the press, that is why i think they would love to get a do-over. >> jon: he did seem to get, sticking with you come he got a pretty warm reception there at cia. >> he did, and there is this effort by some people and the media to say those were just the campaign people he brought over with them, the administration people he brought over with them. i kind of doubt that. i think a lot of rank-and-file people in the cia probably like donald trump but also a lot who were probably worried about donald trump because the guy, by his own admission, is a disruptor. >> jon: sean spicer said from

the podium on saturday in that news briefing that they are going to push back. they are aggressively going to push back at what they see as media disinformation, give us your take on that sean spicer appearance. >> it was a baghdad bob moment, and i do not think it is something he wants to repeat. i've dealt with in a number of years, always straight with me, never made me look bad by lying to me or spinning me to aggressively without any support for the facts of analysis that i am dealing with. i think this is what donald trump did in the campaign that was so successful, he countered every piece of information he did not like, whether it was true or not true, and in that way, he was able to keep his partners and supporters with him and never doubting him. i do think in the position of presidency, they need to be more careful and where and how fate fight back with things like kellyanne conway referring to them as "alternative facts," because now we are dealing with

things donald trump is actually doing as president, not that his opponents are thinking or saying he will do, but what the trump administration wants to be able to do is tell a story about its achievements and efforts, and things are about to get very difficult here. not just because it is donald trump, a republican white house, but because when you want to repeal and replace obamacare or overhaul the tax system or change immigration system, these are some of the biggest things any president could ever do, and they are going to try to do them all essentially at the same time. there is going to be a lot of politics involved in be very difficult. >> jon: also a hiring freeze and the federal government except for the military, i guess essential personnel. what do you make overall of the executive orders he has issued, the way the first few days have gone? >> i think most of them with the exception of the tpp thing are sort of standard fare, what you would expect from a republican

president coming in, going aback the funding for abortion overseas, that kind of thing. they are good, i agree with them in principle, but i also agree with david that you only have so much political capital in so many fights you can fight. there is nothing in the constitution that says if you had a smaller crowd at your inauguration then the previous president therefore you do not get as many votes in congress or you don't have as much power. there is nothing that wasn't served by picking this fight, and instead, they should be deploying their resources political and otherwise toward defending the policies that they want to get across peer this was a very rocky start for a guy who during his president-elect phase did not do a lot to win over critics, so we have these very low approval ratings already, lowest in recorded history, and i think he needs to start worrying about how he seems to people who did not vote for him. >> jon: we are going to have

to leave the discussion there appeared jonah goldberg, david drucker, thank you gentlemen. >> jenna: we will see what happens 20 minutes from now when we expect a press briefing. in the meantime, press of california seeing record rainfall but it is not all good news, why the rain is now causing problems of its own. also, a beacon of hope following a miraculous rescue at the sight of a terrible avalanche. we will explain these pictures. all finished.

umm... you wouldn't want your painter to quit part way. i think you missed a spot. so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. painter: you want this color over the whole house? search for survivors in italy after a mountain resort was buried in an avalanche. here is why there is hope. emergency crews today digging out three sheepdog puppies found in the boiler room area at the hotel. a discovery, as i am sure you understand is a welcome sight for rescue teams fighting against the clock still defined 42 people that are missing. >> they just started barking very softly. in fact, it was hard to find

them right away because they were hidden. then we heard this very tiny bark, and we saw them from a little hole that the firefighters had open and the wall p that we expanded the hole and pulled them out. >> jenna: what a moment, so far nine people have been rescued in the first survivors were released from a nearby hospital today. officials have confirmed six deaths, now there is an investigation underway to see if authorities underestimated the threat facing the hotel and the hours before last wednesday's deadly avalanche. trumps a big problems right now in this country, drought stricken areas of southern california now getting too much rain from a winter storm. flood watches and warnings in effect as high water washes out roadways in raises concern about mudslides and there is more rain in the forecast. jonathan is live from topanga, california, with more. >> it is a mess across large swaths of southern california right now after one of the biggest rainstorms we have seen

in something like seven years. this is the result here in topanga, california, these huge boulders came crashing down yesterday as a result of the dry turf being suddenly soaked, and you take a look at this one. if i stayed up to look again, you can see just how big the boulder is. nobody is traveling this road which blinks to 101 freeway where the famous beaches of malibu for several days probably until it gets cleared. part of the problem is that in the fire stricken areas we have seen in so many areas of southern california over the last five years, sand canyon, east of l.a., there turf is tender dry, so then you get this downpour, you get mudslides. that is what they have been dealing with out there. it is literally one disaster after another. listen here. >> the water came up over across the yard, everything flooded into the yard, pools, mud, like a big mud bath.

>> and take a look at this pretty extraordinary video of a water rescue. two people stuck in a pickup truck, rescuers had to get them out, they sent a light raft to them, they got in it one by one, thankfully, they both got out alive. the roads were a mess yesterday. i drove about two hours from delmar down south back to l.a., and it was a very frightening drive, couple freeways in fact got so bad later yesterday afternoon that they had to be shut down completely. you know what they say about l.a. people driving in rain, it is not good at the best of times, yesterday it was just terrible. but it is not all bad news. if you are at skiing, it is one of the best seasons you have had in california for a very long time. take a look at the pictures out at big bear, a huge snow dump, in the big picture there in terms of the snow is the snowmelt obviously is what fills the reservoirs in california, so

the five-year drought we have been going through is at the very least going to be eased considerably by this. so there is a silver lining to every rain cloud. >> jon: good news and all of that. jonathan hunt, thank you. >> jenna: the trump team is shape with two more picks on the fast track to confirmation, we are live from capitol hill with that. plus, north korea issuing another threat, why the timing is especially ominous and our next guest says the danger has to be taken seriously.

>> jenna: right now, the trump administration is facing a dire warning from north korea and its very first week. the north koreans are threatening to "for further misery on the u.s." and a warning coming 49 years after north korea captured a navy

ship. the uss pueblo. this as south korea warns that the north is developing nuclear weapons at an unprecedented pace. gordon changes in asia analyst and author of an aptly titled book, as we have pointed out often. what is notable as we have heard north korea off and on over the last several years, but why do you think this particular warning is notable? >> this comes at the beginning of the trump administration. the north koreans obviously want to test what his intentions are toward them, and the other thing is that the chinese are helping the north koreans. the chinese have provided new rear weapons technology, missile material, all sorts of plans for mobile missile launchers and other things, so basically, we are facing a challenge not just from them but beijing as well. >> jenna: in the best possible scenario when you look at the best possible response with such a threat or actual missile test, what would that look like?

>> first of all, the u.s. needs to support south korea that is going through an impeachment crisis right now, the strongest u.s. support or is under fire, she probably will be removed from office, that jeopardizes plans for missile defense for south korea. i think the united states needs to warn china not only privately but also in public and we need to start sanctioning chinese banks because they've been helping north korea, and we have been shying away from enforcing our own laws. these banks should be unplugged from the global financial system which would cause a shock but at least we would be showing beijing we are serious about protecting ourselves from north korea's missiles and nukes. >> jenna: i want to go back to something we mentioned in the introduction, the sinking of the ship the uss pueblo. a lot of our viewers have probably forgotten about this. tell us a little bit about what happened and why north korea is referencing it? >> it was in international waters, the north koreans took it and imprison the crew for almost a year. we gave an apology to get it

back, one of the three men died, also not long after that in april of 1969, the north koreans shot down an air force easy 121 reconnaissance plane, 31 crew members died in that incident, largest single loss of american life during the cold war. the united states did nothing about that, we did nothing about the play blow, so the chinese think they can, for instance, interview with u.s. aircraft and ships with impunity. they took the drone last month, and we did not do anything about that either. >> jenna: you are saying it is a ripple effect. donald trump has put many things on twitter in the past, i'm wondering if you can take a look inside the minds of the north koreans. i know it is with your work, you have had time to think about this, if you are north korea, you're the north korean leader who sees a tweet from donald trump that says "north korea just stated it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the u.s., it won't happen." that is what he said. he went on to say "china has been taking out mass amounts of money and wealth from the u.s.

in a totally one-sided trade but want help with north korea, nice." when you hear that, what you think north korea is hearing and what do you hear in general? >> north korea is hearing it because what they say, donald trump says it is not going to happen. he is not saying they cannot do it, the north koreans are saying, the united states is going to do something actively to prevent us from watching them. >> jenna: is that a good thing? >> in a sense if we back it up with action, yes, it is because is it an act of will to show not only the north koreans but the chinese and russians behind them that we are willing to defend ourselves. china when it sees these tweets from donald trump thinks there is going to be in a response, they are going to try to challenge him as well because they want to knock him off his game. if they could do that early in this administration, they set the tone for four or maybe eight years. >> jenna: oh you're watching the next several days from that particular part of the world, north korea and china. >> absolutely because this is where it all gets settled.

>> jenna: we are going to see and pay close attention as well, good to have you on the program as always, thank you. >> jon: we are waiting in his fox news alert for the white house press briefing to begin. you can see the media are assembled there and they are in that briefing room, it will be sean spicer's first encounter with reporters since the big showdown saturday over reports on the size of the inaugural crowd when sean spicer steps to the microphone there in the west wing, we will take you there alive. plus, people across the south are getting their lives back together after a deadly weekend of severe weather. now storms are building and other parts of the country. >> mercy, looked like a war zone. i mean, lines down, trees down, aluminum every there, the trailer court in front of me, looked like it is wiped out, the baptist church down there is putting much gone. it was just a mess. just a mess. wouldn't a deal on car insurance

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>> those senators worry that getting rid of sanctions will remove all leverage from russia, it is sort of like hello carrot, good-bye steak. of course, as we know, the russians will say that the sanctions really did not work, of course, they stung, but they did not change russian behavior. a top russian expert at the eurasia group says that such a bill being proposed by the senate, if passed, would not be vetoproof. in any way, the president calls the shots on those russian sanctions. in the meantime, the moscow move movement is getting sweeter today, the russian foreign minister said today he thinks washington and moscow are on the same page. >> of course we are following how the situation in the united states has been developing. we see quite a few things i to eye when it comes to interpretation of many important foreign policy goals which were declared by donald trump and

closely overlap with president putin's vision of the russian federation's federal foreign policy. >> meanwhile, trump kitchen in evidence, nesting trump dolls. so does russia really want good relations with america or is it reveling in the possibility of getting the west off its back or hoping for some sort of chaos taking hold in the states leaving russia free to do its own thing abroad? finally, one of russia's premier evening newscasts tonight spent an inordinate amount of time debating whether or not trump is the anti-obama, and then, it had this wall hanging in dizzying detail with all of the things that trump has done and his first 48 hours of office. it was quite striking, and that just really summarizes the amount of attention that is being paid to all of this right now. >> jenna: amy, thank you.

>> jon: two more cabinet nominees could be confirmed within the next few days, republican senator marco rubio of florida announcing he's going to support rex tillerson for secretary of state. it's a move that brings the businessman one step closer to approval. the senate also meeting today to discuss mike pompeo's nomination to lead the cia. she congressional correspondent mike emanuel live on capitol hill with more. >> good afternoon. a vote is expected later today in the senate foreign relations committee to help rex tillerson become the the next secretary f state and ultimately it would go to the senate floor appears senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has expressed confidence including on fox news sunday about tillers and ultimately getting through it and with senator marco rubio signaling he would vote for tiller's and in both the committee and on the senate floor, it appears to be a done deal and that rex tillerson was able to sell national security republicans on his nomination behind closed doors.

>> this is why i am booked voting for him. in my office visit, he said when america does not lead, other people will, in the vacuum is always filled by bad actors. he said we have to have a foreign policy that engages the world, we need to lead from the front. >> then there is mike pompeo, to be the next director of the cia. some republicans were furious that pompeo was not confirmed on friday along with the secretary of defense and the secretary of homeland security, pompeo is expected to be confirmed at some point late tonight after some debate. senate democratic leader has been trying to defend the delay of trump's nominees. >> let me talk about the cabinet. it is a cabinet unlike any other we have seen on two bases. we colored the swamp cabinet, billionaires and bankers. and it is very simple, there are more people with huge financial holdings which they have to divest under law so they do not

have conflict of interest. >> if republicans stick together, the democrats only have the option of delaying confirmation of these nominees, and so they are burning the clock, if you will, which also keeps the senate from taking up other matters like repealing and replacing obamacare. >> jon: mike emanuel on capitol hill, thank you. >> jenna: devastating scene left behind after tornadoes ripped through several southern states killing at least 19 people in georgia and mississippi this weekend. there were reports of 39 apparent tornadoes in the region. joining us life as bill bunting, the chief of forecast operations for the national weather service storm prediction center. where is the threat now? >> good to be with you. the good news is the severe thunderstorm threat has shifted offshore now with the passage of the cold front. there will still be some heavy rain along the coast and snow in new england, but the rescue and recovery operations across the southeast, the severe storms that has ended for now.

>> jenna: this was described as unusual, but you are saying it is not unheard of this time of year. what made it so deadly? >> unfortunately, it is not something we have never seen before. we occasionally get to too toro outbreaks in the winter and what is critically difficult about that is it tends to be the southeast, move fast at night and because of the timing, people are not always awake to get the word with advanced warning. we really encourage folks to have multiple ways of receiving the warning information including the weather radio that can wake you up anytime day or night. >> jenna: if you look over the next couple days, he said the immediate threat has shifted but in general, what does it look like? are there potential dangerous combinations of weather that could produce something like we just saw? >> thankfully no, our forecasters are looking eight days into the future and we do not see anything remotely close to what we have experienced over the weekend which is probably the best news at this point. >> jenna: it is, thank you very much, we appreciate it. we know many families are impacted by that severe weather, we wish them the best as they

continue their recovery. >> jon: clean up against devastated regions of the south, powerful storms are developing in other parts of the country as well. meteorologist adam crossed his life in the fox news extreme weather center with more. >> thank you, it is all part of the same system, so i want to show you what we saw just yesterday, tornadoes moving right across the southern edge of georgia. those were the biggest storms, the system now lifting its way up the east coast. beginning to cause other problems, not dramatic but problems nonetheless so as this continues to slowly climb its way up the coast, we are talking about heavy rain, very strong winds and at points, maybe eventually a little bit of inland snow, not longer coast. this is how this plays out, future forecast, expect rain to run all the way up the east coast, piling on new england a little further inland which is where the snowfall will be, higher evolutions perhaps some freezing rain as well. again, all from this system we saw this weekend down in georgia. here's how it plays out with our

precipitation totals, you can see the highest precipitation totals right along the coast, you can see this pounding on roadways, i 95 a lot of wind, that is going to be a concern further inland, those are the elevation areas where we are seeing some snow beginning to pile up at some of the higher elevations. the other concern that we are looking at wins incredibly strong getting up to 40-50 miles per hour, so that with some very heavy rain -- i am losing my voice, but here is what we are talking about with these very strong winds. this is going to be a real issue for people in the northeast today before eventually it heads back off. this is the system we will continue to track as it moves its way up into new england throughout the rest of the day. >> jon: sounds like more weather ahead, adam klotz, we will let you get your voice back. >> jenna: we will show what we are waiting for as we await the first press briefing from this new administration.

this is the normal shot, you cannot see the entire room, it is packed and everyone is awaiting sean spicer, press secretary to step to the podium there. as soon as he steps to the podium, we will goad life to the white house for what will be the beginning of the daily press briefing for this administration. also president trump promising to reform immigration policy and beef of security along the border. will his admeasure should be able to put those plans into place? our legal panel please and next

these are difficult times for elderly holocaust survivors >> jon: fox news alert, and it is always a guessing game with a new administration to find out whether they will be on time. we have received what is called a one minute warning to sean spicer, he is the new white house press secretary who is expected to step out there any second now and conduct his first daily briefing. but as we have learned in the obama administration, a two minute warning or whatever it might be does not always mean what what the title might imply.

so we expect to see sean spicer, this after he had a fairly combative, not really even interchange, but a statement he gave to reporters over the weekend in which he said that some reporters, some news outlets were flat out lying regarding the size of the inaugural crowd who witnessed president trump's inauguration. he said it was clearly the largest crowd ever at an inauguration, despite photographic evidence that might suggest otherwise. so sean spicer has suggested he will take a combative tone with the press, angina, we might be getting more of that today >> jenna: we shall see, it that is the big question. here he is, let's listen to the first words of sean spicer. >> good afternoon, everyone, thank you for coming out to our first official briefing here in the brady room. i'm going to start with a little recap of the inauguration, but i think we have covered that pretty well. by the way, as i get started, i know that josh earnest was voted the most popular press secretary by the press corps, so after

checking my twitter feed, i shot josh an email last night letting him know he can rest easy that his title is secure for at least the next few days. let me begin by saying that the president has been closely monitoring the severe weather in the southeast. he spoke by phone with the governor of georgia yesterday and offered his condolences and support. today, president trump is focused on fulfilling his pledge to pursue trade policies that beak put america first come he began with a breakfast with key u.s. business leaders where the focus of the discussion on job creation and growing our manufacturing base. business leaders who attended think michael dell, founder and ceo of dell, ceo of world pool, mark fields, ceo of ford, the ceo of johnson & johnson, the ceo of lockheed martin, the ceo of dao, mario, ceo of u.s. steel, elon musk, tesla, kevin

plank of under armour, mark sutton of international paper, the ceo of corning, chief of staff reince preibus, chief strategist stephen bannon, vice president chief of staff and senior advisor stephen miller. the breakfast wasn't opportunity for the president to hear directly from america's top business leaders about the challenges they are facing and take some suggestions about what policies and action can be taken to help them create jobs and grow our manufacturing base. the meeting included a really great exchange of ideas, and the president has decided to reconvene the group and a month and then have them meet on a quarterly basis. as you know, the president's vision is to negotiate fair trade deals that create jobs, increase american wages and reduced american trade deficit. he has appointed a tough and smart number of trade experts who will fight on behalf of american workers. with that vision in mind, the president has already taken

several steps today. first come he issued a presidential memorandum withdrawing the united states from the trans-pacific partnership, tpp is a multilateral agreement that includes the united states and 11 other countries. as the president has said many times, this type of multinational agreement is not in our best interest, and he is moving quickly to advanced trade policies that increase the competitive of the american worker air manufacturer. this executive action ushers in a new era of u.s. trade policy in which the trump admonition will presume bilateral trade opportunities with allies around the globe. this is a strong signal that the trump initiation wants free and fair trade throughout the world. additionally, the president issued a memorandum reestablishing the mexico city policy, stating that the united states will end the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions overseas along with coercive abortion and sterilization practices. finally, the president issued a memorandum outlining executive branch hiring.

this memorandum counters the dramatic expansion of the federal workforce in recent years, in particular to prevent filling vacant positions and creating new positions except when necessary to meet national or public security responsibilities. it does not apply to military personnel, and it ensures that the american taxpayers get effective and efficient government. earlier in the day, the president spoke with the egyptian president, they discussed ways to keep the bilateral leadership to support their fight against terrorists and bolster their homegrown economic reform program. president trump underscored the united states remain strongly committed to the bilateral relationship that has helped both countries overcome challenges in the region for decades. the president committed to working continuously with military assistance to egypt and working with egypt to ensure that assistance most effectively supports the military fight against terrorism paired he also commended the president for his courageous steps to address their economic challenges and

offers to discuss ways the united states could support egypt economic reform programs, finally the two leaders discussed a visit to the united states in the future. the president then had lunch with the vice president where they recap this morning's meeting to discuss next steps and also had discussed plans to advance the president's legislative agenda to make america safer and more prosperous. also today, the president signed designations for acting head of executive departments and agencies to maintain continuity in those critical positions. at 3:00, union leaders and frontline workers will meet with the president to discuss his pro worker agenda and attendees include tom flynn of the united brotherhood of carpenters, sean, president of the north american building and construction trades department, terry o'sullivan, general president of the laborers international union of north america, marking the mcmanus, general president of the united association, donald mullen, local 602, frank spencer, united brotherhood of

carpenters, doug mccarron, general president united brotherhood of carpenters, mark of the iron workers local five, joseph sellars junior, general president of the sheet metal workers union/smart union, summa, heat and frost insulators and allied workers local 24, mark, united association local five, stephen dodd, sheet metal workers union/smart union, gary mussina, sheet metal workers union peer the president has been honored to receive tremendous support from union working men and women on election day and dedicated to growing in deepening their support, and he made it a priority to meet with these union workers on our working day one here in the white house. the off shoring of american jobs and lack of economic growth in recent years has had american workers particularly hard. the president's top priority is to retain and attract american jobs which have already seen happening through his actions on carrier, sprint, general motors, and so much more.

5:00, he will host a bicameral bipartisan meeting with leaders here at the white house that would will include the rasmussen, senate majority leader, majority whip, minority leader, minority whip, house speaker, house majority leader, democratic leader, democratic lip, white house chief of staff, chief strategist, chief of staff to the vice president and chiefs of staff from those respective offices. the purpose of the meeting is to get the president's agenda moving through congress. the american people are frustrated with the lack of progress here in washington, in the president wants no delay in addressing our most pressing issues. he is taking every step opportunity to for strong bonds with correctional leaders on both sides of the aisle. one of the subjects sure to come up is the status of his nominees during this meeting. it is important to know at this point in 2009, president obama had seven of his nominees confirmed on day one and five more in the first week. as it stands today, we have two. democrats even held up the of cr

mike pompeo needlessly leaving one of our most important national security agency is without its top leader on day one. it is time for senate democrats to stop playing political games with the core functions of government and to allow president trump's questionably qualified and talented group of cabinet nominees to get to work on behalf of the american people. rounding out today's schedule after the reception that i mention, he will have dinner with, meeting with the house speaker paul ryan peer they will discuss the republican legislative agenda and strategy going forward. earlier in the day, the president nominated former new mexico congressman heather wilson as the next secretary of the air force. she grew up in new hampshire and made history as part of the third u.s. air force academy class that included women. she earned her master's degree and doctoral degrees as a rhodes scholar at oxford in england then served as an air force officer in europe during the cold war and on the national security office under president george h.w. bush. as you know, we are all about

big leadership and large audiences here, so i want to tell you about an effort we are undertaking here in the press briefing room to offer up more access to a group of journalists from around the country. beginning later this week, i'm excited to announce we are going to have four what we call skype seats live here in the briefing room to open up the briefing to journalists who live beyond 50 miles of the washington, d.c., area and to organizations that do not currently have a hard pass. as always, any organization is welcome to apply for a day pass but we are excited to open up into the field and have a diverse group of journalists from around the country who may not have the convenience or funding to travel to washington. i think this can benefit us all by giving a platform to voices that are not necessarily based here in the beltway. looking ahead, the president will have a breakfast tomorrow with the auto industry including the heads of gm, chrysler, ford, and he looks forward to hearing their ideas on how we can work together to bring more jobs back to this industry in particular. on wednesday, the present will

host a swearing in ceremony for the new secretary of homeland security general john kelly, and then on friday, he will do the same for secretary james mattis for the department of defense. thursday, he will travel to philadelphia to attend the republican house and senate retreat, then on friday he will welcome his first foreign head of state, british prime minister may with that, i look forward to taking your questions. daniel, new york post. >> thank you. when are we going to commence the building of the border wall? >> the president has noted that this was a serious priority of his throughout the campaign. he has already started to work with congress on the appropriations avenue of that, and so he is doing everything he can to direct agencies and congress to commence with that work as soon as possible. >> what about with obamacare, are you enforcing a mandate or not? the obamacare mandate.

>> the president has made it clear he is going to work with congress, part of the discussion he is going to have tonight with some of these leaders and then again with paul ryan is how we can work to implement both the repeal and replace aspects of this. jennifer. >> of all the policy actions that a president could have taken today, he chose to reinstate the mexico city policy, what message is the senate, does he see the reduction of abortion as an american value? also here at home, can pro-life americans expect his signature on legislation that would defund planned parenthood? >> i think the president, no secret, has made it very clear that he is a a pro-life president. he wants to stand up for all americans including the unborn, and i think the reinstatement of this policy is not just me that echoes that value but respects the taxpayer funding as well and ensures we are standing up not just for life, life of the unborn, but for also taxpayer

funds that are being spent overseas to perform actions that are contrary to the values of this president and it will further illustrate not to just the folks in this country but around the world what a value we place on life. jennifer rodrigues. jenna, i am sorry. >> what did the president mean when he said he would work through congress to get a special sunday we don't know what it is exactly, and when can we expect that to happen, also when can we expect the white house spanish site to be back up? >> two questions per let me start with the latter first. as you know, we hit the ground running on day one. there was a lot to do, we had done a lot of work on the web site to make sure that we were prepared to get as much information up as fast as possible. we are continuing to build up the web site both in the issue areas and in that area, but we have some i.t. folks working overtime right now to continue to get all of that up to speed and trust me, it is going to

take a little bit more time but we are working piece by piece to get that work. i think on daca, the president has been clear that he's prioritizing and issues of immigration by building the law in addressing people in the country illegally peer first and foremost, he has been very clear that we need to direct agencies to focus on those who are in the country illegally and have a record, criminal record or pose a threat to the american people. that is where the priority is going to be then we will continue to work through the entire number of folks that are here illegally. right now, the clear focus is on that. blake, fox business. >> i want to ask two questions. the president campaign on the corporate tax cut rate of 15%, and then when he met with business leaders today, he had mentioned that the tax rate would drop to somewhere between 15-20%. is he moving the goalpost they are in anyway?

my second question is on government spending, there have been reports that you might be looking at ten chilean dollars over the course of ten years, is that accurate, it would you be willing to wrap up entitlements to get there? >> i think first -- i will take the other one first on spending. he started with the hiring freeze. there has been frankly, to some degree, a lack of respect for taxpayer dollars for a long time, and i think what the president is showing to the hiring freeze first and foremost today is we have to respect the american taxpayer. they are sending us a ton of money and working really hard, so people working two or three jobs just to get by and to see money get wasted in washington on a job that is duplicate if it is insulting to the hard work they do to pay their taxes. i think that comes into your question and overall spending as well. we have to look at how we are spending the american people's tax money. the landing teams have been going into these agencies and departments and talking about

ways that we can create greater efficiencies, illuminate duplicity, and find ways to maximize the tax dollar. it is more a question not just cutting, it is how do we spend and respect the american taxpayer dollars more than -- more going forward. a bull ryan. >> 15-20%? >> sorry. the president has been a very successful businessman and negotiator. he's going to sit down to work with congress to get the best deal possible for american businesses so they can hire more people and we can expand and grow the economy. he is going to work with congress on that raid, but he understands better than anybody had to negotiate a great deal. right now, he's going to negotiate the best deal on behalf of the american worker and on behalf of the american businesses that are hiring them. that was a lot of the focus that went on today. talking to these companies. it was interesting, the meeting was only supposed to last an hour. it overflowed another hour and the oval office and he kept asking them, what ideas do you have to grow this economy? what is preventing you from

hiring people? what regulations are stopping you from conducting more business? what are the ways we can give you more market access to other countries around the globe? i think that is what his focus is going to continue to be is how do we create a tax and regulatory environment that grows it is not only creating more jobs but higher wages. april ryan. > sean: elijah cummings confirmed that president donald trump talked to him about the high price of prescription drugs. what does this mean or is it coming up soon? and will the president meet with the full body of the black caucus and hispanic caucus on issues related to those? >> we'll take one at a time. i am not aware