i'm margaret brennan in washington, this week on "face the nation," the latest on the

fallout after the oval office brawl. americans want more action from the administration when it comes to fighting inflation. >> you don't have the cards. with us, you don't have cards. >> it was the debacle seen and heard around the world. the meeting meant to solidify an alliance between the u.s. and ukraine melted down into a shouting match featuring president trump and vice president vance versus president sat zelenskyy. european leaders racing to bring both sides back together and move towards a resolution to the war in ukraine. treasury secretary scott bessent crafted the agreement that fell apart during that meeting. we will talk to him about that as well as the administration's plans to help the economy. we will talk with arizona democratic senator mark kelly and two republican members of congress, ohio's mike turner and michigan's john james.

and just before president trump's first formal address to congress, how do americans think he is doing when it comes to tackling their priorities? it's all just ahead on "face the nation." good morning. welcome to "face the nation." we want to begin with the issues that are top of mind for most americans, inflation and the economy. they may be at the top of their priority list for the new administration, but we are seeing a disconnect. when asked what they think the administration is prioritizing, americans see inflation and the economy taking a backseat to the border, the federal workforce, tariffs and more. in fact, according to our cbs news poll, although people do approve of him on some of the other issues, there's a 50-point gap between people who say the president should make inflation a priority and those who say he is. we want to welcome to the

program treasury secretary scott bessent. good morning, mr. treasury secretary. >> good morning, margaret. >> let's dig in on this. it seems there's a perception gap there. our polling shows at least half the country reports concern about paying for food and groceries and housing. they continue to call the economy bad, een more so than last month. 49% told usthe economy is % getting worse. when can americans expect to experience the benefits that president trump said would be coming on day one? >> you know, margaret, what i find interesting is for the past year and a half and during the campaign, most of the media said, the economy is great. it's a vibe session. now that president trump is in office, there's an economic problem. i will tell you what the problem was. >> we were straightforward on this program, sir. >> i haven't seen this program. in general, this idea that working class americans didn't know what they were talking about, they didn't know their lived experience, they didn't know what their pocketbooks were feeling.

president trump was elected, one of the reasons was the affordability crisis. >> number one. >> we are doing that. after four years of disastrous policies, we are running these gigantic deficits that led to the affordability problem, massive government regulations. so what we had was a demand shock from the government spending, that was met by supply constraints with over regulation. we are in the process of deregulating, which will free the supply side. we are cutting back the government spending. it took four years to get us here. president trump has been in office five weeks. i can tell you, we're working every day. what i will point out, interest rates, ten-year bond, which i'm focused on, have been down every week since president trump was president. mortgage rates have been down every week. that's a good start.

>> i hear you that sometimes th. when we talk about people's perceptions of the economy, how they are feeling right now, we see in our polling 52% of americans say trump's policies are making grocery prices go up. they explicitly said that. it's an experience and perception issue. when does that shift? when do we see the benefits of the planning you say is underway? >> i think president trump said that he will heal the economy in six or 12 months. we are working to get prices down every day. it took four years to get us here. we have had five weeks. interest rates are down. that's a very good start toward housing affordability, toward auto affordability. we are tackling this. at treasury, we are going to

appoint an affordability czar. we are going to have an af affordability council. we are focused on that. >> what does that mean? what's an affordability czar? >> someone who picks five or eight areas where this administration can make a big difference for working class americans. >> okay. one of the things that we hear the president talk about is the plan to use tariffs. i know this falls under the purview of commerce and the trade rep. but you have spoken about it before. if the president does roll out the 10% tariffs that he says are coming on china this week, the 25% on canada and mexico, how much do you think they will impact what americans experience? the peterson institute says it will cost households an additional $1,200 a year. >> a couple of years. i respect my friends at the peterson institute. they are alarmist. a lot of the supporters are

anti-tariff. they take an anti-tariff position. we have the experience of president trump's first term where tariffs did not affect prices. it's a holistic approach that there will be tariffs there will be cuts in regulation, there will be chiefer energy. so i would expect that quickly, we will be down to the fed's 2% target. i'm expecting inflation to continue dropping over the year. >> should we expect these tariffs to come march 4th? >> there's a series of tariffs. there's march 4th and then there are the big -- there's the big tariff program that's going to be outlined on april 2nd by commerce and ustr. that's the president's notion of reciprocal tariffs. that's going to be path dependent. we are going to show what are other countries' tariffs what

are non-tariff barriers what are the currency manipulation, what's manipulation of financing or labor manipulation and what are these horrendous fines that the european union is putting on our tech companies? we are going to evaluate that and give them an opportunity to remedy that. so we could either see a r ratcheting up in tariffs. or if our trading partners want to remedy unfair trade, we could see it come off. >> that's europe in april mainly? >> that's across the world. >> okay. when you say the peterson institute is too alarmist with $1,200 a year on the average household, what's the cost to the household? you think it's zero? >> we don't know yet. it's path dependent. what i can tell you is that i'm not worried about china. china will pay for the china tariffs.

their business model sechis exporting their way out of the inflation. they are the most unbalanced economy in modern times. because of a tariff they would lower their production is wrong. they are going to continue flooding the market. they will eat this price -- they will eat any tariffs. >> i saw i say on bloomberg recently that mexico has offered to match the u.s. tariffs on china and that you would like for the canadians to do so as well. you described it as a fortress in north america. is that in the works? >> i don't know yet. we will see. the mexican leadership has offered to do that. we haven't heard from the canadians. i think that would be a very good start. >> by tuesday, potentially, to offset the potential punishment on them? >> by tuesday or maybe the tariff wall goes up, and then we see what happens from there. but i can tell you that under the cover of covid, china

dramatically increased their export capacity. and they are trying to export their way to prosperity. they are in an economic crisis. they have gigantic deflation. it's unacceptable for them to export that to the rest of the world. i think north america would be a very good start for pushing back against this unfair trade policy. >> that would be a significant development. >> very significant. >> which would avoid tariffs that are supposed to go out on tuesday. >> we will see. >> okay. we will be watching that space. i want to ask you about ukraine. you were in the oval office meeting that went sideways on friday. president zelenskyy was toeld t leave the white house before he could sign the minerals agreement. he said it's the first step towards security guarantees. we need more than that. a cease-fire without security guarantees is dangerous for

ukra ukraine. is the deal on the table? has president trump instructed you to drop the project? >> it's impossible to have an economic deal without a peace deal. the foreign economic deal is that ukrainian leadership wants a peace deal. >> i thought this was a building block towards getting -- >> it was supposed to be. president zelenskyy came into the oval on friday -- there were three things that were going to be done. a press conference. a private lunch with 16 of us. and as you could see, we were set up to sign the deal. it's unclear now. president zelenskyy has thrown off the sequencing. let me tell you the most tragic part. president trump's idea for this economic arrangement was to further intertwine the american people and ukrainian people and

show no daylight. to show the russian leadership there was no daylight. president zelenskyy came into the oval office and tried to relitigate in front of the world the deal. we were going -- the place to have done it would have been in the private lunch. >> it's news to me that this was -- that the sequencing is shifting. you are saying you have to agree to a peace deal before the minerals agreement. there aren't negotiations for a peace deal. >> it's not a minerals agreement. it's a general economic agreement. calling it a minerals agr s agr is incorrect. we have to see if president zelenskyy wants to proceed. what's the use in having an economic agreement that's going to be rendered moot if he wants the fighting to continue. president trump wants a peace deal. >> vladimir putin, it's unclear if he wants a peace deal. there are no negotiations. the secretary of state said that on another network. >> president trump has said

that. president trump is trying to move toward peace. he said during that episode in the oval, we don't know if we will get a peace deal, but we have to try. >> last sunday, president trump an envoy said on another network that the plan for negotiations was of so-called draft istanbul protocol. is the inisstitute for the stud of war said this would leave ukraine open for more aggression. why isn't mr. zelenskyy asking the right question when he says, how can i agree to a cease-fire with no security guarantees or even a minerals agreement or investment agreement without security guarantees? >> i think the plan is for the european union to provide this security, not nato, european union. again, the tragedy of friday -- i don't know what president

zelenskyy was thinking. we had macron in on monday. great meeting. we had prime minister in. they were on board the arc of the peace agreement. all president zelenskyy had to do was come in and sign this economic agreement. again, show no daylight -- no daylight between ukrainian people and the american people. he chose to blow that up. >> the deal is no longer on the table, to be abundantly clear? >> not at present. >> thank you for coming in today. >> thank you. >> our social media producers tell us, we had more than 100 million views on posts related to the meeting. there is no shortage of trump viral videos. this one has spread around the world. >> mr. president, mr. president, with respect, i think it's disrespectful for you to try to litigate this in front of the american media.

you are going around and forcing conscripts to the frontlines because you have manpower problems. you should thank the president for trying to -- >> have you been to ukraine to say what problems we have? come once. come during the war. everybody has problems. even you. but you have nice ocean. but you will feel it in the future. god bless. >> you don't know that. you don't know that. >> god bless. >> don't tell us what we're going to feel. we're trying to solve a problem. don't tell us what we're going to feel. >> i'm not telling you. i'm answering his question. >> you are in no position to dictate this. you don't have the cards. >> we're not playing cards. >> you are playing cards. you are gambling with the lives of millions of people. you are gambling with world war three. you are gambling with world war three. what you are doing is very dis -- disrespectful to the country, this country. >> i'm respect to you.

>> more than a lot of people said they should have. >> have you said thank you once this entire meeting? in this meeting have you said thank you? >> "face the nation" will be back there one minute. stay with us. ♪ i need to feel ♪ ♪ hey! ♪ ♪ baby, i'm tired of waiting ♪ ♪ go re-charge your batteries, ♪ ♪ come back to me and make your mama proud ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i need your arms around me, ♪ ♪ i need to feel your touch ♪ ♪ and i really want to talk! ♪

we are back with republican congressman mike turner. good to have you back. >> thank you. >> what were you thinking when you saw that oval office meltdown? >> the first thing obviously is, we have to realize why this is important and really what was at stake here. this is important because ukraine is important. this is about the fight between auhoritarianism and freedom and democracy. this is the ronald reagan evil empire against democracy. as we were watching this fight, we have to be concerned about what's crumbling here, what needs to be put back together. that's what we felt in our stomachs and our anxiety as we watched what was at risk here. the second thing is, how inappropriate this was for

zelenskyy. the context is, this was a signing agreement. zelenskyy had been negotiating with the united states on a minerals deal, an economic deal as the treasury secretary said. he had been doing so for weeks. i met with him with members of congress in munich. he told us some of the terms he wanted. he had a successful deal. the united states had conceded. he was flying here under the pretext that he was going to sign this deal. this should have been a win. as he is sitting in the oval office, he says i want the president to stand with ukraine. in moments, he was going to be standing with the president of the united states with a win he had negotiated. instead of taking that win, he turned it into a debate on american security guarantees during peace notegotiations instead of taking that win and from that going forward. >> it all went sideways after a polish reporter asked president trump about his perceived alignment with vladimir putin.

the president reacted. the vice president jumped in praising trump's diplomacy. that's when zelenskyy said about what he said, what kind of cease-fire and diplomacy are you talking about? i brokered deals with vladimir putin in the past. do you really think that this was all to blow it up? was it just people talking past each other? what do you think happened? >> i think fundamentally here -- again, you don't fly a quarter across the world for a signing ceremony for a deal with the president of the united states and turn it into a debate on american security guarantees on peace negotiations that are unrelated to the mineral deal that you came -- the economic deal you came to sign. >> you can't things out of the context. president trump reverferred to

as a dictator. >> in trump's way, he had taken back because the negotiations had gone forward in a way that was positive. >> this isn't happening in a vacuum. it is within question, in fact, where america's alliances are. macron told a newspaper overnight there needs to be a strategic dialogue with european countries because they are no longer depend on the american nuclear deterrent. that's an incredible statement. this is how this is heard around the world. >> right. all of these things are hysterics and overstatements. they're coming from the crux that zelenskyy has made -- i believe this is zelenskyy. he has made a precondition of going forward with peace negotiations american security guarantees. what you saw was him enter into

a public debate with the president of the united states in the oval office of -- you heard it. you said it to the secretary of the treasury. i want an american security guarantee as a precondition for peace negotiations. no one is go -- no president is going to give him as a precondition to peace negotiations. you do the peace negotiations. then you determine what security guarantees, what -- >> failed diplomatic agreements brokered that had no american guarantee that failed. what's different this time? >> you don't continue -- you got to hear -- president trump engaged by saying, people are dying, we need to stop the dying. we can't go into world war ii [ sic ] and then we will determine what needs to be made. the cart before the horse.

i want a security guarantee to go into peace negotiations is what has caused the impediment. >> are you comfortable with the u.s. diplomatic outreach and the decision to no longer isolate vladimir putin? he has not said anything about making any concession. zelenskyy is being asked to do that publicly. >> he has not. the russians showed up. i'm comfortable that marco rubio as our secretary of state in the lead with the negotiations is -- >> is he in the lead or is it steve witkoff? >> he has commenced negotiations. i believe zelenskyy needs to trust him. he needs to not have this precondition of american security guarantees, which are not coming. ukraine has been before every president since clinton. clinton in the issue of the b

budapest -- bush, every american president declined to give american security guarantees as a precondition to any negotiations. >> which is why zelenskyy is saying, give them to me now because nothing stopped them before. >> peace negotiations need to occur. then the construct of what security guarantees need to be and what needs to be put in place. >> i want to ask you, cbs has confirmed that defense secretary heg sseth has ordered to halt cyber negotiations with russia. >> i'm unaware of that. i don't believe -- there are too many -- i'm certain there are too many considerations to be accurate so blanket. >> they have ordered cyber command to halt cyber

operations. it's the link a-- >> considering what i know what russia is doing, i'm certain that's not an accurate statement of the current status of the united states operations. >> you are con -- >> i'm confident what russia is doing against the united states and the united states status against russia would not be that considering what we are facing from russia operations, yes. >> thank you very much. we will be right back with baltmore "face the nation." stay with us.

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mark kelly, john james and our own anthony salvanto with more from our cbs news poll. stay with us.

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