>> john: welcome to "cbs evening news plus." i'm john dickerson. in a presidency like no other, donald trump will do something familiar: take the short ride to

capitol hill to describe his achievements to a joint session of congress. weijia jiang has a preview of the president's address. return tariffs. hours after the president's new tariffs on canada, mexico, and china took effect, two of those nations returned fire. canada's prime minister justin trudeau called the president's tariffs "dumb." kelly o'grady will explain how these import taxes will make their way through the economy. a dream deferred. karen hua goes in-depth on the vulnerable workers caught in the mass firings and the federal government. those stories and more right after our news headlines. wet tuesday. a powerful storm took aim at new orleans just as mardi gras hits its peak. several parades were shortened to keep marchers out of danger. tornadoes from that same system caused widespread damage

in ada, oklahoma. a paint warehouse in northern texas was ripped apart by high winds. bygones. president zelenskyy's blowup at the white house regrettable and pledges he stands ready to work for peace on what he calls is in stable condition. the vatican says he's not suffered any new respiratory episodes in his breathing with just the help of supplemental oxygen. the pope, who is 88 years old, spent 19 days in a rome hospital. ♪ ♪ presidential addresses to congress are nearly as old as this country. washington said the welfare of our country is the great object to which our cares and efforts ought to be directed. tonight president trump will tell the country where his

efforts will be directed and cbs' senior correspondent weijia jiang joins us with the latest reporting on where he's going to go. weijia, the white house often before these speeches says this president is going to strike this tone, to get us all thinking in that frame of mind. what are they saying about the tone tonight? >> reporter: john, it's going to be trumpian tone, we are told. sources say this is all trump in his words, deeply involved in every bit of this message. because he thinks it's really important to take a victory lap and remind the american people of what he is doing to make their lives better. to that end, the speech is organized in four very distinct parts, we are told. part one is going to be a look back at his past 43 days in office to tout everything that he considrs to be a victory. he will then shift to the economy and talk about the "mess" that he inherited and try

to explain with specific details we are told about how he's trying to lower prices for people and what he is doing to boost the economy. he will also ask for congress for more funding for border security before he turns to a foreign policy which of course we expect him to talk about ukraine as well as the conflict in the middle east. because sources here say it's really important to the president to come across as a peacemaker. so he's going to try to show that he's doing everything that he can to negotiate two of these critical deals, john. >> john: weijia, is this one of these carefully crafted speeches? lots of speechwriters? how is he preparing for this 4-point speech? >> reporter: officials told us he's not preparing by reading from a teleprompter or standing at a podium and going over this speech, but he has been working

closely with his team of advisors and his speechwriters. just to make sure that the content is what he wants to say. it's interesting, john, because i was going back to my notes from just about a year ago to look at his predecessor, because they were preparing in a much different way. at the time, president biden had something to prove and that was that he was not too old to do the job, that he was mentally and physically prepared to take on another term in office. so to that end, he was doing the physical preparation, including you know, practicing every line to try to land it. but we are told that the president is not doing that and "he could do this in his sleep," john. >> john: we shall see. weijia jiang at the white house. thank you. president trump's new tariffs against america's three largest trading partners went into effect today. canada and china retaliated with new tariffs of their own. mexico could do the same within days. the prospect of higher prices, smaller markets, and general volatility was not liked by

traders on wall street. the dow dropped more than 670 points. that's more than 1.5%. the nasdaq also fell today, and the s&p lost more than 1% wiping out all of the gains since election day. that brewing trade war is bound to have a ripple effect beyond the stock market and to help us understand what that may be, i'm joined by "money watch" correspondent kelly o'grady. kelly, good to have you here again. the retaliatory tariffs. how might those affect us? >> this is really going to be american businesses that take that hit. canada and china, they slapped retaliatory tariffs on specific industries, and that's going to be tough for businesses that rely on exporting their goods to these countries and specifically i'm thinking about soybean and corn farmers. you and i have talked about this space at length and they rely on china to be a big buyer of their goods. of course we do know, tariffs are supposed to incentivize bringing manufacturing here. but for farmers, it doesn't

really matter to them. they really just need access to those markets. >> john: with a crop in the field, manufacturing over here is not helping you out. tell me about retailers. how are they responding to this round of trade back-and-forth? >> so, earnings season, right? we heard from target and best buy and they said look prices are going to go up. we also have heard from ford about how this could impact the auto industry and in fact i want to read a quote from their ceo from an investor conference. pretty inflammatory language. he said "long term, 25% tariff across the mexico and canadian border will blow a hole in the u.s. industry that we have never seen." these companies, they are trying in some cases to bring manufacturing here, but john, as you well know, that requires time, investment, and certainty, of which there is very little right now. >> john: in the moment, you and i have been talking about consumer confidence numbers and consumer spending, it was down. how is that going to affect all that? >> if prices go up, consumers will likely spend less and that's exactly why you saw the markets tank the past two days

because if consumers spend less, companies don't do as well and by the way, consumer spending is two-thirds of gdp, so that could really affect the economy as a whole. >> john: indeed. kelly o'grady, thank you so much, as always. at a los angeles city council meeting today, the onetime city fire chief kristin crowley defended her actions against the devastating january wildfires hoping to regain her position. mayor karen bass demoted crowley, calling her removal in the best interest of public safety. cbs's carter evans reports on the council vote and the emotionally charged hearing. >> reporter: in the midst of l.a.'s struggle to recover from the devastation, there's also a power struggle. it began just days after wildfires wiped out most of the pacific palisades. finger-pointing by l.a. mayor karen bass and fire chief kristin crowley on who dropped the ball for what became the costliest disaster in l.a. history. >> i just met with chief crowley and removed her as fire chief.

>> reporter: today the former chief came to city hall pleading to get her job back. >> it is never the wrong time to do the right thing and to speak the truth. >> reporter: crowley blames the mayor for budget cuts she said hampered the department's response. mayor bass claims crowley failed to put 1,000 firefighters on duty that day and for not giving her a warning before she left on a planned trip to ghana. the former chief denied those claims but needed 10 of the 15 council members to be reinstated. >> scapegoating and pointing fingers is not going to aid us in correcting these shortcomings. >> i'm going to support the power of the mayor. >> reporter: in the end, just two supported crowley. including councilwoman monica rodriguez. do you think chief crowley turnd this into a political issue while the fire was still burning by complaining about the budget? >> no. i don't. you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

and i think her response reflected that she learned the hard way. >> reporter: councilman tracy park urged the council to delay any firings until all the investigations are complete. >> you deserve answers on accountability, and that might mean firing everyone. who has culpability. and i have no problem with that. >> reporter: for a shaken community, it will take more than words or changing of the guard to finally heal. carter evans, cbs news. los angeles. >> john: now here are three things to know. today the consumer finance protection bureau dropped its lawsuit against three of america's largest banks and the operator of the zelle payments network. that suit had alleged the firms failed to investigate fraud complaints or reimburse victims. since president trump took office, the bureau has dropped at least have a dozen suits brought during the biden administration.

have a look at the chaos in serbia's parliament today. smoke bombs, flares, eggs -- they are expensive -- and water bottles tossed around as opposition lawmakers accuse the ruling party of corruption, at least three people were hurt. one lawmaker reportedly suffered a stroke. a researcher at the university of oxford uncovered a rare handwritten copy one of the most famous love poems, shakespeare's sonnet 116, first published in 1609. the sonnet begins with the word" "let me not not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments." this copy contains additional lines believed to be adopted for a politically themed song. it's only the second manuscript copy of the poem to be found. coming up on "cbs evening news plus," we head to arkansas' ozark national forest. >> i cycle through being angry sad. stressed. >> john: our in-depth report on the impact those federal mass firings are having on the

wo

>> john: in tonight's address president trump is expected to highlight the department of

government efficiency's work in cutting the federal workforce. those reductions have resulted in thousands of newly hired workers losing jobs with little or no notice. for tonight's "in depth," karen hua reports the move has upended the entire lives of many of the workers. >> reporter: it's a perennial question. how far would you go for your dream job? >> i actually worked seven days a week for a few weeks just to get my foot in the door. >> reporter: how much would you sacrifice? how much did the camper cost? >> 16 grand. >> reporter: now these two women, who worked in arkansas' ozark national forest, are among at least 1,000 other national park service workers terminated in the wave of federal mass firings. >> i feel very disrespected. >> reporter: leah saffian had ten days to move and start her job so she borrowed thousands to buy this camper. she was let go three weeks in. >> i cycle through being angry sad, stressed.

>> reporter: national park service jobs range from collecting entrance fees to cleaning up trash, to search and rescue missions. the national park service oversees more than 85 million acres across the u.s., like the buffalo national river. >> it's one of the only places i can go to and completely forget everything that's going on. >> reporter: stacy ramsey worked here as the only permanent river ranger, saving dozens of hikers and boaters on search and rescue missions. >> i'm sure i will have to eventually. >> reporter: this job is more than a dream or income for her. >> this is the $27,500 injection. >> reporter: every eight weeks, stacy has given herself shot worth almost her yearly salary all to manage her crohn's disease. with health insurance, it was five bucks, but now her health care expires in less than 30 days. and without the shot, she could end up in the hospital.

>> these thousands of employees terminated are all real people. they are all people who have families, who have mortgages, utility bills, bills to pay. >> reporter: for both women, finding a job with benefits is harder because they moved to the remote ozarks. >> i'm not going to live my life at the end of a string. i have to come up with another plan to make this work. >> reporter: they are left wondering if their sacrifices paid off. >> that's all my uniforms. i'm keeping them just in case. hopefully i'll get back into the park service eventually. >> reporter: a dream job now gone that even the beauty of the national parks can overshadow. karen hua, cbs news. the ozarks of arkansas. >> john: up next, what is president trump after in his address to congress tonight? our robert costa will be here to answer that and

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>> john: in hours, president trump will give his first joint session address to congress of his second term. cbs chief washington analyst and national correspondent robet costa has spent most of the day at the white house and joins us for tonight's interview. bob, good to be with you. what's the president after tonight? what is the point of this speech? >> reporter: john, good to be with you. for president trump, this is a visit to capitol hill and to congress that is totally politically speaking in his grip. in the senate, in the house, republicans are ready to do his bidding, to cheer him on.o do hs my conversations with top white house officials, this speech is about laying out president trump's vision as he sees it on foreign policy, on domestic policy, and it's giving

cues to congress rather than trying to broker a deal or lay the foundation for some kind of bipartisan agreement, this is about president trump being at the center of power and looking at all the executive orders in recent weeks and building upon all of that in his work with elon musk and now looking ahead with this speech tonight. >> john: bob, how does he expect that to work on the congress, the republicans really in congress who have a lot of difficult budget work ahead of them? small margin in the house. what's their expectation for how this shapes their thinking? >> reporter: you're going to see tonight, based on my reporting today, and during recent weeks, the beginning of a conversation about the scope of possible spending cuts at the federal level. so many conservatives, especially in the house, they want to see this president and this white house do a lot to cut from the federal government. already, elon musk and his d.o.g.e. effort at work with the white house to shrink the federal government in some

respects. but conservatives want to do more and they want to see more on the table from president trump, especially as they look ahead to this march 14th deadline, march 15th deadline to get a fiscal deal together. so listen closely tonight to whether medicaid is discussed, whether other major federal spending programs are discussed, and what exactly president trump is willing to put on the table. he's not just making an overture to democrats, if any. this will really be about setting up the negotiations with his own party. >> john: the economy has had some hiccups recently. consumer spending is down. consumer confidence is down. the market is hiccuping for the last couple days over the tariffs. what does your reporting tell you about how president trump sees this working out? it's an issue voters obviously care about. >> reporter: he is not nervous, white house officials and close trump confidants say, about any kind of dip in the market. he has a firm belief in tariffs as an economic tool, something that's really at the heart of

his entire economic agenda which he believes is a transactional process. he believes europe, asia, allies and adversaries alike are not being, as he would put it, fair when it comes to economic transactions with the united states. in private, i'm told by some of his confidants, he often talks about president theodore roosevelt, president mckinley, past presidents who have used tariffs as economic weapons of sorts and he looks at them in an admirable way, believing his own presidency echoes theirs. >> john: 20 seconds left. bob, his thoughts on zelenskyy. do you think they are changing given the warming from zelenskyy? >> reporter: i'm told by people close to him president trump is not thinking too much about president zelenskyy. it's about president putin, president trump, and who is going to cut the final contours of the deal. not so much what ukraine wants. it's about trump's own vision of peace and how he can get there. >> john: robert costa in washington. good to talk to you, bob. thank you. this day is a big one for political speeches. my "reporter's notebook"

is next.

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♪ ♪ >> john: march 4th is a perfect day for a political speech. it is the only date that is a sentence, and that sentence sounds like a political speech. march forth! that contains several aspects of a great speech: brevity, a call to action, and it implies everyone has banded

together to make progress. this is not why the people who arrange things in our country chose march 4th as a day for inaugurations, but they were hed on march 4th until 1933 which means a lot of great speeches were given that day. lincoln gave his second inaugural address in which at the height of the civil war he pledged "malice towards none and charity to all," the general generous sentiment that spoke to lincoln's wisdom and strength, words so good they are etched in the lincoln memorial our modern presidents stare at when they are inaugurated. march 4th is also the date of fdr's first inaugural address when he said this "first of all let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, nameless unreasoning unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." unifying, elevating, enduring. march 4th is also the date one of the worst speeches. in 1865, it was the inaugural address of vice president

andrew johnson which was described as hostile, incoherent and self-aggrandizin. in fairness, this is probably because johnson was drunk, owing to the several full glasses of whiskey he'd had that morning. one paper wrote, "the speech had sentences so incoherent it is impossible to give an accurate report." from march forth to lurch sideways, that is the spectrum of speeches given on thi date. president trump has a talk scheduled. his place in the historical order awaits him. and that's tonight's "cbs evening news plus." thanks for joining us. i'm john dickerson. our live coverage of president trump's address to congress continues on cbs news 24/7 and tonight at 9:00 eastern on cbs. until then, right now on cbs news bay area. >> you know, a lot of people slumped over on fentanyl, and other people selling things. it was just really like a circus

out here. >> a swarm of police cleaned up their park sweeping out drug dealers. hear from the neighbors now hoping the change will last. robbers targeted the shop using pepper spray on people. why the owner tells us she's not nervous. >> just come on and we'll get you caught next time. a south bay housing project was nearly scrapped. problem? the paper. >> you have to be kidding me. if we're letting an eighth of an inch on a paper margin get in the way of building housing, something is fundamentally wrong. >> meet the developers who went back to the drawing board. as we celebrate mardi gras. ♪ [ music ] ♪ notes from a new orleans saxophone player who has been on some big stages. >> it's been a wild ride, but it's been a fun wild ride, and

well wort