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people value me for me, they care about what i want, my needs, my career path, i matter here. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" >> hello. this is the context on bbc news. >> i vowed to provide the truth from this podium. we ask all of you in this room hold yourselves to that same standard. we know for a fact there have been lies pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president. >> she knew her stuff and she took a trump the imposition on all the things she was being asked.

>> in a rather admiral job of advancing her bosses views, that is what every white house spokesperson does. >> this is the context. president trump's second term is now a little over a week since his return to the white house. from his pitch to the voters on the campaign trail to his first few days in the presidency. the trump agenda for the next four years is taking shape. for the first time today, we've heard from one of the most important elements of the trump administration, the newest white house spokesperson. tonight with our panel, we will dig deeper on the key issues. we ask how a pause on u.s. federal aid and foreign aid could impact lives across the u.s. and globally. we look at the reality of the presidential pledge to be tough on immigration and borders.

and donald trump says chinese competition on ai is a wake-up call for the u.s.. what does the rise of deepseek mean? in the last two hours, the white house press secretary gave her first press briefing promising to provide the truth in launching a striking new tone promoting the president. she focused on immigration, inflation, and the d.e.i. agenda, but she then faced a number of questions on the announcement federal funding, trillions of dollars, is being frozen with apparent confusion on what that actually means for ordinary americans. she was on the front foot from the start in promoting president trump. >> while i vow to provide the truth from this podium, we ask all of you hold yourselves to that same standard. we know for a fact there have been lies pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president, his family, and we will not accept

that. we will call you out when we feel your reporting is wrong, or there is misinformation about this white house. so yes, i will hold myself to the truth and i expect everyone in this room to do the same. >> our north america correspondent was at the briefing and joins us from the white house. what was it like in there, and what is your take away from it? >> as you can imagine, it was hugely packed. there were a lot of reporters with their cameras. it seems press was there. it was a sense of excitement and nervousness. first press briefing for donald trump's white house. there may have been a sense mr. trump could have shown up. we know he believes he's the best spokesman for his agenda. but it was 27-year-old caroline levitt who ran the show. youngest ever press secretary. i think the general consensus was she did pretty well.

if you think back to 20, when it was donald trump's first term, the press secretary was sean spicer and it descended into a big row over the size of the crowds at the inauguration. mr. trump wrongly claiming his crowd size was bigger than obama's. nothing controversial like that in this press briefing. one thing i found interesting was she did say the traditional press would not be prioritize. so when you go into that room, all the front row seats are given to the legacy media in this country. but she said they were going to stop prioritizing new media, tiktok, podcasting, because these people were very crucial in helping donald trump spread his message during his presidential campaign. a very new tone from this administration. but exactly as we expected it to be in that respect.

>> we start with federal funding, a key point at that briefing because caroline levitt said a full list of what is being frozen will be released. but direct assistance like medicare, social security, and food stamps will continue. the new york attorney general said her office is going to take legal action against the trump administration pause on federal funding. in a post, she said her office would take imminent legal action against this administration's unconstitutional pause and will not sit idly by while this administration harms our families. democrats expressed alarm at the decision. the u.s. democratic house minority leader said he will convene an emergency meeting with the house democratic caucus chair tomorrow to discuss its response. the white house press secretary insisted the freeze will not impact individuals receiving assistance. she added trump wants to be a good steward of taxpayer money. let's this administration, if

you're receiving individual assistance from the government, you will still continue to receive that. however, it is the responsibility of this president and the administration to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. that is something president trump campaigned on, why he launched the department of government efficiency, working alongside omg. that is why they sent out this memo last night, the president signed an executive order directing omb to do just this. the reason for this is to ensure every penny that is going out the door is not conflicting with the executive orders and actions this president has taken. >> senate minority leader chuck schumer -- at the heart of the average american family. >> last night, president trump plunged the country into chaos. without a shred of warning. the trump administration announced a halt to virtually all federal funds across the country. >> let's discuss with our guest,

doug haig, former director at the republican national committee and political and communication strategist shannon spence. thank you for being with us. doug, this does seem to be causing confusion. it is not clear what exactly is affected. >> you even see this from some republican governors asking questions very publicly. what does it mean, how will it be implement it, and what pauses have to go on things? it says a lot about how donald trump wants to communicate and do his job. big announcement, details come later. consistent with what we've seen from him in the past. this is a new way for him to do it. certainly a lot of questions. democrats will go on the attack, republicans scratching their chins to figure out what happened. >> the news agencies are just reporting no medicaid payments have been affected. they are being processed and sent. even if there is a portal issue, they say it will be back online shortly.

but the democrats are firmly opposed to what is being announced. >> absolutely. of course the democrats are opposed to this. the sad truth is republicans have the majority of the house and the senate. they seem to be following in line with the president. doug is right, it is sort of a shock and all agenda the president has. the memo itself was only two pages. about medicare, it was only a footnote in the memo. details will come later and we will see how it plays out. there is a scramble to figure out what this means for states and individuals. i don't know how it is possible individuals will not be impacted. but we will look for those details later. this is really showcasing a donald trump who knows what he wants to do and how to execute the agenda. he's much more confident and has these executive orders. this idea of this mandate he has received, or that he perceives

he has received in the november election is sort of down. the guy basically delivered his entire campaign in the first three days of last week. >> just to explain the scope of federal aid, explain what programs are backed up by this. what sort of people could lose out? >> millions. anyone who relies on medicaid, for instance. this is where you get questions from not just members of congress, but the a nurse who often have to implement those policies that come through the states. it ultimately goes to a much bigger political nerd conversation about what is more important, the presidency or conference -- congress. donald trump has this because they have given past presidents much more power they have ultimately shorn away from themselves. >> in terms of whatever legal or political challenges can happen, what did democrats have available to them?

>> we have already started to see some of these executive orders get tested in the legal system. most notably with birthright citizenship last week. just because an executive order was signed doesn't mean it will be implement it in its entirety. we will see the legal system work and states attorney generals are scrambling to figure out what tools they have available to push back on some of these orders. >> just on the style of the briefing we saw. it was a couple of hours of -- hours ago. what did you make? >> she clearly feels she is in command and controls that room. the first press conference is always a packed house, standing room only. what we saw with her was a very marked difference between jen psaki and her first press conference, or sean spicer. she clearly has the confidence of the president. which we learned with sean spicer, that did not exist for a very long time. i expect we will see a lot.

>> shannon, your take on the last couple of hours? >> i thought she did a great job. i'm of a generation of women that that was my dream job. i grew up with allison janney, cj craig on the west wing. it is a very difficult job. she's 27 years old, a new mom. that is a very intimidating room and she had confidence and poise and was professional and set the tone for the second trump administration. she did a great job. >> let's move on. as well as concerns of funding for america's at home, funding eight overseas is another huge issue with the freeze to the u.s. agency for international development. last week, donald trump signed an executive order directing a 90 day halt on all new and most existing u.s. foreign aid, humanitarian development, and security developments to be reviewed to determine whether they are in the u.s. interest. that means thousands of programs might have to stop work and lose

staff. again, there is a lot of concern over this from those in the charity sector and whether they will be ultimately affected and what they will do right now. >> people are scrambling to figure out -- this was not expected. these cuts and freezes on federal funding was not expected. nobody had contingency plans lined up. they are trying to figure out what they are going to do. i will say i think the voters that voted donald trump in office, this is largely something that they want. they think the government has a deficit problem. i think that is sort of undeniable. they want to find a way to make sure these taxpayer dollars are used effectively. i think he has the support of his base, probably will have the support of congress on this. time will tell in the next 30 days about what will be continued and what will be indefinitely canceled. >> politically, which programs

will be most vulnerable? >> i think first and foremost, one thing that is driving conversation in washington is the pep farm program, to combat aids in africa. a big priority of my old boss, senator richard burr. he drove through legislatively when he was in the senate. it is a big priority for the bill gates foundation. a lot of talk behind closed doors of can the funding we restored? because it is such a successful program. as a conservative republican, i look at what programs are not successful. this has been a smashing success and one that i think republicans and democrats want to see continued. >> and the whole tax question might be the heart of it. also the political use of aid and whether it is in u.s. interests. you can hear arguments about the aid to the african continent and curbing disease that can become a global threat. do you think those arguments

will cut through with the white house when they have to decide which programs to maintain and which to ask? >> the argument i would want to hear them talk about in the white house and consider is the geopolitical argument. the aid packages are an active american soft power. they help create affinity for americans and the united states across the world. in their absence, somebody will step in. largely in the last decade, that has been china. china is waiting in the wings to swoop in. this may be their moment. i'm very concerned about that across the globe in the impacted ripple effect it will have. specifically geopolitically. >> for now, thank you very much. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news.

>> the emergence of chinese ai technology, we have seen a lot

of that sending shockwaves thanks to deepseek on wall street. it has put a question over american ai dominance. the whole ai race might be as competitive as they come. each country vying to be in the lead. perhaps to some surprise, the u.s. president did not totally condemn the deepseek shakeup. he said it was rather a wake-up call. >> for the last couple of days, i have read about china and some of the companies in china. one coming up with a faster method of ai, and much less-expensive. that is good. because you don't have to spend as much money. i view that as a positive. the release of deepseek ai from a chinese company should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser focused on competing to win. we have the greatest scientists in the world. >> today, the press secretary doubled down on the message. >> the president believes this

is a wake-up call to the american ai industry. the last administration sat on their hands and allow china to rapidly develop this ai program. so president trump believes in restoring american ai dominance. that is why he took very strong executive action this past week to sign executive orders to roll back some of the onerous regulations on the ai industry. president trump also probably appointed the first ai and crypto's are at this white house. david sacks, who i spoke with yesterday. very knowledgeable on this subject. this team is working every day to ensure american ai dominance. >> i'm joined by the economist ai writer alex noren. deepseek, should we be alarmed? >> i don't think we should be alarmed. i think we should be impressed. this is a phenomenal achievement for chinese ai lab that was not really on anyone's radar until last summer at the earliest. they have taken sanctions that

prevented them from accessing the greatest chips in the world. and they have spat out a model that can goto to to with the best america could produce while spending a fraction of the cost. it is a tremendously impressive achievement. >> what does it mean for the u.s. tech industry, given the amount of funding the president has only in the last few days announced will go to ai? >> it depends which part of the tech industry we are talking about. if you are one of the makers of one of the previous frontier ai models, a company like openai or anthropic, or googles ai lab in london and deke mind, this is not great news. the general feeling around ai previously has been the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars it takes to build one of these top-tier models gives you a bit of a defense against competition. there's only so many competitors who can afford to go head to head with you.

that means once you have built the model, you can hopefully sit back and make some money from it. what this suggests is it is probably not true. deepseek is the first china model this good, but not really be the last. that means we should expect a world where there is a lot more very good companies producing very good ai models. but most of tech is not openai or anthropic. a company like apple, who sat back and watched the ai industry unfold in front of it, this is fantastic news for you. rather than paying through the nose to openai to put chatgpt into siri, you will have a plethora of options. you can pick and choose and rely on the dominance of ai. >> in terms of security, do you have chinese linked apps like deepseek or tiktok on your phone? >> i installed them because i have to keep on top of them for

my work and i don't have national security implications if i do so. i think the chinese industry and the ties between state and commerce should worry someone who needs to be concerned about that for their job. certainly i would not put state secrets into their web interface. but at the same time, one of the interesting things about this technology is it is open source. the model deepseek have trained is free available for download. you don't have to run it on their hardware. if you have a fairly large server knocking around in the shed, you can run it there and probe -- poke and prod it to see what it does. it sensors a lot of questions and tries best to reply. this is very much invading the ideas from where it came. >> we will have to leave it there. alex earned from the economist. let me bring you our panel

guest. would you have both tiktok and deepseek on your phone? you have them? >> no i don't. i don't have accounts on either and i would not have them on my phone. the national security argument here, but i also by the competition argument. i think donald inaugural speech, impossible is what america does best. and we were taken off guard by the announcement yesterday. and america has to compete with china. i think the next several years will be with a firm eye on competition. but we cannot take the ball out of nash and secured he prayed i don't have tiktok, i'm 1000 years old. i will stick with instagram. >> doug, there are questions that come out of this. donald trump says it it can redone at a lower cost, using lower energy, that is potentially a good thing.

>> both a threat and a promise. something that washington should be concerned about but also learn from. as the technology explodes, it may not make headlines every day, but the ai generation boom could be defined in the next 20 to 50 years of global history and the same way the birth of the internet did. it is why everyone is trying to race as fast as they can to be the leader in this market and why so many things that don't make front-page news, mineral rights in west africa become critically important in the geopolitical struggles we are facing today. >> when we look at the controls of ai, of intelligence, how much humanlike capacity it could eventually have. if china is so advanced, there will be a lot of questions and fears about what that means, for example in the military sphere. >> i think ai in the military might be the number one issue that does not get talked about enough. ultimately this could determine

how global conflict play out if they play out. it is something in washington, not just in the pentagon and white house, but every department and agency of the federal government is developing policies on these that are already outdated, but they keep updating them every week because of the critical nature it is certainly to the department of energy, department of transportation, massive systems will be depending on this more and more. >> and we saw at the inauguration, the tech tightens, the very front of image at the ceremony. in the alignment of political power with the u.s. tech gods, really. does it reassure you the current administration will put political backing into that industry, which the u.s. needs? or is it alarming? >> first of all, i think mark zuckerberg would love to hear you call him a tech god. but it was alarming to see them

all line-up back there, but it shows they have the largest microphone in the world. and this is a president focused on commercial deregulation. i think there will be a red telephone line between the white house, mar-a-lago, and silicon valley. it will probably only be a good thing. >> in terms of the amount of investment announced by the administration, we've seen a lot of concerns on the climate front about the implications of ai. what does this move on deepseek mean for that money? we have seen market wobbles, too. >> i don't think it will have an impact on that money. that money will be spent and invested into energy development for ai. that is its primary tool. the budget increase, what sounds like $600 million sounds like a lot of money, it will be one billion very quickly. >> in terms of the regulation

and the running back of some of those controls, do you have wider concerns about that in terms of the political impacts? >> bipartisan support -- the president is going to have to find middle ground here. there will not be bipartisan support for any of these tech regulations or the regulations. so he has majority now and he will be able to get a lot done. he's moving very quickly. but it is not something you will ever enjoy a large majority or even bipartisan support on. >> in terms of the role of elon musk, what are you hearing about the closeness of elon musk and donald trump? a lot of speculation about that relationship. >> the reality is you hear something different almost every hour. it is maybe the most talked about relationship in this country at this point. more than taylor swift and travis kelce, may be. it seems like an hour-by-hour thing of how close elon is

standing to donald trump at any given moment and what it tells us. i don't think anybody knows where that relationship is going to go. >> stay with us, we are back in a few minutes with much more for you as we digest the first press re-think from donald trump's new spokesperson in the white house. we are back soon. this is the context. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ announcer: "usa today" calls it, "arguably the best bargain in streaming." that's because the free pbs app lets you watch the best of pbs anytime, anywhere.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... nicole: at bdo i feel like a true individual, people value me for me,