with president trump scheduled for next tuesday. this after this executive order declaring that the wall, a border wall, will be built, and mexico, the president saying, would reimburse the federal dollars, the u.s. tax dollars spent to initially build that wall. so this meeting now scheduled for tuesday according to the twitter account of the president of mexico, has now been canceled. donald trump, president trump tweeting this morning that he was also considering or that the meeting should be canceled if certain parameters were not reached. i don't have his full tweet in front of me. forgive me, but what we have right now is the meeting scheduled between mexico's president and the new president of the united states now canceled as of at least right now. thank you for watching this hour. msnbc live. andrea mitchell is take over. our cover certainly includes this breaking news. >> indeed. thank you tamron hall. right now on andrea mitchal

reports. taking off after his first ride on air force one president trump is arriving in philadelphia and about to speak 20 minutes from now to republican lawmakers as he reignites the debate over torture. >> as far as i am concerned, we have to fight fire with fire. now, with that being said i'm going with general mattis. i'm going with my secretary because i think pompeo is going to be phenomenal. i'm going to go with what they say. but i have spoken as recently as 24 hours ago with people at the highest level of intelligence. and i asked them the question, does it work? does torture work? and the answer was yes, absolutely. >> special relationship british prime minister theresa may arriving for her first visit since takeless office. under pressure at home to stand

up to donald trump against torture. >> we have a very clear position on torture. we do not sanction torture. we do not get involved with that and will continue to be our position. >> and moments ago the mexican president announcing that his meeting planned for next week with president trump has been canceled. we are on the same page with the white house. >> how surprised are you every time there is a new tweet from the president? >> this is going to be an unconventional presidency, i think you know this by now casy. and i think we are going to see unconventional activities like tweets and that's just something we are all going to have to get used to. good derek everyone. a busy day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president trump just arriving in philadelphia. you see air force one there. we are expecting his remarks to house and senate republicans later in this houn.

he will go -- it's about a 20 minute ride from that airport in south philadelphia back into center city, where he is going to be meeting with the republicans, where they are in their retreat a. lot to talk about. he disimbarked from marine one earlier for the first time at andrews air force base and boards air force one. it's his first ride on the blue and white plane now that he is of course commander in chief. joining me, casey hunt in philadelphia where the republicans are awaiting him. first of all, kristen, the president tweeted earlier today, this was a precursor, all of this watching this sens sensed there was a likely cancellation from mexico. you have got a mexican president at record low popularity under great pressure at home to stand up to donald trump. president trump tweeting today the u.s. has a $60 billion trade deficit with mexico. it has been a one side deal from

the beginning. nafta with massive numbers and companies lost f. mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting. that was a tip to me they already knew the meeting was going to be canceled. now it's official, mexico camming the meeting. kristen, this is a really awkward rocky start because of that importance of that relationship with mexico, one of our most important trading partners. trading deficit important because we are importing oil from them. it's really on us. when you look at the importance of the bilateral prip with our closest neighbors, mexico and of course canada, this is not a good start. >> repter: it can be overstated, andrea. a couple of things to point out. one, to put this into context, you talk about the pressure that president enrique pena nieto was getting in the wake of president trump coming out yesterday signing that executive order to greenlight construction of building a wall.

remember when they meet when then candidate trump was still out on the campaign trail? there was a lot of backlash against pena nieto. a lot of folks in mexico felt as though he didn't come out strongly enough against trump and against this border wall. he wasn't insistent enough that he wasn't going to pay. yesterday in the wake of this executive order president pena nieto was insist tent that mexico is not going to pay for the wall and stressing how much this was offensive to his people, to the country, to the people who live there. this is spriking, andrea, the fact that this meeting between these two has been canceled this. comes as president trump has talked about renegotiating nafta, renegotiating the terms of that deal with canada, with mexico, one of our most important trading allies but obviously critical as the united states tries to determine how to figure out how to improve the immigration and undocumented immigrants coming into this

country. so there are so many reasons why this is just incredibly rocky and an incredibly rocky start for president trump. now he will likely try to make the case that this is a sign of strength. but there is no doubt that this is going the complicate his efforts to do things like renegotiate nafta, to secure the borders, andrea. >> and mexico, casey hunt, is our third largest trading partner. it's in america's interest for mexico to have a strong economy, to have a strong middle class, to not have an influx of people over the rder. in fact, there has been net zero influx of people from mexico e mexicans coming across, because it's mostly central americans coming from repressive regimes and escaping from political problems and other kinds of conflict, and also their economic problems in other central american countries

coming through mexico. >> reporter: yeah. >> but in rene years and recent months more mexicans have been leaving -- mexican people who migrated to the u.s. have been going back the other way because under economy has been getting stronger. >> reporter: well, andrea, this was part of a rather uncomfortable discussion this morning with house speaker paul ryan and majority leader mitch mcconnell. they were pressed on this very question about what this -- at that point of course we were talking about just the border wall proposal. we didn't yet have this news about the official cancel igs of this visit. but they were asked what does this do to our relationship with meksio? are you comfortable with this? and they sort of pushed those questions aside just like they did on other topic related to this. they were repeatedly asked, for example, if the border wall, if building the wall that has sparked this confrontation with mexico's president, would add to the u.s. definite simpson. they have come out and said at this retreat that there likely

be a bill that will fund the construction of the wall to the tune of 12 to $15 billion. but what they weren't willing to say was whether or not they would not add to the deficit in doing so, whether there would be cuts elsewhere, off sets in congressional terms for this particular proposal. and you know, i think this illustrates the level of discomfort that there is with many republican members of congress about how trump has handled this, whether this comes from kind of a broader sense about what our immigration policy should be and how w should be talking about immigrants, particularly from mexico and south americ whether it is a more specific concern. you have members from texas for example, who think that a wall is not the solution to the border where they live. that another set of procedures and policies is what they actually need. andrea. >> the other issue that of course has come up has been top of mind is the torture question. after president trump said to

david muir on abc that he believes torture works but he would defer secretaries mattis and director of dci pompeo and their strong view to follow and law as long as it is the law against torture but that might revisit that. that is the message. that sends a signal to our allied intelligence services on whom we depend. certainly to the terrorists abroad who can use that tape and repopulate it of the president of the united states saying torture works. it's not something that you have heard before from a president. >> reporter: that's right. and even when we were having this debate during the bush presidency and after president obama pushed to make changes and have congress ultimately pass a law that restricted the intelligence community to using the techniques provided in the army field manual and outlawing

those enhanced interrogation techniques that were used nobody said that toes enhanced interrogation techniques from torture. the controversy was over the justice department kind of bending over backwards as know very well to try to say these techniques were not torture. so the way that the president is approaching this is pretty unprecedented. frank lights' been the issue that has probably put the congressional leaders most on the spot over the last couple of days. they have essentially said look this is settled law. we have dealt with this law. paul ryan was very blunt today saying how oftentimes lawmakers will try to talk around a question, ryan was short and to the point. he said look this is settled law. we don't think it should be changed. torture is illegal. i think you know this is something where there are very definitive breaks between the president and the way he's talking about this as well as the policy he is espousing and other republicans in his own

party? in fact, you brought up a point -- i noticed that when you were asking questions -- and mitch mcconnell said i think the director of the cia has made it clear he is going to follow the law and i think all of my members are comfortable with that state of the law right now. ryan leaned in and said torture is illegal and we agree with it noting legal. he could not be more definitive. he said it's illegal three times. kristen, there is a lot of discomfort as casey has point out among the republican leaders with the tweeting with the kind of language, with sort of the way things are rolling out. they have to deal with it. they have to smooth things over. what is happening hyped the scenes in the white house as they are trying to get up to speed? we now have reports that the entire top level at the state department of presidential appoint appointees, but of career foreign service people have cleared out, have resigned as of

today. >> reporter: and white house pris press secretary shawn spicer was just asked about that during his gaggle with reporters aboard air force one. he said he hadn't been briefed on that yet. we are waiting for their official reaction. >> now kristen we see the president. >> reporter: yes. >> the president is coming out of air force one. this is goio become the image of the next four years of the president coming down the steps of air force one for the first time in philadelphia. his first trip. kristen, you were saying that shawn spicer was asked about this mass departure from the seventh floor of the state department. rex tillerson was there for the first time that he know of yesterday. once it was clear that he was going to have the votes for confirmation. >> reporter: to your broader point, i think there was some concern about the way in which this transition was unraveling in the sense that white house officials of the obama administration were saying that

they wanted more engage men from the trump transition. so i think there is some catching up that is happening. and then the typical sort of getting your sea legs that happens whenever you enter the white house. so i think both of those things are happening at the same time. going back to what you were discussing though with casey in terms of this conversation about torture -- this is now an issue that is overshadowing this white house. we are peppering them with questions about the remarks that president trump made last night during that interview. and of course it sets the backdrop for that meeting that he is going to have with british prime minister theresa may tomorrow. you think about the relationship with the united states and mexico, the fact that that meeting has now been canceled. the fact that that relationship has now been complicated to such a large extent by the building of this wall or at least the greenlighting of the construction of the wall. and this discussion of torture i think is going to create a very

complicated backdrop as well, thorny backdrop as president trump prepares to meet with prime minister theresa may who has been insistent that they are not going to engage in enhanced interrogation methods like water boarding. i think there are going to be some tough questions and we are expecting to get some questions to both of these leadest tomorrow when they meet. >> the president is inside the limo. the beast, and about to proceed to center city philadelphia from south philadelphia as i say it is a about a 20 minute ride in a motorcade. they obviously don't have to stop for traffic or any other impediment as they proceed down to the hotel where they will be meeting with the republican leaders. the speech from the president is going to precede another speech later from vice president pence and then a third speech today to the gathering, and this from the british prime minister who will then be in washington tomorrow for her first meeting at the white house. we are told they will have a joint press conference.

shawn spicer on the tarmac has just told reporters on air force one there will be an attempt to reschedule the meeting with the mexican president and keep lines of communication open. they are trying to smooth this over. there was a travel pool. there had been nervousness among the white house press corps about what the traditions would be taken up by this new president and his team. but they did travel with him on air force one. the press secretary did speak to reporters. all of that is proceeding at pace. thanks to casey hunt and kristen welker. casey will be there of course when the president arrives. joining me now is the maryland congressman elijah cummings. thanks for your patients, we wanted to watch the president arrive and find out what had happened on air force one. what is your initial reaction to the cancellation by the mexican

press anged by the tweet from president trump earlier today that that meeting is not going to take place? >> andrea, let me express my condolences with the passing your father. >> oh, thank you kong man. >> with regard to this, andrea i'm not surprised. you cannot bully your way around the world. clearly, there was -- signals were there that mexico is not going to pay for the wall and that president trump is trying to force them to. and i think -- and when you think about the fact that the poll numbers for the mexican president are at 12%, he probably had no choice but to cancel and so i'm not surprised. >> also we know there is going to be an executive action later today by president trump on an investigation into the so-called voter fraud claims which we know have been discredited by every fact finder and research group.

what are you thinking of that? chairman chafee said he sees no reason for a congressional investigation. and if the president wants to do it on his own he has a justice department. where do we stand? >> andrea, let's be clear. there is no voter fraud to speak of. and the thing that is so insulting to me and to so many others. >> we have seen over and over again where -- is that we have seen over and over where republican legislators and governors have been denying people the right to vote. in 2014, in texas, a court found that 600,000 peo were denied the right to voteecause of all these restrictive laws and voter i.d. laws. and i had said to my colleagues if they want to do an investigation do an investigation to make sure that every person has a right to vote. and that is my concern. this is a smoke screen. this is -- it's like chasing a

rabbit that doesn't exist that -- the voter fraud. but the fact that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people are today not able to vote because of these restrictive laws, that's a major problem. that's what we should be looking at. and i'm hoping that the republicans will bring legislation to the floor of the house whereby we can restore the voting rights act because as you know the supreme court pretty much gutted it. now you have got american people and others who are being denied the right to vote. that's the bigger question. so if they are going to do an investigation, they need to do that investigation. >> the justice department has already signaled that it's not going to ask for a continuance. it's not going to to go to that hearing that was supposed to be this week on the voter i.d. law in texas. and you are also getting signals from the justice department potentially about the consent decrees with chicago and baltimoron the police department. >> yeah, yeah. >> how are you going to deal with that.

baltimore, that's your turf. you were out in the he streets, you know better than anyone what's going on there. >> we are hoping that the justice department -- they delayed the court hearing on it. we expect that to be in front of a judge. i think once it's being ruled over by a judge it will be -- we'll probably be able to make some headway. but the problem is, andrea, this was a consend decree in baltimore where everybody came together, the police, the community, the religious community and elected officials, and gave a lot of testimony, came up with a plan whereby the police and the citizens could work together to make things better. and i'm hoping that sessions -- and i do expect senator sessions to be affirmed -- i'm hoping that he will not just yank the rug from under these decrees because they play such an important role particularly in a time when there is so much tension between police and our communities. >> as the ranking democrat on

oversight you might be concerned what's going on at the state department. what we are hearing is mass departure of the professional levels of top people on the seventh floor. clearly they would submit their resignations as is standard for the new president but for them all to leave just as this new secretary of state not yet confirmed but on track to be confirmed is coming in it signals a real vacuum there at the state department of professional leaders. >> no doubt bichlt our state department people, i know many of them, worked with many of them, they give their blood, sweat and tears for our country. andrea, there is something happening here. what we are finding is that more and more peep are looking at some of the appointments that are being made by president trump. they are lookingt the policies that he's putting out. as a matter of fact just recently we got four different documents where we see that there has been put a gag order

on federal employees. and so i think federal employees feel like they are under a gun. and they feel like they cannot do the job they need to do. so it doesn't surprise me. i think you are going to see even more of that. i think you are going to see something else. i think you are going to see more and more people going into the streets. in some countries, the people are afraid of the government. and i think people are trying to make sure that the government becomes afraid of the people. and i -- i anticipate that you are going to see more and more republican congressmen with members of their community knocking on their doris and complaining because a lot of people are scared. they don't know where we're going. they see their country changing literally by the minute. and things like torture and things of that nature, and gag orders, these are -- this is not the america and not the democracy that they want. >> as you are talking, actually, we are looking at some protests.

there are protesters in philadelphia in center city philadelphia awaiting the arrival -- not that close but a few blocks away of president trump. thank you so much elijah cummings. we are following up on the issue of the gag orders because we are hearing from scientists at e.p.a. and usda and also where that they have been told not to use twitter, not to send out my scientific guidance to their constituencies and there have been halts in the past. we are trying to compare it to other administrations. but there is now growing -- a growing sense that this is an unusual so-called gag order on scientists in various departments and agencies. >> andrea, i think you have got to go, but real quick one of the things that when they put out the gag order, we have strict whistlelower laws that protect whistle blowers. when the administration put out these gag orders those gag orders require that they say

they can still speak to members of congress. when you shut that down, i don't know what type of a country we are going towards but we have got to stop this. >> elimga cummings thank you sir. as you saw, president trump landed in philadelphia at this hour. he is going to address republican members of congress at their retreat. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job,

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and if they don't want to do, that's fine. if they do want to do, then i will work toward that end. >> joining me now is john rizzo, former top attorney at the cia. his memoir is company man, 30 years of controversy and crisis in the cia. good to see you again. >> thank you. >> you defended the enhanced interrogation techniques at the time. you were following guidance from the justice department under george w. bush. it was very controversial. you saw the fallout on the agency from all of that. your view now about the techniques and torture and having the president of the united states use the t word, be that -- i mean, he wasn't even using a euphemism saying he thinks it works but will abide by the law. >> well, first of all, the fallout was significant, and it including falling out on me among other people about the legal side of the original problem. i continue to believe looking

back at the time -- at the time, the program was legal. and as implemented and carried out, the enhanced interrogation techniques were effective in eliciting vital information. so that hasn't changed. >> that hasn't changed. that of course was disputed by the senate intelligence report. and that was very controversial. but what about what's happening now? do you now think that -- well what's your reaction to president trump and what he said last night? >> well, it was startling, to say the least, to watch words come outf the president of the united states's mouth, first of all the word torture. the whole premise, the legal premise of the original program was some of the tech teeks, while some of them were harsh like water boarding did not fit the legal definition of torture. if something is torture by definition it is illegal, it was illegal then. it was illegal then, illegal now. and regardless of whatever protectiveness or whatever

criteria. to hear the president of the united states use that word in sort of an affirmative way i found remarkable. >> what is the impactan our foreign partners, the intelligence agencies that we partner with all over the world, especially in difficult areas where we can't go? >> yeah, no, i think it's going to be significant. i mean the original program generated enough controversy overseas. in that case, as i have said, we had a position, perhaps other people in this country disagree with that the program was legal. now for -- how is any foreign country going to allow us, allow the government to build another secret prison in their country when the president of the united states is announcing torture may go on there. they will never do that. >> isn't he giving a pop began de tool to the bad guys. >> oh, sure. the bad guys always claimed what we were doing was torture. now they can say they have the personal informator of the

president of the united states. >> after your long career you still talk to a lot of people inside. he says when he went over there on saturday he was told by people at the agency that torture works. is that credible knowing what you know and who was there that day? >> i don't know who that possibly could have been. first of all, all of us who were involved in that program -- there are still scores if not hundreds faced what, seven or eight years of recrime nations, investigations. >> legal fees? >> legal fees, you know being called by some elements of our society torture advocates, that was me. human rights violators, goons. for anyone to say -- and i have not heard that i've heard the contrary from my former colleagues. >> what are they telling you. >> they are terrified about even the possibility that they might

be asked to go down this road again after all these years. >> so there was a draft that circulated, shawn spicer said it was not a white house document. there has been reporting by others, the "new york times," the "washington post" that in fact was being circulated at a very high level but not briefed to general mattist or director of dci pompeo that they were in fact telling lawmakers that both of them were shocked by this. maybe it's being withdrawn or rewritten. but there certainly was a draft document circulating that they would be considering redefining the army field manual, reopening black sites, and revisiting torture, enhanced interrogations, or whatever? >> yeah. well, again, i just find it incredible that the cia director who is now confirmed -- no one bothered to tell him about this kind of draft circumstance

lathe. i looked at the draft i looked at millions of such drafts from the nsc in my time. something like that f it was circulated at all, i can't imagine why no one apparently made the new cia director aware of its existence. >> john rizzo, thank you very much. the book is "the company man qug it's good to see you. >> thanks. as we have been reporting mexico's president canceled his plan to visit the white house next week shortly after donald trump said maybe he shouldn't have that visit. joining me now a republican polly adviser researcher at the hoover institute who specializes in immigration reform and other domestic policy. first of all your eracks from a cancellation of a visit from our third largest trading partner, a trip to mexico city that president trump took very early in his administration, there

were other meetings, actually the first meeting with a foreign leader was back with the mexican president. >> there is no question that our relationship with both canada and mexico are very important, mexico in particular is a important trading partner. i'm not entirely surprised that the president of mexico has made the decision not to come given everything that happened in the last few days and frankly given the direction that u.s. policy is taking both with the executive order actions and the renegotiation or potential renegotiation of nafta. i also think the mexican president has a domestic constituency that would have been in real estate volt if he came to the united states. his approve ratings are in the 20s. i can't imagine what it would go to if he came to washinon. i'm not surprised. >> his decision could have been driven largely by domestic concerns for the mexican president. remember what happened during the campaign with then candidate

trump. donald trump weapon to phoenix that very same day and gave a very tough answer immigration speech in phoenix that night. what about immigration policy in this context as you look at the executive orders agreed to yesterday? >> well, i think the executive orders were quite stark in fact. you know, they do set out the administration's policy and clearly are consistent with at least the rhetorical direction that the president took during the campaign. i think we'll have to see as we go forward as with all of these executive orders, andrea, how impactful they will be given how the administration actually implements them. for example, there are some things that the administration could do easily such as stripping federal funding from sanctuary cities. that's something republicans have been in favor of for some time. the kruk of the wall is going to be trickier because what we are talking about is where is the money going to come from. if congress proeps the money

late they are year that's a separate matter but to do it exclusively by executive order i think is more questionable. we will have to see where the scope of all of this goes depending on how her administered and implemented. >> greta vas success trend asked paul ryan the speaker about paying for the wall. this was that response from paul ryan to greta, for the record, yesterday. >> today he announced that he wants to begin building that wall? >> uh-huh. >> who is going to pay for it? >> first off we are going to pay for and it front the money. i think they are various ways -- you know your question is is mexico going to pay for the wall? there are different ways of getting them to contribute to doing it and different ways of defining exactly how they pay for it. >> now we are hearing from the republican retreat today that we are talking about 8 to $12 billion and that casey hunt reported that they may have funding but that they are not

sure whether there is going a pay and go or an offset. >> right, this is the question, at what point do republicans look at this and say we have a spendingroblem as well. immigration may be different. that may be an issue priority that republicans are going to be willing to spend on, republicans on capitol hill. but in general, as a general matter we are talking about an infrastructure project, talking about tax reform, we are talking about things that all could cost money. and at some point are the fiscal conservatives in congress going to say enough? we are not willing to do this as an open encheck anymore? we are going to have to see how this develops. for now i think the members on the republican are willing to give the president the enbenefit of the doubt especially on an issue like immigration. >> what about the way he managis his time and communications twitter, responding to television interviews. we can see whether he is watching fox news or the "today" show or morning joe. he then responds in kind. it does create a challenge for

his communication team. >> it is a whole new era we are in andrea both for the president and his staff as well as for congressional republicans. you saw paul ryan's answer, which was basically, look, the president is going to communicate how he communicates. we don't have control over that. so in some ways it does force all of these different parties to be much more nimble and to be willing to respond to things maybe that they weren't intending on responding to. in some ways it probably makes your job more exciting, makes my job more exciting but it is unpredictable, to be sure. >> some people might say they could use a little less excitement. but who knows. >> i understand. >> lonnie chen, it's great to see you thank you for joining us. coming up we'll be hearing from president trump expected to speak very shortly to republican law makers in philadelphia. the flags are there. the podium is there. the teleprompter is there that means it is a likely to be a set speech if he sticks to it. we'll bring it to you live. stick with us. we are on andrea mitchell reports on msnbc.

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and this afternoon later this afternoon we are expecting some white house executive action to back up president trump's call for an investigation into what he believes to be widespread voter fraud where he says he believes there has been widespread voter fraud. joining me now, chris alyssa, and gene cummings. thanks to both. chris, there has been enough fact checking, glen kessler's and others to make it clear that no one backs up this claim of 3 to 5 million people illegally undocumented immigrants voting in this election. so if it seems to be the belief of one person, and certainly those around himrying to validate that or you know back up the president. >> it's the belief of one president who what happens to be the president of a united states with a mass iive social media

microphone. i thought paul ryan's comments to greta which is essentially i haven't seen any evidence of this and he clearly thinks there is. so an investigation is the right way to do it. the problem here is let's say the investigation adds nothing to what we know, which would suggest there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. a problem here, a problem there, but no widespread voter fraud. then what does donald trump do because he has continued to insist on something that is provably false based on all the information that we have. he has been in the past not been terribly swayed by those sorts of facts. is it different if it's his administration telling him those facts? i don't know the answer to that. it seems, given that we expect an executive order on setting up some sort of investigation here on his allegations of voter fraud that we are going to find that out at some point in the

future. >> jean cummings on this day alone we have the president of mexico under fire domestically, politically, disastrous popularity ratings at home cancelling the visit. donald trump having said, tweeted earlier today perhaps that visit should be canceled if mexico is not going to pay for the wall. we have the republican leadership waiting to hear from the president and saying that they will somehow pay for it but not explaining whether there will be budget offsets. it's between 8 and $12 billion for the kind of wall that has been envisioned. and the efficacy of that as a border argument remains to be seen. you haveot turmoil at the state department with the departure of all of the top ranking people whor would normally submit their resignations pro forma but are now leaving before rex tillerson who is presumably going to be confirmed next week -- before he even come to the state department and takes over. where are we on foreign policy

as theresa may arrives and has to defend herself against the president's comments on torture on abc? >> you know, he said he was going to do things differently and bring change. he certainly has changed the way the u.s. and our allies have our conversations and what -- and he's changed the entire conversation around the international landscape. also with the executive orders that we now expect for tomorrow that will target middle eastern countries in terms of immigrants from there. you know, he definitely has shown he wants to be a president of action. what's confusing, though, is that there is a lot of chaos and turmoil around all of it as well. and i don't know if that's two things can blend together to become permanent change. but he is -- no one should be surprised as many of the things

he has done because he is doing what he said he was going to do. and he's communicating it in a way that all of us who covered him, including chris and you andrea had to get used to during the campaign. >> and, chris, by the end of this week they will have checked the box, and he can say i promised the wall, i promised executive actions on a, b, c, and d, i've done all of those things, i've gone to the cia. you know, he can certainly be speaking to his base, to his constituency. and he has, as you point out a huge social media platform. l i think that's a great point which is he -- this is not someone who said i'm going the kind of go and fidget around the edges fiddle around the edges and make things slightly better. he -- he came in on this idea that washington is broken, it needs to essentially be razed,

r-a-z-e-d in order to make it ever sort of work for people again. and he has sort of acted on that it is amazing to me, and i was away for three of these days, andrea, but donald trump has been president for right now about six days and 45 minutes. it is a remarkable amount of things he has both done, controversies he has created in that period of time. i never thought i would say this, but there is almost too much news. now, the question always with him is how much of that is strategy? how much of it is him just making calls as he goes throughout a day? how much of that -- you know, is there a method to all of this? i don't know that we're far enough -- we don't have the proper context to say so. but this is a radically different approach to politics, to policy, to governing, to being presidential than anything that we've seen in -- i'm not going to speak to how milliard

fillmore presented himself but that we've seen in sort of the modern political era. >> speaking of the modern political era -- i was going to say, jean, we've got the -- the seal is on the podium now. we have got the pel prompters. i see the travel pool is in the room. at any moment we might be interrupting, but jean go ahead. >> just a brief point. there has been a lot of action, that is very true. and there have been a lot of pictures and a lot of headlines, but so far not very much has actually change that is the harder part that lies ahead. most of these events have been photo ops where he is directing the staff to begin a project or to come back to him with a report. things like that. most of these are executive memorandums, not exactly executive orders. so it has been a very exciting first week. and he's set a lot of big things

in motion but the really hard work does lie ahead. >> and they do have a big transition challenge because they got a late start. they had the transition team under chris christie, and then they were precipitously fired and so they had to start all over again. in a lot of agencies it's basically home alone. now it is at the state department here with a visitor, theresa may, coming to the united states for the first time. and so many vacant cease at the state department and at the nsc. they are gearing up very slowly. there seems to be action there in the room. let's see if we have time to bring in my colleague from london, kira simmons. here on the state side visit with theresa may. what we are hearing from downing street is that she is going to talk about the special relationship and the fact that both she and donald trump came to power, came to office on a populist surge. >> yeah. >> she of course with brexit, and also he with the endorsement

of brexit and with the populism that we've seen in the united states. so they have some economic basis to talk to each other. but at the same time, on foreign licy, they are not really aligned as much as one might think. they have very different views for instance towards the russians and towards vladimir putin. >> that's right. and you kind of summed it up there. theresa may, the british prime minister, would love, love to see a thatcher-/haig reagan style alliance that leads the new world, an economic future, a future where countries put their own interests first but trade very actively with each other. that's the kind of picture the british prime minister has put out there. but at the same time on every level there are issues here. there are issues over the question of the british approach to issues of torture. frankly, the approach is that it's illegal and the british don't do it. and any time they have been caught up in it they have tried

to back out again. there are questions over donald trump's attitude towards women. theresa may has said very frankly that just as a female leader of a major country she says everything she needs to say in that respect. but this is a really important and extremely difficult -- diplomats will be piting their fingernails over the next two days -- visit for the prime minister and it's important for the president, too. because he essentially gets to look like a statesman hosting a world leader. or if there is a major faux pas then the object sit picture is put out to the world. >> we know they will have a joint news conference. the white house was not clear on that. the brits were waiting. they wanted it. >> yeah. >> but this will be the first joint news conference with a foreign leader here in the united states. i covered thatcher and rag app. i can tell you they were allies at a time when a lot of the

otheleaders in europe and canadaame -- , there was a socialist president in france, and trudeau in canada, a liberal and there was a real meeting of the minds and hearts between reagan and thatcher, especially on going -- being strong and tough with military strength against the former soviet union but then she was the first one to say we can do business with mr. gorbachev when he took over as the third soviet leader that mr. reagan had to deal with. there are lots of difference. but i think the fact that she is a woman, the second woman prime minister in british history, and that he is a disruptor and someone who comes partly from the entertainment world does -- and a communicator, a real talent in terms of communicating his beliefs to the public through social media as well as through his former reality tv

background makes people analogize it to ron reagan and margaret thatcher. >> yeah. i would add another comparison, which is that ron reagan and margaret thatcher were brilliant mass terse of alying themselves with the economic sbres interests of the working class. that is what they managed to do. thatcher is an amazing economic study because she also took on the conservatives within her own conservative party, the slow movers, the liberals as she saw them. they called them the wets. she took on the british trade union. she took on the establishment, if you like, and compare that to what donald trump is presenting himself as. and i suppose by looking at that that margaret thatcher's experience and the reagan experience, one thing you can say is that their leadership galvanized the liberal left in both countries. there were marches on the streets, there were strikes, and

yet the two of them won election after election after election. now look we are not there yet with either of them. the jury is still out in both cases. but that's the kind of alliance that certainly the british prime minister would like to see. i think she'd also you know like to position herself as somebody who is intellectualizing what donald trump has to say. her speech on brexit, her recent speech on brexit, trying to set out what it means, what britain wants to leave the european union, the kind of trade that britain wants to have with the rest of the word you can see as intellectualizing the same message that the president has been putting out there, but in a different way. again, though, there are so many land mines. just that news conference while it is so crucial to the british particularly as they prepare to negotiate with the europeans, equally so what donald trump says there with the british prime minister standing next to him, how she reacts to what he

might say -- again, they will be very nervous as well as very pleased that she has managed to be the first international leader to have this kind of a meeting with the new president. >> we should point out -- hers was not the first call. >> right. >> you know, there were all the other foreign leaders that he spoke with. even speaking with the taiwanese leader and upsetting the chinese. they had to set this right. my hearing from here is there were ambassadors all over town from our closest allies who were stunned as were the media, even the trump people themselves at the election turnout. so that they were not prepared. and their memos home, to home base were not predicting that donald trump would win. so there was a lot of catch up going on. going back to the thatch herb analogy, gene cummings, you know

this from the past as well that thatcher really made her mark by goingp against the coal miners in the uk. and done -- and ronald reagan, the pivotal moment was his firing of the air traffic controllers after that union strike, a public union strike. and that really sent a signal. in fact many people said a signal to the russians that he was somebody to deal with, that he was so tough he would fire his own air traffic controllers. jean? >> absolutely. absolutely. donald trump said over and over again he wants to be a strong leader and he wants the world to look at america in a different way because america has a strong leader. it's interesting where donald trump might find that moment. it's likely to be different. he's come in. you know, he's a builder. t so the first people that he brings in are manufacturers. and then he brought in the labor

unions, and which ones did he pick to bring in? most of them are skilled crafts and firefighters, you know, doers. and so he -- and then the next day auto manufacturers. and he has talked about the auto manufacturer workers as well. so he's taking -- it's unlikely that it will be in the same venue as margaret thatcher and ronald reagan used to demonstrate their internal strength but donald trump clearly will seize that moment when it comes because that has been a central theme of his candidacy and now his presidency. >> chris, alyssa, one of the thing that theresa mayas as a foreign visitor is going to have to deal with is the unpredict. of what donald trump may say. nobody could have predicted that he in going out to the cia would talk about "time" magazine covers and tom brady and his own popularity and how smart he is. >> or how about continuing the

voter fraud idea, you know, them in the interview with david muir on abc again pointing at pictures of crowds of inaugurations. this is the thing -- it's funny you used the word unpredictable. that's what i was thinking when they were talking because it's so hard for a republican politician -- obviously we are waiting to hear what donald trump is going to say at the retreat. a politician a democratic politician, a foreign leader, a reporter, a trump aide -- the most difficult thing with him is how unpredictable he is number one. and number two how much he seems to value that unpredict. . throughout the came he talked about we were too predictable, particularly in foreign policy. that's a fine campaign idea. it's much more difficult as it relates to diplomacy particularly in foreign affairs. as you know, this steadiness or knowing what you are going to get before everybody sits down to do the photo op is at the

heart of these things, a joint press conference. not knowing that i think puts these foreign leaders in some level of political peril in that you have no idea, is donald trump going to talk about water boarding and torture and how he thinks it works in a joint press conference with theresa may if he gets asked about it? what does theresa may do if that happens? as someone who watches politics for living it's utterly fascinating. as someone who sort of practices politics as theresa may or paul ryan or mitch mcconnell do, it has to be terrifying. sort of a high wire act with absolutely no net. >> working without a net has worked for him all this last year and a half. >> yes. >> i mean it's got him past a 17-person primary fight and into the white house and onto air force one today. and he is the president of the united states, about to brief his republican colleagues at this retreat, meet with his first foreign leader tomorrow at the white house. it has been an extraordinary

journey. and a rocky first week. >> and i would say the high wire act works for him, andrea. you are exactly right. we have proof of that. now, we don't necessarily have proof that it will work as president donald trump but certainly as candidate trump it did. the question is, what does it mean for everyone who is not donald trump? we saw during the campaign marco rubio for a brief two day period tried to do the trump thing, the personal insults of trump. he apologized and went away from it. jeb bush did a little bit of it. hillary clinton didn't go down with donald trump in terms of the attacks and what she was willing to say. and still lost. so the question is, yes, it clearly worked for him. will it continue to work? and then what does it mean for everyone else in the political universe not named donald trump? to be determined. >> well, we are might ithe middle of this very unusual first week of donald trump. and i don't think we should reach any judgments yet.

he is very active. he is engaged. and there have been bumps along the way. and he's got a great platform now to speak his piece. we'll be hearing from him. you can see the podium. he is going to be addressing the republican retreat in philadelphia. a lot on his plate today with the cancellation of the mexican visit and also the wall, how to pay for the wall, what to do about obamacare, repeal and replace? we don't know yet. and the confirmations still to come for some of his critical cabinet appointees. and what the democrats are going to do in response. so our thanks to all of you, to chris alyssa, and of course jean cummings as well. craig melvin is up next here on msnbc? >> andrea mitchell good to see you. good afternoon. i'm craig melvin here in new york. a lot of breaking news this hour. at any moment president trump will be addressing kong republicans at their ph