good morning, everybody. a live look at the white house behind me. day eight of the trump administration. i'm thomas roberts at msnbc world headquarters in new york and it is a big working saturday for president trump and his administration. they are expected to make a series of overseas phone calls to foreign leaders. and they have a pack day beginning here at 9:00 a.m. the first call going to the prime minister of japan. abe shinzo. it's going to be a day of diplomacy in just a couple hours after that germany's angela merkel then russia's vladimir putin at noontime, perhaps the most anticipated call of the day. and then two more calls later, one with the french president francois hollande, and then the prime minister of israeli. malcolm turnbull. that comes up at 5:00. nbc's kasie hunt is at the white house. kasie, what kind of guidance are

you getting from administration officials about the nature of these calls, especially the one at noon to russia? >> reporter: a lot of focus today on that call to vladimir putin. you already have republican members of congress raising concerns about whether president trump is going to relieve those sanctions that former president obama put on russia over russian meddling in the u.s. election. so that's what to watch from that call today. but in the meantime, there's increasing backlash over that executive order that president trump signed yesterday that temporarily bans immigrants from certain countries. there are reports this morning that people with iraqi and other passports were not allowed to board an egyptair flight from cairo to new york because of concerns about this new executive order. now, nbc news is still working to confirm those reports. this policy president trump calls extreme vetting, but critics say it amounts to a ban on all muslims.

fallout this morning from president donald trump's move the make good on a divisive campaign promise. >> new vetting measures to keep radical islamic terrorists out of the united states of america. >> reporter: at the pentagon yesterday, trump signing an executive order to ban immigrants from these predominantly muslim countries for the next 90 days. >> we don't want them here. >> reporter: the orders stop short of an all-out ban on muslims as he promised last december. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. >> reporter: but it sparked outrage. the aclu calling the order quote a euphemism for discriminating against muslims. in an e-mail the dean of faculty at princeton university advising colleagues and students from affected countries to, quote, defer travel outside the united

states until further clarification comes. trump signed the offensive board order after his meeting friday with british prime minister theresa may, his first with a foreign leader as president. trying to focus on what they have in common, like whether russia should continue to face sanctions. >> very early to be talking about that. >> expected to speak by phone today with russian president vladimir putin. accused by u.s. intelligence of directing a hacking campaign to help trump win the election. >> as far as, again, putin and russia, i don't say good, bad, or indifferent. i don't know the gentleman. i hope we have a fantastic relationship. that's possible. and it's also possible that we won't. >> reporter: and he's also expected to speak with german chancellor angela merkel, who he once tweeted was ruining germany, now trying to build ties across the world as commander in chief, if not with the press here at home. >> i think the media is the opposition party in many ways. opposition party is losing

badly. now, the media is on the opposition party's side. >> reporter: it seems donald trump is already awake and tweeting about said media. a couple of tweets this morning talking about "the washington post" and "new york times" reporting being critical of that. now, in the meantime, the other thing we're watching today, thomas, new executive orders expected this afternoon. at this point we do not know the subject or topic even of what those executive orders will focus on, but if the last seven days are any indication, the chances of it being a major potential action here at the start of the second week of his presidency seems pretty good. >> we understand that coming up at 3:00 p.m. about that signing right before the call to the australian prime minister. kasie hunt at the white house for us. thank you very much. i want to go to our colleague, lucy kavanagh, joining us in london. let's get into the reaction of seeing president trump with the prime minister theresa may and how the papers there are

covering the beginning of a special relationship. >> that's right. a very special relationship. front and center on the front pages, the daily telegraph hand in hand, the happy couple, "the times" of london, and a love-in at the white house. a lot of talk about that special relationship. pay may was all smiles and compliments, the two even holding hands while walking across the white house lawn. the british prime minister confirmed mr. trump and his wife will be heading to britain on a state visit later this year. he has accepted an invitation from the queen. we don't know the date but the announcement stirred controversy with people calling for protos on social media. don't forget, tens of thousands demonstrated in london the day after trump's inauguration. it was the second largeout turnout outside of d.c. so theresa may clearly under some pressure to stand up to donald trump for hi comments about women, russia, torture. she did manage to extract a

public statement from him backing nato after calling it obsolete a few weeks ago. she was not as successful as we heard from our previous correspondent on the russia front. one columnist criticized her for seeming too eager to gloss over some of mr. trump's questionable statements and policies saying her, quote, dash to washington was mortifying. but, look, for theresa may, the main goal was a post-brexit free trade deal with america, priority one for her, trump yesterday promising to make good on that so some semblance on that end of success. >> lu kay kafanov reporting in london, thank you very much. joining me now wo our two guests. ya misha, let's start with the tweets. the donald trump stuff this morning. first up, three different tweet from his personal handle about the failing "new york times" and "the washington post." this is before the first diplomatic phone call of the day. is this shocking or is this just

the new normal? >> this is just the new normal. for months i think at this point it's become a running joke that he may have pivoted and become more presidential, maybe after he won the nomination or after he won the election or after the inauguration, but we see donald trump trying to go after the media and delegitimize reporting he doesn't like. both my colleague at "the new york times" and myself as well as colleagues at the "washington post" are just doing hard-hitting journalism and making sure we're keeping pressure on a president that's going to need it. there's nothing shocking at all about this. and i think for the next four years we're going to have to decide when we cover tweets and when we don't. >> the big news that we all want to know today is more about the in-depth nuggets of information that will happen in this phone call between russia's president vladimir putin and president trump coming up at noon today. donald trump did make reference to that yesterday specifically about the sanctions.

>> as far as the sanctions, very early to be talking about that, but we look to have a great relationship with all countries ideally. but if we can have a great relationship with russia and with china and with all countries, i'm all for that. >> prime minister took a divergent path on that one saying she wanted a fully implemented minsk agreement go through so no sanctions lifted against russia, but do you think it's a bad idea, mike, for the u.s. to have a better relationship with russia? >> it depend who you ask. donald trump has had a very unusual relationship with vladimir putin and the russian government from the start of the campaign, he sort of bent over backwards to cater and coddled to them and attacked everybody but them it seemed at times. that put him in, you know --

very at odds with a lot of republicans on capitol hill. and if he starts yanking sanctions, you have mitch mcconnell saying yesterday russia is the last country on earth that deserves to have sanctions lifted. obama did this because of the -- most recently because of the russian interference in the election. but it goes beyond that. it goes to interference in the ukraine, it goes to interventions in cry mia. this is a long-standing tension that we've had between the kremlin and washington, d.c. if trump comes in and we don't know anything about his perm relationship with vladimir putin, he just said yesterday that he doesn't have one, but he hasn't released his tax returns. there's a lot of speculation about his business ties. and so all of these are running questions. and then of course -- so we'll wait and see. all eyes on this thing, but he's the ultimate wild card and we have no idea what will happen on this. >> this is the first official phone call president to president. we know they did speak after winning the election and setting up some type of visit.

you know, i told people before in 2013 when we were in moscow he admitted to having a personal relationship with vladimir putin and came back to the states talking about indirect and direct talks with putin and his government until during his time during the cam page he denied it and left everybody scratching their heads about what that relationship means if there really is one. but we know that they will be talking at noon today and yamiche at 3:00 p.m. we expect more executive orders to be coming out. there's been a flurry of them and this is pretty much on par with where president obama was back in 2009. but these are completely different when it comes to the ideology behind them. the one about refugees and barring specific countries coming to the united states, the president said he would give christians the priority refugee status. do you think that's going to be highly controversy snshl especially considering there are many christians in this country that have been openly embracing refugees from these countries anding to so for years.

>> this is really going to go to the heart of whether the division i think that he exposed during the general election. these sanctions or i should say this extreme vetting and this idea you'll block people from certain countries and prioritize one religion over another is something that disturbs you if you are someone who thinks that that's wrong and of course if you're a trump supporter and someone who is motivated by this, then he's doing exactly what he said he was going to do. so when i talk to trump supporters they're loving the fact he's going out and implementing essentially a muslim ban in their minds. they feel like this is what america is, that these people that are coming from syria, they seem them as dangerous. but for a large majority of people including civil rights groups, they're going to be i think filing lawsuits where they can and trying to really block this and stop this because in some ways people really see this as -- to put it plainly, people see this as racist, as discriminatory, as something that just really -- it's anti-american and not what our country is about.

it's really troubling for a lot of people to watch this. i think there are christians who have been welcoming syrians into their homes. i was reading tweets yesterday about people who were so upset that the families they were sponsoring were not going to be able to come anymore, reports that people might be getting stopped at the airport. those are troubling to a lot of people. >> yeah. there are tons of christians in this country who have opened their homes, their hearts, their love and willingness to help these refugees for years. so this is a big shake-up for those people that have been working not only within their religious communities but just as americans in general trying to help other folks. but, mike, let's go to these domestic policies especially when it comes to the aca, the threat of the gop from that retreat -- the fret from the gop from that retreat and concerns about not just repeal bug replacing it. how much of an onus is on the gop to come wum a working plan

that isn't going to have ripple effects of consequences that cost them power? >> well, you know, they're facing an enormous dilemma. they've had the privilege over the past seven years since obamacare was passed of, you know, being able to pass what are essentially messaging bills. they could put repeal through congress without having the purd of an alternative that would cover the same amount of people that would keep costs at least at the levels that obamacare did. and, you know, health care is tough. and the democrats scored a huge victory with obamacare and they're very proud of it, but it's an enormous political liability. they lost congress in 2010 because of it. it hurt obama's reputation in a lot of places. and now the burden is going to be on the republicans to find a replacement. and what you're hearing in those leaked tapes is exactly that kind of concern. how are we going to keep this many people covered. donald trump is promising universal coverage. you're not hearing that out of the capitol and that's enormously significant because they're not on the same page.

and so we'll have to see what they do with that. but they've got a long slog ahead and they're already pushing the deadline and initially they said they could do it within weeks. now we're talking about months and it might even take longer than that. >> it will be a long play to see how this all cracks out. yamiche, mike, thanks for your time. we'll continue to follow any developments out of this first phone call that we expect is happening right now between president trump and the prime minister of japan. so the other executive order from this week and the fallout from it is the high cost potentially of president trump's border wall with mexico. the problem that this will give to american consumers and his many on sessions after just week one in the oval office. a republican insiders view on all of that next. when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. it starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. and neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪ tum -tum -tum -tum smoothies! only from tums

a long day of diplomacy for donald trump today. five phone calls to five different leaders. russian president vladimir putin, angela merkel scheduled for 11:00 a.m. later in the day francois hollande and at the end of the day the prime minister of australia, matthew turnbull. this call, though, to germany is showing some information in the polls and the majority of germans, or 62% say, they're greatly concerned about the new u.s. president. but 37% say they are not. perhaps more worrisome, 72% are concerned that relations between the two countries will deteriorate. and we know that president trump was very hard on angela merkel during the campaign.

we shall see now as president trump how these two leaders get along. still ahead for you, why the doomsday clock is moving ominously closer to midnight.

happening now, president trump beginning a long day of diplomacy, expecting to have begun a call with the prime minister of japan. just at the top of the hour, 9:00 a.m. one of five calls to world leaders today including that of russian president vladimir putin. we'll keep you posted on any developments that come from these calls. also it is anticipated we expect more executive orders coming up this afternoon. but a caveat to that there have been delays to the president's schedule on executive orders. so we will bring it to you when we have it. we bring you now the latest reaction to trump's border wall plans, reaction coming from all different directions and the tensions we know are very high after the white house took steps to move forward with building the wall, floating a 20% import tax to make sure that mexico pays for the wall.

we go now to msnbc's mariana atencio in mexico city. mariana, talk about the reat-bareat-bat -- reactions there and how pena nieto and president trump are supposed to bridge this divide moving forward as leaders of neighboring countries. >> reporter: well, thomas, the headline in the newspaper this morning is "they leave twitter and they get on the phone. "they had that one-hour conversation yesterday, pena nieto and donald trump, trying to patch things up. in a statement that was sent out by the mexican white house, it also stated that both leaders will not be publicly talking about this, quote, controversial issue, but that is not what was reflected in the white house statement. so it remains to be seen whether donald trump will actually lay off talking about mexico and wall for a couple of days. here in mexico, president enrique pena nieto is under a lot of pressure to stand up to

trump, but at the same time to be a statesman, at the same time to protect mexican businesses and to take advantage of the fact that many business leaders, his political opponents, are rallying around him at this point. yesterday he met with mexican lawmakers where they decided they were going to allocate millions of dollars to strengthening mexican consulates in the u.s. to, quote, defend their migrants. that was one of the more immediate measures taken in mexico yesterday. but i also spoke to another mexican senator who told me that he himself will be pushing for harsher, quote/unquote retaliations against the united states if indeed that 20% tax on mexican imports is imposed. on the streets here, one of the more immediate reactions as we were talking about before is this social media boycott of american products and companies. so since yesterday we've been

seeing #starbucks, #adiosm cdonald's, #adioswalmart. i'm here with a young person who i just briefly want to ask, do you agree with the social media boycott and do you think it will materialize into an actual boycott? >> no, i disagree because i think that the media is the best way to get to everybody and we can use it for something positive to show that we are all together in this. >> reporter: will young people actually boycott american products do you think? >> i don't think so. i think today in the morning in what's app i saw all the mexican people put the flag. look. >> reporter: so this is what is circulating on young people's phones, the mexican flag. mexicans are uniting and donald trump has managed to do that, something nobody has managed to do for years here in mexico. >> mariana atencio reporting in mexico city for us, great work. thank you. taking names. that is a warning from the new u.s. ambassador to the u.n.

i'm going to speak with the former state department insider about nikki haley's tough talk. my business was built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet?

i'm thomas roberts at msnbc world headquarters in new york. at the half hour, here's what we're monitoring for you. a busy day at the white house, a working weekend with president trump making diplomatic phone calls to foreign leaders. he was expected to have started a call from the white house to japanese prime minister shinzo abe. that was supposed to begin about 30 minutes ago. coming up at 11:00 a.m., it is a call to germany's angela merkel and then after that at noon russian president vladimir putin. this afternoon he will also speak with french president francois hollande and end the day by speaking with prime minister malcolm turnbull of australia. for more on the foreign policy phone calls of president trump, i'm joined by nbc's keir simmons here in new york. keir, i think most people are fascinated by what will take

place between the phone call of president trump and russian president vladimir putin. but also of importance is that discussion, that call with angela merkel. >> yeah. you want to say, oh, to be a flower on the wall, right? i'd love to be able to listen in. >> someone will. >> i think they have a secure line, actually. >> okay. but first let's talk about the russian president. what will he say? will he be complimentary? will he be trying to build a better relationship? will he say mr. president i want to lift sanctions or will he be tough and leave options open? in the kremlin i think they still don't know exactly what they're getting because they watch the president talk about listening to his advisers, for example, on torture, listening to his secretary of defense, and so they know that although they can see president trump appears to want to change the relationship with russia that isn't a fait accompli. when it comes to the german chancellor angela merkel, well,

what do you say? chancellor, i'm sorry about all that with the british prime minister in the past few days but i love you too. it's going to be a difficult phone call. >> when we think about the british prime minister being here and the road ahead for her as she returns back to the uk and some of the headlines, the british press being in the room yesterday with the american press and speaking with both of them, but the work that she faces ahead in positioning herself aligned with the president trump but also aligned with the eu. >> that's right. >> in a fascinating way as she's selling brexit. >> she has a very difficult balance to strike and the british honestly at the end of this week are back where they like to be and that is that the british understand they're a junior partner to the u.s. they like to stay for close to the president and at the same time be seen as a very important adviser, if you like, more than that, a partner, a prime minister who's able to take --

get the ear of the president and guide him much like that relationship between thatcher and reagan. so that's good from the british perspective. the issue, though, of course, is the unpredictability of president trump. will he stick to -- keep to the idea of 100% support for nato that the prime minister turned to him so memorably during that news conference and said you do agree with me, don't you, mr. president? >> i think part of the president trump strategy and what we've reported on is kping people nfused, keeping people on their toesbout the surprises that are yet to come. and when we think about the phone call today with francois hollande and the terrible issues that that country has faced with terrorism attacks and how they have responded against isis, how much of an ally do you think that president trump will provide himself to be to what francois hollande has done?

>> in some ways i think that's the easiest phone call, really, because francois hollande will not be the leader of france in time. there's going to be an election this year. there will be a new leader. question really on everyone's mind is will it be marie le pen, a very right-wing member of the french political establishment, if she is the leader that changes everything for the european union because she has been so critical of the european union. so wa would he say to the french leader? i suspect it will be a call of niceties if you like, a diplomatic call, but for an american president he'll really be waiting to see who the next leader of france is. >> when we think about the european reaction to the president's executive order on immigration and certainly with angela merkel he's been critical of her willingness to accept refugees. that will certainly be a hot topic for many of the folks the president speaks with today. >> that's right. in a sense you can see the

comparisons between angela merkel's policy, the german policy, where she really opened the doors to refugees. she herself is a refugee. she came from east germany. it was something she felt very strongly about. but it has politically backfired on her. then you can see the approach we're seeing from president trump closing the door, specifically on particular countries. that on the other hand is very politically dangerous for him in terms of the way that people view him around the world. if people think that he is against all muslims, that can only have a negative effect because remember the united states has some very important allies in muslim countries. >> keir simmons, great to see you. we hope to get more reporting out of the white house. again, the phone call with the japanese prime minister, we expect to be happening as we speak right now. so for the trump administration it appears that they spent the week cleaning house over at the state department where we have four different top fishes out the door in a noou some say is too many too soon too much, but

a state department spokesman is echoing the white house saying this is not unusual with a new administration that these positions are political appointments. joining me to talk about it is joel ruben, former deputy assistant secretary of state and president of the washington strategy group. great to see you. it is true that these are political appointments, but we know that patrick kennedy stayed on from president bush into president obama because of the intricacies of management and finances there. what do you think is the real story behind the departures of these four top state officials? >> great to be with you, thomas. thank you. and the real story here is there is tumult right now at the state department and it's leaderless at some of the most bureaus for the actual morale and work of the diplomatic corps. our diplomats need to know that they have strong leaders in their management bureaus, the administrative bureaus, and these are the bureaus that right

now are without leaders. and it's not clear who will replace them. so it's a very uncertain time right now for people at state and it send a very chilling signal as well into the bureaucracy. and that's what's really dangerous right now about this moment is that people who dedicate their lives and careers to being diplomats right now are being given the message that their service is at risk, and that's a real concern. >> i want to talk about and show everybody nikki haley who is the new ambassador to the u.n. and her first impression so, to speak. take a listen to this. >> the way that we'll show value is to show our strength, show our voice, have the backs of our allies and make sure that our allies are our back as well. for those that don't have wour back, we're taking names. we will make points to respond to that accordingly. everything that's working we're going make it better. thaefrg's not working we're going to try and fix. and anything that seems to be obsolete and not necessary we're

going to do away with. >> all right. so that sounds like a very polished version of what we've been hearing from president trump, specifically to the u.n. and hearing the word obsolete. but also about taking names. what do you make of this diplomatic approach of ambassador haley? >> well, it was a heart-sickening week for those who care about america's good standing in the world. the muslim ban, the diplomatic explosion with mexico, finishing off the week now with this statement at the u.n. it really does undermine our security, these kinds of statements. and it is against our values. and it's not going to sit well with the yags where is we have significant opportunities to engage in the rest of the world to protect america and advance our interests. this is not a great way to start certainly. >> we think the electoral college win allows for president trump to send those officials to be the bearers of his message to these different posts.

secretary positions, ambassadorships. aren't they paying off? i mean, isn't nikki haley basically demonstrating exactly what donald trump chose her to be his ambassador for, basically be ambassador for him? >> well, winning an election is a moment in getting power, but winning with 46% of the popular vote does not imply a broad swath of deep support for these positions. andultimately, what nik haley is communicating rs counter to the bipartisan traditions of how we've engaged in the united nations. i served as a career officer in the clinton administration, through the transition into the bush administration. we didn't see rhetoric like this in the beginning. we didn't see the changes made to the career officials at the beginning in such a manner. and this does not represent the full breadth of the american view of the world. and it is very concerning because we're going to need to work with these countries, general mattis knows this, we

still don't have a secretary of state but rex tillerson, if and when he gets confirmed next week, will find out very quickly he'll need to speak with respect to the same countries right now we seem to be pushing away. >> we know as we look back and reflect on the first week in office the white house touting the new work, the hard work of this administration, what they've established, but there has been a disruption, joel, on the world stage, relationships with russia, china, mexico, israel. do you see everything being reconfigured, recalibrated right now. >> i think the signal's been made very clear that everything that we assumed about how national security policy should be made over the past number of decades has been shredded and is now put into a different decisionmaking framework, which is one that we still don't quite understand. so all these questions of relations with russia, israel, the middle east, the fight against isis, all of these questions and how we're going about -- to go about it with our

diplomats, with our intelligence community, with our defense department, the process is now very different. and it's going to be very much interesting to watch. >> joel, great to see you. thank you. jool although there is anger over the revival of that dakota access pipeline, native american leaders are telling protesters to stay alive. we'll go thrive north dakota in just a moment. and as we anticipate and watch the fallout of the president's call to russian president vladimir putin, joy reed has more on an arrest of a russian cyberintelligence officer. what does that have to do with the election? worrying about your big... about the client dinner. you gonna wear? hannah.

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the japanese prime minister at 9:00 a.m., one of five different calls to world leaders today including russian president vladimir putin. we'll keep you posted on developments coming out of the white house, specifically on that vladimir putin call, also angela merkel of germany another leader he'll be speaking to. we take you out west and these new developments on the prets against the construction of the dakota access pipeline. native american leaders are asking proponents who have been catching there for months to leave the camp. proponents say it will provide jobs and money there. cal perry is there. why are they asking protesters to leave the site? >> reporter: it's a variety of factor, thomas. one is just a logistical concern of safety, which is we're under a floodplain right now and when this snow melts and they've got double the amount of snow this year that they did in years past, all of this will be under water. there's only 500 people in the

camp behind me. at least that's what they say. we actually think there's fewer people there now. as you mentioned the tribe wants to get folks off the land. they want their land back and they've made the strategic decision to fight this in the courts. they've decided that's the best way forward. the other thing is this state has spent $30 million protecting these protesters. the local police are really separating the oil workers who are out there on the drill pad from the protesters here, and it's grueling work. it's 24 hours a day in very difficult weather conditions. we spent the day yesterday with them. we spoke to lieutenant iverson about what he's doing, his role here on the ground. take listen. >> and we kind of need to be the buffer in the middle and keep those two groups apart from one another because as we remember a few months ago there was kind of a clash between the private security and the protesters. >> reporter: thomas, i'll tell you when we were throughout yesterday, the workers on the oil platform got very aggressive and they basically ran us out of

there, took our license plate numbers down, filmed us. the local police department is in a difficult position where they're dealing with emboldened oil workers who have been really given a lot of leeway by this executive order and protecting the protesters who still remain here, thomas. >> really fascinating, especially as we watched it play out and now as you said taking that to the courts. we'll see how it plays out. cal perry, thank you. a terrifying time piece that's become even more frightening. take a look at this. it's the doomsday clock, and the folks who run it have suddenly ticked it closer to midnight. why? that's next. la quinta presents "how to win at business." step one: suck on and point decisively with the arm of your glasses. it is no longer eyewear, it is your wand of business wizardry. abracadabra. you've just gone from invisible to invincible. step two: before your meeting, choose la quinta. the only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free night-instantly so you can

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the refugee program or the refugee changes you're looking to make, as it relates to persecuted christians, do you see them as a priority here? >> yes. >> you do? >> yes. they've been horribly treated. if you were a christian in syria, it was impossible, at

least very, very tough to get into the united states. if you were a muslim, you could come in. but if you were christian, it was almost impossible. and i thought it was very, very unfair. so we are going to help them. >> there we have donald trump in that interview with the christian broadcasting network, giving his impression about christianity around the globe. the president's calls with foreign leaders end with the prime minister of australia. but in the middle of that day, the call with vladimir putin is scheduled at noon. this is all on the heels of yesterday with uk prime minister theresa may. joining mes chris cillizza. it's good to have you with me. the first expectations about they say calls today, it is

about establishing a diplomatic personal connection here. what are the chances for real policy shifts, especially sanctions lifted on russia? >> well, i think that's the number one question on everybody's mind, not only on the russians and the american minds, but on the minds of nato and theresa may, for instance, when she spoke yesterday at the press conference. she made it clear she's not ready to lift any sanctions on russia. we'll see whether she had any influence on trump when she saw him yesterday. we're not going to really know what that conversation was like. and in fact, you know, honestly, thomas, vladimir putin may not know what it's like. if trump starts to ramble on the way he does, it will be very hard to decipher exactly what his intentions are. >> we do know that the conversation between putin and trump has happened before, since he won the election. this will be the first time president to president that they will speak. but angela merkel is also on this list of calls today, coming

up right before that call to vladimir putin, a supporter of pro-refugee policies. how do you think that that's going to work, especially with the new executive order by donald trump which is specifically targeting the countries that we've highlighted here, for 120 days? >> well, you know, thomas, i think that germany's refugee policy is its own. it's a controversial policy. it's been a relative open door policy. merkel has had to dial it back a little bit. but i don't think she sees it as an extension of american policy. there was a moment when the obama administration felt that it had to prove that it would take some refugees. they were all vetted very, very, very carefully. this idea that they were somehow not vetted is just nuts. they were vetted extremely carefully. that's why not a single syrian refugee has been at all involved with any terrorism in the united states but that doesn't matter to this

administration, because this administration is playing on an emotional idea, which is that foreigners are dangerous, that muslims are dangerous. merkel will push back against that. but her biggest concern is going to be nato, what's the deal with nato. is trump going to support nato. to some extent, his skepticism about nato has been exaggerated. he has always said that everybody needs to pay their way in nato, and if they don't, then, you know, questions would be asked. that's not the same as saying he's going to turn his back on nato. i think that theresa may yesterday for britain, angela merkel today for germany, they'll want a really clear statement on just where he stands on support of nato and all of its members, including the baltic states, for instance, or poland, countries that may be threatened or intimidated by russia. >> christopher, what do we have in terms of expectation or coverage of the conversation

between françois hollande and president trump? that's also on the schedule for today. how is french media characterize what this relationship could mean? >> the french media think trump is insane. and so it will be interesting to see how the hollande administration, which is a very lame duck administration at this point, how it tries to spin this. i think it will probably come out with all the things it was telling trump about the way the real world works, and trump will come out with some kind of anodyne statement about having a frank and fruitful discussion. trump things that hollande is a loser. hollande, you have to say he's a loser, he really is a loser. >> i'll leave that up to you, christopher. last but not least, the doomsday clock, we've been showing this video to folks, and how the

people in charge of that clock, how it looks, have moved it 30 seconds closer to midnight this week. what's the significance of this, and the bulletin that they're trying to put out there. this has obviously been something since the 1950s that we've covered. >> yeah, i think it's the closest to midnight it's been since 1953, if i read the background correctly. why would that be? partly because of nuclear proliferation. partly because there are lunatics like kim jong un in north korea who now have atomic weapons. but also because i think in the judgment of the scientists and the people connected with that, there is a man in charge of the united states who has his finger near the nuclear button who has a very erratic personality and seems to be deeply out of touch with the way the world has worked and maintained security up until today. >> christopher dickie with the daily beast, an msnbc

contributor, from paris, thank you, i appreciate it, christopher. and i thank you at home, that will do it for me. coming up next, my colleague joy reid, "a.m. joy." why george or wewelorwell's "19 become a bestseller again. wow. this is a recording. really? no, i'm kidding. 100% u.s.-based customer service. here to help, not to sell.

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it's a deep penetrating formula that works itself down into your joints. take it from me. it works fast and you won't stink. blue-emu, it works for me it'll work for you. good morning and welcome to "a.m. joy." less than 24 hours ago, on holocaust remembrance day, didn't signed an executive order banning visa holders and refugees from several muslim countries for 90 days with syrian refugees banned indefinitely. while trump's ban covers these countries, which have produced exactly zo people linked with terrorist attacks, the ban does not cover countries like turkey, egypt, united arab