snau that will do it for this hour of "msnbc live." i'm craig melvin. my colleague katy tur taking things over. >> thank you for stick around. mounting questions about the diplomatic tctics of the trump administration. this hour, the president under fire for blasting one of america's greatest allies over a deal to take in refugees. here's mr. trump a short time ago. >> i love australia has a country but we have a problem. 1,500, could be 2,000, i said, why, what's the purpose? we'll see what happens. >> the president also being criticized for remarks he made over the phone with the president of mexico. and in the past couple hours, reports that the treasury department is modifying sanctions on russia.

press secretary sean spicer throwing cold water on that earlier today. >> not easing tensions. the treasury department, from what i understand, is a fairly common -- it's a fairly common practice for the treasury department after sanctions are put in place to go back and to look at whether or not there needs to be specific carve-outs. meanwhile, a first day on the job for secretary of state rex tillerson, who's now tasked with representing the most unpredictable president on the world stage. this hour, pray for arnold. that hashtag taking off after trump used his first address to the national prayer breakfast to jab his "apprentice" replacem t replacement. >> they hired a big, big movie star, arnold schwarzenegger to take my place. we know how that turned out. a total disaster. and mark will never, ever bet against trump again. i just want to pray for arnold f we can, for those ratings.

coming up, how schwarzenegger fired back. we begin this hour with the trump white house defending itself on the world stage. it began with a series of contentious phone calls to the president of mexico and the prime minister of australia. then a warning for iran. instead of the diplomacy of speak softly and carry a big stick, the white house is yelling about its sledgehammer. >> we have some wonderful allies, but we're -- and we're gog keep it that way but we have to be treated fairly also. we have to be treated fairly. this administration, our allegiance will be to the american workers and to american businesses. joining me now is nbc white house correspondent hallie jackson and nbc's kasie hunt, who is on capitol hill. thank you for joining me. hallie, first question to you. the president is brushing off calls to president nieto and

prime minister turnbull. which version of events is sean spicer using today? >> reporter: publicly from the podium at the press briefing held at the white house not long ago, you heard sean spicer characterize the call as cordial. i will tell you earlier today senior administration official acknowledged the tone, to me, was blunt, essentially, of this phone call. it did last only 25 minutes. shorter than expected. there was pushback on reports there was yelling involved or the president abruptly hung up the phone, for example. i had pool duty today, which means i go in on behalf of the white house press pool and ask the president about the tone of that conversation. it was a question that he chose to not respond to earlier when he was in a meeting with some members of congress in a meeting over trade. i think you're now seeing over on the hill, and i'm sure kasie can speak to this, a lot of praise, a lot of very kind words being lavished upon our australian allies from members of congress. don't know if you might call it a clean-up job but certainly

notable today. >> i want to ask you about the russian intelligence report. the agency -- or the report that sanctions were somehow modified. can you give us a little more information on what exactly is going on with that? >> sure. in particular because i think there's been some confusion on this topic today, and i th you've seen it play out, evenat today's press briefing, for example, when sean spicer kicked over questions to the treasury department with our colleague kristen welker. here's that exchange. >> why is the administration easing sanctions against russia? >> we're not easing sanctions. the treasury department -- from what i understand, it's a fairly common practice for the treasury department after sanctions are put in place, to go back and to look at whether or not there needs to be specific carve-outs for different, you know, either industries or products and services that need to be going back and forth. but i would refer you back to the treasury department on that one. >> reporter: so, that is the administration's word about the modification of these sanctions.

people familiar with the sanction, with this action, rather, are telling nbc this does appear to be a technical fix, essentially. something that will basically ease u.s. imports -- u.s. exports, rather, going into russia. the deal is, when you talk about the fsb, the former kgb, there's going to be a lot of attention on this. and you're already hearing now from the former head of the fsb that this is potentially a move that will help both nations work together on, for example, joint terror operations, joint counterterror operations. i think there's more reporting to be done. we expect to do that this afternoon and bring you the latest. >> a lot of -- a lot of people on edge given donald trump's warmth towards the russian president. i want to go to kasie hunt, excuse me, and go to a point that hallie just made with capitol hill trying to walk back, i guess, donald trump's contentious phone call with the australian prime minister. they're trying to give some glowing praise for that country. what are you hearing on capitol hill?

>> well, katy, i think the word is reassurance. everything we've heard from republican members of congress, democratic members as well, but republican leaders up here has been trying to say to australia, nothing has changed. we are still your allies. we are still the same -- the relationship is still the same this afternoon as it was this morning before donald trump tweeted about this deal. we heard paul ryan talk about it. you had john mccain expressing a particular, you know, focus on this and saying that he even called the australian ambassador himself to talk about this. it's a little bit extraordinary, really, that something like that would go on, a little freelance diplomacy. and it underscores, i think, the level of concern on the part of some republicans that the way that donald trump is going about conducting diplomacy is fundamentally unsettling and not the way things are normally

done. i was talking to another senator privately who said, look, donald trump doesn't even have the cabinet members he needs to start making major decision like this. he just had rex tillerson confirmed as secretary of state. and already there are all these things unfolding. so, you know, i think this is yet another example where members of congress feel like they would be a little more comfortable if there was a little more thought and a little more -- you know, maybe everything slowed down just a little bit at this point. >> kasie, we do have a little sound from senators mccain and paul ryan. i want to play that for our viewers. >> i know prime minister turnbull, he was in my office a couple months ago. he's a very important ally. australia is a very important ally, they are and will continue to be. >> i fought alongside in wars, including losing over 500 brave australians in the vietnam war, which some of us remember. and this, in my view, was an unnecessary and, frankly,

harmful open dispute over an issue which is not nearly important as united states/australian cooperation. >> a reminder to our viewers. of the relationship with australia, our alliance dates back to world war ii. four wars have been fought alongside australia, australia fighting alongside us. one that u.s. include in the five eyes, to share information. and u.s. has named australia its second largest trading partner in 2015. that does also include the amount of tourism that goes back and forth between these two countries. hallie jackson, kasie hunt, thank you for joining me. let's go over to jamie small, a contributor with "time" magazine and a duel australian/american citizen, one lucky woman, indeed. let's talk about this call can president trump, between him and

prime minister turnbull. how surprising or shocking was it for you to find out that it started out on such a contentious note? >> it's incredibly surprising because australia is, as you just said, very close with america. it's one of the closest countries, especially in that region. if you look at asia, australia is one of the biggest partners in asia. if you believe steve bannon saying last week that he believes there is there be a war in the south china sea in the next five years, one of the first countries america would turn to would be australia because it has a large navy n the center of asia and a very, very close ally. also to destabilize, to some degree, malcolm turnbull's government. it's called the liberal party but it's actually a conservative more to the right government. that undermines a potential ally. and if he loses elections next year because of this or if his government is undermined because of this, he's very narrow

majority and he could lo the labor par, which would beore incredibly lefteaning. it would be hostile to trump. >> ts phone call was supposed to last one hour. it only lasted about 25 minutes. prime minister turnbull is playing down the abruptness of the call. here is what he said about the communication with president trump. >> the report that the president hung up is not correct. the call ended courteously. as far as the nature of the discussion, it was very frank and forthright. i stand up for australia's interests. i make australia's case as powerfully and persuasively as i can wherever i am. >> what is very frank and forthright mean in diplomatic speak? >> i mean, doesn't -- that means, basicle, really bad, right? that's the kind of situation where you're talking about obama and netanyahu used to have frank and forthright discussions and they pretty much hated each

other. so, diplomacy speak where it was not a great call, which i've got to be worrisome to the australians as one of their closest allies in america, and this deal is actually really important to turnbull. the refugees is a very sensitive subject in australia. it's one of incredible controversy. there's been allegations of abuse in some of these camps out in pacific islands. and so there's a lot of -- there's a lot of impetus for the liberal government, conservative government, to really find a home for these refugees and to move along as a subject matter. so, if they're kind of still stuck in limbo, it's really, really bad for turnbull. >> it's unclear exactly what's going to happen on the united states side. i know sean spicer today in the briefing was saying they -- expressing, to put it mildly, discontent with the deal. donald trump says he's going to subject those refugees to extreme vetting. we'll leave aside he keeps calling them illegal immigrants. what does it mean if the u.s. somehow backs out of that deal or backs out of even a portion

of the deal? what does it mean for our relations going forward? it's very powerless for our relationgoing forward because that is -- it was a really important deal for turnbull. they've already talked in australia about potentially sending home u.s. marines who are station there had. that was a big victory for president obama, was to get marines stationed in australia. as i said, if there's war in asia, with, you know, between china and whomever else, having a u.s. foothold in australia is very important. our radar in the indian ocean is done in australia. we have military bases there that are very important to our national defense and global interests. and all of those come into question if we begin to question the refugee exchange that has been a long tradition there. i mean, this isn't the first time this has happened, this kind of exchange. and it's -- these refugees are, you know, it's -- they are pretty much already vetted. they're vetted by the australian government. vetted also by the u.s. government.

to put them through more extreme vetting, i think, is very difficult for them. they've already been in limbo for a long time. and it just makes the whole situation even harder to deal with. >> it's still unclear what exactly extreme vetting means. jamie small, thank you so much for joining me. today's microsoft pulse question of the day is, should president trump honor president obama's pledge to take in more than 1,000 refugees being held in australia? the pulse is open. cast your vote at pulse.msnbc.com. a reminder, we will check your votes later on in the hour. next up, more reaction from capitol hill to president trump's contentious phone call with the australian prime minister. republican senator john barrasso, who sits on the foreign relations committee joins me next to talk about what it means for this important u.s. alliance. per roll more "doing chores for dad" per roll

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president trump setting his global agenda this week, making it clear that alliances, agreements and the status quo are all under review. iraa rocky relationship wit mexico, a threat to iran that it's not off the table and now reports of an angry call with australia. today mr. trump tweeted, a deal made by president obama to take in refugees was, quote, dumb. in the last hour the white house press secretary confirmed the u.s. will still allow 1200 refugees in, but it does have strong objections. >> if the deal that he was cut by the last administration is something that he is extremely, extremely upset with. he does not like it. but out of respect for him, he's going to allow that process, continue to study and allow to move forward. >> wyoming republican senator john barrasso joins me now from capitol hill. he's a member of the foreign

relations committee. senator, thank you so much for joining me. first off, i want to play a little sound from this foreign relations committee chairman, bob corker, a little earlier with our kasie hunt. >> it's important for continuity, you know, when -- when agreements are made between allies, it's always best, your default position should always be to follow through what's committed to. on the other hand, this could be one of those things that's so out of line and so bad that maybe it needs to be looked at. i just don't know enough about it. >> is this something that is so out of line, so bad, that it needs to be reconsidered? >> well, senator corker and i just visited. i don't know exactly what happened in the phone conversation, but i think it's important for the president of the united states to be able to have open and direct communication, phone calls with others from around the world, world leaders. so, i agree with the direction the president is heading.

he now has his secretary of state in place that was confirmed in a bipartisan vote last night. i visited with the secretary of state this morning. i'm looking forward to, in a positive way, to a change in the direction foreign policy with rex tillerson and president trump. >> australia has been an ally of ours since world war ii. do you think there needs to be a change in foreign policy with australia? >> no, i do not. i was in australia this year visiting with american troops, troops from wyoming, working side by side -- >> are you concerned they'll take those troops considering the contentiousness of the relationship, or starting out with president trump and president turnbull? >> i don't know what was said in that phone conversation last saturday. i think it's important for leaders of great nations to have open -- open discussions, frank discussions, of the state of the world. so, no, i support those discussions to continue. we have a great relationship

with australia. it needs to continue in terms of being a trading partner, in terms of commerce. but certainly also in terms of military as we right now -- we have fought side by side with the australians. we have troops on the ground right now training and working side by side in australia. >> now, let's talk a little about iran. president trump just a few minutes ago said military actions against iran is not off the table. this is a day after mike flynn came out and put that nation on notice. what exactly does on notice mean? and are you ready for a potential -- for military action in iran, if it gets there? >> well, we know iran continues to be a major sponsor of terror using a lot of the money barack obama sent to iran in iran's effort to be a terrorist organization. so, i think it's appropriate for iran to be put on notice by this administration. and i will tell you, one of the things that barack obama did so poorly is tell what he would or

would not do. donald trump and his administration will never broadcast to the enemy what the plans are or are not. nothing is off the table. and iran needs to get used to that. iran has been violating -- they've been violating the ooun agreement with regard to their ballistic tests. those continue. what they're used to doing is being able to violate, not complying with the agreement and the president obama wasn't enforcing it. things are now going to be enforced. >> this is certainly not a red line, but i'm just a little confused, i think a lot of people are confused in the country about exactly what on notice means. is that saying there's going to be more sanctions if they continue doing ballistic missile tests? does it go beyond sanctions to some sort of military operation potentially? what does on notice mean? >> i'm delighted you are confused, and so many others are confused. i hope the iranians are confused as well. >> do you think the american people should be confused. >> they don't know what it

means --i the iranians don't knw what it means to they have to be more more -- >> the american public has heard what the white house said. iran is on notice. the american people also objected to the iranian deal, which gave the iranians lots of money to be used for terror. and, basically, was an end run around congress. president obama didn't come to the united states senate. instead, he took the agreement to the united nations, not the elected representatives of the people because president obama knew he could not get support here at home for the iranian deal. it was a bad deal. i was against it from the beginning. and i think the american people know, as dot iranians, what it means now to be on notice. >> we do have a gallup. for you, senator. 47% of americans think donald trump is moving too fast in addressing major problems facing this country. that is not quite more than

half, but is a good portion of this country who are worried about things just going a little too quickly and are confused about what the president is doing. do you understand the concerns of folks out in america who want to go to sleep at night and know that tomorrow president trump is not going to declare war with a country? >> the american people are also very concerned about the point that the democrats have been in on significance to even forming a cabinet. even letting donald trump get his cabinet confirmed. >> are those two mutually exclusive? >> they tried to slow down the process. it's important for the president to stand up his government, to get his administrationully -- fully staffed with individuals who are confirmed. and that'shere we need to go. but once again today, democrats have boycotted meetings, have gotten in the way of the cabinet. at this point when barack obama was president, he had his full cabinet in place. donald trump deserves the same thing so he can continue to move forward on the things he was elected to accomplish. >> point taken on that, but is

it mutually exclusive for americans to think donald trump needs to have a cabinet in place but also potentially be confused about where we stand when it comes to foreign relations and how we will be dealing with not only our allies, but those we might not have a great relationship with? >> well, i think what we saw under president obama is our allies no longer trusted us and our friends no longer feared us. that is going to change under donald trump and this administration where our allies know they will be able to trust us and our friends -- and where our enemies will fear us. >> senator john barrasso of wyoming. thank you very much for joining me and helping me clarify some of those points. >> thanks for having me. questions about that raid in yemen that killed a u.s. navy s.e.a.l. and an 8-year-old girl. the pentagon now looking into reports that more civilians were killed. was donald trump's first operation compromised or called for at the wrong time? the white house says no. hans nichols and colonel jack

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new details emerging about last weekendest raid in yemen. they are investigating reports of more civilian causlalties, including children in that operation. yesterday the president met with the family of a navy s.e.a.l., william owens, who was also killed in that raid, at dover air force base for the dignified transfer of his remains. this amid reports the s.e.a.l. team landed without ground support or backup. the white house continuing to call the raid successful. >> it's hard to ever call something a complete success when you have the loss of life. or people injured. but i think when you look at the totality of what was gained to prevent future loss of life here in america and against our institutions and probably throughout the world, i think it is -- it is a successful

operation by all standards. >> joining me now, nbc news correspondent hans nichols and military analyst, colonel jack jacobs. the white house says the amount of intelligence gathered made that operation a success. what is the pentagon saying? >> the pentagon is insisting they gathered valuable actionable intelligence. on that measure, the mission was a success. they're pushing back hard against this notion that it was in any way compromised intelligencewise. they do acknowledge that they encountered fiercer resistance than they expected. you had navy s.e.a.l.s taking 360-degree fire, are from rooftops, some grenades, and that's why though called the in the aerial strike to get out the navy s.e.a.l.s faster. >> is that normal, colonel? >> yes, it is. actually a raid is an extremely difficult operation to pull off. it needs a lot of planning, a

lot of intelligence, a lot of practice. what happened here probably was a compromise. and what's really interesting is to determine when the compromise was determined to have occurred and whether or not the command all the way up the chain of command had an opportunity to abort the exercise before it went off. and everything that ensued after that would have been aborted >>hans, to colonel's point, there are reports that there were some questions up the chain of command about information that could have led them to cancel this or abort this mission. what have you been hearing? >> i think what colonel is saying is so crucial. if they thought it was compromised minutes before they were about to go and hadn't filtered up the chain of command, that's a different matter. one thing is, katy, we'll determine out, there will likely be three investigations. one, an investigation into the preliminary stages, into the children and the casualties on

the civilian side. but there's always an investigation when a navy s.e.a.l.s dies, there will be an investigation there. the v-22 osprey crashed that led to injuries there. there there be a separate investigation on that. you could potentially have three concurrent investigations going on. i suspect we'll ultimately find out. >> navy s.e.a.l. owens was host hum thank you both for joining me. the white house working to clarify what happened over the phone in a recent call between donald trump and mexico's president. what we know and reaction from the border in arizona next.

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the white house changing its tune about what went down between president trump and mexico's president. earlier report says mr. trump tlented to go after, quote, bad

hombres. . 60% of americans disapprove of building the wall along the mexican border but what do residents at the border themselves think. gadi schwartz is live in nogales, arizona. >> reporter: we're getting mixed opinions out here. the people we have been speaking to primarily today are mexicans able to cross into the united states. right now we're at the morley gate in nogales, where mexicans with papers can come through, they go inside and cross freerly into the united states. majority of mexicans do not have the ability to cross this freely. we have found some support of president trump and some support of those light-heart comments from the white house saying that he might send in the military, the u.s. military, into mexico to help with the drug war.

one woman we spoke to say that's because she doesn't trust the mexican government, she doesn't trust mexican politicians and she doesn't trust enrique nieto in particular. take a listen. >> i don't believe in nieto. i believe in trump. >> reporter: you don't have a problem with the wall being built? >> no, i don't have a problem with the construction of the wall. >> reporter: you just want united states to pay for it? >> for the construction of the wall is for the united states. >> reporter: so mexico shouldn't pay for it. >> if you want, you can build anything you -- they want. >> reporter: and as you heard, most mexicans we've spoken to are completely opposed to them paying for this wall one woman compared it to what's going on in her house. she fears drug cartels and violence. she went out and bought bars to

put on all of her windows. she said she paid with that for her own money and she thinks the united states should use their own money to build a wall. back to you. >> gadi schwartz in nogales, arizona, thank you very much. joining me from capitol hill is iowa congressman steve king. congressman, thank you for joining me, number one. i want to talk mexico in a moment. first, i want to get your opinion on the news of the day. what are your feelings about that contentious call between president trump and one of our closest military allies, australia? >> well, when i look at the news reports on that, and that's what we have to work with, it seems like there's been a little tension in that phone call. when they announced it ended more quickly, then there's a presumption that, you know, did it -- because somebody hung up more quickly or mad at each other? i don't know we can confirm that. the australians have had a smart and wise immigration policy. they screen people coming in by boat and put them on a couple of islands l they can vet them thoroughly. this is a group of about 1250

that we're discussing that australia has rejected. they appear to be some of the worst of the worst from the terror-sponsoring nations that donald trump has put -- >> nobody has called them the worst of the worst. they're -- it's 1200 refugees that the american government agreed to take in. i think my question is, rather, what does it say to one of our closest allies if we're going to go back on a deal that was negotiated with the previous president? >> well, i think this, australia wouldn't take them. how foolish for united states to take them if australia would not. >> so, are you advocating just not taking anybody at all? >> i would say what is this agreement we're talking about? is it a document? is it a treaty? is it some kind of a signed agreement that we will take the refugees that are rejected by australia? i mean -- or did barack obama speak this into law as he did many of the things he did when

he overreached with his executive power? i think donald trump has as much authority to say no as barack obama had to say yes, at least. and i think it's not going to hurt our relationship with the australians. they are our blood brothers. i mean that literally back through many battles. they remind us that they've been in every war the united states was in, and sometimes they got there first. we have a great relationship with australia. i don't think this will tarnish it. >> let's talk a little more about the immigration policy and the wall. we just played a little -- gave our viewers a poll that said that 60% of americans don't think the wall should be built. i know it's something donald trump campaigned on. my question to you, though, if he ends up strengthening or raising the price on visas or using other tax measures to get mexico to indirectly pay for the wall, and then mexico passes on that to american consumers, are you still in favor of it? >> i'm in favor of building the

wall, whatever it takes because it saves lives on both sides of the border. when it comes to making the mexicans pay for it, that's donald trump's promise. i hope he can figure out how to do that. i would say a 20% duty on products coming from mexico is a nonstarter. that's more than a rumor than it is anything else. when you look at that logically, that would generate $59 billion, with a "b," that's enough to build that wall seven or eight times. i don't think we need to do that at all. i think there are companies moving already from mexico back to the united states. black & decker is one of them. i'd be scoring the wages and taxes paid on the payroll taxes of those jobs coming back to america and calculating how long it takes to pay for the wall because of the industry that's coming back to america. and because of the trump policies. but i think he wants it to be more directive and more definitive. if that's the case, there are careful and prudent ways to do this and i wouldn't want to foreclose his options.

>> do you have any idea when we would see those ideas come from the white house? >> you know, i don't have a feel for when that might be, but i do believe that congress is prepared to provide the resources necessary to build the wall. and then be able to work out the balance of where the money comes from at a later date. there's a real will to get this done. i think from a leadership perspective f i'm reading their tea leaves right, they're committed to providing the resources necessary to secure the border. i've also offered a design for this wall that will save a few billion dollars on it. it's not a 30 or 20 or even a $10 billion project. >> i think on the republican side you don't have the pulse right on the democratic side. >> no, that's true, but we have the majority over here. >> that's true. you do. congressman steve king, republican of iowa, thank you for joining me. now let's go back to today's microsoft pulse question of the day. should president trump honor the pledge to take in more than 1,000 refugees held in

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fallout today from violent protests that broke out on the campus of uc-berkeley last night over a planned speech by breitbart co-editor. the university called off the speech after it says 150 mass agitators came to campus to disturb what was supposed to be a peaceful protest. the president responded this morning in typical fashion with this tweet. if uc-berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view, no federal funds. on capitol hill, the nom nation the president picked to lead the department of education is hanging by a thread. two republicans say they will vote no, bringing democrats one

vote away from blocking that nomination. lisa murkowski is one of those and she explained why to andrea mitchell a short time ago. >> i recognize i represent a state for whom a strong public education system is an absolute must. so many of alaskan's communities will never have an opportunity for school choice because they are too small, they are too remote. >> brandy winegarten, american federation of teachers union and spoke at the march in washington. thank you for joining me. >> i saw you -- i saw you liked when i used the word woke. >> i did like that. that's an old reference. let's talk about today. what's the significance of both senators murkowski and collins coming out and saying they're not going to vote for devos? they're both from states with large rural areas where school choice isn't much of an yishgs right? >> well, it's not just that

school choice isn't much of an issue. i admire them, i applaud them. when you do this against your own party, it's pretty courageous. and i would -- and i just want to say that to both of them. but what's happening is, senator manchin, senators collins, murkows murkowski, all from rural states, and what they see is what we've seen, is that you -- public education is the core of what parents need and want for their kids and schools have been the cornerstone and the fabric of communities all throughout america. it's one of the reasons why this was really not an issue during the campaign, because we had all worked on trying to limit testing and changing federal policies, both the bush no child left behind policy and the obama race to the top policy. and so for -- for donald trump

to pick someone who knows almost nothing about public schools, is so disconnected from them, and has a fixation on destabilizing and disrupting them, as jeb bush has said, that's why people have just -- they are outraged and they are clogging the senate switchboards because parents across america have said, please, do not do this to our public schools or to our kids. >> randi, one -- the democrats need one more republican senator to say no toeos. right now it looks like the rest of the republican senators are falling in line behind the president. vice president pence has the tiebreaking vote. are you confident you're going to be able to convince one more moderate republican that devos is not the answer for secretary of education? >> no, i mean, i'm not -- frankly, if this was about the merits, i would be completely confident. but, you know, this is a situation where you have a

president who is a big bully and who is really strong-arming a lot of people. and so even when you have like a senator fischer from nebraska who really believes in public schools, i think it's -- i think what's happened is that the president should not have put somebody up who has such hostility to public schools. even his own voters are really concerned about this. and why somebody would be focused on for-profit charters instead of the money that kids need for well-being and for powerful learning. so, we're doing a lot. and, frankly, it's legislators, it's parents, it's teachers, because people don't want education to become a war zone again. we want to roll up our sleeves and help kids learn and have joy. >> randi weingrten, president of federation of teachers. stay warm out there.

at the top of the hour, we showed you donald trump taking a jab at arnold schwarzenegger for having fewer ratings on "the apprentice" than he did when he was hosting the show. trump's statement was made at national prayer breakfast, of all places. we played it for you earlier. it didn't take long for the governator to respond. >> i have a great idea. why don't we switch jobs. you take over tv, because you're such an expert in ratings, and i take over your job, and then people can finally sleep comfortably again. when your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. (sighs sadly) try this. only aleve can stop pain for 12 hours. plus, aleve is recommended by more doctors than any other brand for minor arthritis pain. aleve. live whole. not part.

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today house speaker paul ryan responded to president trump's executive order on immigration, making his strongest comments yet on whether it is a muslim ban. >> you know this is not a muslim ban. if it were, i would be against it. we are a tolerant, pluralistic country. we are and we will be. it's really important.

>> some immigrants affected by the president's order feel it's not only targeting their religion but also their families. nbc's tammy leitner spoke with a family split by the new immigration order. what did they tell you? >> reporter: hey, katy, this one family's story is becoming increasingly common. we have spoken with people stopped at airports all over this country, stopped and questioned. for some of them, their future really is uncertain. this woman paints the life she has lived. >> sadness and lost her, her son and everything lost. >> reporter: the artist and mother of four fled syria. her son stayed behind and was kidnapped by isis. she says he was among the first to be publicly beheaded. >> america is country of freedom. >> reporter: she eventually became a permanent resident in chicago, but now she wonders if she really is free. after a recent trip to dubai to

meet her granddaughter for the first time, she says she was stopped at the airport there and questioned for hours. similar scenarios played out in airports around the world after president donald trump signed the executive order restricting trav from seven musl-majority countries for 90 days. >> not my fault i'm muslim. >> reporter: protesters took to the streets in los angeles, boston, new york. pro bono attorneys at airports volunteering their services for those detained. >> they may not speak english properly, may not know about american laws. >> reporter: she did eventually make it back to chicago and was not detained. now she and her family wonder if they will ever see each other again. >> i don't want to think about it but, yeah, i'm afraid about this idea, of course. >> reporter: she says for now, those visits will have to happen over skype. these are all attorneys here who are volunteering their services

for anybody who has been detained and they told me they will stay here until the ban is lifted. katy? >> nbc's tammy leitner, thank you very much. a quick reminder about tonight's live town hall with chris matthews. chris will speak to voters at american university in washington to explore how trump's aggressive agenda is already reshaping life across the country. that's tonight, 7:00 p.m. eastern, only on msnbc. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com.

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or maybe the day you realized your baby was not a baby anymore. every subaru is built to earn your trust. because we know at you're trusting us with. subaru. kelley blue book's most trusted brand. and best overall brand. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. before we go, let's take a look at our microsoft pulse question. should president trump honor president obama's pledge to take in more than 1,000 refugees held in australia. so far, 86% of you say yes. 14% of you say no. thanks for voting. that wraps things up for me on this hour. kate snow picks things up right now. >> great to see you. i'm kate snow. here are the top stories rear following.

donald trump meeting with executives from harley-davidson motorcycles. they have long manufactured their bikes in the united states. white house press secretary sean spicer said he will discuss how it will be easier to create more jobs in the u.s. earlier today president trump said nothing is off the table when he was asked about possible military action against iran. this comes after president trump and his national security adviser said that they are putting iran, quote, on notice over iran test-firing a missile. we are following the latest from uc-berkeley after violent protests erupted last night over a scheduled speech by controversial breitbart editor. the speech was canceled. the university said fires were set, commercial-grade fireworks were thrown at police. president trump is speaking out about the news, talking about withholding federal funds from uc-berkeley. we'll bring you a full report on that later on in the show. let's begin with a very busy afternoon at the white house. for the latest, i want to bring in my