about a fight, the white house says it's going to the courthouse to battle a federal judge's ruling that put a stop to the president's immigration ban. hi, everybody, i'm thomas roberts and it really is a tug of war over the president's executive order about immigrants and refugees that could escalate this morning and as the day wears on.

we begin this hour with live pictures of the scene outside the u.s. embassy in london. this is where people have gathered to protest president trump's travel ban. and it comes just hours after a federal judge in washington state put this nationwide temporary stop to virtually every aspect of president trump's eo on travel to the united states. the judge who was a george w. bush appointee sided with the attorneys general of washington and minnesota on a lawsuit seeking to overturn the order. the ruling temporarily shutting down the 90-day ban on citizens from mostly muslim countries. the indefinite ban on seyrian refugees as well as the 120-day suspension of the refugee program. the white house vowed legal action will be soon. at the earliest possible time the department of justice intends to file an emergency stay and defend the executive order of the president which we believe is lawful and appropriate. so as a result of this ruling, at least one airport or one report, excuse me, suggests that

the customs and border patrol is telling major airlines that tens of thousands of visas which had been revoked will now be reinstated so you can imagine the impact for airports. no direct word yet from the president who will spend a working weekend atis florida home, but he did defend the executive order during his weekly address recorded before the new court ruling. >> and i will never forget that my responsibility is to keep you, the american people, safe and free. that's why last week i signed an executive order to help keep terrorists out of our country. the executive order establishes a process to develop new vetting and mechanisms to ensure those coming into america love and support our people, that they have good intentions. >> all right. so as the trump administration deals with a tough confirmation process for some of its cabinet nominees, the white house is confirming that the president's pick for army secretary has now

withdrawn his name from consideration. for more details on the legal order temporarily blocking the travel ban, i want to bring in nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, let's talk about this ruling. this is a nationwide impact, different from rulings we've seen before in regard to this eo. >> well, yes, the ruling is nationwide, although the brooklyn order that came out last saturday was also intended to be nationwide and said that nobody could be sent home who got stuck in limbo. so now the question this morning is what's the practical effect of this. we know that the government is going to appeal it and try to get a stay put on the judge's order, try to put it on hold so they can begin enforcing this again, but the real question is what happens to all the visas that people held before the executive order came out a week ago. these were immigrants here coming to the united states, travelers, students in the u.s. who wanted to leave here, go home, come back. what happens to all those visas

that were held? what the executive order did is render those visas invalid. and the initial assessment by government lawyers last night was that the judge's ruling didn't change that, that if anybody wanted now to travel, they'd have to go get new visas. well, we still haven't heard from the government on that point. however, it does appear that government officials have had a conference call with the airli industry and the airline industry has sent this notice to all of its stakeholders. it says that a customs and border protection official was on a conference call with the airlines and said that the state department has rescinded its revocations of visas. i know that's a double negative. but what that means is that if this is correct, that people who had visas before the order, they're valid again. so if somebody had a visa wanting to come to the u.s., went to the airport, couldn't get on the plane, now what that

means is they can try again as long as the judge's order remains in effect and get here. it may be a bit of a race to try to do that, because the government is going to try to go to the ninth circuit court of appeals and have the judge's order overturned. if the government were successful in doing that, then the executive order would be back on again. so it's an on/off switch here and it appears to be off in terms of the executive order right now. at least if this industry message to the airlines is correct, it's off completely and that applies to the refugees as well as the travelers. so the question is can the government get it turned back on again. so we're in a bit of a gray area here, thomas. and guess what, it's likely this gray area is going to continue. that on/off switch may get a good workout in the next several weeks because this lawsuit was one of nine that are in the federal courts right now. more are coming next week and so judges all over the country will

be issuing orders on this. just yesterday there was a total contradict oar order from a judge in boston who said, no, the program is perfectly legal. so this is going to go on for a while. >> when we think about specifically what happened in washington state and the doj saying it's going to put in a request for an emergency stay, does that mean that the legal avenue here is the fact that the judge didn't actually use the term "unconstitutional" with his ruling? >> no. it's not like a magic wand, to use that term. what the judge granted is a temporary restraining order. you go to the judge and say, look, there's this program, i think it's unconstitutional it harming my rights, let's put everythin on hold while we work that out. that's what's happened here. the judge has issued no definitive final ruling on whether it's unconstitutional, but you can't issue a ruling like this unless you find as a judge that the person asking for the ruling has a likelihood of winning. so the judge is basically saying

i think you've got the better case here, that's why i'm going to put everything on hold. >> so the ninth circuit will most likely get this appeal. a lot of people are questioning, and as you point out the gray areas for more suits to come, how this is going to play out and eventually will this land at the doorstep of the supreme court? >> oh, i'm quite confident that it will. remember, when president obama tried to make a big change in immigration law to allow people to stay in the country if their children came here and were here legally, that went to the supreme court. of course it was a 4-4 tie and the court couldn't resolve it. i don't know. it's certainly not going to get to the supreme court before, say, the next justice is confirmed if neil gorsuch is indeed confirmed. i dhooecon't even know if it wit to the court this term. it takes a while to get through the lower courts and get to the supreme court. so i'm sure it will eventually get there, but i don't know when. >> pete, thank you, sir. appreciate you breaking that

down and explaining. we turn now and head to florida, specifically west palm beach, where president trump is already tweeting this morning. nbc's kelly o'donnell is in west palm beach and, kelly, let's talk about that. what is the president saying on social media? >> reporter: well, good morning, thomas. in just the time that you've been sitting in the anchor chair, the president has used twitter twice to give us his first comment about this big development that happened overnight. at first the president wrote when a country is no longer able to say who can and who cannot come in and out, especially for reasons of safety and security, big trouble! then a few minutes later he followed interesting that certain middle eastern countries agree with the ban. they know if certain people are allowed in, it's death and destruction. again, exclamation point. so this injected a lot of uncertainty into the president's planomething he talked about a long time on the campaign trail, something that has generated protests and questions and a lot of controversy for the new administration since the

president signed this ban. at the same time, the president is coming here to florida to try to have both a work and a pleasure weekend. at this point there are people from the white house to the customs and border officials to the airlines who are trying to figure out what does this mean and what happens next. making his first visit as president to his florida home. donald and melania trump will share a palm beach weekend. but like all things trump, it likely won't be quiet. late friday, a seattle-based federal judge dealt the trump white house a blow. that court blocked the u.s. from enforcing president trump's seven-country travel ban with a temporary restraining order after two states, washington and minnesota, challenged it in court. >> the law is a powerful thing. it has the ability to hold everybody accountable to it, and that includes the president of the united states.

>> reporter: after 10:00 p.m., the white house press secretary pushed back with a statement. the department of justice intends to file an emergency stay of this outrageous order. insisting the president's order is intended to protect the homeland. ten minutes later an updated statement. the white house took out the word "outrageous" that had described the order. trump's executive order had already prompted days of protest around the country. top senate democrat chuck schumer was quick to get out his own comment calling the ruling a victory for the constitution, adding this unamerican executive order will not make us safer. in his new weekly address, recorded before the court acted, president trump defended his order to stop the entrance of foreign nationals from seven mostly muslim countries. >> the executive order establishes a process to develop new vetting and mechanis to ensure those coming into america love and support our people,

that they have good intentions. >> reporter: trump also tweeted friday we must keep evil out of our country. and what is notable about the new tweets from president trump this morning, he's not taking issue with the court, he's not sort of weighing in to what steps the department of justice would or would not take, but commenting more broadly on his policy and defending it. thomas, we've seen him use twitter and use his public statements to do that and trying to encourage his supporters to respond as well. this has been a controversial issue from the start, but one the trump white house just two weeks and one day in wants to defend. and the president has other things on tap for today. it is a working saturday for the president who we expect will be talking by phone with the leaders of italy and ukraine. and in addition, totally unrelated, one of his appointees, a nominee to be the secretary of the army, has withdrawn. vincent viola has decided that

he can no longer go forward. today the secretary of defense, jim mattis, says he is disappointed but understands. >> kelly o'donnell reporting in west palm beach, florida. thank you very much. joining me right now is gabby and francesca. good morning to you both. gabby, let me start with you. as we were hearing there from kelly with donald trump taking to twitter this morning to defend the aspects, the intent of what he feels about this eo, you wrote industry leaders are urging the president to tweak the immigration order. so what do you see from industry leaders having leverage to sway the president and what the white house should consider? >> well, look, donald trump met with his business advisory council yesterday and sort of walked into a lion's den on this issue during that meeting. there are a number of tech leaders, auto industry leaders and individuals across the country who have significant

influence over the president who are urging him to reconsider aspects of this travel ban. they may not be necessarily asking him to completely rescind this executive order, but there are certain are that he can coider tweaking, whether it has to deal with visa issuance to individuals seeking to come to the country, people who already have visas, refugees, maybe steppwidening the level o refugees allowed into the country under the refugee admittance program. there are efforts to get him to consider changing this order. but to this point donald trump does not seem to be welcoming those. the white house seems extremely resistant to any effort to change this order as we've seen through their full force defense of it in the last few weeks. >> so francesca, to that point, president trump has not ever shown a deference to surrender when it comes to his point of view and what he wants to do. that would indicate surrender. the white house saying they're going to battle this judge's order and have the department of

justice request an emergency stay about this ruling. how long do you think that it's going to take for this to kind of square out? as we heard from pete williams, there are more suits from other states coming. >> and it could go all the way up to the supreme court so that could take months, that could be up to a year. this could really envelope the better part of his first term of his presidency quite honestly. and you have to go back to that statement that the white house issued last night. they went on to say in it that the president under the law has the right for any length of time to restrict immigration to the country from any class of foreigners that he believes is necessary for any reason. and so the white house is being adamant that they have acted within the law and that this is legal and they seem pretty confident that as this moves through the legal system they'll come out on top. >> let's just go back to twitter one more second so we can show everybody how president trump has tweeted another time in, specific about the judge's order saying the opinion of this so-called judge, which essential

low takes law enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned. this is a judge who was appointed by george w. bush, an appointee under that administration. but it seems as if, and gabby let me ask this of you, with this legal battle going back and forth, because trere certain judges, one in boston, that backed up the efforts an appeal and a way to approve this being constitutional so does that help this white house enforce what is legal about the eo. >> i think the benefit for the white house is no federal judge has actually in the language of their order against this said that it is unconstitutional and that is what the white house is leaning on at this point. that's what's going to continue to be litigated in the courts as francesca mentioned. this could go all the way up to the supreme court because of that one component. i think that the language there is extremely important to the fate of this executive action.

the white house is going to continue to defend this order and say that they acted completely within the law, there is nothing unconstitutional or overreaching about this. we'll see. i mean this could go to the supreme court. if somebody finds a way to argue that this was in fact a violation of our constitution, then president trump is certainly in trouble at that point. >> real quickly, francesca, about one of the countries in a different vein here but about iran, i know that you co-wrote an article about president trump, and the issue of the language going back and forth between the ballistic missile testing of iran, saying they're not behaving and it comes as the white house imposes further sanctions on that country, putting that country, quote, on notice. we know that iran has pushed back on this saying that they have dealt with inexperienced people before, putting a kind of a phrase at the trump white house about being inexperienced. what do you think the strategy is here, especially when this doesn't have to do anything with the nuclear pact?

>> well, the trump white house thinks that his predecessors, president obama, was, quote, too kind to iran and that is what has emboldened them. that is why they are testing ballistic missiles. that is why they are acting the way that they currently are right now. and he believes that if they show them tough talk, if they show them they're not going to put up with these behaviors, that they're misbehaving, that iran will back down. of course that has created some concern that iran will not back down and the u.s. will not back down, but at this point mike ynn denal mattis have indicated that there will be -- there will be no military action, at least at this time. however, the white house has left that option on the table for military action as well. >> we know that it was mike flynn who came out saying that we have officially put iran on notice. that was before rex tillerson's confirmation as secretary of state. so he picks up, for lack of a better word, a hot potato as he starts the new job. good to have you both with me, i

appreciate it. america's new tough talk. what impact will it have with our friends, our u.s. friends around the world, and then our foes. the different avenues that are taken. that's next. my d ad called them up and asked for "the jennifer garner card" which is such a dad thing to do. after he gave his name the woman from capital one said "mr. garner, are you related to jennifer?" kind of joking with him. and my dad was so proud to tell her, "as a matter of fact, she is my middle daughter". so now dad has the venture card, he's earning his double miles, and he made a friend at the company. can i say it? go ahead! what's in your wallet? nice job dad.

welcome back. i want to show you live pictures from across the pond in london. they are protesting president trump's travel ban. as you know, a federal judge in washington state blocked that order with far sweeping effects nationwide. this happened overnight and the white house says that the justice dertment will file a request for an immediate stay of that order. but as we see here, this protest in london, one of many that are scheduled for today, here at home and around the world. joining me now is jonathan finer who served as former secretary of state under john kerry's

staff and a former foreign and national correspondent for "the washington post." also joining the conversation, msnbc contributor steve clemons of "the atlantic." gentlemen, good to have you with me. this is a new day and there is new legal controversy with that ruling out of washington state, steve. where do you think the white house goes from here? we know they want to request an emergency stay from the department of justice. >> i think the white house is going to use every bit of its leverage to continue to communicate to its base that its trying to keep people of concern out of the united states and to fight this injunction very vigorously. i don't think that we've seen the end of donald trump's commitment to trying to end a lot of refugee access to the united states and to sort of send a signal to the rest of the world that there's going to be a much higher wall and a much higher barrier to entry to the united states. >> and we know that donald trump has already been tweeting about

this, this morning. he is at his florida home, mar-a-lago. one of the tweets being when a country is no longer able to say who can and who cannot come in and out, especially for reasons of safety and security, big trouble. jonathan, how do you think that the obama white house or under the advisor and leadership of secretary kerry would react to this? obviously this is a rex tillerson issue now as the new secretary of state. >> it is. this is probably the single biggest issue, thomas, that's on new secretary of state tillerson's desk. you know, he's coming in in a difficult time. i would say this is the end of two weeks of foreign policy making that's basically been defined by controversy and confusion. you've signalled some of the big questions that the administration and the new secretary will have to address with this travel order situation, including whether the white house will be successful in essential low staying the new stay, getting it overturned boy an appeals court, but also the

bigger conitional questions that are going to be litigated at length in a number of courts around the country as well as fundamental questions about how this new situation is going to be implemented, like the tens of thousands of people whose visas were apparently cancelled after the consecutive order was released or provisionally revoked. what happens to them. are they able to travel. and then will this order be implemented to the letter. there have been some issues in some of the other court orders where, you know, customs and border patrol may have had a slightly different interpretation of how this was supposed to be implemented than the courts did. so how all these things get worked out is going to be complicated. a better process on the front end, more clarity as to what they were trying to accomplish might have addressed some of these things. >> we know in parallel rulings, one out of boston, supports this executive order whereas in washington state this federal judge has given a broad ruling which affects nationwide entry for people that would have been left out under this order. i just want to get this other

tweet on about the judge with president trump tweeting the opinion of this so-called judge, which essential low takes law enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned. jonathan, does this really have an effect on fighting terror right now? >> you know, i think that is highly dubious democratic national convention and i know that there are a number of national security professionals and people that have worked in this field that believe it could actually could have quite the opposite effect. one of the countries listed is iraq. we are currently working hand in glove with iraq to fight isil, need them very much. they're probably our foremost partner in that counterterrorism effort. we need iraqis to come to the united states for all kinds of reasons, for training, to help them understand how to use the new equipment we're providing them and that would cut that off entirely. it makes it difficult politically for the iraqis to work with us when we are singling them out as essentially some sort of threat. so i think the national security claim here is dubious at best. >> steve, let's get on the

record with another country in that region, iran, and what's taking place because of tehran's missile testing and the real world impa that's going to happen because of the sha exchanges that are going back and forth. how does the trump administration work off of progress that was made within the obama administration with the nuclear pact and not overstep when it comes to the conversations that need to be had about this ballistic missile testing? >> oh, i think it's very hard for them not to overstep because there's a diversity of view within the trump administration about the iran deal and how to proceed, and i think that what i worry about with the iran deal is we're beginning to see an escalation of tensions. there's a dispute over whether the ballistic missile test that iran conducted is a violation of agreement or not. it's a violation of the spirit of agreement, i would agree with those that say technically iran has a case here, but more importantly as john finer and his colleagues did in the state department the iran relationship

needs constant attention and fine tuning. you can design it to succeed or design it to fail. negligence and tension will allow the deal to go off the tracks and blow up of its own accord. as i know from discussions with secretary kerry in the past, iran was beginning to work with us on a number of other conte contentious and thorny issues in syria and other places in the region, inside iraq, so it's not just a bilateral set of problems between the geographic state of iran and the united states. they have influence throughout the northeast and middle africa region and was beginning to work with us. all of that is in jeopardy because of what we see unfolding. >> we know because of different reports coming out, one of the items, one of the sentences used from an iranian official said this is not the first time that an inexperienced person has threatened iran. so, steve, from your point is the intention here to rattle that up and to rattle ahead --

rattle that progress that could lie ahead to make sure that our countries may remain at odds, that gives the trump administration a proper foe? >> i think my big concern is that there are players inside of iran who will benefit, whose bottom line, their power will increase if tensions with the united states increase. there's also a shrewd calculation that some could make that the united states will not be able to drag many allies into a conflict with iran. you know, the reason iran was more compliant and more pliable before is because we had global sanctions in place and we had allies, we had the support of china and russia and europe. that's not going to happen next round if we manage to take this relationship into a very contentious direction. but what iranians can say, their own modus opperandi is to demonize the united states but still have good relations with the rest of the world. still ahead, president trump

weighing in on what's the biggest story this weekend, the super bowl. yeah. the super bowl of politics. we'll talk about that and take you to houston coming up. stick around. it's the little things in life that make me smile. spending the day with my niece. i don't use super poligrip for hold, because my dentures fit well. before those little pieces would get in between my dentures and my gum and it was uncomfortable. even well fitting dentures let in food particles. just a few dabs of super poligrip free is clinically proven to seal out more food particles

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good morning, everybody, welcome back. i'm thomas roberts here at msnbc world headquarters in new york. at the half hour, here's what we're watching for you. the latest out of london. take a peek at this, these are protesters that have taken to the streets in that city. thousands gathering to demonstrate near the u.s. embassy against president trump's travel ban. the plan was for protesters to rally outside the embassy before heg to prime minister theresa may's residence at 10 downing street. so that protest in london, just one of many that will be happening today around the globe. this as u.s. visa holders from those seven countries impacted by president trump's travel ban can reportedly begin flying to the u.s. tom costello joins us now from washington.

tom, what do we know from airlines as they move forward with trying to make this a smooth day for travelers? >> good morning, thomas. in fact they're moving very quickly trying to react to that. we're in downtown washington because we are also expecting protesters here. we're about a block from the white house and all of this is expected to kick on about midday. but let's remind viewers what seven countries were involved in this initial suspension of travel for 120 days. these countries, of course, were the sudan, libya, syria, iran, iraq and yemen. and now that this judge in washington has issued a tro, a temporary restraining order, lifting that travel ban, if you will, now the countries are allowed to send people again to the united states if they have a valid visa or a green card. and so already today airlines are saying they will comply with the judge's order. that includes egyptair, american airlines, british airways, air france. etihad, virgin atlanta and qatar

airways saying if you have a valid visa and you are from one of those countries, you can board a flight to the united states. last night at jfk airport, we talked to an iraqi man who had just landed and he had arrived after last week being sent back to baghdad because he is from iraq, but he is a translator who helped the u.s. military and so he was then waived and allowed to come on back to the united states. he landed last night at jfk and he was very happy indeed. here's what he had to say. >> actually i'm feeling blessed to be in the united states really. there are other people who are waiting to come over here, but i'm feeling blessed really. just like i said, people were very nice to me. they gave the kids foods, nuts, biscuits and so it's nice. it's nice. it was really nice. >> reporter: so of course this all follows the protests we've

seen over the last week after mr. trump issued that initial suspension saying that if you're from those seven countries, you can't travel to the united states. that cost, of course, mass protests across the united states and across the world. we're seeing that again today. we're expecting that we're going to see more protests today here in washington following what we've already seen in europe. it's a very chilly morning here, about 25 degrees in downtown washington. it's supposed to be chilly all day but it's a sunny day and so we're expecting the potential, they say, of about 8,000 people on the streets of washington. starting down the street here at the white house, marching to the capitol and then eventually the supreme court. we'll see how that all goes on. thomas, back to you. >> tom, just real quickly, i'm curious about this and whether or not any sources have reached out to you to talk about this and the type of confusion for any airports and the personnel there that will be taking in these different residents of the world from various places that will be included within this ban and any type of extreme vetting

that they may face on this side when they get to u.s. airports. have you heard any talk about that? >> so as you know, if you are already from many of the countries that are on terror watch lists or where people are often coming, originating from, those people are already under greater scrutiny. that scrutiny remains in place. if you're a typical airport worker, you can imagine how your head is spinning following the last week of kpieexecutive orde and now you've got judges weighing in and the tro. this is very difficult to keep up with if you're plugged into the news 24/7. imagine if you're an airport or an airline and trying to do your job. so there is a certain degree of catch-up in which the airlines are trying to stay on top of the rules and the regs but this morning they're all saying they will comply. there is one caveatnd that is if you are from one of these countries and when you scan your ticket, ift comes up as somebody who is not allowed to fly, that may not be because of

the travel ban. now of course it's lifted. it may be because an individual is on a terror watch list or there's some other issue associated with this individual and so they are not going to be allowed to fly either. if this all sounds confusing, imagine you're on the front lines trying to deal with this minute by minute. it really has been a very difficult thing to try to navigate through. >> we know they all want to do a great job but there's a whiplash effect that comes along with this to make sure they are doing the job that they are expected. tom costello in washington for us, thank you. president trump is talking about the super bowl and you might be surprised by what he has to say about it. that's next. ♪ everything your family touches sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around. use clorox disinfecting products. because no one kills germs better than clorox.

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in a meeting with economic advisers on friday morning, president trump took a brief detour away from money and matters and took a dive into the world of sports. take a listen. >> one of the things that i heard this morning in watching the news was that amazingly,

it's never happened before, that politics has become a much bigger subject than the super bowl. this is usually super bowl territory and now they're saying that the politics is more interesting to people. >> he might be right. i want to bring in republican strategist and republican strategist. good morning, great to have you with us. noelle, first, do you have a team, falcons or patriots? >> oh, well, you know, i've kind of got to go with the patriots there. i'm a big brady fan. >> all right. and so with donald trump talking about this and doing so in front of high-level advisers, is that common or uncommon in your opinion? >> me? >> yes. >> well, you know, every president has weighed in on sports so that's not crazy that he's done it. but the fact that he has said that politics is basically

become the super bowl, it's more important than the super bowl or it's more focused on, i've got to tell you, he's got a little bit of a point because in the news every day 24/7 we have been sitting here waiting. when you wake up, what has happened or what has changed today, so it's become very exciting, it's become very emotional and now that the super bowl is upon us on sunday, we're excited about it but we're still wanting to see what's happening with the travel ban, what's happening with immigration, what's happening with whatever trump is going to do next, but every morning we wake up in a new day in politics. >> and let me get it out of the way, are you supporting the patriots or the falcons? >> well, i'm from cleveland. i support the cleveland browns so i don't have a team in the super bowl this yore. >> oh, wow, you are hard core. i'm not going to tell you that i'm from baltimore and we stole the browns and became the ravens.

so you are switzerland in this super bowl. do you think that this is all part of trump and the way that he brands and tries to make himself relevant? and as noelle pointed out, president bush did not hold back on march madness or super bowls for that matter. >> well, trump is also a pop culture figure, so he is up to date on a variety of things and sort of weighs in. each president has his own rhythm and his own way of ndling things. some of the times he makes these comments that are inappropriate, like he did at the prayer breakfast, but he's trying to use the common man touch, the common feel, but it's funny, thomas, i thought he was hilarious when he said that he had a great week. if this is a great week, i would hate to see what's a bad week. it's been a horrible week for him in the rolling out of this plan so we'll see what next week brings. >> perception is reality or at least the attempt at it, morris, and now we know that last night a federal judge in washington state suspended trump's immigration executive order.

this is a move the white house is promising to counter with a request of emergency stay through the department of justice. noelle, how unprecedented is this kind of struggle when it comes to something so pivotal as to what is the fabric of america, immigration, or helping refugees. >> you've got a good point. i don't think we've seen anything like this. there's been a -- the left and the right with donald trump being president, this is a very strained relationship, you know. it's no doubt, we've never seen so many protests and riots and movements against our current president. but what i've got to tell you is robart, this is really not shocking that robart would take front and center on this issue. because on the left and a lot of people that have really disagreed with trump's travel ban, this guy is a hero. but he has done things like this before, especially in the case of like black lives matter. he had an issue in seattle where he spoke out. and also he's done a lot of pro bono work for some refugees.

so this is something near and dear to his heart and he has found a loophole and a way to block it. so you've got to realize that a lot of people are cheering for robart and think that's great. now with that said, you better believe that donald trump and the administration are going to find a way to squash this and make sure that they can put their plans back in action because there's no way with donald trump and his personality that i think that he's going to sit down and let this federal judge take over and squash his exutive order. >> so just 33 minutes ago, morris, the president had tweeted from hi his @realdonaldtrump handle the opinion of this so-called judge which essentially takes law enforcement away from our country is ridiculous and will be overturned. i want to play this. this happened prior to when we got news of this ruling, but the interview with greta van susteren, sean spicer, the press secretary for donald trump sitting down and defending the way his boss does things.

take a look at this. >> if you heard donald trump talk throughout the campaign, the reason that he's so successful as a negotiator is he doesn't take things off the table. he doesn't talk about what he's going to do. he doesn't telegraph it. it's the worst thing someone can do trying to negotiate. he leaves everything on the table. he understands the consequences what various action would be. >> here's the one thing that you can expect from trump, morris, the fact that he will not surrender a certain point. i think we have all witnessed that through the campaign watching these different executive orders kind of fly into action, taken a lot of heat, donald trump has, for what some see as a maybe less than elegant way of trying to get his point out on certain things. do you think that sean spicer is kind of being a reveal there of basically the boss is unpredictable? >> well, it's clearly that he's unpredictable. they might have tried to do some extreme vetting on vetting their program. you know, the one thing that's interesting is it's taken donald

trump only two weeks of bring us to the brink of possibly a constitutional crisis. i think this may be the quickest time that's ever happened in our history. when you go into office, it's really not about you, it's about the people you're serving. and donald trump needs to understand that he's not just serving the people who elected him, but he is serving the entire country. at some point he's going to have to take his foot off the pedal, back up and realize the impact that he's having, the negative impact he's having. i am encouraged by the pace and the energy that he's bringing to the capitol. i think that's a terrific thing. but he has to find a way to slow down. rome wasn't created in a day so we're not going to build the next mt. rushmore for him in o weeks. so i think he needs to get more concentrated and focused on trying to get things done with the congress, with the community within washington and not just ram executive orders through like he criticized the last president for doing. >> i think instant gratification would be a way to explain some of those. noelle, great to see you and

good luck to your patriots. morris, nice to see you and you are switzerland about the super bowl. thank you, guys. we have new insight into just how donald trump makes his certain decisions. we'll hear from a writer that has followed the president for decades. then in the next hour, the capitol hill effort to derail president trump's travel ban. i'll speak with one lawmaker whose district has one of the highest proportions of arab americans in the country. when you have something you love, you want to protect it. at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. with an estate plan

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so what does it take to be a donald trump whisperer? i'm going to speak to a person who has some great insight into the decision-making of donald trump and the style that he started to brand back in the 1980s. stick around. the future of business in new york state is already in motion. companies across the state are growing the economy, with the help of the lowest taxes in decades, a talented workforce, and world-class innovations. like in plattsburgh, where the most advanced transportation is already en route. and in corning,

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so as we've been covering this morning this new ruling by a federal judge in seattle put a temporary hold on the travel ban and this is just the latest legal battle for the trump administration. by nbc's count, president trump has been named in more than 50 lawsuits since taking the oath

of office, compared to three lawsuits for president obama and four lawsuits each for rge bush ando clinton during the same time period. but joining m now is a long-time trump biographer and author of "donald trump the candidate." it's great to have you with me. from a legal perspective and how you know president trump for several decades, how do you think that he sees these? is it all against his ego or do you think it's different now that he's president? >> hi there. i think this is his comfort zone. being in conflict, having chaos around him, having everybody going every which way, being belligerent, that's what he likes. he likes to be in fighting mode. so i don't think he considers this a bad situation at all. i think from his vantage point, as he says, everything went pretty smoothly, meaning it's where he likes to be. >> right, so he's thriving through the chaos. >> oh, yeah. oh, yes, absolutely.

>> but also from how you've been able to have access to see how donald trump operates as the businessman, i want to get your take on how final decisions are made, at least in his circle, because we have francis townsend, former homeland security advisor to president george w. bush saying that she believes that the meeting president trump had with king abdullah on jordan on thursday helped influence his view on israeli settlements. so is the last person in the room with donald trump the one that gets the last word and the last impression on decisions? >> i think that the last person in the room, yeah, has an impact, but this is somebody who's really looking out for his own interests, always. what's to his advantage. and he's a super salesman, he's a super performer, he knows that as a performer the absolutely paramount thing is to do the unexpected, to do what nobody is -- to do the thing that's

going to get -- everybody's head is going to snap in your attention and they're going to be paying attention. he's just dominating everything. he's bigger than the super bowl. and that's because of that approach where he's always doing the unexpected. so did this wh these sudden el ban. those things have very big impacts, but we've also got to pay attention to the fact that they're distractions from what else is going on, what else is going on is that he still hasn't shown his federal tax returns. he still has not dealt with conflict of interest issues. those are big things that have not been really dealt with. they're also ongoing things that are not -- they're not getting perhaps quite the attention that are extremely significant but are kind of overshadowed by these distractions, for example, efforts to roll back dodd-frank, efforts to roll back regulations

that mandate that investment advisers should be acting in their clients' best interests. those are really important things that are going on that are getting lost in the shuffle. >> gwenda, it's great to have you on. we have run up against the clock and are out of time. i really appreciate your insight and appreciate your time this morning. thank you. >> you're welcome. lawmakers on capitol hill are mobilizing to fight president trump's travel ban. one of those leading the charge joins me in the next hour. stay tuned. spial edition. this is one gorgeous truck. oh, did i say there's only one special edition? because, actually there's 5. aaaahh!! ooohh!! uh! holy mackerel. wow. nice. strength and style. which one's your favorite? come home with me! it's truck month! find your tag for an average total value over $11,000 on chevy silverado all star editions when you finance through gm financial. find new roads at your local chevy dealer.

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