that's gabe gutierrez reporting for you. the dow is about to close 200 points lower. almost a full percent lower. there's a lot of reasons for this. i will get into this tomorrow. it's time to start to think about the markets. thanks for watching. "deadline: white house" with nicolle wallace starts right now. hi, everyone. it's 4:00. as if donald trump's promise of fire and fury for north korea was not sufficiently bellicose to cause alarm the world over and send sent his own administration into a tail spin, he announced the ad libbed statements did not go far enough and he suggests that mitch mcconnell might need to go if he can't get his agenda through congress. here is the president in

bedminster a short time ago. >> mr. president, the north koreans said it was -- [ indiscernible ]. do you have any response to that? >> well, i don't think they mean that. i think they -- it's the first time they heard it like they heard it and frankly the people that were questioning that statement wasn't too tough. maybe it wasn't tough enough. they have been doing this to our country for a long time, for many years. and it's about time that somebody stuck up for the people of this country and for the people of other countries. so if anything, maybe that statement wasn't tough enough and we're backed by 100% by our military, we're backed by everybody. and we're backed by many other leaders and i notice that many senators and others today came out very much in favor of what i said. but if anything, that statement may not be tough enough. >> [ indiscernible ]. >> you'll see. you'll see. >> mr. president, one of the options being considered a preemptive strike? >> we don't talk about that. never do. i'm not like the other administration that would say

we're going into mosul in four months. i don't talk about it. we'll see what happens. but i can tell you that what they have been doing and what they have been getting away with is a tragedy and it can't be allowed. >> mr. president, did you ever consider negotiation? >> sure. we'll always consider negotia negotiations but they have been negotiating for 25 years. look at clinton, he folded and he was weak and ineffective. look what happened with bush and look what happened with obama. obama he didn't want to talk about it. but i talk. it's about time -- somebody has to do it. somebody has to do it. >> mr. president, mixed messages coming out of your administration? secretary tillerson seemed to advocate diplomacy -- >> there are no mixed messages. there are no mixed messages. i heard -- i mean, to be honest, general mattis may have taken it a step beyond what i said. there are no mixed messages and

rex was just -- you know, stating the view. look, here's the view. i said it yesterday. i don't have to say it again. i'll tell you this. it may be tougher than i said it. not less. it may very well be tougher than i said it. how about one more? >> any assurance to the american people who are understandably anxious about the situation with north korea, the images -- [ indiscernible ], the threats of the bomb, and fire and fury should they -- >> the people of this country should be very comfortable. and i will tell you this. if north korea does anything in terms of even thinking about attack of anybody that we love or that we represent or our allies or us, they can be very, very nervous. tell you what. they should be very nervous because things will happen to them like they never thought possible. okay? he's been pushing the world around for a long time.

and i have great respect for what china and what russia did and those -- we have a 15-0 vote. i have great respect for china and russia what they did on sanctions. i believe that will have an effect. i don't think it will have the kind of effect even though i was the one -- we were the ones that got it. and nikki haley did a great job. we all did a great job. but i have great respect for what they did and i have great respect for the 15-0, but probably it will not be as effective as a lot of people think it can be unfortunately. >> can china do more? >> i think china can do a lot more, yes. i think they will do a lot more. look, we have trade with china. we lose hundreds of billions of dollars a year on trade with china. they know how i feel. it's not going to continue like that. but if china helps us, i feel a lot differently toward trade. a lot differently toward trade. so we will do i think -- the

people of our country safe. our allies are safe. and i will tell you this. north korea better get their act together or they're going to be in trouble like few nations ever have been in trouble in this world. okay? thank you very much. >> nbc's kelly o'connell is in bedminster with the president and robert acosta joins us from d.c. i want to introduce john heilman and frank bruni, a columnist for "the new york times." here's your title, the white house reporter eli stokols and kasie hunt. kelly o, while we were watching the president's statement that took place about an hour and 15 minutes ago. he left that statement and he went into another meeting with two generals, general kelly his new chief of staff, general hr mcmaster, his national security

adviser and the president was there. we're starting to hear some news leak out about -- from the press pool about that second meeting. so can we start with what is just wrapping up, that second meeting where they covered north korea, where he was with two generals who were not aware that he would use the words fire and fury when that was the threat heard around the world earlier in the week. can you start with what you know about this latest meeting? >> well, as news late -- as the first installment from brett was, what is coming is stunning. the topics from russia to iran and relations with north korea so as you pointed out this is happening now. we don't have the television ability to show it yet but that's coming. so the tape will be brought back and we'll play it. some of the increments that we are getting on iran, the president said i don't think they're living up to the spirit of the agreement meaning the

pact that has been really under threat from this president although he has recertified it. he would like to denuke the world trump says but nobody including north korea is going to be threatening us. that's just a sampling. another, it's not a dare it's a statement, the president again sort of assessing based on questions from reporters there what the impact of some of his words are at this point. at one point, according to colleagues who were there, the president says let's see what he does with guam referring to kim jong un. if he talks guam it will be an event like the likes of which nobody has seen before. that's the echo of the fire and the fury. on the issue of the russia investigation, the president said he was surprised by the raid at the home -- one of the homes of paul manafort who had been a campaign chairman last year, saying that he was surprised to see it. saying that seldom sees that kind of a raid. he says they're cooperating with robert mueller and that they are investigating things that never happened.

so new -- really new content from the president, new responses. new positions here that's happening right now and we'll be able to absorb it more fully when we get the tape. but if you thought that first part where he said a lot of things that north korea should be watching very carefully he continues that in his additional conversation. he also says some decisions have been made. it's unclear if that's a direct response to afghan policy but i think that's what he's referring to there. you get a sense of how wide ranging it is. mike pompeo is also participating and the president praises his work, so you get a sense this is a president who may have felt pent up on a lot of topics. we saw him earlier in the week, he's several days into his time at bedminster and today really within a couple of hours taking more than a dozen questions from reporters and may be significantly higher than that. late in the day, giving us the challenge of what's the lead?

there are so many topics here. north korea of course of great concern to the public to allies around the world and the president not wanting to back off of his tough talk. at the same time, also trying to suggest there isn't something imminent and then on the other topics that have so driven our national conversation everything from the russia investigation to other big u.s. foreign policy issues. what do we do with afghanistan, how does he handle the threats of potentially from iran? so as we await this it's going to be a lot to digest. >> kelly o, i feel like we always in the 4:00 hour have you sprinting to your camera shot or reading from your phone because news is literally happening while you're on our air. stay with us. i want to bring in robert costa in the conversation. and in your exclusive reporting today about how general kelly sees his role, that he sat there on tuesday or monday when donald trump ad libbed his threat of fire and fury and he didn't say

anything and that was by design. that this new chief of staff, this new general to be in this job doesn't see it as part of his role at this point to rein in donald trump's impulses. how do you think that's going in light of what we've heard unfold in the last couple of hours? >> what we're seeing in bedminster is not necessarily by design. but it's an acknowledgment of the reality of how president trump operates. my sources who are in bedminster and working from washington say that most of the national security team is trying to provide the president with information, having tightly controlled briefings and conference calls, bringing in the secretary of state and other voices. but they know when the president brings in reporters to these rooms to have the pool spray that he's going to be ad-libbing. that he's basing its on information he has been briefed on but it's his own voice. that has a risk factor of course. but that's the reality right now in new jersey. >> robert, your reporting talks

almost -- you've got the most fleshed out picture of what general kelly prioritized. it was the processes and having worked in the white house. it's a big part of it. but it seems like if it's an 80-20 problem, that the white house has, the problems that have driven this president to historically low poll numbers he sits at about 33% in most of the public opinion polls, what give people pause who were in his camp are outside of that 20% that general kelly seems to be solving by addressing the processes and with this week as an example, as you said, he had -- it sounded like philip rucker's voice, your colleague as the print pool shouting question after question after question and his answers weren't all truthful when asked about people in his cabinet being on different pages. he said that's not true. you in fact had sebastian gorka today verbally rebuking

secretary of state rex tillerson for suggesting that people should sleep at night. no progress from the new chief of staff in getting this white house on the single message. >> it's a complicated situation to say the least. i'm told general kelly is trying to have a narrow focus in determining what kind of information actually lands on the president's desk at bedminster so he's not talking to all of the different voices or reading different things that are just flashed in front of him. that he actually has a process for deciding these on the policy matters. but you're right, there's a divide in this administration. it's between those who are part of the foreign policy establishment so to say in this country, the more hawkish voices in the republican party and the outsiders who came to washington on the trump campaign. like sebastian gorka who do not abide by the same rhetoric or the rules based order that is often guided foreign policy leaders in both parties. >> all right. let me go back to kelly o who's got some breaking news about those russian compounds.

what are you hearing? >> well, among the questions asked of the president in this second session that we have been talking about for which we do not yet have the tape the president was asked about vladimir putin's decision to reduce the number of americans permitted to work in the u.s. embassy in moscow and around other missions in russia by 755. the president's answer according to our colleagues, i want to thank him. we're trying to trim down on payroll. greatly appreciate that. i think we do need to hear that for the full context. that's quite a stunning remark from the president. he also expresses confidence in hr mcmaster, his national security adviser, that is relevant because there has been a lot of -- especially in the conservative media, in the breitbart world a lot of criticism of mcmaster. a division between bannon and the national security adviser, so the president wrapping his arms around hr mcmaster today. also saying his relationship

with the attorney general jeff sessions is okay. in reference to the twitter battle and negative comments about mitch mcconnell, the president pointed out that senator mcconnell's wife, elaine chao, the labor secretary, is doing a great job but he's disappointed in mitch. many more topics. we'll keep briefing you as they come in. >> don't go very far away and robert costa, don't leave us, and one of the tells that president trump was irritated by the press conference this week, it was that i -- he came out and asserted his whole administration was on the same page after the fire and fury and that's not the case. start with the first statement and his doubling down and saying that you know what, maybe fire and fury didn't go far enough. >> that's what he does. he doubles down. he never walks it back. that's just part of who donald trump is and that's not going to change. >> but what does that mean in the context of nuclear -- >> right now we're talking about

the stakes seem to be higher geopolitically -- >> slight understatement. >> hard to figure out how to talk about. because there's so much content coming at us today. clearly -- >> well, we have the hour. let's just hone in on fire and fury and the idea that he never backs down in a political context. but we are talking about nuclear brinksmanship. >> but what he does, i mean, i think you have to look at this and see not just the bluntness of what he's saying, but how vague his words there. there is no specificity to any of this. when he says fire and fury we don't know what he's talking about. there's often sort of a yin and yang, an incoherence in sort of what he's saying about foreign policy. it was america first, we'll worry about ourselves and no intervene but we'll impose our force when we need to. kind of speaking to both side, hawks and people who are less hawkish. he's telling people today, hey,

you can sleep fine tonight, but fire and fury may not have been strong enough. what do you take away from someone who says don't worry about it. and what i said before that was an understatement. >> general mccaffrey called it babble. i wonder, john heilman, you were with donald trump when he was a candidate after one of these -- after a terror -- terrible tragedy. and you went to him of an international incident who do you turn to and he said my brain. >> he said me. we were with him at mar-a-lago. it was all happenstance and shooting for the circus on show time. it was the day after the brussels attack. so what -- so you found out early in the morning, us on the phone from the beginning. who do you consult and this is when he was a candidate, not a president. i don't consult anybody, i have a good brain, i have convictions, i have thoughts, i come up with an idea. he's now president of the united states and it's different. he is consulting people, to what

effect we don't know. >> pause pause pause. he's not consulting them about using the word fire and fury. >> that is true. but it's -- it's the case he's consulting them about the substance of the policies. this is something that eli alluded to. donald trump has spent a long time in public life and about certain things he has expressed consistent views for a long time. most of those matters relate to business and economy and some international economic issues where he's been -- he's been against free trade for a really long time. when its comes to national security he has no idea what he thinks about anything. and this -- the contradiction that eli pointed to is profound between the belly coste, the we are america first. we are strongest, we are the biggest, we are dominating the world on one hand and the isolationist, multilateralist, the other say has to pay more. we don't want to be part of nato unlist they pay their dues. it's not traditional

conservatism and neoconservativism. these are very far along the spectrum of ideological points of view. he is -- he doesn't know what he actually believes and now that he's facing crises is now -- now he has to figure out because his actions are going to make a world view for him. that is a weird place to be. we have not had a president like that in any of our lifetimes. >> go ahead, kasie. >> the one push back i would argue there, he i believe it was 1999 said on "meet the press" it was very -- he was very open to the idea of a preemptive on north korea. in some instances he has been very -- kind of taken the most bellicose possible position and it's reflective of how he's conducted himself in business. we've talked a lot about this idea that there may be some benefit potentially, the mad man theory of the case. david ignatius has written about it. >> he's not capable of strategy because he's not capable of

anything that's a chess play. >> but in the context of president trump the man who, you know, we have seen in business he has always taken the most bellicose possible -- look at his lawsuits, right? the most aggressive, bellicose posture that's led his opponents to back down and he's ultimately quietly settled. i think the stakes are much higher and one of the things that caught my eye in what we were listening to from the president or my ear, he referenced jim mattis' statement yesterday. he says in many ways that was stronger and he said the dprk should cease any actions that will lead to the destruction of his regime and his people. if that's what he's listening to that's right up there with as far as you can go on this. >> frank, i want to bring you in on this idea that i think john articulates well. he has no idea yes he stands. i think that's a good explanation for why there is a war even among his white house

staff. you've got steve bannon who was kicked off the national security council. launching what has become a public war against a sitting national security adviser. you covered george w. bush. i cannot imagine george w. bush tolerating a war being waged against condi rice when she sat as his national security adviser. you can debate the strategic advice you get from the national security adviser, but we are looking at a nuclear standoff with north korea with his own national security adviser needing to be propped up by a president who has to say that he has his support. stunning. >> well, it seems to me you and -- when we talk about this administration we keep coming back to the same thing over and over again. >> norms. >> the norms and we have never seen a administration with this -- with this kind of infighting. we have never seen an administration with what kind of leaking. bob costa has addressed what can kelly do or not do? you can't take a collection of people this flamboyant and this

diverse and make it all sound good and make everyone be on the same page. and i think the problem is it wouldn't be scary to have all of these conflicting perspectives coming at the president if you had a sense that this president had sort of unswerving politics and fixed ideas about what he wants he want to do and as it comes to foreign policy -- we have no reason to believe that comes to this president. >> he has none. we're waiting for that second statement that kelly o has been reporting to us to come in. when we come back, not backing down. donald trump today ramping up his war of words against senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. we'll go inside the gop civil war. how much uglier can things get? match guarantee too. and if that's not enough... we should move. our home team will help you every step of the way. still not enough? it's smaller than i'd like. we'll help you finance your dream home. it's perfect.

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xfinity mobile. call or go to xfinitymobile.com. >> well, i'll tell you what. if he doesn't get repeal and replace done, if he doesn't get taxes done, meaning cuts and reform, if he doesn't get a very easy one to get down, infrastructure, then you can ask me that question. >> what is that? >> you can ask me that question. let's hope he gets it done. >> not exactly a ringing endorsement. those comments from president trump about mitch mcconnell comes on the heels of a days long twitter war, days of attacks from sean hannity, again i think our print pooler was asking the president.

what is the current state of the president/mcconnell relationship? >> on the rocks. no, look, they spoke yesterday. we know. mcconnell's office wuhl not characterize the nature of the conversation to me but i think you can surmise from the fact there were negative tweets yesterday afternoon and this morning about how that conversation went. look, there's a lot of sense from people who are close to mcconnell i think that this is completely unproductive, that in light of, you know, what we were just talking about, what's going on with north korea, they feel as though the president was ham handed in his attempts to influence the health care vote. what happened with lisa murkowski being threatened by the secretary of the interior. they don't think that he understands the nature of -- >> mcconnell also was irked that donald trump's super pac associated with donald trump threatened to go after dean heller of nevada. >> that's true as well. look, i think this is about policy. this is about how mcconnell is handling things in the context of trying to pass legislation.

i think the next front in this war or rather the most -- the one that will determine whether this completely breaks apart is what you're referencing. trump and his allies seem to be willing to threaten that narrow majority that mcconnell has and if that happens all bets are off. >> one thing to say, sort of in defense of donald trump. i think to a lot of americans listening to this, donald trump's frustration is very, very understandable. for years and years republicans said give us control of capitol hill. and we will get rid of obamacare. that happened and here we are and obamacare hasn't gone away. now, what trump is doing is what he always doing, he's deflecting blame. the more he talks about mcconnell's failures the more people don't focus on what the white house should have done or didn't do. i think it's something understandable. >> in fairness to trump too, mcconnell set this time line that trump is arguing about.

this is excessive about how fast we can do that. they were on board with this. >> i totally agree with frank. we have said this on the show and on other shows million times. the republicans said they'd do for -- >> as a person who -- a former republican they also voted to repeal obamacare when they knew it would never pass. >> of course. >> so it goes to what charlie sykes calls the intellectual rot. they don't mean anything. >> 100% correct. but the main reason this story is ostensibly interesting is a republican president is at war with the republican leader of the senate in the -- in the senate. but that's not true. donald trump's not a republican. and like a lot of what strikes you as interesting in these battles -- i'm not saying it's not interesting. it's a different reason. it exposes the degree to which donald trump is a man without a party. he's not a republican. he's not a democrat. and the crazy thing about this is that he's attacking the leader of the one party with whom he could at least make his -- his only hope for passing

things is with the republican party. even though he's not a republican. he'll never pass a bill with democratic votes ever. >> why do republicans demand the indefensible? why do republicans then have his back when the "access hollywood" tape comes out? >> they're afraid. >> of what? >> of their own voters. they have been stoking this for years. mitt romney ran robocalls in the michigan primary and it got out of control and here they are stuck with a monster they created. i'm obviously saying what republicans tell me behind the scenes. i'm not trying to offer that characterization myself. >> aren't there some who believe he may be the only conduit to some things they have long wanted? >> sure. >> big hope -- >> john used the word -- what i find so crazy here is donald trump is a president to use a number you cited before with a 33% approval rating. >> he's not looking for allies. >> and mitch mcconnell is not quaking in his shoes about the president saying mean things about him. this is not a president who

commands great, great public approval. >> always needed enemies. during the campaign, it was the media and hillary clinton. he doesn't need hillary clinton even though he attacks her from time to time. a week ago it was jeff sessions. there's always somebody. there's a melodrama happening around this president and i think with mitch mcconnell the difference, this carries larger stakes for the big ticket items on the legislative agenda. >> let me bring in robert costa. you have a white house staff who doesn't care if they're unemployable until the end of time. i can't think of anybody in there that cares if no republican will hire them again. >> well, that's true and we have seen with the removal of reince priebus as chief of staff and sean spicer's resignation as press secretary a gutting of the republican party inside of the west wing. >> yeah. interesting. >> this is another thing, if you're -- you know, rationale world, if you were a president or a leader of any kind who was in the kind of political trouble that donald trump is in, 35%

approval rating, the lowest at this point in any presidency, your instinct is i need allies, or i won't get anything done. maybe i should switch and make common cause with democrats, i don't know. i'll find someone to be friends with. his reaction when he's in a corner and when he's in trouble as eli says is to lash out. he attacks any target in sight. it's worked for him politically. it does not obviously work in governing where you need votes of other people to pass bills. >> let me just -- let me throw in another frienemy then to this conversation. i think we're still waiting for that tape. any moment now. but he talks about how he'll cooperate with bob mueller on russian collusion. there was reporting he had sent, i don't know, well wishes to bob mueller through his lawyer. he's deployed the same conservative media outlets to basically assassinate the character and smear bob mueller

and his investigators but it sounds like today he was saying, you know, i'm happy to cooperate on russian collusion. is he an enemy, is he a frienemy? what is at the core of his relationship with bob mueller? >> i continue to think he's more likely to fire bob mueller. you know, if you have to give odds would he survive or not survive, i think it's at the 50-50 mark of whether mueller survives or trump tries to fire him. look, he's looking -- i think there's -- i think that trump is looking at what's happening right now. the manafort thing was of an enormous consequence. >> why, talk about it. >> he has the most power to flip on donald trump, the trump family and inflict enormous political and legal damage on them. if he turns. >> his family got involved too. >> the manafort family. >> his son-in-law is also involved. that certainly makes men and women do things they wouldn't otherwise do. >> if there's a separate

investigation on paul manafort if that guy is going down, as long as he doesn't take me with him, that's fine. he would throw -- paul manafort in jail tomorrow to save his own skin. paul manafort i'm sure feels the same way about donald trump. you have two men who were locked in the weird five or six month relationship in 2016 trying to figure out how they in their relationship to bob mueller and this probe are going to try to save themselves at the expense of the other person. >> frank bruni, you were nodding. we call those that rant last in a bowl. >> i don't think he'll try to fire them, but more than likely he'll invite them to golf. >> anything is possible. >> think about in the past, how does donald trump handle relationships with people that he wants to control or manipulate in some way? i mean, i think most of us who have covered him over the years understand this. he is on the phone. he is being conciliatory. he is trying or the your friend. >> i hate to interrupt you. but kelly o, tell us what we're

about to listen to, please. >> so we're told it's a about 20 minutes of the president taking some questions from reporters. this was at the time of the national security meeting with the vice president, the national security adviser, cia director. chief of staff kelly. you will hear him talk about iran, afghanistan, the threat of nuclear north korea. he will talk about the transgender ban. that's going to get some attention when you hear him say that he's doing the military a favor by talking about this difficult issue and that the military is working on that. that's going to be its own headline. he does say that he does not have any thoughts at this point about firing bob mueller, the special counsel. so that plays into the conversation you were just having. he will talk about paul manafort as a good and decent man with whom he's not spoken in a long time. and that he was surprised by the july -- early morning raid at his alexandria, virginia, condominium or apartment. he will also talk about what his comments related to north korea should mean. warnings for the leader there,

talking about the threat raised toward guam by north korea. so we will have a wide ranging topics from the president and headline after headline with some really stunning comments on certain topics including about the vladimir putin decision to block americans working in russia in the diplomatic circles and the president saying that helps to cut the payroll and he wants to thank him. that's a stunning comment from the president. given the tense relationship. so in the next couple of minutes this tape which was shot by our pool, brought to our working location here, will be hitting play and all the networks will have access to it at the same time. you will be able to evaluate his tone, his language and his range of issues. >> sounds like a stem winder. real quickly, i think we are at the one minute mark. but the mueller conversation we're having, anything strike you that he was surprised about

the raids? he was tweeting that man like a man well aware of that predawn raid. >> i don't believe it. >> you don't believe he was aware -- >> i don't believe he was surprised. i think it's inconceivable between the raid and today his lawyers who would have been notified would have not told him. >> not improper after the fact. >> i'm not saying it's proim upper. i don't know if he knew at 7:00 a.m., maybe. look at the tweet time line but it's been two weeks. the idea that two weeks have elapsed and he just learned about us over the news yesterday seems totally impossible. >> i think we're within 20 seconds to go from the crisis to the russia probe. we go from crisis of their own creation to russia. i mean -- >> and still throwing more fuel on it today by saying what he said about putin and saying thank you for throwing americans out of russia. >> thank you for throwing americans out of russia. we are about to hear it for ourselves. here we go.

>> thank you very much. we appreciate it. we are having a meeting today. a much larger group than this. this is the finals. but we discussed many things. one of them obviously was north korea. we discussed venezuela. we discussed afghanistan and the middle east generally. we had some very good meetings, some very good ideas, very good thoughts and a lot of decisions were made. this was a really important day, actually. made a lot of decisions. with that if you have any questions, yes? >> make any decision on afghanistan whether to add -- >> yeah, we're getting close. getting very close. it's a very big decision for me. i took over a mess and we're

going to make it a lot less messy, but that's a place, 17 years, one of our longest wars i read in one of your columns. frankly it will be a decision that's go going to be made very soon. >> you have very confidence in your national security adviser? >> yes, i do. general mcmaster, he's a friend, he's my friend, he's a very talented man, i like him and i respect him. >> sir, why did you decide to announce the transgender ban reversal a couple of weeks ago? are you betraying a community that you pledged to support? >> no, i have great respect for the community. i think i had great or i have had great support from that community. i got a lot of votes but the transgender in the military is working on it now, they're doing the work. it's been a very difficult situation, and i think i'm doing a lot of people a favor by coming out and just saying it. as you know, it's a very

complicated issue for the military. it's been a very confusing issue for the military. and i think i'm doing the military a great favor. >> mr. president, do you have any response to the russian president expelling 755 workers from our embassy? >> no. i want to thank him because we're trying to cut down on payroll and as far as i'm concerned, i'm very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll. there's no real reason for them to go back. so i greatly appreciate the fact that they have been able to cut our payroll for the united states. we'll save alot of money. >> was it appropriate for the fbi to raid predawn paul manafort -- >> i thought it was a very, very strong signal or whatever. i know mr. manafort -- i haven't spoken to him in a long time but i know him. he was with the campaign a relatively short period of time.

but i have known him to be a good man. i thought it was a very -- you know, they do that very seldom. so i was surprised to see it. i was very, very surprised to see it. >> have you spoken -- >> we haven't been involved -- excuse me? >> have you spoken to the fbi director about it? >> no, i have not. i have not. but to do that early in the morning whether or not it was appropriate you'd have to ask them. i have always found paul manafort to be a very decent man. and he's like a lot of other people probably makes consultant fees from all over the place. who knows, i don't know. but i thought that was a very -- that was a pretty tough stuff. >> mr. president -- >> to wake him up, perhaps his family was there. i think that's tough stuff. >> mr. president, speaking of the attorney general, how would you categorize your relationship with attorney general jeff sessions and have you spoken about the differences you have had in the past? >> it's fine. it's fine. he's working hard on the border. i'm proud of what we have done on the border.

i'm proud of general kelly and one of the reasons he's my chief of staff right now is because he did an outstanding job at the border. we're down 78%, nobody thought that would be -- i mean, in the old days with other administrations if you were down 1% that was considered a big thing. we're down 78% at the border. and nobody thought that was possible. so i'm very proud of general kelly. he's now chief of staff. at the same time, i'm very proud of what we have done over the last six months between supreme court, between tremendous amounts of legislation that's been passed. you know, we had 42 to 48 bills passed. i'm not talking about executive orders but bills passed. we had massive executive orders. we got rid of record setting amounts of regulations. a lot of it is statutory where it's a 90 day period, then you have to wait and then another 90 day period you have to wait 30 days. much more is coming out. i believe in regulation. you have to have some regulation, but we'll have a

small percentage of regulation compared to what we have. and i think that's why you see business enthusiasm is the highest it's been in 18 years. why unemployment is the lowest it's been in 18 years. i mean, the unemployment rate just came out. it's the lowest it's been in 18 years. with that being said we have companies moving into the united states. whether it's foxconn, you saw the two large auto companies moving back probably they'll go to michigan. but they're negotiating with various states. we have had -- we have done a lot in a short period of time. so i'm very proud of it. i think that general kelly is going to be a fantastic chief of staff however. >> mr. president, are you going to increase the u.s. military presence in egypt? >> we are going to look what's happening in asia. we're looking at it right now. i don't like to signal what i'm going to be doing, but we are certainly looking at it. obviously we're spending a lot of time looking at in particular north korea. and we are preparing for many

different alternative events at north korea. if -- he has disrespected our country greatly. he has said things that are horrific. and with me he's not getting away with it. he got away with it for a long time between him and his family. he's not getting away with it. it's a whole new ball game. and he's not going to be saying those things and he certainly is not going to be doing those things. i read about in guam by august 15th let's see what he does with guam. he does something in guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody has seen before. what will happen in north korea. >> when you say that, what do you mean? >> you'll see. you'll see. he'll see. >> he -- >> he will see. it's not a dare. it's a statement. it has nothing to do with dare. that's a statement. he's not going to go around threatening guam and he's not going to threaten the united states and he's not going to

threaten japan. he's not going to threaten south korea. no, that's not a dare as you say. that is a statement of fact. >> mr. president, can you talk about the nuclear posture and what your priorities are there? >> yeah, nuclear to me -- number one, i would like to denuke the world. i know that president obama said global warming is the biggest threat. i totally disagree. i say that it's a simple one -- nuclear is our greatest threat worldwide. not even a question, not even close. so i'd like to denuke the world. i would like russia and the united states and china and pakistan and many other countries that have nuclear weapons get rid of them. but until such time as they do, we will be the most powerful nuclear nation on earth by far. the first order i gave to my generals as you know, you know, mike, my first order was i want this our nuclear arsenal to be the biggest and the finest in

the world. and we spent a lot of money, a lot of time and a lot of effort. and it's in tiptop shape and getting better. and getting stronger. and until such time as this scourge disappears we will be so much better and so much stronger than anybody else. and nobody including north korea is going to be threatening us with anything. >> sir, what specifically have you changed in the nuclear arsenal and the reason i ask that is a lot of experts yesterday in response to your tweets said that modernizing the arsenal takes many years. it can't be done in six months it's a long process that's only just begun. >> we have done a lot of modernization and we have done a lot of renovation. we have it now in very, very good shape. it will be in much better shape over the next six months to the year. actually it was the first military -- military is very important to me as you know. i did extremely well with the military vote, mike and i.

but we are -- my first order was we have to do the military, but before we do the military per se we're going to do the nuclear and we are in very good shape. we are going to be increasing our budget by many billions of dollars because of north korea and other reasons having to do with the anti-missile. so we are going to be increasing our budget by many billions of dollars. we'll probably be able to report that over the next week. as you know, we reduced it by 5% but i have decided i don't want that. we're going to be increasing the anti-missiles by a substantial amount of billions of dollars. >> sir, can you -- this stops on iran and the -- whether you feel like they're in compliance or will be in compliance. >> i don't think iran is in compliance. we wrote them a very tough letter to the -- as you know, to the congress. i personally don't think they're in compliance. but we have time. and we're going to see.

we also put down a lot of defaults or potential default situations. i don't think they're living up to the spirit of the agreement. president obama in his wisdom gave them $150 billion. he gave them $1.8 billion in cash which is -- that's a hard one to figure. but that was his decision. i think it's a horrible agreement. but they are not in compliance with the agreement and they're certainly not in the spirit of the agreement in compliance and i think you will see some strong things taking place if they don't get themselves in compliance. but i do not believe they're in compliance right now. >> mr. president, what's the latest on the leak investigation that the attorney general announced late last week and any separate investigation -- >> yeah, we're looking. you have the leaking coming out of intelligence and various departments having to do with syria. having to do with all sorts of different places. having to do frankly with north korea. and those are very serious. then you have the leaks where

people want to love me and they're all fighting for love. those are not very important, but certainly we don't like them. those are little inner white house leaks. they're not very important, but actually i'm somewhat honored by them. but the important leaks to me and the leaks that the attorney general is looking at very strongly are the leaks coming out of intelligence and we have to stop them for the security and the national security of our country. >> mr. president, passing notes to the special counsel bob mueller -- >> no, not notes we're working with him. we have a situation what's very unusual. everyone said there's no collusion. look at the counsels that come in, we have a senate hearing. we have judiciary, we have intelligence and we have a house hearing and everybody walks out, even the enemies, well, there's no collusion, there's no collusion. so they're investigating something that never happened. there was no collusion between us and russia. in fact, the opposite.

russia spent a lot of money on fighting me. and if you think about it, i want a strong military. you see our budget is up by -- it will be hundreds of billions of dollars soon. our military budget. russia doesn't like that. hillary was going to cut the budget. substantially, the military budget. russia is very important for -- oil and gas. we are now an exporter because of an incredible six months that i have -- an exporter of oil and gas that's bad for russia. i don't think russia wants me because i want a strong military and i want low energy prices. energy is a disaster, low energy prices is a disaster for russia. additionally it seems like russia spent a lot of money on the false report and i think it was russian money and democratic money. you can say that was collusion, plus the russias colluded on the ukraine. when you get down to it, why

isn't the fbi looking at the dnc server? you have a server that they refused -- the democrats refused to give to the fbi. now, i don't know how the fbi can investigate something if the dnc -- the democrats refuse to give the server. so we have an vechgs of something that never took place and all i say is work with them because this is an event that never took place. now, as far as somebody elsewhere did they file the right papers or did they for get to file a paper? you know, i guarantee if you went around and looked at everybody that made a speech or whatever these people did, that's up to them. did they do something wrong because they didn't file the right document or whatever? perhaps. you'll have to look at them. but i guarantee you this, probably a lot of people in washington did the same thing. >> mr. president given your harsh criticism of democrats now, how are you going to bring them in on things like infrastructure -- >> i'm not sure. maybe we'll bring them in, maybe want. i think the infrastructure bill

will be more bipartisan. i want a strong infrastructure bill. we have spent over $6 trillion in the middle east. when i say spent, we've wasted. $6 trillion in the middle east and yet we can't fix our roads and our bridges and our schools and our airports. and i think that's a very sad situation. so i'm very strong on infrastructure and a lot of republicans are, but i know a lot of democrats are also. i think that will work out. i think it's going to work out very well. >> mr. president, you fought about, considered leading this special counsel is there anything that bob mueller can do that would send you in that direction. >> i haven't given it any thought. no, i'm not snising anybody. i want them to get on with the task, but i also want the senate and the house to come out with their findings. judging from the people leaving the meetings, leaks, but they leave the meetings all the time and they say no, we haven't found any collusion. there is no collusion.

you know why? because i don't speak to russians. look, i won because i suppose i was a much better candidate than her. i won because i went to wisconsin. i went to michigan. i won pennsylvania. i fought a smart battle. that's why i won. i didn't whip because of russia. russia had nothing to do with me winning -- we had a great team and i guess i did a good job. and you know what? honestly? they spent much more money than i did by a lot. you know that. they spent a lot more money and honestly they did not do a very good job of campaigning. >> and one more question about senate leader mcconnell. you talked about him outside a little bit earlier. but have you reached out to him since your phone call yesterday? >> no. >> and have you given any consideration to asking his wife, your transportation secretary, to help bridge whatever -- >> elaine is doing a very good job. we're very proud of elaine as secretary of transportation. as you know, as you said, mitch's wife. she's doing a very, very good job. i'm very disappointed in mitch,

but if he gets these bills passed i'll be very happy with him and i'll be the first to admit. but honestly, repeal and remyself of obamacare should have taken place and it should have been on my desk virtually the first week that i was there or the first day that i was -- i've been hearing about it for seven years. so repeal and replace should have taken place. the tax bill, tax cuts, tax reform, hopefully they get that done. i hope they get it done. and the other thing would be the infrastructure bill. in addition to had that, you know, we've passed a lot of things. we've passed accountability with the va. we've passed a lot. we're doing a lot of great work at the va. and we're doing a lot of great work all over. you look at what's happening with the coal industry where they're -- i mean, i look at -- i was in west virginia making a speech, and they are doing great as a state. the great governor of west virginia, jim, who you saw, he just became a republican. he left -- first time in many, many years that a thing like that has happened. he just left the democratic

party, and he became a republican, which was a great moment. hasn't happened in many years. so we're very, very happy with what's happened. we think it's been an incredible six months. we've done, you know, a lot of record-setting business. it's incredible. you look at what's going on with the economy -- and, you know, to me very importantly, you look they enthusiasm of businesses. you look at companies moving back in. you just saw on friday the two big car companies that are coming in. you saw last week fox con. they make the apple iphones. they make all of them. the desktop. they're the biggest in the world. they're coming into wisconsin with an unbelievable plant like we've never seen before. and i actually said to tim cook of apple, i said you know tim, i won't consider myself successful as president unless i see you start building those big beautiful plants that you have all over china, you start building them in the united states. and he's going to do that. >> mr. president, you were critical of the intelligence in the run up to the iraq war.

should we trust the intelligence now on north korea? >> well, you know, it's different intelligence. i have mike pompeo. i have great confidence in him. that doesn't mean i had confidence in his predecessor. okay? which i didn't, actually. although -- -- although he did say good things about me. he did say he had no information or no anything on collusion, so i shouldn't maybe say it. but i will say it. but i have tremendous confidence in mike pompeo. dan coates, fantastic. your new head of the fbi dain i think i've done a great service for this country. i think that christopher will do a fantastic job as the head of the fbi. so, look, i have -- nobody has greater respect for intelligence than donald trump, but you have to have the right leaders. i think we have great leaders right now. and, you know, you can look at the intelligence over the years. it was intelligence that got people to make one of the worst decisions ever made in the history of our country, going

into iraq, because they said there were no weapons -- you know, you look at it. it ended up being there were no women's of mass destruction. if you listen to them, women's of mass destruction were all over the place, but they were not there. that was intelligence. i have great respect for intelligence as led by the people that i have in charge now. we have great people, and i think it's going to lead us to tremendous victories. and that's what we need. >> what is that intelligence telling you about north korea. >> it's telling me a lot of things, but -- well, you'll probably find out about it before anybody else, right? with your leaks. we've got to stop the leaks. the leaks are very dangerous or our country. no. i have great respect for the intelligence community, and i think with the leadership we have right now, hopefully it will be a very, very successful eight years for this country. and then after that we'll continue onward. but we have a lot of things we

have to straighten out. you have the middle east. you have north korea. we have a lot of place of tremendous conflict and tremendous danger for this country. i will say getting the 15-0 vote at the united nations from the security council the other day, that's something that very few presidents would have been able to get. and i have great respect for the fact that china and russia went along with it. that was a tremendous day for the united states. i think it will have a strong impact on north korea. i don't know that it will be the end all, but i think it will be a very, very -- i think it will have a big impact on north korea and what they're doing. thank you all very much. thank you. >> that was president donald trump holding court with his press pool as they he just found out he had one. relitigating things like the iraq war, the size of his electoral victory, reupg his attacks on the intelligence assessments that predate his being sworn in and the appointment of mike pompeo. a couple headlines there. hard to sift through and find them, but he did say that he is not dismissing anyone when asked

if he planned to fire bob mueller. >> yeah. i mean, we're all swimming in stream of consciousness. i thought it was interesting earlier, not once foed in all of that stuff that he wanted to get off his chest did we hear the words witch-hunt about the investigation. so that's a change. but i mean -- >> but it could come back tomorrow. he could see a story that makes him mad. >> there's all these contradictions. he's talking about wanting to did he nuclear eyes the world and just yesterday he's tweeting about i've made the u.s. nuclear arsenal the strongest it's ever been. so which is it? it sort of depends which convey the wind is blowing. there's fooch to digest and that's part of the strategy too. >> but is there anything there at all? seriously. what are we doing? he started the week we threatening nuclear war against north korea. and today he held court about, you know, wanted to relitigate the bad intel that led us to the iraq war.

>> you're saying he's all over the place. >> not even saying that. i'm just saying what was that? >> well, that was -- i watched that and what that was was nobody since as melodyous and loud an aira of self grags as donald trump. and i watch these things and i'm mess measure iced because i've never seen a politician who can spend so much time sear really complimenting themselves on so many fronts and there's something borderline majestic about it. >> like one of them he talked pretty. >> it's the poet. >> you talk pretty. he talks pretty a melodyous aira. >> what is behind a performance like that? he's brought the world to the brink and really with trepidation over a nuclear stand off between the united states and north korea. >> i have no idea why this particular event just took place, what compelled him. john kelly is on the cover of time magazine and so maybe trump just wants to assert the notion that he's in charge. but just remember, trump's words on balance generally mean

nothing. >> that's right. >> they mean nothing. >> you get the last ten seconds. >> i just thought it was pretty remarkable that he had words of praise in vladimir putin and says he's disappointed in mim. >> says he thanked vladimir putin by cutting the payroll by the spelling, the staff of the u. u.s. embassy in moscow. "mtp daily" starts right now. >> this would just be easier if the president would just say i'm going to do live interviews every day between nicole and chuck. why bother. cut out the middle man. >> he can start at the end of my show, i'm hand him off to you. you can finish. it will be fun. >> all right. mr. president, you heard it right there. if it's thursday, the president sundays off on everything, from north korea to mcconnell to the russia investigation.