hi, everyone. i'm richard lui. thanks for joining us. the circus at 1600 pennsylvania avenue, it continues. first off, wagging a trade war. president trump's proposal on steel and tariffs met with backlash. we have the kushner clash. days after jared kushner stripped of his security clearance, the president wants kelly's help to push kushner and kelly out. is he for guns or against them. the position on the president's position on gun control this week. we're going to start with what can be described as a white house in turmoil. today's headlines focus on the president's announcement to

impose tariffs and the affect it could have on the united states' al allies. the mood the president was in is part of the story. how the events of the past week have aids in the west wing fearful of the president's ability to handle a major crisis. white house chief of staff admitting he mishandled the accusations against rob porter. i have a great panel to look at these issues. we're going to start with jeff bennett live at the white house. jeff, you decide. where do you want to start? >> let's start with that trade war because if the president is, in fact, looking for a trade war, we're hearing from countries around the world threatening to push back and it appears the president is aware of that reaction. while he was in florida today, he sent two tweets. the united states has an $800 billion yearly trade

defini deficit because of our stupid trade deals and policies. other countries have taken advantage of us for years. they laugh at what our leaders have been. no more. the second reads, if the eu wants to increase their massive tariffs on u.s. companies doing business there, we will apply a tax on their cars, which freely pour into the u.s. and make it impossible for our cars and more to sell there. big trade imbalance. apart from the economics involved here, politically we're told by people close to the president that he thinks this is a winner. on the one hand, he's making good if he does go forward and sign these tariffs, he would make good on a campaign pledge to protect policies and he thinks it will be play well in western pennsylvania where republicans are trying to hold on to a house seat there. that plays into the president's thinking on this. >> jeff, as you are so aware of

the reporting about the president's mood before leading up to this announce, which was not predicted, the word unglued was used in the headline. any sense now that we're 24 hours at least since that reporting what the sense is, the mood at the white house? >> the mood is still very much the same. interestingly, this is one issue in which personnel becomes policy in the sense that as we reported, the president was really upset about the turmoil here at the white house and was spoiling for a fight and chose apparently to announce this tariff on steel and aluminum. of course, he was upset about the departure of hope hicks, his communications director, the fight he's had with the attorney general and then the way jared kushner has been treated by the chief of staff, all of that playing in into the president's decision to announce these tariffs. we'll have to see if he goes through it. the white house press secretary

when asked on friday said that never say never. the president could change his mind, but she's fairly confident on this issue he won't. >> thanks for that. i want to bring in our panel right now. chief washington reporter for the boston herald and white house reporter. thank you for being here. let me start with you alexi. this week has been characterized as very chaotic and on the arch of time perhaps the most chaotic since we've seen this president take office. what stands out in what we've covered so far? >> my colleague michael allen told me the other day that he's never seen top officials in the white house this concerned. trump is increasingly unhappy. he's feeling isolated. he's angry about hope hicks

leaving and jared kushner being in the media for terrible reasons for him and the way he lashed out was not by tweeting, but by making this off the cuff decision to launch a trade war. we reported last august that trump was saying i want tariffs. it's not necessarily a surprise that he did it, but what's the most surprising is the way in which he announced this. >> one of the reactions senator hatch from utah was surprised about these tariffs for steel and aluminum. let's listen to the senator. >> whoever advised him on this ought to be reprimanded. it's not going to help america. it's going to cause higher prices around here and make us less competitive. >> the thought is here that it was mr. ross that was the individual that was the key

ear -- excuse me, had the ear of the president on this announcement. is that what you're hearing? >> yes. on the one hand you have wilbur ross who stands with the president on this decision to impose these tariffs, something that was done over the objection of key advisors. remember this is something that president trump campaigned about on the campaign trail. i think you have -- you go back to that. i think president trump goes back to at the end of the day of the folks that he thinks are his base, what he thinks got him elected and the people who he believes support him. in this case, when you have this chaos in the white house and for him to make a decision that he knows his chief of staff isn't going to like, that his economic advisor is not going to like, he's going to go back to what the base wants. in this sense i think it's more an issue that secretary ross agrees with him on this, but

this is something he wanted to do. he thinks he knows the instinct of what's right, even though he has folks on both sides of the aisle saying that this is a bad idea. >> he has clearly said himself as well as his very inner circle that this president is strong and has good instinct and has culture and if this is part of culture and if we're looking at jobs related to steel workers, is the president following through what has been said he promised and therefore will be little political cost for him? >> this is definitely what the president promised on the campaign trail. the question is what are going to be the unintended consequences. you have various industries that are going to be impacted by this. you have sort of an unknown about what other countries are going to do, whether there's going to be retaliation from the european union and china that could slap tariffs on american goods and how different industries are going to be impacted by this.

it's not just a small decision that has an impact on just one industry, the steel industry or the aluminum industry. this could spread across the economy and we saw that in the stock market where there was a downward trend after the president made these announcements and you could potentially see the president peel back. he's focused on the stock market. if he sees the numbers continuing to go down, that could be an indication that he might decide to take a different route. i've heard from some people we should expect the president's announcement to be scaled back before he signs on the dotted line as early as next week. >> we are early on in that book when it comes to trade because as we know from history these things play out over years or decades sometimes. therefore the concerns that have been levelled so far, we shall see. i want to move on to the announcement and the turmoil in

the white house and what we have seen so far. hope hicks, his close advisor, which was the big headline mid week, then we had the chief of staff kelly come out and try to explain portman and what happened in that conversation. also did not resonate well. alexi, what are you hearing in terms of the calmness or lack of calmness in the white house? >> top officials are concerned and defeated and it's clear that trump sort of sees this fire building within the white house and he pours gasoline over it instead of trying to unite people or figure out a way forward. he makes decisions that makes things more chaotic and it's becoming more difficult for those working under him not only to stay sane, but to figure out what their role looks like moving forward. when there are so many staff shakeups, how can you be sure your position in the white house is safe? i think it's demoralizing for

everyone that works for him. >> one surprising headline that we all saw and that was "the new york times" reporting that the president expressing privately his concerns about his son-in-law and his daughter being in the white house. if that does come to pass, how might that happen? how might those two leave the white house? >> i mean, i think that remains to be seen. i mean, i think the president definitely has been unhappy with all the attention surrounding the various problems facing jared kushner, somebody who is very close to him and now has been marginalized due to the downgrade of his security clearance. if he can't be an effective right-hand man for him, you can understand how the president may be thinking maybe this isn't the best place for him. at the same time, we have heard

this before. we've been hearing for months is jared kushner on the way out, is he on the outs? you have to remember he's family. president trump can't fire. it's a lesson in why we have laws that we have all these problems in the first place, but he's there and he's going to be someone who is close to the president now and in the future. at the same time, look, i think what lexi said is right, this chaos is disturbing for other people in the white house, but this is something that generally speaking president trump thrives on. he likes chaos. he is running this like the reality show that he used to host, who's in and who's out. the problem is as more and more people leave the white house, he has fewer people close to him like jared kushner to protect him so it is getting tougher for him, even if they leave. >> talking about reality tv shows, you have your characters, which are the ones that stand up and take off their shoe and bang

on the table and then you have the producers that make everything work out okay. the calming influence. for me on this show, the producers keep everything moving. if those producers are leaving, one has to ask who is left in the white house that could be that voice because we're hitting a week of headlines where all those who were close, that everybody had confidence in potentially to be that calming force, are now believed to be gone or will be gone. >> yeah, that was supposed to be the job of the chief of staff, john kelly. he was supposed to create order. we have not seen order over the past week. we've seen chaos and turmoil. it's been a draining week at the white house for the reporters at the white house and those in the west wing. there was no hurricane or natural disaster. there was no major mass shooting. this was self-inflicted wounds,

including fighting within the white house and people leaving on their own accord. the communications director admitting she tells white lies on behalf of the president and the president bouncing from policy position to policy position. with that type of environment, it's hard to create order or any sense of an order or a process within the white house and within the west wing. it's clear that the president is sort of pouring fuel on the fire and making things more disorderly with his tweets and comments and early on thursday that he's going to be starting a trade war and on friday saying that trade wars are good and can be won. it looks like this series of chaotic events has just begun and it's going to bleed over into next week and maybe further into the first term of this president. >> can i add one thing? >> quickly. >> the trump administration early on decided that rules

didn't apply to them. i think until that changes, it doesn't matter whose in there to be the calming force. trump doesn't believe in rules. unless that changes, i don't see how this chaos stops. >> thank you all and for not reacting to my backhanded compliment to the producers here. still ahead, kushner under pressure. the new questions mueller has about foreign business ties and their possible influence on white house policies. i'm also on a lot of medications that dry my mouth. i just drank tons of water all the time. it was never enough. i wasn't sure i was going to be able to continue singing. i saw my dentist. he suggested biotene. it feels refreshing. my mouth felt more lubricated. i use biotene rinse twice a day and then i use the spray throughout the day. it actually saved my career in a way. biotene really did make a difference.

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jared kushner had a rough week by any standard. the president's son-in-law coming under the scrutiny of robert mueller days after a security clearance was downgraded. mueller is looking into whether kushner's efforts to secure foreign government investment for his business may have influenced white house foreign policy. mueller asking whether president trump was involved in stolen dnc e-mails. joining us now is our panel.

i'll call you my dream team. benjamin, you saw the nbc reporting. what does this mean? how serious do you believe these reports to be? >> well, i mean you have multiple news organizations reporting multiple different lines of inquiry by the mueller team all about the same person and that has to indicate that there is some pretty significant investigative activity concerning him, which just cannot be a good thing if you're a senior white house official. in addition to which, your security clearance has been downgraded because apparently of other lines of inquiry that the mueller investigation is pursuing. i mean, i think it's obviously possible that these investigative threads will die out over time and maybe the problem isn't quite as bad as it

looks, but it looks pretty bad. >> we knew that this special counsel had the opportunity to look into a whole host of issues and the questions we're getting reports on that he is asking are consistent with that. part of what the reporting is kushner seeking funding from qatar and other countries, turkey, russia, china, and what that may have been the result of in terms of the amount of money that he was requesting and then therefore was denied. i think that is the question. as he was involved in discussions with these countries, at the same time there was a question of would these countries help him. >> absolutely right. jared kushner is heading into an administration in which he's, of course, the president's son-in-law, but he's also a senior staffer to the president. so he would have enormous power and he was going to have and still has maybe a decreasing

amount, but still an important portfolio. there's a tremendous amount of power in the white house in the most powerful country on earth and to have these other business interests, which include a debt amount on a building here, 666 on 5th avenue, that's over a billion dollars, that's a huge vulnerability. these power and vulnerability, those things combined make him vulnerable to influence by foreign powers and by our friends that seek to gain a leg up in their relations with the united states and in their regional activities, regional competitions. >> looking at the words that were used on this very topic, i'll go straight now to a report coming out that says reports that foreign officials sought to manipulate kushner based on his financial instability, his family's search for real estate investors. specific to your note that's going to come calling very soon,

so there's some pressure on jared kushner and his family. with that added in then, kathleen, does this give you a sense of where the special counsel is going and potentially the playbook that he'll be using against the president? >> it's possible that the special counsel will be examining whether kushner actually has violated while in office the official conflict of interest statute, whether his meetings with the heads of finance companies were motivated not just by doing the government's business, but by doing kushner's business in helping obtain loans for the kushner firm. >> by the way, attorneys for kushner in part did release a statement and i'll read part of it. he has met with hundreds of business people and has taken no part of business loans or projects with or for the family. so when you look at that, is

that a response that you would accept? >> well, look, there's two questions here. one is whether, in fact, he engaged in any activity that would be relevant to a criminal investigation as misconduct. we don't know the answer to that question. the second question is is this a picture perfect reason -- example of the reason that we have rules about conflicts of interest, rules against nepotism, rules against undisclosed meetings with officials and tangling your business affairs with the public's business and it's almost the textbook example of the reason we have that sort of rules. even if he's actually done nothing wrong because a reasonable person looking at

these facts would be disturbed by them. we shouldn't be having this conversation and the reason we're having this conversation is that the kushners and the trumps haven't adequately separated their business interests from the conduct of foreign policy of the united states. >> jared kushner included. do you think the president, we were having the discussion earlier about him feeling unglued, that he's seeing this happen to his son-in-law and going oh, my, robert mueller is getting closer? >> he certainly sees that. there's debate about whether kushner and ivanka will stay or go. i think they are the president's security blanket and it's hard for me to imagine, even as intense as this pressure is, them leaving the white house. i know there's reporting that suggests otherwise, but i think that he is going to need them. he's going to want them to stay close. they are going to want to stay

close to him because they are in serious legal jeopardy right now and they need the president's protection and he also doesn't want them, i would imagine, too far away from him because they also know a lot. so they're part of the family, but still it's an interesting situation, but i think these new lines of reporting, much of it coming from nbc, show that -- again, we need to see what happens through the legal process, but are signs of what i believe to be true, which is that this administration is deeply corrupt, specifically the trump family. we know things about what they did during the campaign during the transition, but this continues to be, in my view, a very corrupt administration and we're seeing that play out on an ongoing basis. >> i think maybe what might be informing here is the frequency, the number of reports that we've had in the last week. as you see that pick up, is that

any sort of tip of the iceberg for you in terms of what robert mueller is doing this week and next? >> well, it's hard to determine from the outside what robert mueller is doing because, of course, as far as we can tell our information has come not from mueller's team, but from the defense team. >> and witnesses. >> but what i would say is what we have here is the intersection of both the national security and ethics concerns that are at the heart of the mueller investigation. >> all right. thank you all for being here. >> thank you. >> thank you. stock markets, they did take a hit on friday as the president was talking of imposing tariffs. next, the winners and losers in the looming trade discussion. plus, how the president's newfound friend to the north could take the biggest hit. while this was burning, you were saving other homes. neighbors helping neighbors and strangers alike. - this is what america's about. - sometimes it's nice to see all the good that's out there.

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welcome back. it could be just days from now, confirmation or not, of president trump's announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. it was enough to tank the markets. ron, when we're talking about tariffs, we're talking about a tax on a specific class of

imports into the u.s. the theory here, u.s. companies should buy u.s. steel. if they buy foreign steel, they have to pay extra taxes on it. when we look at it, how does it affect those who work at steel and aluminum manufacturers here in the united states? >> it could be good for them because if there's an increase in steel, they would have to ramp up production at home. all of a sudden you have more production and you have more employment. the flip side is those employees could see problems as a result. there was a study in 2003 when president bush put import tariffs on as well, 200,000 jobs were lost. you have to be careful about how you move forward with actions like these and the president clearly hasn't shown he's doing that right now. >> those who work at an auto

company, that number is larger. >> yeah. 6.5 million employees of company who use steel and aluminum, 150,000 employees in the business. >> big numbers. there's a common misconception here that china is the biggest u.s. supplier. >> not in the top ten. >> you have canada on top, brazil and then south korea. in line it is not even here. >> one, our largest trading partner. two, we have some problems in this part of the world. i'm not sure how upset you want to make those countries. with respect to europe, which could see sanctions as well, the europeans said we're going to put tariffs in jeans. the president tweets back today just a little while ago that he's now talking about a tariff

on imported cars from europe escalating these wars further. when you get into this stuff when it comes to trade, we've seen as far back from the 1930s, trade wars can be devastating. >> and often brought up in the great depression. >> yes. >> i want to finish with this. what is the ideal trade deal? we're concerned about nafta for those who are watching it in terms of what might be a good deal. we know when we look at asia that's off. >> that was a big mistake, by the way. nafta can be refined, but when nafta started in 1993, we did $300 billion in trade among the u.s. and mexico. today it's $1 trillion and the president is talking about pulling out. that could be devastating.

ca if they disrupted that process, that would really wreak havoc around the world and would send a message we have no respect for organizations like the world trade organization that is the vehicle through which we should voice these complaints. we use these organizations to make our complaints known about trade practices, fair or unfair. the president doesn't want to do this. you wants to do it unilaterally and that's a disruptive process. >> always good to have you here. >> pleasure. >> thank you for breaking it down for us. one week he's meeting with students about change and then he's sitting down with the nra. will the white house shift its stance on gun control? we'll discuss that next. not only does it hold for 12 hours to reduce denture movement, it also helps provide better bite, seals out 74% more food particles, and enhances your denture fit.

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we have new developments for you out this hour from florida. the state senate rejecting a ban on the sales of ar-15s. the measure defeated by three votes. in washington no progress on gun legislation there over the past week. president trump sending mixed signals on gun reform leaving uncertainty about where he stands. last friday trump reiterated his support for arming some teachers. >> the beauty is it's concealed. nobody would ever see it unless they needed it. it's concealed. so this crazy man who walked in wouldn't know who it is that has it. that's good. that's not bad. that's good.

a teacher would have shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened. >> then on wednesday the president stunned lawmakers for pushing for stricter gun control measures. >> take the firearms first and then go to court because that's another system because a lot of times by the time you go to court it takes so long to go to court to get the due process procedures, i like taking the guns early. if you add conceal carry to this, you'll never get it passed. it doesn't make sense i have to wait until i'm 21 to get a weapon, but i can get this at 18. i'm curious what you did in your bill. >> we didn't address it, president trump. >> you're afraid of the nra. the reason i had lunch with the nra on sunday is because they have great power over you people. they have less power over me. i don't need it. what do i need?

>> at the same time, meeting democratic senator there erupting with excitement when trump suggested an assault weapons ban that should have been included as part of reform legislation. >> can you do that? can you do that? can you add some of the things you're not going to agree with? >> if you'll help. >> i'll help, but can you add them in? >> yeah. >> the very next day trump met behind closed doors with the nra lobbyist and tweeting great meeting. that same lobbyist tweeted support for the amendment and don't want gun control. joining me now is our panel.

thank you for both for being here. let me start with you, joe, on this. you heard what the president said within the last week. his idea for a moment that he would support nonsales of assault weapons to those not yet 21 years old. what do you think has been discussed so far is a good idea to implement? >> there are lots of people out there discussing lots of ideas. we should be looking at everything schools can do to keep themselves safer, but unfortunately the reality is we've tried these type of assault weapon bans in the past and they've been shown to be failed policy. we need new ways for school to enact safety in a more efficient way. >> your response on this, ron, in terms of the ideas that have been discussed and you've seen the president move back and forth on this. >> i think the policy has failed also. first, joe, i want to thank you

for your efforts as we try to find a solution to make schools saf safer, but coming from a huge second amendment supporter, i've got to say that engaging in a gun battle in a densely populated school, it's not the job for an under paid, overworked school teacher. teachers are there to nurture our children and grow their minds. a police officer is trained to be that guardian, that warrior, to go in and protect lives and we've been trained to make that decision, if need be, to take a human life, which is not natural. >> ron, you heard me introduce our segment. i was discussing the very issue of what's happening in florida in that in the new development the state senate rejecting a ban on sales of ar-15s. we have texas primaries coming up this week and gun laws have become part of the debate there. do you feel like what happens

next is not going to come out of washington, d.c., but instead out of states? >> i think so. i think we're going to have each individual state trying to develop their own policies to try to steer their states in the right direction that's best for them. >> joe, you said that guns are part of training to deal with emergency situations. >> that's right. there are a lot of things that schools can do, but what schools are looking for now is what can they do for that 3:16 that we saw at sandy hook and the 6 minutes we saw in florida. that's how we save lives in these situations. the sooner we stop the killing and have the medical skills to render medical aid, when the professionals show up you have viable patients instead of victims. this program doesn't replace law enforcement. it buys the staff and students a

few minutes of safety until the professionals can get there. >> some of the other ideas out there are installing more cameras, automatic bullet-proof doors. what stands out to you? >> there are lots of overlapping layers that people use. >> do you think that these ideas are good? >> certainly. most of the schools, by the time they get to the decision of looking at having firearms as part of their safety plan, they already have many other overlapping layers. they've got the video, the sign-in, the sign-out, locking doors, they teach teachers how to look for changing personalities in students, but they're looking for the next layer of what can i do in that period of time, once the killing has started and nobody knows that we need help, until the professionals can get there. >> ron, what's your thought on those ideas or others that may

not be in the discussion so far? >> i'm all for the electronic doors and bullet-proof doors. i have to address something that joe said. it's not the job for someone who has received 24 hours of pretty much generic firearms training who has shot at one dimensional nonmoving targets and really no tactical training like police do. if someone, a teacher, is not equipped with multiple magazines of ammunition. and then you have the issue of telling who is the teacher and who is the student. trained law enforcement officers are trained to reserve their

ammunition and then to employ shooting techniques. >> those in your professions have hard jobs to begin with and we put this on top of it and the unfortunate tragedies we've seen over the years. thank you. early exits, this week we received news that hope hicks plans to leave as the communications director. who is next to take her place? we'll look at that and the tension brewing within the oval office. about a medication, this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further irreversible damage. this is humira helping me reach for more. humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. humira works for many adults. it targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections,

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is the white house preparing for another staff shakeup? multiple sources telling nbc news that general h.r. mcmaster could step down as early as next month. meanwhile, president trump attacking attorney general jeff sessions again this week calling his handling of fisa disgraceful. joining me now, josh and former national spokesperson for hillary for america. also have jennifer reuben opinion writer for "washington

post." jennifer, i want to talk to you first on this. this is just some of the headlines of who is going to stay and who is going to be leaving. when we take a step back, will there be a vacuum of calmness? those who were the handlers for the president. no portsman, no hicks and perhaps ivanka and jared gone, as well. >> well, there certainly will be a vacuum and a lot of empty offices. but it's a misnomer president trump was ever under control. these people at various times were thought to be some sort of great savior that ivanka was there to keep him calm or general kelly was there to keep him focused. all these horrible things have happened while they were there in the white house. truth be told, there is no controlling him and no one individual who is going to take the position and take the place of the commander in chief. so, as long as he is present, frankly, this level of chaos, this level of scandal and this level of turmoil. >> why was this week potentially

different, josh? >> i mean, everything just seems to be going wrong every week. so, it's hard to know whether this is the worse week or next week will be even worse or the week after in all likelihood, that will be the case. but what we're seeing is as mueller gets closer and closer to trump, he's flailing more and those around him are getting panicked. we're seeing more instability and more insecurity and we have trump getting angry and lashing out put out at risk economically and our national security. the more happening that makes trump nervous and insecure, the worse it is going to keep getting. >> the word that h.r. mcmaster, that general kelly were in the good side of president trump and then we've also seen the headlines on the opposite where he's not so happy with those two very close leaders for him, two generals. in fact, president trump

attacking mcmaster via twitter. we showed them a little bit earlier saying that he forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the russians after the general had made other comments to the contrary of that. of course, we had attorney general jeff sessions on the president's hit list, too. so, jennifer, with all that being said and the tweets about trade, is the president trying to deflect on what's happening on russia? >> i don't think it's conscious. i think he's frankly, unraveling, because of russia. i agree with josh. as the indictments come out and the entire scheme to undermine our election and weigh in on behalf of the president becomes clearer and clearer in the public's mind. i'm sure the president must be very, very nervous. and jared should be very, very nervous. the degree to which he was financially dependent and financially desperate to attract foreign bidders and foreign banks is coming to light.

so y thi so, i think it's not necessarily an effort to detract or deflect but it is one of the results and it is dpogoing to get worse. i think we're a long way from the end of the indictments and a long way from learning the entire story. clearly, it is going to president trump and he is inquiring, bob mueller is inquiring about trump's motivations for various things. inquiring about jared's behavior after receiving foreign loans. as the food steps grow louder and louder, trump is becoming more and more unhinged. >> at the end of the hour we get to ask these sorts of questions. josh, are we ready for a situation room, high-level situation in the white house? >> no, absolutely not. i think what we saw with this trade war is a great example of why we're not. trump decided to just start this on his own. apparently didn't tell the defense department that he was doing this. he's upsetting our allies.

he's upsetting people who don't like us as much. pure chaos and instability and we have a lot of delicate situations around the world and there's absolutely nothing that has happened that leads anyone to believe that donald trump is ready to handle that. >> 30 seconds to you on the very same question, jennifer. >> we're in a precarious territory. i think the notion that there is a general some place or anybody in a civilian role who is going to protect us from donald frump is a bit of a misnomer and i think this is exactly why many of us and the whole list, almost two years to the day foreign policy advisors and the republican side of things wrote in an open letter saying donald trump is a menace and unfit to be president and everything we have seen since then has born true. >> josh, jennifer, thank you, both, for being with us today. great perspective. terror threats. how your orange juice, the blue

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we need to be ready for my name's scott strenfel and r i'm a meteorologist at pg&e. we make sure that our crews as well as our customers are prepared to how weather may impact their energy. so every single day we're monitoring the weather, and when storm events arise our forecast get crews out ahead of the storm to minimize any outages. during storm season we want our customers to be ready and stay safe. learn how you can be prepared at pge.com/beprepared. together, we're building a better california. welcome back to msnbc live on this saturday. i'm richard lui. we'll start this hour with the firestorm of controversy at home and abroad over president trump's plan to hit steel and aluminum imports with steep tariffs. the european union and canada, who would be most affected by

this plan. the trump plan 25% tax on steel imported to the united states and a 10% tax on aluminum imported to the united states. the eu has already responded with proposed tariffs of its own targeting classic american-made goods like bourbon, blue jeans, motorcycles and orange juice in the states that the president has gained support since the 2016 election. now, the president's tariff proposal is also stoking concerns within his own party. some republicans say the move will kill jobs across the country and alricaalricalture. the united states has an $800 billion trade deficit because of oour very stupid trade deals and policies. our wealth is given to other countri countries -- decided on the trade war, the president, after becoming, quote, unglued by a series of events in his very own in