right now on "ana cabera reports," trump white house 2.0.

the president-elect names his incoming chief of staff. what we know about the woman set to become one of the most powerful people in washington. plus, the fight for control of the house still undecided. could the gop end up with one of the slimmest majorities ever? also ahead, racist texts sent to black residents of several states. what we know about those messages and the fbi investigation now under way. and later, dangerously fast. the race to contain this massive wildfire forcing thousands to flee in southern california. well, we made it to friday. it is 10:00 eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. we begin with the president-elect's first big transition decision, tapping his campaign co-chair susie wiles to be his white house chief of staff. wiles will be the first woman to ever serve in that role and

washington will be watching to see how long she lasts. the first time around trump cycled through four chiefs of staff. one went on to call him a fascist, another was indicted for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election. in the hours since trump made his pick, trump's electoral college victory margin grew. overnight nbc news projected trump wins nevada, further cementing the swing state dominance. joining us, dasha burns, covering the transition in florida, peter baker, white house correspondent, and princeton university professor and former aide to speakers ryan. dasha, tell us more. what should people know about susie wiles and how trump made his decision? >> reporter: so, this comes as no surprise, ana. she's been by trump's side and largely credited with the drama-free, for the most part, campaign this time around, very different from both 2016 and

2020. you know, there's a mantra side of the trump campaign that's let trump be trump. susie abided by that, but also kept the train on the tracks, so to speak, inside. keeping away some of the chaos that has become sort of typical of trump world. she is the daughter of famed sportscaster pat summerall, a long-time lobbyist. she is a florida operator, worked on desantis' campaign for governor of florida, rick scott's campaign as well. she is somebody that the former president deeply respects, ana. >> dasha, where do things stand otherwise in his whole cabinet sweepstakes? >> reporter: well, it's going, and palm beach is now the new political power center. everyone who is anyone who wants a role in the trump administration is either down here or making their way down here. some new names that have been added to our list for some key

positions include senator bill hagerty, potentially, for secretary of state, alongside marco rubio and rick grinell. matt whitaker was acting ag for about a year during the trump administration is being considered for attorney general, a role that is going to be really key in the trump administration. he's being considered alongside john ratliff and pam bondi. much of the trump campaign is likely to go in, that includes steven cheung, jason miller, and steven miller as well. a lot of work to be done here in palm beach over the coming months. >> dasha burns, thank you so much for getting us up to speed. peter, i want to get your take on the susie wiles pick, the thinking among trump allies is that wiles ran a more disciplined campaign and she will help run a more disciplined trump white house. but this more disciplined campaign still gave us trump lying about haitian migrants, buddying up to laura loomer, the arlington national cemetery

incident, calling opponents the enemy within, a trump speaker making a racist joke about puerto rico, the media, so forth. so how do you see the wiles pick and how does she compare, i guess, to the four chiefs of staff trump went through in his first administration? >> yeah, i think obviously the word disciplined has a certain relative meaning when it comes to trump and his campaigns and the white house. you know, he was more disciplined than some of his previous campaigns and efforts, but you're right to say that it was hardly the model of modern discipline. and that's not possible, that's just not who donald trump is. and she recognizes that. i think susie wiles understands trump, tries to figure out the best ways to channel his skills to the extent that he has them. obviously, on the campaign trail, without getting in his way so that he would find her an impediment. it's rare for somebody to last too long in the top position in trump's orbit. she has the advantage of coming

in, unlike her predecessor in terms of previous chiefs of staff, as somebody who was central to his campaign. trump's first chief of staff was the rnc chairman, who didn't particularly like trump, wasn't particularly an ally. he suggested that trump drop out of the race in october of 2016 because of the "access hollywood" tape, or at least that he think about dropping out. that never went over well with trump. they never really had a close relationship. susie wiles has an advantage in that sense. as maggie haberman and john swan wrote this morning, she has the rare gift of having tight ties with maga world, including trump's sons, but also with established republicans who took relief at the idea that she would be in charge at the west wing. >> we are reporting that don jr. is acting at a gatekeeper on candidates to fill key roles with veto power on potential contenders. he was instrumental in the j.d. vance pick. here he was on fox yesterday discussing this process.

>> i'm going to be heavily involved on the transition. i want to make sure, now that we know who the real players are, the people who will actually deliver on the president's message, the people who don't think that they know better than the duly elected president of the united states, i want to make sure those people are in his cabinet. i want to make sure those people are in this administration. >> brendan, the first time around, of course, we had ivanka, you had jared kushner who had pull in the white house. now don jr. what does that signal to you? >> i think it's a marked difference from eight years ago where donald trump came in and he sort of knew he didn't know how any of this worked and he would defer to a lot of people, help me figure this out. he made a lot of conventional points for his cabinets. so a lot of people he was basically asking, who do you think i should pick and he went through normal washington names and picked his cabinet. i think what don jr. is getting at is important. this time he's not going to be looking for advice from outside people. he definitely thinks he knows

better. when i was there in 2017 he deferred on the legislative agenda to paul ryan, you and mitch mcconnell figure it out, i trust you. that wore down over time quickly. he felt like he understood better than a lot of people and now he's not outsourcing his agenda to anybody. he's not outsourcing his cabinet decision to say anybody else. it's his administration and he's going to be driving these things and you're going to be seeing some outside of the box picks for his cabinet and a senate that will be happy to confirm just about anybody he chooses. >> i'm curious with don jr.'s influence, do you see his influence different than you would see an ivanka influence, for example? >> absolutely. don jr., obviously, is much more in tune, i think, with that podcast crowd as we're calling it that donald trump ran, so that the young men, the online, the influencers, that that's his world. ivanka tried to play down the middle as sort of the business, you know, straight down the middle republican-style politics. he's got a very different view. he's going to see who excites

people, who are true donald trump people, and reward them. and that can lead to some people outside of the box. >> outside of the box. let's talk more about that, eddie. trump is placing a premium on choosing people who are really outside politics. what do you make of that? would it work? >> it all depends on how we measure will it work. if the objective is to deconstruct the administrative state, appoint people who have no idea how government works, it may work because it will gum it up in a lot of ways. i'm having a difficult time making this transition, the irony of the first woman chief of staff for the trump administration, given the post dobbs world. the irony of the emptiness of a certain kind of representational politics. the irony of someone like don jr. playing such an outsized role in determining who will actually administer policy for the government. i guess he's uniquely qualified because he's don jr. i am really concerned that we're

moving rather quickly, because we have to in some ways, to assessing what his administration will look like, and not really settling down with the implications for this presidency for american democracy as such. so, it can work, but you've got to understand what the measure is for working successfully. >> we've all seen a trump administration, been there, done that. however, so much of what was discussed on the campaign trail is unprecedented, if it were applied in this current administration or the new incoming administration, peter, trump has vowed to really reshape the whole federal government, far beyond what he's done in his first term, and beyond his white house chief of staff pick, the cabinet pick. he wants to purge federal employees/budgets, he wants to eliminate things like the department of education. elon musk even said this will bring temporary hardship for americans.

do you expect him to follow through on this? >> well, not on everything, no. he said a lot of things over the years. remember in his first campaign he said he would eliminate not just the deficit, but the entire national debt accumulated over the last couple hundred years if he were in office for eight years. instead, the debt went way up. so i would not expect him to do all of these things. i expect him to try a lot of these things. i think the immigration part of it is probably most important to him, his highest priority. if you listen to his campaign rallies, that was the central focus of his rhetoric. it really was almost a one-issue campaign at times. so i think you should expect him to do what he says he'll do on immigration or try. i think there will be impediments and it won't be as easy as he thinks it will. the deportations, if you want to round up millions of people, it's just physically and resource-wise a very difficult thing to do. but i think that's what he's going to try to do. and he is talking about a transformation of the way government works. he wants to get rid of civil servants at the top level so

that he can put in political loyalists. that will end up in court, probably. he wants to reshape our alliances around the world, and in fact he basically is all but saying he doesn't believe in nato as it was traditionally conceived. that's a very different way of thinking about america's role in the world. tariffs he wants to essentially use as a revenue-raising and protectionist mechanism in a way that hasn't been done for more than a century. he's floated the idea of getting ready of the income tax and replacing it with tariffs. it's really a hard thing to do, even if he wanted to do it. it's a radical idea. he's coming in with not incremental changes, but big changes in mind. some of which he's going to pursue. >> one of those changes, the mass deportation effort, he talked about, in a phone interview yesterday, he said the effort will have no price tag. there was one report that put it at $88 billion a year to do something like this. again, how practical is it,

unheard of. but how is he going to pay for it? >> that's the big question. i think we're going to test the limits of executive power and some of the things donald trump is going to do will end up in court. one thing i'm curious about, how does he respond to court rulings that don't go in his favor and follow them? that's the constitutional crisis kind of thing i'm looking at. mass deportations, there are not the resources in place to do that. the friction is going to come when he goes to congress and says, i need money, i need these things. >> republicans are supposed to be the party of fiscal conservatism, right? >> there's no chance that the very narrow house majority is going to be able to pass spending bills that would accomplish what he's trying to do. there's going to be a lot of friction, a house majority of two or three seats, and they're probably going to be unable to keep everybody together and there's going to be democrats coming in to help them do basic things, fund the government, increase the debt limit. but these things he's asking for are beyond the scale of anything we've ever been able to see or

do, and i can't imagine that he's going to be able to execute. what does he do when he doesn't have the resources or legal authority to do things, but he is so motivated because he feels like he made this promise, he's not going to be undeterred. >> eddie, there's also the issue of state leaders and what can states do, and we have seen, already, the beginning of some blowback. we had governor gavin newsom in california already come out calling a special session right now for ways to try to safeguard the state's policies around some of these extreme ideas of donald trump. illinois governor pritzker said this yesterday. watch. >> to anyone who intends to come take away the freedom and opportunity and dignity of illinoisans, i would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior. you come for my people, you come through me. >> how successful can governors be in all of this? >> well, i hope that they are. i mean, i think they have to

understand -- federalism is on the table in interesting ways. what's the role of the federal government and the states? oftentimes what we do in moments like this, we fall back on our heels. he want to protect what we have. i think we should get on our toes and actually go on the offensive and fight for the world we want. and we have to do that at the level of the states. but we have to understand it's going to be a battle. >> what does that battle look like? >> well, you implement policies across the board, whether it's in terms of living wages, in terms of education, in terms of health care within your state. if you have that vision, if you have the support of your citizenry, try to pursue it. but i think it's important for us to understand. i live in an academic environment. i work at princeton. and a university or college can be committed to a diverse student population, and then ed bloom will show up and sue them for trying to pursue their mission and vision. so even as states pursue their

ideas, even as governors pursue their vision, they need to understand there's a legal regime in place where i think they're going to be some folks who are going to respond almost immediately to the legality of what they try to do. we're in for a battle. >> how do you frame where we are in this moment as trump and his agenda comes into focus? >> i've been trying to figure it out, to be honest with you. there is a kind of ugliness that has haunted this experiment since its formation, and we can talk about the alien nation of the working class, we can talk about latino men voting for donald trump. but this country just elected a convicted felon who has been held liable for sexual assault, who traffics in the ugliest and insidious language around race and sexism that you can imagine.

he may not have the money to engage in mass deportations, but the fear, the terror that people will have to live with daily, i.c.e. showing up in their neighborhoods, being de-naturalized. all of that is here now. and, so, i don't know what these people have done. i have no idea what they have wrought, but i do know that it feels familiar. >> hmm. peter, you've covered so many administrations. how do you answer that question, framing this moment? >> well, look, i think it's important to recognize this is not like what we've seen before, obviously. we have had, in our history, presidents who have veered from the way things had been done

before, but never in the way that this president has done already in his first term, and the way he has promised to do it in his second term. we've not seen, certainly in modern times, obviously, a president make the kind of threats he's made, to use the kind of language he's made, as eddie just said. they've never obviously elected a convicted felon. we've never elected somebody who tried to overturn an election, we've never elected someone who has been found liable for sexual assault, business fraud. his company was found guilty in a criminal trial, tax cheating, his foundation, which shut down for illegal activities and so on. so we are in uncharted territory and we don't know where that's going to lead us. on the one hand, he's gotten finally what he wanted. he wanted the validation of an election win, not just an election win, but a popular vote win. nobody can take that away from him now. it was a clean and fair election according to everybody on all sides, and therefore, you know, he should feel like he has

triumphed and so forth. does that triumph lead him to be satisfied, and therefore maybe not pursue investigations of joe biden, hunter biden, mark milley, all these people? or does it empower him to nurse his grievances and his resentments and he uses the government, as he said he would on the campaign trail, an instrument of retribution? this is a very different moment in history and i think that, obviously, for half the country, more than half of the country that voted for him, it's exciting. they find him an exhilarating figure, a champion, tough. that's what they seem to find appealing about him in a moment of world tumult in terms of wars and economic dislocation. but for the other half or nearly half of the country, it's obviously a moment of great anxiety and fear. it's not a moment where people are coming together. and his record does not suggest that he's somebody who wants to bring us together. there's a reason my wife and i called our book on trump "the divider" because it's not in his

instinct to bring people together. steve bannon said after the last time he was elected, we were not elected to unite the country. and that's the way he has rolled over these last eight years. >> thank you, guys, for the conversation. really appreciate it. up next, congressional cloak and dagger. the gop's three-way battle for who will replace mcconnell as senate leader. plus, a court makeover. the power that trump and his republican senate will have to remake the lower courts and potentially appoint a majority of the supreme court. also, a new investigation into racist text messages sent to black residents post election that make mention of plantations. and clashes in amsterdam, injuring israeli soccer fans. what officials are saying about the violence. we're back in just 90 seconds. w. and they don't "circle back" they're already there. they wear business sneakers

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let's get the latest. what's still up for grabs, what races are democrats counting on, what races are republicans eyeing? >> reporter: the house is headed for a photo finish here. it has been three days since election day and it's still unclear which side is going to win control of the house majority. according to nbc news projections, republicans have secured 211 seats out of the 218 they need. they're much closer to that magic number than democrats are. democrats have 200 seats, and we have 24 races still to call. at least one of those in washington is going to go to republicans because there are two republican candidates facing off against each other there. democrats have flipped three seats in new york and republicans have flipped several seats in michigan, pennsylvania and north carolina. what democrats are counting on here to pull this off is holding their incumbent seats in some difficult territory. trump-leaning seats in ohio, one in washington, one in maine,

second congressional district. and they see a lot of opportunities out west, specifically one in oregon that republicans control that they have a shot at. there are two in arizona, the suburbs, that republicans control that they have a shot at. there are five in california. this whole thing could come down to california where votes are being counted slowly and republicans are defending five seats in difficult territory. if democrats pull that off, they may have a shot at the majority. it's hard to look at the map and not think republicans are favored. part of why this is is that the battlefield for the house is so different than the battlefield for the presidency. it's happening disproportionately in the suburbs where democrats and kamala harris have made up a lot of ground. >> we'll be watching closely for movement in any of those races. meantime, in the senate, the race for majority leader is just getting started. things are getting interesting there. what's the latest? >> reporter: lets start with the fact that republicans have clinched a senate majority for the next two years. they currently have 52 seats after flipping red seats that

the democrats used to hold in west virginia, montana and ohio. there are still several more races, including pennsylvania, which nbc has not called. the republican, dave mccormick, has a lead but there are provisional ballots, including in philadelphia, which are deep blue. and then there is nevada and arizona, where the democrats are currently leading, again, still too close to call. next week when the senate comes back, republicans are going to meet behind closed doors and figure out who is going to replace mitch mcconnell, stepping down after a record 18 years in the job of republican leader. here are the candidates who are vying to replace him. there is john thune, currently the senate minority whip. mcconnell's deputy. there's john cornyn who served as the minority whip. then there's rick scott, more aligned with the hard right wing who has been an aggressive critic of mitch mcconnell. the likely favorite here, the conventional wisdom is that john thune is the favorite here. he talks a little bit about --

talked about the race yesterday and talked about the possibility of trump trying to pick his own favorite. let's play what thune had to say on cnbc. >> obviously, if he wants to, he could exert a considerable amount of influence on that, but, honestly, i think my preference would be, and i think it's probably in his best interest to stay out of that. >> reporter: and, remember, this will be a closed ballot. so trump can try to play favorites, pick who he wants. but he's not going to know how they vote at the end of the day. >> sahil, thank you very much. up next on "ana cabera reports," more than 32 square miles scorched, thousands under evacuation orders and more than 130 structures destroyed. the high intensity and urgent effort to contain a wildfire in california. plus, what trump is planning to do when it comes to the economy, and why it could risk higher inflation. a real medical condition that urologists can diagnose and have been treating for more than 8 years

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emergency crews are racing to contain a fast-moving wildfire that has forced thousands of people in southern california to flee their homes. take a look at these images. right now the raging mountain fire has swallowed more than 20,000 acres, about 32 square miles, with hundreds of homes either damaged or completely burned to ash in just two days. nbc's dana griffin is joining us from california, dealing with dangerous air quality because of the fire. what is the situation this morning for firefighters there? >> reporter: right now the santa ana winds have died down, which is a good sign, but there's a red flag warning in the mountains. on streets like this there are several homes, like the one behind me, that are in ruins. this morning, the relentless mountain fire still churning. >> this is a challenging fire and it's a wind-driven fire. >> reporter: thick, billowing winds carrying embers for miles.

aerial teams from around the state turning to local farmers for help. >> firefighters using this small reservoir on a nearby ranch to scoop up the water and carry it to the front line. steve taylor barely made it out. >> got the wedding ring, got a couple more pictures of my dad and jumped in the car, and ten minutes later, i guess, the whole thing just blew up. >> reporter: marjorie and her husband moved into their newly renovated home in february. >> this is the front door, garage, brand new washer and dryer, everything is brand new. >> so you've lost everything? >> everything. >> reporter: the fire coming after a dry season and extreme santa ana winds. but these conditions are not unique to california. nearly 74% of the u.s. is dealing with drought or abnormally dry conditions. new jersey is dealing with a record number of wildfires amid its driest year in over a century, 400 in october, and more than 100 the last week alone. smoke there from the bethany run

fire visible for miles. >> i was up all night making sure the wind didn't shift. >> reporter: and while fires rage on both coasts, other states dealing with a different threat. >> wow, just wow. >> reporter: snowstorms hitting colorado and new mexico overnight, with up to 14 inches expected in denver today. officials warning of dangerous conditions as wild weather continues across the country. the red flag warning is still in effect for at least another few hours, and officials here are reminding people that we are not out of the woods yet, because yet another santa ana wind event is expected next week, possibly wednesday. >> really heartbreaking images there behind you. just those pieces of what was. thank you, dana griffin. up next, disturbing texts going viral, targeting black americans, saying they have been chosen to pick cotton at, quote, the nearest plantation. the investigation into the source.

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the fcc are investigation racist text messages sent to black americans in several states. now, the texts say they have been, quote, selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation, and these messages came just hours after this week's presidential election. nbc's zinhle essamuah has been looking into this. she's joining us with more. any idea where these are coming from? >> ana, good to be with you. there are still so many questions, the fbi and fcc are investigating. one thing is clear, from california to new york, the reach of these racist messages is wide. >> reporter: careen was at home with her kids when she got a text from a number she didn't

recognize. >> it was this odd, ominous feeling text message, basically saying, hello, you've been selected to be a slave on a plantation and you're scheduled to get picked up at 12:00 a.m. on november 13th. >> how did it feel when you got that text message? >> well, i was immediately disturbed. >> reporter: she's not alone. social media sites have been flooded with people from new york to florida who say they've gotten these racist messages. freeman and others believe the texts may have been sparked by the current political climate. >> i think that this is intentional to scare people of color, black people into a reality that we don't want to go back to. >> reporter: the wording of the texts appear to differ. some have misspellings, others address individuals by name. but the theme is consistent, telling recipients they've been selected to pick cotton. all of the people nbc news spoke to who got these messages are black. several universities confirmed their students have reported receiving the texts.

clemson says they came from numbers associated with online spoofing sites. it remains unclear who is behind the messages. text now, which offers free phone numbers online, tells nbc news at least one of its accounts may be involved, writing in a statement, in part, we do not tolerate or condone the use of our service to send harassing or spam messages, adding they shut down the accounts and are working with authorities. for recipients, the digital hate is fueling real world concerns. >> i am overwhelmed with anxiety and fear about how i'm going to help my children make sense of the world that they have to navigate as black children. >> and it is worth adding, some messages appear to reference president-elect donald trump by name, several of the recipients i spoke to believe his election is further fueling racist rhetoric in the country. however, it is important to clarify, some of these text messages falsely claimed to be from a trump administration official. for its part, the trump campaign is telling us they're refuting

any claims of involvement from the former president's team, calling them absolute nonsense. in a statement, telling nbc news, if we can find the origin of these messages which promote this kind of ugliness in our name, we will obviously take legal action to stop it. >> so creepy and disturbing. many more questions to answer. thank you for bringing us that reporting. in his first term as president, donald trump worked with senate republicans to name more than 200 judges to the federal bench, completely reshaping the judiciary to better align with their conservative priorities. this time, president-elect trump is gearing up to lock in that overhaul of the judiciary system, potentially appointing several more conservative justices to the supreme court. i want to bring in nbc news supreme court reporter, lawrence hurley. trump already had a huge impact on the supreme court, naming three of the nine current justices, and we've all seen the major decisions that they've ruled on in the last couple of

years. what more are we learning about what could come in this next administration? >> yeah, there's a little bit of speculation already in republican legal circles that they would like to see trump get the chance to appoint at least two more justices. and that's focused on the older members of the conservative majority right now, which is justice clarence thomas and samuel alito, both in their 70s. thomas will turn 80 in 2028. so we would like at least one of them to step aside on the sooner side so that the republican senate can replace them. and further bake in the conservative majority that you mentioned, creating a trump-appointed majority on the supreme court. he would be the first president since fdr to have that accomplishment. and that would really mean that you would have this conservative majority of judges currently in their 50s or early 60s, maybe younger, who would be in place for decades to come, pushing conservative legal arguments,

moving the law further to the right on issues like gun rights and religious rights, and potentially being a big problem for future democratic administrations when they want to pass progressive legislation or take executive action. so it's potentially a very big thing to be looking forward to. >> we see that clarence thomas is 76, alito is 74. you also write some democrats want one of the liberal justices, sonia sotomayor to retire now, while a democrat is still president. tell us about those conversations. >> this is something that came up earlier this year when some democrats were concerned by the fact that trump might win the election, and looking at justice sotomayor as the oldest member of the liberal minority on the court, and thinking maybe she should step aside so the democrats could replace her while they still control the senate. but nothing happened then, she obviously hasn't said anything about it. she hasn't stepped down, when there was ample time to replace her. now there's a very narrow window

where the democrats have the senate for the next couple of months, that they could push through a successor. and unless she does something quickly, there's no real chance this could happen and there's some concern that they might not even be able to get it through. so it seems pretty unlikely that's going to happen. that's just turned 70, she's still healthy. i think she probably thinks she can ride this out. >> keep us posted, thank you. breaking news just in this morning, former vice presidential nominee on the democratic side, tim walz, set to give remarks this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. central time. this will be his first public address since donald trump became the president-elect. and we expect him to reflect on the election and outline his path forward as the governor of minnesota. up next on "ana cabera reports," the fed chief's defiant one-word answer when asked, would he resign if trump asked him to. plus, snip, snip, what's

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but i've always felt most comfortable up here, with the folks that made me who i am. i'm right at home, out here on the land. and i'm in my lane on the shoulder of the interstate. because this is where i come from. i've been showing up here for nearly 200 years. and i can't wait to see what's next. hats off to the future. nothing runs like a deere™ welcome back. federal reserve chair jerome powell may have been hoping to talk about the economy and efforts to fight inflation at his press conference yesterday, just after the fed cut interest rates by a quarter point. but the biggest news came from this exchange on powell's job security. >> some of the president-elect's

advisers have suggested that you should resign. if he asked you to leave, would you go? >> no. >> do you think that legally you're not required to leave? >> no. >> do you believe that the president has the power to fire or demote you and has the fed determined the legality of a president demoting at will any of the other governors with leadership positions? >> not permitted under the law. >> let's discuss this and more with nbc news senior business correspondent, christine romans, and professor of economic and public policy at the university of michigan. christine, first of all, happy friday. we'll get to the fed cut in just a minute. first, just that back and forth on jerome powell's job security. how significant is that? especially when you think that donald trump was the one who appointed him. >> it was the no heard around the world, and he said it twice, not permitted under law, and he stopped and said it again. so just a message that over here at the fed, the fed is independent, it is independent of the white house, and it is trying to get inflation under

control without hurting the overall economy by moving interest rates. the fed chief is saying, we're going to continue to do that work. >> so i'm curious, professor, to get your take here. because the federal reserve isn't supposed to be political, but trump has said he wants influence on interest rates. if trump tries to interfere in fed decisions or if trump asks for powell's resignation and he refuses, what happens? >> the legal advice seems to be that powell gets to stay. look, this is actually one of the most important issues for monetary policy. we tend to obsess about the blips, the little ups and downs, the quarter of a percentage point here or there. but what really matters is making sure that we continue with the american institutions that have served us so well, the u.s. has pulled off a soft landing, we've got low inflation. we've managed that without raising unemployment at all. compare it to a country like turkey where a leader did involve himself with monetary policy. that leader told the central

bank what to do and the effect of that was to push inflation to 50%, 60%, 70%. this is the stuff that really matters. >> christine, back to the decision yesterday and the inflation picture right now, they cut it, but they did signal they're still concerned that it's not firm that we're going the right way and will stay in that trajectory, right? >> so, they always say they're data dependent. so we're watching to see if the labor market, the job market gets a little weaker, or conversely, if the economy stays really strong, it has been stronger than expected for a couple of years, does that spin off more inflation next year, and so maybe they have to pause in january and not cut interest rates again. he did say the economy is solid, the used the word remarkable to talk about the economy. it is the strongest in the world right now, the u.s. economy, despite what voters said when they really voted on their unhappiness about the american economy. the fed chief saying we're getting inflation under control,

job market is still robust, growing at almost 3%, that's a good position to be in. >> we know people are really hurting out there. and economists have warned some of trump's policies that he's talked about from the tariffs to the mass deportations could worsen inflation, could raise prices more. how do you see it? >> look, the good news for your viewers right now is that inflation is all the way back down to normal. it is about 2 point something percent. low enough you can pretty much ignore it. prices haven't fallen, they're still high, but inflation is back where it is. it feels like we're all set for resuming normal life with low inflation, but there is the big set of storm clouds, if we raise tariffs on imports, we -- >> oh, unfortunately we froze for just a moment. right when he was getting to the key part. i think we got him back. please continue. talk to us more about the impact of these tariffs that trump keeps talking about.

>> the concern is it will be a sharp increase which will cause inflation. the good news is we learned from the pandemic, when there is a supply -- >> unfortunately not a stable enough signal there. trump talked a lot about tax cuts specifically on the campaign trail, no taxes on tips, to lowering corporate tax rates, what do you expect to see? >> he really wants to cut taxes and he wants to do tariffs and he wants to do mass deportations and very clear about tax cuts, deportations, and tariffs. those tax cuts, he made a lot of promises on the campaign trail and there will, huge tax writing that has too happen because the 2016 tax cuts expire. the entire tax code has to be remade. there are some concerns that he's made a lot of promises he can't keep without just exploding the deficit. we'll see what the tax writing process starts to look like. but he's promised no taxes on tips, no taxes for people who

pay down social security benefits and taxes for everybody and tax cuts for business, one of the reasons why the stock market just exploded when he was elected. one reason, you have uncertainty taken off the table. the other reason, companies will make an awful lot of money under a second trump administration if he cuts their taxes again. some industries will have more money than they know what to do with. >> there is more to talk about on this, obviously. thanks, christine romans, thank you, professor justin wolfers. up ahead on "ana cabrera reports," a wave of violence in amsterdam against israeli soccer fans. what officials are saying about the clashes and what may have sparked them. e sparked them take a little ♪] giving without expecting something in return. ♪ giving that's possible through the power of dell ai with intel. so those who receive can find the joy of giving back.

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we're back with some breaking news following overnight clashes in amsterdam. at least five people injured and more than 60 arrested after what authorities say was violence targeting israeli soccer fans.

israel's embassy in amsterdam says those fans were ambushed and attacked as mobs chanted anti-israel slogans and proudly shared videos of their violent acts on social media. now, separate videos show fans in amsterdam singing death to the arabs and let the idf win. let's get to's meagan fitzgerald who made her way to amsterdam. >> reporter: good to be with you. what we know right now is that both dutch authorities and israeli authorities are calling the events last night into the early hours of the morning today antisemitic. we also know from the police chief here in amsterdam that tensions in the city have been rising in the days leading up to this soccer match that took place last night. the chief says that there were israeli fans that set fire to a palestinian flag, that a taxicab was attacked. in the words of the mayor, all

hell broke loose after the game last night. we had an opportunity on the ground here to speak with several eyewitnesses, people that were there after the game and they say, look, they felt comfortable after the game had ended, but it was when they made their way back into the center of the city, the train that took them from the stadium back to the center of the city, that is where things started to increase. tensions started to rise on the train. they could see looks of people looking at them, and then one eyewitness told us that when they got off the train in the center of the city here in amsterdam, that's when they were targeted. i want you to take a listen to what he had to say. >> we went to the soccer match. and at the end, all of the away fans got on trains to the center of the city of amsterdam. and when we got down off the trains, we got out of the station, and a big amount, couple of hundreds of people

waited there and tried to attack us. >> reporter: yeah, and he went on to say that that's when people started to run and try and get away. they were chased down alleys, down different corridors, different canals. and he says there was a real sense of fear, people went into hotels, trying to seek safety. but also want to bring up what you said earlier, important to note that we are also seeing video come to light on social media that nbc news has confirmed, has verified, showing moments when a palestinian flag was pulled off a building, we have seen israeli fans going down escalators of the chain station saying death to the arabs, let the idf win. we have not been able to confirm the timeline of those events, when they happened. was it before, after the game. but this is still an active and ongoing investigation. >>