from a wet and very windy london, alex. according to our nbc colleagues on the ground in beirut, this was one of, if not the most powerful strike on central beirut since israel launched its invasion of lebanon back in september. anybody living within a mile of the strike area felt like there was an earthquake in the middle of the night. so we have been, obviously, used to these strikes in the southern suburbs of beirut, in one area, specifically, known to be an hezbollah stronghold but this is the four-time this week that israel it the central area of the capital, it is densely populated, normally very popular with antique shops and, as you said, 20 dead, 63 people injured and critically, this happened at 4:00 in the morning without an evacuation

order so the expectation now is that the death toll will rise. in the past, i would say the majority the time, say 80% of the time, there is an evacuation order at which point we hear automatic gun fire by locals to alert residents to get moving very quickly, at which point they have something between 10 to 45 minutes to evacuate. this was not the case here. previously, whenever there was an order to evacuate, it was precisely because israel wanted to target high-level officials in hezbollah. today one member of parliament representing them said there was no hezbollah leader on site. in terms of a cease-fire, it has been an intense week of discussions. the u.s. envoy to lebanon and israel was in beirut and the proposal on the table is currently being negotiated and discussed. it calls for, very quickly, a 60 day cease-fire, it calls for the withdrawal of israeli forces

for lebanese and u.n. forces to take over the buffer zone for those countries and call for hezbollah to move north the river which runs parallel to the border with israel. still lots to be discussed but officials say there has been progress made. >> that does indicate progress. fingers crossed. thank you, daniele hamamdjian, so much from london. in moments, donald trump's plans for day one. next, the biggest concerns about executive orders he says he will sign right away. away. ♪♪ good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. welcome, everyone, to "alex witt reports". we begin this hour with 58 days until inauguration day and donald trump fast tracking his picks for cabinet and administration positions. there were more announcements on friday adding at least eight new names in about 70 minutes.

around the new picks are the authors of 2025 and sebastian gorka, who drew immediate criticism from a former trump white house insider. >> i would not have him in any u.s. government. unfortunately, it is not the highest position he was mentioned for but i don't think it will bode well for counterterrorism efforts when the and is -- nec senior director is someone like that. that is why someone like that, focusing on the top jobs, who were the secretaries, who are the under secretaries and so on, that will also tell us a lot about who was actually running the government. new concerns from democrats as they review the new announcements as well as previously announced picks that will face contentious confirmation hearings. >> the secretary is a climate denier. tulsi gabbard is a clear security threat.

we can go down the list but i think, you know, what scares a lot of us, who served in congress during the last trump administration is that trump puts loyalty above talent and when he nominates people, the republican house and senate have found it very difficult, if not impossible, to stand up to donald trump. new reaction in just the last hour to the announcement of marjorie taylor greene to lead a new subcommittee to work with the so-called department of government efficiency led by elon musk and vivek ramaswamy. >> i am the only member of congress that it's on the same exact committees as her so i spend more time with her in committees and anyone else in congress. there could be anyone worse. putting her in charge of anything is such a joke, especially a committee whose whole intention it is to damage

the government, to damage services, to ensure people dependent on government services don't receive them. ♪ ♪ we have a number of reporters in place covering all these new developments first. we began with nbc's aaron gilchrist in west palm beach with a look at the new administration picks. >> reporter: alex, president- elect trump shows people to fill almost all the judicial cabinet positions in the lower positions. republican senators have signaled they will try to get this confirmation progress done quickly so president trump can hit the ground running. >> reporter: a flurry of new picks from the president-elect. former florida congressman dave weldon for cdc director, fox news medical contributor dr. janette nesheiwat for attorney general. johns hopkins surgeon and researcher dr. marty makary to head the fda. >> united states is the sickest, most medicated population history of the world. >> reporter: former house white -- white house official scott

turner as scott bessent is chosen to be secretary of treasury even as confidant elon musk's criticism of scott mess it is a business as usual canada. trump announced him as someone who will support my policies, drive u.s. competitiveness and stop unfair trade balances. bessent was a key economic advisor and donor to the trump campaign, someone trump praised on the trail. >> he is considered one of the most brilliant men on wall street. >> reporter: the pieces for the income he trump administration falling into place late friday night, including oregon congresswoman lori chavez do for labor secretary and the project 2025 co-author for manager of budget. appointments coming as a person familiar tells nbc news transition officials are taking suggestions for potential hires from the extensive project 2025

personnel database. that is despite trump repeatedly denouncing the conservative policy blueprint during the campaign. >> i don't know what the hell it is, this project 2025. >> reporter: coming after the president elect's second choice for attorney general, pam bondi. >> a fantastic friend and woman. >> reporter: she is seen as a trump loyalist, backing efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. >> we have won pennsylvania and they will not to get away from us. >> reporter: and serving on trump's defense team for his first impeachment trial. his first choice for attorney general carmack case, speaking on friday for the first time since drawing his name out of consideration. >> it was a matter of pace more than anything. the pace was going to be too long for me. >> reporter: gaetz again denying allegations he paid women for sex and he had sex with a 17-year-old girl, which the house ethics committee was investigating. the justice department also investigated the investigations and did not charge gaetz. the present luck has been working on foreign-policy in

florida last night. a big part of the conversation is the u.s. role in the national security alliance and the role they play in supporting ukraine. alex, thank you. >> reporter: let's go to julie tsirkin for the latest on lawmakers surrounding donald trump's cabinet choices. she joins me from just down the hall. how are lawmakers reacting to the recent police report on pete headset from monterey, california. >> most of them, certainly senate republicans, especially those who met with pete headset 48 hours ago are saying they trust hegseth and they trust the situation, the incident, the disturbing allegations that a woman alleged that hegseth

allegedly rape her in a hotel room in 2017 in moderate. obviously he is choosing to believe hegseth and his lawyer. he was not charge when it was investigated. of course, we know from reporting hegseth paid this woman in exchange for signing an mb -- nda several years ago. this is resurfacing a course because hegseth was tough to leave one of the most important and certainly the biggest federal agencies, the department of defense. that is raising some questions, eyebrows. senator joni ernst, a combat veteran herself, said she wants to see more information on hegseth's background because they don't know a lot about him. this is an individual who was an army national guard officer and has experience in the military, of course but is most known to most lawmakers as a fox news personality. so they have questions and certainly, some of the comments he may, including those about women, potentially not being, serving in combat roles, bringing military readiness down, that is raising eyebrows from women who were in combat,

who are on capitol hill, including the new jersey democrat, she was a helicopter pilot. this is what she had to say. >> i think, what we are looking at is a real concern that someone who is saying that he doesn't respect the service of about 20% of our active duty military is going to undermine good order and discipline. what i have heard is anger, deep-seated anger and disrespect for the 30 years of service of women in combat that has been undermined by this person that is just markedly unfit to serve as secretary of defense. >> reporter: alex, that is definitely the sentiment we are hearing, certainly swirling around capitol hill. as i talked to you last hour, with the pennsylvania race fully decided in the favor of republicans, they had three seats plus vice president-elect j.d. vance, who could break any tie. so hegseth first test to make

it out of the armed services committee, long row for him but certainly, so far, he seems to have support. >> let me be super clear because it is a sensitive issue. he was charged with sexual assault. i have not read personally the word anywhere), i need to be clear on that. he was accused of that, not charge. yet the monterey police department investigating. that we know for a fact . also, he was not charge, he claims he was cleared of anything but, let's be clear, also, monterey pd never revealed why they never chose not to pursue charges. we will try to say this because it is sensitive, we have to be very, very careful with all that. thank you for that. as we move now to the white house, we have the biden administration trying to tie up any loose ends before trump takes over. what is at the top of that agenda? >> reporter: there are several top priorities of the president that have taken on an even greater significance now that we know republicans will take the senate, white house and needs to defend itself against russian aggression, the president provided weapons to

help them launch deeper into russia this week. ukraine was also a huge focus of the president's oval office meeting he had with president- elect trump, that meeting part of another big priority from the president. that is the peaceful transfer of power, something we know he did not receive when he took office. we saw them share that meeting. we know the president will be attending president-elect trump's inauguration. we are seeing not just the president but also white house officials commit to this peaceful transfer of power to the next administration. we know the white house chief of staff jeff sliced this week posted a dinner with past chiefs of staff from both sides of the island also included the incoming chief of staff susie wiles, even pledging to meet again with her, once trump does take the oval office in january. alex, another big priority is his judicial nominees, recognizing how influential and important it can be when he leaves office but democrats have these roadblocks from republicans when pushing them

to get comfort before the gop takes control in january. then we saw this week the senate finally reach a deal to allow for a recess over thanksgiving and then after that, a consideration of more than a dozen district judges in december. here is california senator alex padilla talking about the democrats' role in the process. >> we will try everything we can every day we can until the end of the session to confirm as many federal judges as possible, circuit court, district court, so i do think my colleagues are going to stay overnight and again, work into friday, the weekend, whatever it takes, to get as many judges confirmed as possible. >> reporter: now the president is trying to top the 234 judges confirmed during trump's first term and what 221 confirm so far, there is a realistic path for him to do that.

he won't be able to match the number of federal and supreme court appointments confirmed during the trump demonstration, of course, putting even more pressure on him to get these picks across the finish line. >> thank you for that. congressman ted lou is next, he will weigh in on donald trump's cabinet picks and talk about the new bill he is proposing about security clearances for political appointees. we are back to talk with them in 90 seconds. seconds. beautifullly crafted, life-like trees. for a limited time during our black friday sale, save up to 50% off plus free shipping. and start making memories at balsamhill.com when my doctor gave me breztri for my copd, things changed for me.

breztri gave me better breathing, symptom improvement, and reduced flare-ups. breztri won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. it is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. don't take breztri more than prescribed. breztri may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. ask your doctor about breztri. ♪ trump is not submitting hi nominee names to the traditional fbi background investigation, which they have been doing since dwight eisenhower. he is trying to do a

workaround. >> house democrats are proposing a new bill to ensure the fbi's role in thoroughly vetting political appointees for the executive office of the president. the legislation comes amid reports president-elect trump intends to bypass a bureau for conducting background checks, among other provisions, the bill requires all white house employees get approved for a security clearance by the fbi. joining me now is one of the two lawmakers who proposed that bill, california congressman ted lieu, member of the judiciary and foreign affairs committee. it is good to see you, my friend. so you say you were introducing this legislation because, during his first presidency, trump abused the security clearance process by appointing members of his own family to senior staff positions and gave staffers and family members access to classified information, despite serious objections by career staff. what powers does your bill give congress and the doj to make sure they are properly vetted

and which current trump picks are you particularly concerned about? the question, taken away. >> thank you, alex, for your question. i am honored to cosponsor this legislation. our legislation would require fbi background checks for employees of executive office of the president, these are high level officials and traditionally, in both democratic and republic administrations, with the exception of the trump administration, people have gone through fbi background checks. with the incoming administration doesn't want to do this, then we have to ask what they are hiding from the american people? why don't want these high level appointees to go through the standard fbi background check? this is good governance. it should not even be a partisan issue. it is simply common sense. >> it was a big question. are there specific names you

worst -- are particularly focused upon because they need fbi clearance? >> i will give you examples of positions in the white house. first off, their high level because they have a direct line to the president. you have folks like the office of management and budget, who you highlighted earlier, the trade ambassador, there are a lot of folks who are quite near the president and you want them to have the fbi background check. there are a lot of people in the white house and this is a commonsense bill. it should not be partisan because both administrations of both parties have been doing this for decades. >> it shouldn't be partisan but does this bill have any chance of advancing in a republican- controlled congress? if it gets pass, could a president trump override the legislation? >> certainly, the president has veto power. however, the u.s. congress, we have essentially a bigger democratic set of members next term than we did at the beginning of this term. will be, as some republicans

join this commonsense bill, we will pass it on the house floor. >> let's look at trump's pick for pete hegseth, he is accused of assaulting a woman in 2017 and he paid her to sign a nondisclosure agreement. this is on top of his opposition to women serving in combat roles and discussing even in one of his books, the process -- prospect of violent civil war against the left. what are the dangers of pete hegseth leading the pentagon and do you have enough democrats to vote against confirming him? >> mr. hegseth has very extreme views. this police report is public. i encourage people to go and read it. what the report documents is that hegseth was visibly intoxicated at a hotel bar. he was already acting

inappropriately to a number of women and the report talks about how the alleged victim, suffered an assault at his hotel room later that evening. it is a big red flag that he then paid the woman money and hurt her sign a non-it disclosure agreement. the u.s. senate carefully reviewed the police report and asked all the appropriate questions. then, just for qualification, the department of defense is one of the largest employers in the world, over 2.9 million employees. hegseth has virtually no management experience. he has never led any large organization. he is a fox tv personality. that is a different skill set than running for the most important and largest organizations in america, the department of defense. >> let's talk about the dod. president-elect trump plans to sign up to five executive orders addressing illegal

immigration and said he would use the u.s. military to carry out the largest deportation in u.s. history. what are your biggest concerns about this? how it will be done and what is your reaction to trump's pick for border czar, tom homan, who has promised shock and awe on day one and threatened sanctuary cities who don't cooperate. >> united states military can be used to help with borders, right? we can prevent foreigners from entering our borders with the united states military, but to then go within the borders and force, force them to enforce domestic law, that violates the existing federal law that prevents the u.s. military from being used for law enforcement functions. i don't believe that would be constitutional. that will be litigated in courts. both democratic and republican administrations have use military assets to help secure our border. that is something the president can do, if he wants to. >> this week russia escalated tensions with the west,

launching a new missile at ukraine that has the capability of carrying russian nuclear warheads. russia also has advocated for its use of nuclear weapons after the biden administration allowed ukraine to use long- range missiles on russia. president elect trump said he will end the conflict when he takes office. if he does it, we will see. with russia gaining the upper hand in the battlefield, what are your concerns for ukraine with trump about to take office and what could add trump broker deal with vladimir putin look like ? >> i urge russia to de- escalate. they should not be targeting civilian infrastructure we need to make sure ukraine has everything it needs to defend itself against the legal russia invasion. i know russia is working with north korea and now there are north korean troops fighting

against ukrainians. that is an unnecessary escalation. i urge russia and north korea to de-escalate and for the united states and nato to continue to give ukraine what it needs to defend itself against russian aggression. >> california congressman ted lieu, thank you for joining us. the mixed bag for your big holiday getaway is next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪♪ happening now, the start of the thanksgiving travel rush and it is a bit of a mixed bag, thanks to mother nature. early winter storms are moving out of the northeast, freezing temperatures are blinking the midwest. heavy wind and rain is battling the west coast and it will be rainy on the east coast. joining me now, hello, my friend, you have talked with travelers there all morning. was the mood there? >> reporter: alex, the mood is almost calm. i feel nervous saying that, you know how holiday travel can be. that can change very quickly. we certainly saw a rush of people this morning, talking to workers, they said it was a busier saturday than normal at an already busy airport. people are happy. i want you to listen to the

conversations i have been having with them earlier today. >> we are about four hours early, i would say. >> reporter: four hours early. do you come in this early? >> we check in, it is more. >> there are a lot of people. i came in with tsa preacher, which way do i go, they said this way but it is actually this way. >> reporter: are there long lines right now? >> intermittently. >> reporter: so many people telling me they were traveling today to avoid what everyone is saying will be a record-setting thanksgiving travel period. aaa is saying nearly 80 million people will be traveling next week for thanksgiving. that is driven mainly by those who are going on the roads, people driving, taking advantage of that $3.00 average

national gas prices but a number of people are taking to the skies. look at the number on your screen there. international bookings this year are up 23% when compared to last year. i have gotten jealous as i talk to people, they are telling me they are going to very long places, like jamaica, the dominican republic, someone is going to mexico. people are excited for this thanksgiving holiday and trying to start it early. >> all i know is i think i am one of the 18.3 traveling domestically. i will try to channel you, my friend. thank you very much. >> reporter: fingers crossed. meantime, so many questions about what to make about what pam bondi said about election results in 2020. lts in 2020. (high pitched sound) (high pitched sound)

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♪♪

new scrutiny today over donald trump's second attorney general pick, pam bondi, and her efforts to help fight the 2020 election results. ♪ ♪ >> we do have evidence of cheating and i will talk about that in a minute, but we are still on the ground in pennsylvania. i am here right now and we are not going anywhere until they declare we won pennsylvania. >> did you just say fake ballots? >> there could be. that's the problem. >> you have any evidence, have you heard stories of, you know, ballots that are fake and if so, just tell us what you know. >> well, we know ballots have been dumped. >> 20 me now is democratic strategist and former advisor to the biden campaign amisha across and press secretary to house speaker john weiner, welcome to you both. first, pam bondi is objectively far more qualified than men grades -- matt gaetz but does

that make her more dangerous? >> it absolutely does. she knows what she is doing and at the end of the day, she is the trump bona fide and someone who will carry out his mission of retribution. she is someone who is willing to go against the law of the land, someone who is willing to go against her own better judgment. we watched her be very strongly aligned to someone who jumped on the election fraud schemes that could have benefited her. it benefited her fundraising, it benefited her in getting her name in lights across fox news and other conservative networks and it got her closer to the trump inner circle. this is someone who will do whatever it takes to maintain closeness to former president

trump. that is dangerous because we already know what donald trump wants to do when it comes to reshaping the doj, not only in his image but to carry out his efforts against multiple entities for the government, as well as the press. >> brandon, will pam bondi's confirmation, especially as seen in comparison to matt bessent's and with gaetz implosion, does that affect her at all? >> it will last much more than a week. usually, a nomination fails drags out for a long time and becomes a long, painful story which is why eventually drop out. matt gaetz saw the writing on the wall very quickly and that was to trump's benefit. pam bondi is certainly well- positioned to be conferred. she is definitely not as dangerous as mac case -- matt gaetz. he is not a dunce. he is a shrewd operator and the most singularly immoral one and pam bondi is not. she is a conventional gop player and a team player so she will do whatever the team wants her to do. she was a surrogate for mitt

romney in 2012, she jumped in with donald trump and wants to be in good graces for the pursuing the same type of vindictive type of things that donald trump is looking for. she will present much better in a confirmation and i imagine she has a much better chance of getting through. >> isn't it team america, not team trump for a position of attorney general? it's supposed to be nonpartisan. >> absolutely, of course. nobody donald trump will nominate will be not on his team. at the same time, the conversation around these nominations sometimes looks odd

. we talk so much about loyalty. i think we know what donald trump's team means when they say loyalty. at the same time, we should not expect somebody to come in and be antagonistic to the sitting president, the president who nominates them. pam bondi is as good as it will get for attorney general and the donald trump administration. she is a real, qualified person who knows what she is doing. i think it is not my pick, but certainly someone we could have less fear about then matt gaetz who was literally there to cut off peoples heads in the department and just wreak havoc. >> okay. let's move on with you, ameshia, to trump, who picked the co-author of project 2025 to lead the budget office known as omb, despite the fact trump and his team tried to distance himself from project 2025 during the campaign. now they are appointing several contributors to the administration. he was also briefly director under trump in 2020 but none of this is surprising. does it indicate to you how

much more methodical they plan to be this time around in executing their promises? >> absolutely. donald trump is a lot smarter in 2024 than he was in 2016. i think, you know, lying in south with a heritage foundation, which is a long sought after conservative think tank that a lot of the legislative plans across the country are ready, be mindful, project 2025, although it has a federal bit, it has been tested in conservative states. with that being said, donald trump recognizes he needed more help to get across the type of agenda and plan setting that would create seismic shifts, the kind of help he didn't have in 2016 and the kind of individuals to understand policy and how to get things across the aisle. that is who he is appointing. whether or not what project 2025 is, the authors or anything like that, you see he is appointing them left and right and the ones he is not appointing he uses as advisors. he basically went out of his way to have these people be his

advisors to advise him to look like in america the constitution did not design. the playbook is here, everybody can read it. it is readily available. there is no reason to believe he will not utilize it as the text is written. with that being said, means advocacy groups, what it means lawyers, it means the community really needs to buckle up and lean in on this because there is going to be no stopping him. they are currently working to remove the very safeguards that prevented him in his 2016 campaign. >> you want to respond to that, just the use of project 2025 is a guidebook, a handbook, a textbook for the incoming trump administration and what they plan to do in the points they are making? >> look, i will be honest. i think we have to drop the project 2025 stuff. i always the -- found it to be

absurd and dangerous. think tanks put out things like this every four years. the heritage foundation has put out things like this all the time. there is nothing in there any different than what the republicans have been talking about for decades. this was a political play by democrats to try to make something sound scary. there's nothing scary about it. you may not like what republicans think but there is nothing scary about it. it failed as a political tool. it simply did. i think we need to just drop this. donald trump will set his own agenda. he cared about them long before project 2025 came a while. pete hoekstra is not back in the administration because he wrote project 2025, he is back in the administration because he was already omb director. these things have been going on literally years and years and years and there is nothing to it beyond what they have already done. >> i appreciate that perspective but let me turn back to you, ameshia, is there something in project 2025 you do find scary, just one thing? >> the idea of unitarianism.

i think it is very problematic to see a government that he rose the checks and balances that are there to make sure a president is not seen as a king or is turned immediately into an authoritarian. the very basis of project 2025 is based on a unitarian executive. that is not how the constitution was originally set up and not something the republican party has long hailed to be short of value. >> yes, it is. that is a fundamental constitutional foundation that the president is the head of the executive. what executive means is the president is the head of the executive branch and a bunch of different agencies do not get

to operate independently. that is not controversial. that has been the republican view and the american view 200 years. people try to make it into this very scary idea. all it says is you should not have other agencies not be accountable to the president. the president is in charge and is democratically elected. that is the most democratic thing you can have. it is not a new idea, it has been a republican mantra for decades, for hundreds of years. >> look, donald trump is not your typical republican president. is that when you are taking offense at or that you have fear around, ameshia? >> absolutely. the definition, he is absolutely correct on, the way that donald trump sees it and the way that his, you know, the people align himself with, that is the definition. i think that is a problem. operating is though donald trump is ronald reagan, as though he is george w. bush, george herbert walker bush, as always he is any republican president is ignorant and asinine and out of step the way donald trump has spoken about himself. >> last word to you, brendan, on that point, the fact that donald trump is none of those republican presidents ameshia just named. >> sure. i thought he was a terrible president. i never supported him. i don't disagree, but it does not change the fact our government is set up a certain way. back to the point, project 2025 , the president should be head of the executive branch is not

a new idea. the hyperbole around project 2025 is about things that will likely never happen. it talks a lot about how to get rid of the department of education. i promise you in four years there will still be a department of education. a lot of this is hyperbole -- >> it is the erosion of these things. >> we can move on from this conversation. >> i am marking november 23rd as you having said that. we will hold you to it? i can't promise we will not talk about project 2025 with you again, brendan, but i hope you will be back, ameshia, you, too, as well. wife free mean something to donald trump's new treasury secretary pick and why donald trump is inheriting a great biden economy. that is next. at is next. (man) give a little information, check a few boxes,

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♪♪ today, new reaction to present electric one offering the treasury secretary job to hedge fund manager scott bessent, giving an inside look at what are the trump economy may be, cutting the workforce of elon musk and vivek ramaswamy. joining me now is chief economic advisor mark zandi.

first, your reaction to scott bessent as treasury secretary. i'm curious as to what his background is, his reputation and given he was a top campaign fundraiser, does that guarantee he will just be in lockstep with trump's plan for the economy? >> i think he is well qualified. he is a very successful hedge fund manager so he knows markets very well, the equity market, the foreign exchange market, the bond market, that is really key, in large part because the u.s. treasury, the department he is going to be heading, has a lot of debt to finance the nation's big budget deficit and that is not to get any better under president trump, i don't think, given all the tax cuts the president- elect has talked about on the campaign trail so the deficit means higher interest rates, you will receive anticipation of those economic plans and that will be, you know, take some skill and talent to manage to make sure interest doesn't take off and out of that a lot of damage. >> are there aspects of trump's plans that you worry about could create an economic downturn? >> yeah, under certain circumstances. i am not a fan of tariffs,

certainly not broad-based tariffs. i think strategic tariffs to make a point in trade negotiations late -- with folks like china who are playing fair, broad-based tariffs, we had experience with that in president-elect's first term and that didn't go well. it did a lot of damage to agriculture and manufacturing. one thing donald trump didn't learn from this, he will respond when things don't go well, the stock market starts to decline, like in his first term it really struggled. he will pull back and i don't think he will push us over the edge but he will do damage. there are policies he has put forward on the campaign trail. i don't think those are the ones i would believe would lead to a good economy. the bottom line is he is inheriting an economy and a really good spot. it will take a lot to push it

into recession. >> you brought up something. this may be one of the biggest accomplishments the biden administration has made and will be of the claim, it is achieving a soft economic landing. when you look at trump's plan, will he capitalize on what many are calling a strong economy? do you call this a strong economy? >> i go further than that. it is an exceptional economy. >> really? >> yes. if you look at it in totality. i have been a professional economist for 35 years. it has been hard to find a time, there are a lot of jobs and a lot of industries, from coast to coast, inflation was a problem but that is back in the bottle. the fed is cutting interest rates in response. stock market rates are in response up, you are sitting pretty if you are one of the two thirds of homeowners. you are in good shape. obviously, there are big distinctions between high income households and lower income households. it depends on which part of the economy you are touching but it is good, soak it in, it is a

really good economy. >> what about this 3-3-3 approach? i don't understand it, can you explain it? >> it is 3%, normally you get 2% gdp growth, 3%, 3% of gdp, that is 6% of gdp is way too high. i am all for that. we talked about 3 million barrels of additional oil produced in the u.s. up from already the record high of half 1 million. that i am not so sure about. i don't know if that will happen . the objectives i am on board with. it is a question of what is the best policy to get us there? i don't think tariffs and deportation of immigrants, you know, tax cuts i don't think that is the way to get there. i hope we get there but i am very skeptical of the policies. it feels like we are headed in

a downtrend. >> tariffs, do you expect he goes on the link it to europe or does he target specific countries or industries? what is the impact of either one? does one, you know, appeal to you more than the other? >> well, my sense is, listening to him on the campaign trail and in interviews and since the election, we will see pretty quickly in his administration. we will see much higher tariffs on china. right now, the effective tariff rate on china is about 20 % he told me he would double them to 40, that sounds about right. then he will turn his attention to countries to have benefited

from trade from china as a result of tariffs in his first term, southeast asian nations like vietnam, mexico would be another way. he talked about japan, korea, i think the european union would also be a target. i think what they will do here is phase the serifs in overtime. you know, i think they will be substantive enough and big enough and there will be enough retaliation by countries. countries won't just stand still. they will respond, just like they did in his first term. so, you know, we will do some damage. it will lead to some combination of higher inflation and interest rates and a diminished economy. i don't think it will take us to a place where we go into a recession but he will take it into a place where will become pretty obvious it is not working. >> you will feel it. >> mark zandi, appreciate it, my friend. in the next hour, what prompted the flurry of cabinet picks last night at mar-a-lago. ♪ ♪ a-lago. ♪ ♪ dy! pets eat safely with the non-toxic pet feeding system. find these american made gifts or get a gift card instantly at wt.com.

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president-elect trump will likely inherent a chaotic situation in the middle east. >> firefighters on both coasts battling