the american economy is coming back bigger and better and stronger than ever before.nd latino businesses are helping to lead the way. path.e paving the at the center of america's resurgence are the massive tax cuts i just signed into law. [applause] in that is a lot of money your pockets, no matter where you are coming from. business or personal, that is a lot of money. it's the biggest tax cut in reform in american history. we got no democrat votes, by the way. not one. say maybe weall should have voted. you notice they are having second thoughts. i think we made a big mistake. we didn't get one vote. -- that the heart of a plan our plan was to menace relief for working families and small businesses. to provide plan was relief for working families and small businesses. an income tax cut of more than $2000, that's not crumbs, slashing their tax bill in half. we nearly doubled the standard deduction, meaning a married couple will not have to pay one dime of income tax on the first $24,000 that they earn. we doubled the child tax credit because the most important invest

not an american nationalist, more concerned about the world economy and not necessarily a defender of manufacturing sector. had internal flights with members of the administration. some people are speculating he may have resigned in the wake of president trump saying he is going to enact steel tariffs. >> kimberly: i think he's obviously a highly competent individual, well-regarded at goldman sachs. people thought he was more of a globalist. i think he is somebody that wanted to serve the country, worked hard. the president liked his organization. charts, color-coded, he liked it. he was very organized. i like organization. dana perino likes organization. that was very good. he felt he had kind of provided the opportunities in the help and the assistance to the president and the country. the president made a tweet saying there might be staff changes. this was expected. there was discussion about cohn, mcmaster, and chief of staff john kelly. you're one of those people leaving the president. i also note he's been very close with jared and ivanka. that was that -- like a triumvirate. he

but from on the brakes of the american economy. it's modest but critical bill. by streamlining regulations that will bring relief to the small financial institutions who have been hurt by dodd-frank's one-size-fits-all approach. in a certain respect this bill is a perfect complement to tax reform. further expanding opportunities for american families, communities, and small businesses. it is the product of years of work and a robust committee process. it is also a truly bipartisan bill cosponsored by the equal number of republicans and democrats or independents. senators had and still have a wide diversity of views on dodd-frank. but there's a widening agreement that we should not continue allowing this unintended consequence to wreak havoc on community banks and small u cret unions. i hope soon we can turn that consensus into law. >> try to i rise today to discuss as 2155, the economic growth regulatory relief and consumer protection act and to urge my colleagues to support its passage. in just age few miserable vote n the first vote to vote on cloture to bring

and i say it could be the american economy again. you know you're you are you are one of these fellows that back in the day i would like to head a bunch o. wine with and because the theory is great but i just get concerned and you talk about you know the world i mean if you look at you know students around the world the better educated kids that are young adults again that are i shouldn't keep saying kids but to young adults that are graduating you know they're getting better jobs and overall you know we are not in the u.s. an island unto ourselves and so if we don't have you're talking about a revolutionary thing i get that but i just don't know how you get there in practice are you really suggesting that we do these things are you saying there's a big problem and we need to take a revolutionary action because i just don't want to be on the short end of the stick when we're already have a very under educated population compared to the global marketplace. yes so we're not educated compared to the global marketplace and your terms of

intensive industry as the united states, and technology is really the backbone of the future of the american economy. given these problems, the president asked ustr to conduct a study. we conducted a thorough study. we had hearings. we reviewed tens of thousands of pages of documents. we talked to many, many business people. we had testimony, as i say, and we concluded that in fact china does have a policy of forced technology transfer of requiring licensing at less than economic value at state capitalism where they go buy technology in the united states and not economic ways and finally of cyber theft. the result of there has been that the president has analyzed it, we have a 200-page study which we'll put out and e.s. said we should place tariffs on appropriate products. we will explain later how we concluded that products we would put investment restrictions on china with respect to high technology and that we'll follow w.t.o. case because one of the actions here does involve a w.t.o. violation. this is an extremely important action. very significant. very important for the future of the country.

he opposed president's proposed steel and aluminium tariffs because of the impact on the american economythe threat of a global trade war. in a moment, we'll hear from a global trade expert but first kim gittleson in new york has more details. gary cohn has long said he opposed the tariffs. he is known as somebody who supports free trade. he worked at goldman sachs and he is a democrat. he has clashed with president trump on a host of issues. the thing they seem to agree on was the tax reform. beyond that, there wasn't that much common ground. when we saw president trump come out today saying that he once more believed he wants these tariffs to believed he wants these tariffs to be instituted, it seemed like a done deal that he would have to resign. that is part of our team in new york. gary cohn quitting trump's team is the latest in the transatlantic tit—for—tat over trade. today, the european commission hammers out its plan to counter the us president's threat of import tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium due this week. the commission says response will comply with wto rules.

manufacturing is a key to our nation's prosperity and drives the american economy. as america competes on a global scale it's critical this industry continues to grow, creating a wealth of job opportunities for all americans. over 500,000 people in pennsylvania rely on the strength of the manufacturing sector. before the tax cuts and jobs act, the united states had the highest piss tax rate in the industrialized world. now this -- now they're moving this economic choke hold, putting foreign

trainternational moneta fund warned that the proposed tariffs on steel andminum would likely hurt the american economy, and our economies of our trading partners. the organization urged all parties to resolve tradeut di without using retaliatory measures. >>> u.s. commerce secretary wilbur ross says the market has overreacted to the promised tariff and that the impact on consumers would be minimal. when asked in an interview on cnbc if the tariffs would be broad, and apply to every country, including our allies, ross said, that's what the president seemed to announce yester >> let's assume that to be the case. this is not the first time that we've put tariffs on steel. we have tariffs on many forms of steel. the reason that we've t had go this route is that the nventional trade methods don't solve the problem of systemic global overcapacduy and global ing. >> if china, a country tt's been accused of dumping steel, is the target of those proposed tariffs, the world'sesecond largt economy doesn't seem all that concerned. >> china criticized president trump's intariffs, s that global trade would suffer i

and technology is really the backbone of the future of the american economy. given these problems, the president asked usgr to conduct a study, we conducted a thorough study and had hearings and had documents and talked to many business people and we had testimony and we concluded that had in fact, china does have a policy of force technology transfer of requiring licensing at less than economic value at state capitalism where they go in and buy technology in the united states in non-economic ways and cyber theft. the result is that the president analyzed it and we have a 200 page study. and he concluded we should put in place, tariff on appropriate products. we could explain later, that we put investment restrictions on china with respect to high-technology and follow wto case because one of the actions here involves a wto violation. this is an extremely important action. very significant and very important for the future of the country. across industries. and i would like to thank you mr. president to give me the opportunity to work on it. >> secretary ross.

of thevid student american economy. look at section 232, these tariffs. is there an argument that this will be programmed for the economy, something trump has said he wants. david: this is the dumbest thing trump has done yet, and there is a lot of competition. steel been involved in since i was a congressman in the late 70's, and let me tell you, the steel industry is the biggest bunch of cap to list crybabies in the entire beltway lobby farm, and that is a lot of competition. including my president, reagan, who comes into office with a tale of woe, demanding protection, and now they found the biggest sucker of all because donald trump's education about economics and trade apparently ended with 70 century -- 17th century. this has nothing to do with nationalism, the dod says it needs 3 million tons of steel per year, and we had a decent defense budget, what need lower than that. the exhibit canada and mexico, -- exports 5oduces million tons to us, i don't think they are going to declare war or embarq for their exports.

the economy is responding and the american people are doing better because of it. here's a headline in "the new york times" on friday. "the economy is looking awfully strong." headline, "new york times." "the economy is looking awfully strong." the article was about the jobs report that came out last week. it said the report can be summed up in four words. it says the economy is humming. mr. president, the u.s. economy has already created over 552,000 new jobs in just the first two months of this year. over half a million new jobs in the first two months of this year. half a million more people working-to-do compared to when republicans passed this tax relief law. if you want to go back a little, there are more than three million new jobs since president trump was elected in november of 2016. mr. president, that's a real number to look at. that's the moment when people said they have had enough of slow-growing policies of the democrats in washington and elected donald trump president. that's the moment when businesses realized things were going to be different with

economy. we now have a president who means to restore prosperity to all americans, to restore our destiny. and that means government has to get smart. we promised that on the campaign trail. and we have to put america first in all things. that scares the hell out of business and political elites, the business establishment and don't doubt for a second that their fear and greed is what is driving at least, in a major part, the deep state motivating the politicized department of justice, the fbi and yes, the special counsel whose every effort is aimed at marginalizing president trump who has succeeded already in changing the direction of this country. president trump means to end dumb government and dumb trade policies that sent millions of american jobs abroad and cost the american economy trillions of dollars over the past half century. here now is fox news chief white house correspondent john roberts with our report. >> lou, it was really the timing of this announcement that took everyone by surprise. the white house hasn't even figured out how all of this is going to work. but the presid

the engine of the american economy. >> the lawsuit against california challenging the so-called sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration officials. sessions really had strong words for oakland mayor who gave residents an advanced warning of a crackdown. >> how dare you needlessly endanger our law enforcement to have a radical open border agenda. >>> today is international women's day. mcdonald's is celebrating with a big golden "w." for the first time, it has been physically flipped. it will mark it at another 100 l locations. that will be featured across the digital channels as well. >> new light shed on the mystery of what happened to amelia earhart. bones were found on the pacific flight path. analysis concluded they belonged to a man. using new science, a professor says they belong to a woman about earhart's size. he says he is 99% sure they are earha earharts. they were found with other possessions that belonged to her. >> fascinating. >>> officials say it was a nerve agent that sickened a former russian spy and his daughter in the uk. who did it and where d

not much of a surprise, it is a bad thing, it is a bad move for the chinese economy and the american economyht that it is going to harm american consumers but behind all this there isa consumers but behind all this there is a point to be made that china has not always played fair in trade. and this is the problem, he was very clear that this is about the credit intellectual property and to all extents intellectual property and to all exte nts a nd intellectual property and to all extents and purposes, that is a picture that we can recognise. how do you go about this if it is not by taking this very direct action? what he should be doing is using the world trade organization, the world trade organization was largely created by americans in the 20th century. we have a rules —based system that covers things like intellectual property, there is the agreement that is designed as for that purpose, there should be a claim brought by the us against china through that mechanism and by going to unilaterally, it is really vigil at justice going to unilaterally, it is really vigil atjustice and that is

percent the president says the penalties are needed to address unfair trade and to boost the american economy u.s. business leaders and prominent members of his own republican party have warned that he's courting economic disaster with the move. with the stroke of a pen donald trump shakes up international trade the president signed the hefty new tariffs into law flanked by steel and aluminum what because the picture said he was stopping what he closed on the soul and the u.s. . today i'm defending america's national security by placing tariffs on foreign imports of steel and aluminum reducing the levies will take effect in two weeks but some countries will be spat due to the unique nature of our relationship with canada and mexico we're negotiating right now nafta. and we're going to hold off the tariff for those two countries other countries can negotiate exemptions but trump accuse major trading partners like germany of treating the us unfairly many of the countries that treat us the worst on trade and on military are our allies as they like to call them so we just want fairness. pressed a

as productive as the american economy could not go on this way with 60% of americans getting 5% of the wealth, with wages flat, with credit available but not widely available, not available to everybody. the economy needed to find a way for more americans to become full-fledged consumers. so now we are back, and i have brought you to the point where we can think about the great depression, where we can think about what happened. i am fairly certain you guys can figure out the answer i am proposing at this point, the answer that makes sense for our class and the history of consumer culture. the great depression was a crisis of abundance. the united states had figured out how to grow and make a tremendous amount, an array of things people could make so much stuff in so many different things and had figured out to market these goods. we figured out how to get them to market, new forms of retail, new forms of advertising, and we figured out to market these goods. the one thing we had not figured out was how to provide americans with the means to buy all this stuff. we had not fig

unhappy about the president's proposed steel and aluminium tariffs and the consequences for the american economy — jobs and the threat of a trade war. kim gittleson is in new york. gary cohn has long said he opposed the trump administration tariffs which trump has defended this past week. he is known to support free trade. he worked at goldman sachs, he isa trade. he worked at goldman sachs, he is a democrat and supports pro—business policy and has clashed with president trump on a host of issues. the thing they agreed on was tax reform. beyond that not much. the president once more believed he wa nted the president once more believed he wanted these steel and aluminium ta riffs wanted these steel and aluminium tariffs to be instituted and it seemed a done deal that he would have to resign. so what is the latest on the transatlantic tit—for—tat over trade. well today the european commission meets to discuss its retaliatory plan after president trump said tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium imports would be signed off this week. the commission has so far stated that its response would be

we know from studies that it almost always backfires economically because america --thes american economy suffers tariffs imposed on others. i hope this blows over because of you have noticed, donald trump is a man of bluster and his dark can be bigger demand his bite. he probably wants to make a big show, to call himself a victor and hopefully, retreat before it turns into a full-blown trade war of the sort that was started in the 1930's. i hope the european union should not overreact already. to the first round of his national security tariffs. >> brief a follow-up question, in terms of how we can expect donald trump to bark and bite in the future. the rex tillerson breaking news this week, of course, does that encourage you to be optimistic about the likelihood that donald trump with crackdown, or rather less? >> if all the signals are of course, towards pessimism at the moment -- everyone has read "fire and fury," but in general -- >> that being the book about the insider feelings from the white house. >> steve bannon is now touring europe. recently again, the hardliners, gary cohn le

hurting the american economy is not going to help parts of the economy that have been hit hardest. that is why the president's deregulation, good thing. reducing taxes good thing. but in terms of putting tariffs -- trish: let me come at it another way. so, china sending all this stuff here, cheaply. >> you mentioned the word subsidies. if you really feel that steel industry is on its back, which thankfully it is not, you can do the same thing as china did. give them a tax credit or subsidy, but don't put a tax -- trish: doesn't that cost the american consumers as we, it is basically our money. >> less harmful, putting a tax on and reducing economic activity. trish: but they're doing that to us. >> yeah. trish: so if we send things over there, they put the tax on their -- >> we're not sending steel over there because they have too much steel capacity. that is why we have this challenge in the first place. the question is, what do you do about it? you just don't have to confine it to economics. china, you do, say, for example, two good things, to increase even more naval patrols in t

american economy. >> sean: reince priebus dominic, always good to see you.hen we come back, the great one, our top story, yes, the fbi could have committed crimes and broken protocol. the great one, mark levine, response to all of that. that is straight's ahead. ♪ ♪ >> sean: as we continue on as we reported in the opening monologue, the house until committee chair, devin nunes has sent a letter tonight to attorney general sessions that says the fisa surveillance application for carter page, campaign associate for the trump campaign appears to be a clear violation for fbi rules for submittinga evidence to the fisa court and may also violate criminal statutes. mark levin's legal foundation, the landmark legal foundation, has also filed a motion asking the fisa court to do something about the suspected abuses allegedly committed by the fbi and the doj. he's also the hostls come with w collie, we are proud to have him, that is "life, liberty, buy levin . "this nunes memo that i have here, that the fbi could have committed crimes, and that they brokelr protocol,

the american economy is coming back bigger and better and stronger than ever before. and to latino businesses are helping to lead the way. you are paving the path. at the center of america's resurgence is the massive tax cuts i just signed into law. now that is a lot of money in your pockets, no matter where you are coming from. [applause] business or personal, it is a lot of money. it is the biggest tax cut reform in american history. we have no democrat votes, by the way, not one. now they are all saying, maybe we should have voted. do you notice that they are having second thoughts? they are saying, we think that we made a big mistake. not one vote, and at the heart of our planet itself is the tremendous relief for working families and small businesses. a typical family of four earning $75,000 a year will receive a cut of probably $2000. slashing their tax bill in half. we nearly doubled the standard deduction, meaning that a married couple will not have to pay one dime of income tax on the first $24,000 that they earn. we doubled the child tax credit, because the

an appeal runs counters to the nation's need for a healthy and competitive american economy. so if there is one thing i want you to take away from the remarks today, should be this. the san francisco chim ber and chambers all over the country supported the clean power plan in 2015 and we support it now. we support it because we know that clean energy attracts investment, it creates jobs, supports healthy communities, and helps the u.s. remain a leader in the global clean energy innovation race. and let's not be fooled by the powers that be. we don't have to choose between a healthy economy and a healthy environment. we can and we must demand both. [cheers and applause] finally, i want to applaud the continued leadership of the san francisco business community. and businesses all over the country who support the clean power plan. let's show that america is indeed open for business and not repeal the clean power plan. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> the next business leader is representative, the head of sustainability from sales force, patrick flynn which employs over 30,0

the engine of the american economy. it's not wise, it's not right, and it will not stand."ht bout.jeff sessions: "how dare you. how dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our law enforcement officers."the federal government now suing the golden state, its governor and attorney general over its so-called sanctuary immigration laws.the president first threatened

i can another one -- i can afford an increase in my cost to make the american economy what it should be to build for the future. in the millennial's of which you are one. >> the caller gets to the underlying point of the substantial overcapacity coming out of china. originally they built this at tene or 12% per year with such demand but what has happened is there economy has slowed down so now that is part of th' concern. so now it is just the question how presidential deals with that with major repercussions of trading partners. >> caller: good morning. two quick points. first everyone says this will hurt us or make things cost more but if we take the tariffs and import that that makes more manufacturers in this a country by more steel and aluminum. the way to offset that price andri they tariffs and then to be more competitive. if they are smart it would help with the price overall. and to sell more steel and aluminum. >> and then to raise prices so there isn't much question even those reports they mention that is what it will take for the industry to become competitive a again to

steel and aluminum issue, the president has inflicted a punishing year of uncertainty on the american economy. and this uncertainty has harmed our workers, american workers, who need and deserve good paying jobs. moreover, even as of this morning, it is still not clear that the president understands the central problem which is dealing with chinese overcapacity of steel. so he has had practically one salvo a day with respect to trade. one day he is looking at tariffs, the next day he is looking at in some way intertwining his steal policy with the north american free trade agreement. i just want -- [ inaudible ] right out of the gate with real con kwenes from american workers and american families and they deserve better. with respect to this hearing, committee will be discussing the challenge of protecting consumers from counterfeit goods. and i am glad that this discussion is taking place. it is long overdue. i also hope this committee will soon hold hearings on the trump administration's varied activities, including steel and aluminum investigation in potential tariffs. north american free

at the end they will probably hurt the american economy and maybe hurt the american worker but that's not the perception i mean and this is a campaign promise and he made a lot of promises that i really worried that he wouldn't keep but he's doing it all right and so this is again the it's more about perception of leadership and he's speaking to his base ok i don't know what's going to bring those jobs back but if i'm in the rust belt and i hear that there's going to be a tariff on steel even though the u.s. gets only three percent from china but it's still the perception and i think that's what he's going angling on go ahead and. well so let me just respond to what the other person said. yes it's been known that countries need to protect their infant industries in order to grow them to be competitive enough in the global economy and then you let them set them free and. compete as hard as they can muster strong enough the us already did that and the us is an industrialized nation and us doesn't need to you know protect infant industries because it's no longer infants it's basically yo

but he had to experience a down day and this is the beginning of the collapse of the american economy in a one way so you can apply that to everything in life there needs to be like because allah says i'm without hell if you need the good and the bad any of capitalism to work both winners and losers you can't bail out every single bank that gets into trouble you can't bail out every single county capitalist i need free money you gotta let the system weed out the losers otherwise you end up with you know a state controlled state maintained price fixing regime by the state that resembles all failed such experiments of the past why not just let the free market be the free market well here's brian quinn tens and of course he is a regulator he's at the c.f. t.c. and when clinton remarked in the interview that big question is absolutely clearly not a security it is absolutely a commodity he also said that the aforementioned agencies and others should avoid reducing the broader space to one type of product in reality it's a very broad array of innovative products that have been created some

without an economy and the idea of engaging in a trade war that could do real damage to the american economythat could hurt our allies and our geopolitical situation between the united states and her allies. this is not a well thought out policy prescription. this was apparently a president that was angry about something according to all the reports, in a bad mood. didn't consult, didn't go through the normal process of decision making of a decision this significance where people could weigh in, what are the implications where our allies could be alerted, that it would be narrowly tailored to achieve an objective. this is spouting off, has huge consequences. now it remains to be seen whether it's actually going to happen. we've seen this president before say things in an effort to z-brakt from another issue but it doesn't get operationalized. we'll have to wait and see. this isn't how you make good public policy. >> this morning he's writing about the possibility that he could offer deals to canada and mexico on steel imports if they renegotiate nafta but if it's about nafta and trade, then

if the president wants to make an america first plan to help the american worker and help the american economy, it's not america alone. and a 10% and 25% tariff, that's not going to do anything but hurt us. >> very important reporting, stephanie, thank you very much for joining us with that important reporting tonight. stephanie ruhle gets tonight's "last word." "the 11th hour with brian williams" starts now. >>> the breaking news we're covering tonight from "the new york times." president trump has spoken to witnesses about their conversations with mueller. the reporter who broke that story standing by. >>> plus from "the washington post," mueller gathering evidence that a 2017 meeting was an effort to establish a back channel to the kremlin. >>> also tonight, new reporting on stormy daniels' lawsuit against the president. and trump's attorney michael cohen's attempts to silence her with a restraining order. >>> and vladimir putin shares his thoughts on the president and our political system. "the 11th hour" on a wednesday night begins now. good evening once again from our nbc news headquarte

this is how it's going to hurt the american economy. so my hope is frankly that this is sending a message to the chinese that, you know, we're fed. uh, we want to see more structural reform. we need to see more progress on all of the economic reforms you have promised over the past, you know, five, ten years. and that the chinese will not, in fact, do what evan has suggested, which i'm afraid they will do, which is to retaliate in kind. we'll see this as a shot across the bow and a play for his base and maybe begin to move a little bit on some of the promised reforms. >> thank you so much. fascinating conversation. >>> up next, the main event. former secretary of state condoleezza rice joins me to talk about why she doesn't think american civilians need to buy military weapons. she will also offer her take on why russia is meddling in american politics. we'll be back in a moment. ♪ wild thing ♪ applebee's handcrafted burgers. any burger just $7.99. now that's eatin good in the neighborhood. gathered here are the world's finest insurance