Thanks so much for joining me. Just minutes from now, President Trump, hosting Business Leaders and speaking moments ago on a key action hes about to take, signing an executive order that will formally withdraw the United States from the transpacific partnership, the tpp. In offthecuff remarks mr. Trump said its the first step in overhauling americas trade policies. There will be advantages to companies that do indeed make their products here. We are going to be cutting taxes massively for both the middle class and for companies. And thats massively. Were trying to get it down to anywhere from 15 to 20 . All right. He said a lot more than that. Of course were covering all the angles of this. I want to begin with cnn chief Business Correspondent christine roman. Tell us what else mr. Trump said this morning. This is his statement to all the people who voted for him who feel that the last 50 years have left them behind. He said were going to buy american and hire american. Now with the Big Companies in the room, he said were going to make things in america again, were going to make our products here, and there will be advantages for companies who make them here. Were going to cut taxes, were going to slash regulations, by, in some cases, he said, 75 . That would make it good for you and good for america to make things again. He threatened a big border tax to Big American Companies that put a plant in another country and ship the goods back to the United States. Listen. If you go to another country and you decide that youre going to close and get rid of 2,000 people or 5,000 people, i tell you, United Technologies was an example, with carrier. And i got involved two years after they announced, so in all fairness, that was tough. But United Technologies was terrific. And they brought back many of those jobs. But if that happens, we are going to be imposing a very major border tax on the product when it comes in. Which i think is fair. Which is fair. Hes telling the Business Community, look, you will build more things in this country, you will hire more workers in this country, and i will make sure there are changes in the tax code and the Regulatory Environment that will help you continue to make money. Carol, he also singled out japan, interestingly, here, he singled out japan and said its too easy for the United States to buy goods from japan and not sell to japan. Very quickly a lot of people in the Business World noted that japan hires people, Japanese Companies like toyota have employees here in this country, they build things in this country too. Its a little more complicated than just a Foreign Company and a foreign market. There are some overlaps that are pretty goiinteresting here. In that meeting were ceos from lockheed martin, ford, these are big players. Somebodys got to pay for those cuts in regulations and tax breaks. Well have to talk more about how you pay for big tax cuts for companies. This is a very interesting conversation and it does affect our economy. Lets get to cnns athena jones because mr. Trump has more on his plate today, hi, athena. Reporter hi, carol. Hes set to sign more executive orders. The first will withdraw the u. S. From the transpacific partnership, the tpp trade deal that was so important to the Obama Administration but that trump ran on pulling out of. Hes also expected to sign an order reinstatedi ininstating m policy, a rule on abortion that former president barack obama got rid of, a rule that any ngo that receives federal funds is not allowed to perform or promote abortion services. Another executive order we expect him to sign, a fiveyear lobbying ban for anyone that works in the administration. This is something that President Trump talked about doing in his first 100 days. So several of these first actions hes been taking are designed to show that hes keeping his promises to the people who put him into office. Now, later tonight hes going to meet with congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle. Perhaps hell begin talking about some of these warnings and promises hes making right now to these Business Leaders, because congress is going to have a say on whether theyre going to impose a border tax and tax cuts and the like. And later on today, we also expect to hear from press secretary sean spicer. Hell have his first press briefing for the first time here in the Brady Press Briefing room here in the white house. Carol . Athena jones reporting live from the white house, thanks so much. Well bring back christine, and also ron brownstein, and Patricia Murphy is also here. Christine, i want to go back to you for just a second. Mr. Trump, President Trump said this morning that he plans to cut 75 of regulations, right . He said that hell provide massive tax breaks to companies if they build factories within the United States. And he also said that if Companies Move their factories to other countries, he will fine them, in essence, by imposing tariffs on their products. So in the end, when all is said and done, if all of that is accomplished, and thats a big if, right, what will that mean to american taxpayers . I think a lot of people are concerned there could be higher prices for american consumers, especially if you get into a situation where Different Countries are slapping 35 tariffs on different goods. Thats one thing. The other part of it is in this discussion about tax reform, if you take the Companies Share of what they put into the national treasury, if you cut that dramatically, who fills that in . Where does that money come from . What you would hear from the president s team is that theyre going to grow the economy so much, were going to have so many new workers who will be paying taxes on their own earnings, that this is going stimulative, its going to be growth, we wont have to worry about a tax shortfall. But you know people on the house ways and means committee, you know paul ryan who is a budget hawk, there will be a lot of discussions about how you pay for dramatically cutting taxes for american businesses. In the last hour i talked to a congressman from illinois. He said some of these ideas that trump has could take two years to accomplish. And republicans arent you know, theyre excited about many of his proposals, but there are certain proposals theyre not so into. Yeah, and i think that that is going to be the really important dynamic going forward, is how much can donald trump do on his own and how much does he need congress, even Republican Leaders in congress who may not be entirely on board with a lot of these promises hes making. It was so interesting to hear what he said to those Business Leaders, were going to cut taxes, were going to cut regulations, Republican Leaders will love that. Then he said were going to have these jobs in the country, were going to slap tariffs on anything that isnt made in this country. Then youre really running into big problems with the Republican Leadership. How is he going to thread that needle . Its very unclear. We know what he wants to do but i think hell find out very quickly theres very little he can do on some of these things without having congress to support him and pass these laws. So ron, you know, i grew up in the rust belt, i can hear the people who live in my old neighborhoods rejoicing and saying it is about time somebody stood up to these companies and said, you know what, build your darn factories in america, buy america. Weve been preaching that for a long time, and finally we have a president who will do that. On the other hand, you cant cut taxes for everyone including big business, right, because there is a price to pay, youve got to make up those tax dollars. I think that is the core political kind of positioning gamble that donald trump represents. I mean, on the one hand, he is pursuing the most procorporate agenda since ronald reagan, an administration i covered. Talking about massively rolling back regulation, massively cutting taxes for businesses and individuals, and increasing the deficit. On the other hand there is this pit in the cherry for the Business Community, he is going to hector them individually and potential impose a significant tariff on anyone who moves jobs overseas. That i think is going to be very popular political positioning for him with his core vote of these particularly Blue Collar Workers who feel theyve been hurt by globalization. Underscoring christines point from before, donald trump was elected by people who felt they were left behind in a changing economy. Hillary clinton, the county she won account for twothirds of all the economic output in the country. The people who feel as though the way the economy is evolving is working, by and large rejected trump in those communities. He did best in the places that feel left behind. This is a message that will underscore and widen that divide. Thats an interesting point, such an interesting point, christine. Even if you look at the companies who were involved today, theyre not exactly doing poorly in this economy. Theyre making lots and lots of money. This economy is doing well. And one of the big concerns is, you know, when companies do really well, do they build factories here . Sometimes. Do they give shareholders more money in terms of stock buybacks and dividends . Usually. So no one has ever in my career covering business, no leader has ever stood up and said, this isnt fair, this isnt fair that you think of American Workers as, you know, units of labor and not as citizens. And donald trump honestly is the first person ive heard stand up, a politician stand up there with those Big Companies and say, im threatening you that if you dont start thinking of people as people and not units of labor, im going to make things more difficult for you. Here is a fear that i have, being from that part of the country, patricia. Okay, so lets say, i dont know, some company decides to build more factories in the United States. But what if they decide to maybe, you know, automate that company and not hire actual bodies to work in the factories. What happens then . Theyre business people, right . Theyre capitalists, they want to make money. Theyre also going to have to understand or have a plan for what theyre going to do if donald trump lashes out against them. Ive talked to a number of Business Leaders who say this is an entirely different dynamic, not only does donald trump have an agenda that really upsets the apple cart, so outside the norm of what any typical republican or democrat would do, but what happens if a business gets on donalds radar for not doing what he wants. Politically they could work for donald trump, the people he promised in his inauguration you will never be forgotten again, this is him sending a signal i have not forgotten about you, i am with you. The ultimate test will be the results. Does it make these peoples lives better. That will start to become clear a couple of years from now. But right now, the supporters who put them there, this is what they want him to be saying. The other thing, republicans in congress, ron, they dont like big budget deficits, right . Well, theyve been willing to accept them for tax cuts in the fa past. The fact is under george w. Bush, we were heading towards surpluses, Alan Greenspan was worried we might be paying down the federal deficit too fast, and they undertook major tax cuts under bush. The broader issue is, if a democratic president was politicizing individual Investment Decisions of companies and attacking them each time they made a decision to invest somewhere else in the u. S. , you would have Republican Leaders in congress and for that matter the u. S. Chamber of commerce exploding. But right now theyre willing to accept this as the price of getting so much else of what they want, which are the tax cuts and the rollback of federal regulations. Its unclear whether they will accept that forever. One other point, not only could these tariffs mean higher prices for consumers, but we now have, as christine knows, a Global Supply chain. We have products that move back and forth across borders all of the time. If you impose a 35 tariff on every part of a car that is coming in from mexico or somewhere else, it is not clear whether the final assembly of that car will still be economically feasible in the u. S. So its really unclear how this works out in practice. But i agree, it is very powerful political positioning and one that i think would be very hard for a democrat to get away with because youll be having much bigger push back from the Business Community than youre likely to get under donald trump. Thanks to all of you, i have to leave it there. 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Give yourself some credit. President trumps inner circle is likely to take more shape today. Sunlen serfaty joins us from capitol hill. Reporter its likely by the end of the day well see President Trump have three of his cabinet nominees in place and confirmed. Movement here, when the senate votes later today on mike pompeo to head the intel community. And that vote was delayed a little bit by democrats over the last few days. But tonight he is expected to pass through. Also the Senate ForeignRelations Committee today taking up a vote on Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, perhaps the most controversial nominee that donald trump has chosen. All eyes in that committee on senator marco rubio, republican, who has not revealed how he will vote yet on Rex Tillerson. But regardless of how he comes down in the end, Republican Leaders have already said that they will bring tillerson before a full committee vote. Youve seen some procedural moves at their disposal. And we already know that senator john mccain over the weekend and senator Lindsey Graham, two key republicans, say they will support tillerson. So this likely paves the way for him to be confirmed. Thank you, sunlen serfaty. Sean spicer will take to the podium today, and yes, you heard it, he will answer reporters questions, after a weekend of controversy after the new administrations, quote, alternative facts. Theres been a lot of talk in the media about the responsibility to hold donald trump accountables h. Im here to tell you it goes two ways. The press secretary gave alternative facts. We are not going to sit around and let the media delegitimize the president. With me now is the former Deputy White House press secretary to president bush, a former spokesman for kasich for america, trent duffy. Hi, carol. I wanted to get your title right. Glad to have you here. Sean spicers very first press briefing. I just want to get your thoughts. Well, i think its going to be exciting. Its always this kind of kabuki dance here between the white house and the White House Press corps. Theyre both trying to feel each other out. You have to remember, carol, many of the reporters that are now going to cover the w