Connections here, 12 companies they own or control, also 17 senior russian government officials. So 38 of these people and entities in total targeted. And the reason is, what the administration is calling the totality of russian activities. Their takeover of parts of ukraine, continued violence there, cyberattacks, meddling in elections, although those words werent used, and also connections to syria. Some of the people are notable that are targeted here. We have several advisers to putin, a putin soninlaw who became extremely rich not long after marrying into the family. We have the chairman of the huge energy company, stateowned. We have ol leg dare pos kof who has connectioning allegedly to trumps former Campaign Chair paum man fort and his partner rick gates both of whom were indicted in Robert Muellers russia probe. A number of others here, too. This will raise several questions. First of all, the original list back in january that the Treasury Department was required to come up with by law, more than 200 people, officials, oligarchs who could be subject to sanctions. Today theyre targeting 38. It would be 24 individuals. Its a fair question why so late, why so few of those original 200 names. Although the time has passed, would these people have time to move around their investments and help protect them from those sanctions . Thirdly, in all this talk, nowhere do they mention meddling in the u. S. Election. They mentioned russias continued attempts to subvert western democracy, but again nothing about meddling in the u. S. Election. Here is a quote from treasury secretary steve mnuchin, that this is basically a start here. He says russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their governments destabilizing activities. Erica . We will continue to watch and see the fallout from all of this, michelle. Thank you. Meantime, also breaking news on wall street. Just minutes away from what could be the latest plunge amid fears of an allout trade war with china. President trump proposing wujs again new tariffs, this time on 100 billion in chinese imports. Cnns abby phillip is at the white house with more on that story. Good morning. Reporter good morning, erica. President trump today is doubling down on his pledge to imposes tariffs on china despite fears in the markets and amid some of the industries who could be hurt by such tariffs. The president said this morning in a tweet, despite imposing tariffs earlier in the year on steel and aluminum, he wrote Aluminum Prices down 4 . People are surprised, im not. Lots of money coming into u. S. Coffers, jobs, jobs, jobs. Also in a radio interview he recorded yesterday defended his decision in spite of chinas pledge to retail eight against the United States. He said hes left with no choice. Despite any pain that the u. S. Economy might experience, it would be worth it. Take a listen. Weve already lost the trade war. We dont have a trade war. Weve lost the trade war. The easiest thing for me to do would be just to close my eyes and forget it. If i did that, im not doing my j job. Im not saying there wont be a little pain. The market went up 40 . We might lose a little of it. Well have a much stronger country when were finished. Reporter republican senators are criticizing the president for this decision, warning it would hurt farmers in the United States, for example, soy bean producers. But trump is not fazed by that and not fazed by china saying they will not stand by. Jobs numbers coming out showing the economy missed some marks in the last month. Well see how the president and the white house responds to that. He often sites those numbers when saying hes heading in the right direction in relation to economic policy. Cnns alison kosik joining us to break down the realtime impact on the markets. Erica, you can see the numbers overnight and throughout the morning. Futures were down much lower overnight when the news came out about the president going ahead to add those hundred billion of additional tariffs on chinese goods. Right now were seeing futures down 217 points on the dow. Theyre down much lower, down 400 points. We are seeing a bit of improvement. But dont be fooled here because wall street is very rattled by two of the worlds biggest economies apparently going closer and closer toward a trade war with mr. Trump fighting baing with this threat of 100 billion in tariffs on additional chinese goods. China retaliated with 50 billion on tariffs of American Goods including important products like soybeans. Soybeans are interesting because what youre seeing is politically motivated sort of tariffs that china issing looing to impose on american products. Also the march jobs report coming out. What did we learn . This was a big miss, showing job growth slowed in march, only 103,000 jobs created in the month of march, a big miss from 185,000 expected. You look at this chart and wonder if theres a pattern here because you see the march from last year, only 73,000 were created. Maybe something is going on in the month of march where employers just arent hiring. One month doesnt make a trend, but this is definitely a weak jobs report for march. Look at the sectors where we saw employment actually added, manufacturing jobs added 22,000, health care added 22,000. You are seeing some of those higher paying jobs being added to the economy. Alison, appreciate it, thank you. Phasing the prospect of 100 billion in additional tariffs, china says its not afraid. Cnns ivan watson is in beijing with the latest. Reporter the Commerce Ministry here had a rare Late Night Press Conference in which the spokesperson warned that if the chinese came up with a new list following up on trzs threat of additional tariffs, that kmien nah has countermeasures ready. It will implement them. Lets look at how quickly this trade dispute escalated. If you go back to monday, china imposed tariffs on 3 billion in u. S. Goods in retaliation for last months tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. The next day the u. S. Threatened tariffs on 50 billion on chinese goods, made allegations of chinese theft of intellectual property. China responded on wednesday with its own list of 50 billion worth of u. S. Goods, including soybeans, a 14 billion export market, that it said it could hit with tariffs. And then President Trump made a subsequent threat to add 100 billion of additional chinese goods with tariffs. If he follows through on that, that will be roughly 40 of chinas overall exports to the u. S. The u. S. Is important to china. Its chinas biggest export market. The pain can go both ways. Thats what china has threatened in the past with soybeans, for example, or pork producers or airplanes. All of these have been listed on tariff lists. Its made people worry in the u. S. , particularly in the agriculture sector. Lets take a look at the statement from republican senator ben sasse who put out a statement warning that President Trumps policies threaten to set u. S. Agriculture on fire going on to say, quote, hopefully the president is just blowing off steam again. But if hes even half serious, this is nuts. Erica . Ivan watson, thank you. Lets dig a little deeper. Cnn political commentator errol louis and cnn political analyst ron brownstein. I want to start where ivan left off, in erms tterms of what we hearing from ben cass. Larry kudlow said this is all a negotiation, hes using all the tools in his shed. Is this just the art of the deal, ron, for the president . Well, that es the way they want to present it. Sometimes you start using weapons and things get out of control. The comments from ben sasse to me are indicative. I believe that blipolitically t is going to be decided not on the stock market, but rural america. I say that because agriculture is enormously dependent on exports. 20 over the last several years has come from exports. China is the biggest market for the export of u. S. Agriculture product. Rural america is the absolute geographic foundation of the republican strength in both the Electoral College and in congress, and its the firewall in the november election. If you think about what weve been watching, weve seen a clear erosion for republicans in these white collar suburbs, and that seems to be guaranteed losses in november. What theyre counting on is holding the line and protecting this dominant advantage they have in rural and small town america. When these tariffs provide democrats their best wedge they have had to try to talk to rural voters in the Rural Economy the agricultural economy has already been struggling for several years. Thats why you see so much anxiety about this from these farm state republicans, for example, the entire iowa delegation wrote a letter to the president. Y thats the point of maximum pain for republicans on this. Its where you can see the most pushback as this moves forward. We already start to hear about the push back the first time we talked about the tariffs. We heard from farmers. When we look at this on a broader scale, i noticed this tweet from richard haass, basically i wonder if any of those advising donald trump on trade have pointed out the u. S. Will be far stronger visavis china if it joined tpp and was confronting china not unilaterally but wiin concert wh japan and ten others. The decision has been to go it alone. That is unfortunate. Just as suggested by the tweet you just read, if we had been part of a multilateral sort of global or even regional sort of discussion with china, you have a lot more strength, a lot more possibilities. You have a lot better way of sort of making it less about tit for tat as opposed to taking the hit ourselves. What will happen is the damage can go beyond the rural areas that ron was talking about. When you see stocks like caterpillar dive in value, stocks like boeing dive in value, everybody watching this broadcast right now who has a pension or 401 k probably has a stake in the outcome of that. When ben sasse says he could be setting things on fire, it goes really beyond the wheat fields in nebraska. It could be a big chunk of the economy. Also want to touch on these sanctions as michelle laid out for us. Notable that there was no mention of the u. S. Elections. It mentioned cyberattacks, mentioned meddling in western democracies. Ron, that is obviously by design. Right. It is not tenable for the administration to do nothing after this overwhelming vote in Congress Last year to pass the legislation from which these sanctions eventually derive. They cant do nothing. They have to respond in some way. But once again, you see the strangely grudging nature of the way they deal with these infraction infractions and intrugss by russia. By not citing that, you see the ambivalence. The question would be not only this retrospective look back of who we punish, but the issue that comes up over and over again, is there a sense of urgency in the government about safeguarding our election systems against further incursions in 2018 and beyond . And once again you get this mixed signal from the top about how seriously by taking that threat. Ron brownstein and errol louis, appreciate it. Thank you. So he didnt know. The president speaking out on the Stormy Daniels hush money. Why her Attorney Says his case just got better. Will he stay or will he go . 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With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brainhealth supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. President trump is praising his embattled epa chief over how scott pruitt is spending money. Renting a private plane or spending 70,000 on a bulletproof desk. Those officials were demoted or sideline. Cnns sarah gan nam joins me. The president says pruitt has done a fantastic job at the epa. What are you learning . The bad headlines are continuing for scott pruitt. This time reports that he sidelined or demoted senior officials after they pushed back or raised concerns about his pricey travel, his Office Spending on furniture and overall management of the agency. Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told cnn that both career and political appointees who disagreed with pruitt were iced out. In one case an official was reassigned when he refused to drive pruitt through town with lights and sirens to avoid traffic. Theres questions on spending, frequent trips home to october houma, International Trips that often cost taxpayers thousands of dollars but included a lot of leisure time for pruitt. This adds to a long list of ethical issues. The Washington Post this morning reporting that two epa officials are contradicting pruitt, their boss, about improper pay raises that were given to senior members of his staff. They say he authorized the raises, and he denies it. All this leading some Top White House officials to grow very frustrated. The most important official at the white house, President Trump so far, has indicated hes still backing pruitt at least for now. Take a listen. I think that scott has done a fantastic job. I think hes a fantastic person. I just left coal and energy country. They love scott pruitt. They feel very strongly about scott pruitt and they love scott pruitt. Of course, erica, weve seen many times before where the president shows support for a member of his team one day, but then changes his mind the next. Well have to keep an eye on this one. Sara ganim, thank you. There is a new chapter in the president s battle with a porn staff. For the first time President Trump publicly acknowledging the scandal and also claiming he didnt know his personal attorney paid Stormy Daniels 130,000 to keep their alleged affair quiet. That claim could cause legal trouble for the president s team. You cant have an agreement if one party claims they knew nothing about one of the principle terms of the agreement. So the president has just shot himself in the foot, thrown his attorney basically, Michael Cohen, under the bus in the process, put him in dire straits with the state bar of new york. Because according to the president now, mr. Cohen was negotiating this agreement and doing this all on his own. Cnn legal analyst paul callan joins me now. Michael avenatti saying, hey, this is great for me. Is he right in what his assessment is, that because donald trump says he didnt know, all this is invalid because Michael Cohen knew and he was part of that . I think there may be problems with mr. Avenattis analysis, but if hes correct that cohen knew nothing, had no Authority Given to him by the president to negotiate deals like this, there would be an ethical problem for him. He could be brought up on charges. Lawyers have to consult with their clients before they enter into deals. Thats true. However, what i see happening here is the president is setting up the defense that cohen was sort of his minister of disgruntled mistresses. In other words, he had his lawyer acting as an agent to go out and negotiate settlements with people who might cause problems for him, and he might have given him that General Authority. Maybe he even said you can spend up to 130,000 to get rid of one of these problems legally, and cohen is out doing this, because we know it happened in two cases, mcdougal and with respect to Stormy Daniels. Were there other cases . Maybe there were, maybe there werent. Thats something well find out in the litigation. Avenatti believes this has made his own case stronger. Did it . Not necessarily. Once again, if it turns out that cohen had General Authority to negotiate on behalf of the president , its a legal contract. Secondly, lawyers talk about something called a Third Party Beneficiary theory. That is you can enter into a contract with somebody else to help a third party. A grandmother maybe wants to buy a car for her granddaughter to reward her for good grades. She can go in, do the deal, and the car dealership has to give the car to the granddaughter. Thats a Third Party Beneficiary. Theyre going to be saying the president was the Third Party Benef