Considering payroll tax cuts. Despite denials from the white house all week and the ins insistence that the u. S. Economy is doing great. There is wavering on the Economic Future of the country. Well give you all of the numbers in a moment. But we have so much to cover for you this morning. Lets begin with anna stewart. She is live in copenhagen with how President Trumps abrupt cancellation is being received there. What is the news from copenhagen, anna . Well, you can just imagine, alisyn, this morning the local press, theyre really focusing on the reaction involving sort of the royal household. You have to understand the u. S. President was invited by her Royal Highness and hes abruptly canceled this trip on twitter. Its not going down particularly well. I would like to show you, actually, some of the reaction were also getting from certain politicians. Im just in front of the danish parliament. Weve had, for instance, the head of the social liberal party on twitter saying its a case of reality. Its unfathomable. And it shows why more than ever we should consider the eu countries are our closest allies. Also spokesperson for the conservative peoples party, this one saying, for no reason trump assumes that an autonomous part of our country is for sale. Then he cancels his visit everyone was preparing for. Alaska . Please show some more respect. Many said trump is living on another planet. Now we are awaiting for a statement from the Prime Minister. A very tricky tight rope to walk there. If you consider the fact she has to respond to this tweet and the cancellation or postponement of the trip. But also has to safeguard this very special relationship between denmark and the United States. Containing this fallout will be interesting and difficult, indeed. Indeed, it will. Anna stewart in copenhagen. Of course, that does have real important diplomatic repercussions, but it might be all to divert from this other major news developing this morning. That its dead, not going to happen. Thats what one says about the effort to expand background checks to buy guns. The president pushed for meaningful and what he called common sense new background checks. But were learning hes had conversations with the nra and is now in full retreat. Joe johns live at the white house. It seems the words the president used just two weeks ago no longer operative. If you remember, this is right out of the president s playbook. He initially said as you noted at the top there that he was interested in meaningful background checks. But a source tells me a source who is familiar with the discussions with Wayne Lapierre. Universal background checks are off the table. As i said, the president has done this before. Lets listen so some of these flipflops. Im looking to do background checks. I think background checks are important. I think we can do meaningful background checks. I want to see it happen. Mental illness is something nobody wants to talk about. These people are mentally ill. People dont realize, we have very strong background checks right now. I have to tell you that it is a mental problem. And ive said it a hundred times. Its not the gun that pulls the trigger, its the person that pulls the trigger. Reporter there has been some thinking that the internal turmoil in the National Rifle association might open a window as it were for more talk on capitol hill and here on the white house. As a matter of fact, sources have told me the president , members of congress, and the nra have been in almost daily discussions. But if anything, this shows despite all the internal turmoil, the nra still has a lot of clout in washington, d. C. Back to you. Yes it does, joe. Thank you very much for your reporting. We also have new numbers out just moments ago. Our cnn national poll. It has troubling signs for the Trump Administration about how americans now view the economy. Cnns harry enten is here with the numbers. Lets look at the Approval Rating this fall. It stands at 40 . His disApproval Rating is 54 . Take a look at this. This is the longer term trend. 40 in august. Thats the lowest since february at 40 . Generally hes been in the mid30s to mid40s. This is at the lower range since february. I should point out, folks, thats not statistically significant. But other polls have also generally shown that the president s Approval Rating is down more in the low 40s than the mid40s. Why is the Approval Rating dropping a little bit . These are his Approval Rating on the different issues. What we generally see is look at whats been in the news recently. Obviously gun policy has been in the news recently. Over the past few months, Race Relations with his comments on the four women in congress. 32 on Race Relations. 36 on gun policy. And even the economy, right . 50 . Thats even down a little bit over the past few months. And indeed we can see that. If you look at the economic conditions, are they good . Well, if we look, look. 65 now say they are good. But thats down at the lower part of that range again. May, he was at 70 . So weve seen a fivepoint drop. Thats lower than last december when he was at 67 . Even a strength of the president right now is not as much of a strength as it used to be. Lets take a look at this. You were talking about gun control laws. I think this is rather key. What we see is that americans are, in fact, favoring stricter gun control laws at 60 . That is lower than it was after park land when it was 70 . But after las vegas and orlando, those were in the mid50s. Its still a majority that are suggesting we should have stricter gun control laws. Why isnt the president acting . Why isnt that pressure there to act . This question may give you a little insight into why. Would stricter gun control laws reduce gun related deaths . 48 say no. You have this group in the electorate who may say, you know what . We want stricter gun control laws but they dont actually think it would reduce gun related deaths. Thank you so much. Thats such important context for everything we will be discussing today on as you note a jam packed morning. And i mean, obviously such a significant time. Kids are going back to school. We havent solved the problem of School Shootings, of Mass Shootings. And the idea that americans dont think there are solutions anymore. They no longer believe there are solutions because i think lawmakers present no solutions. Joining us now, kaitlan collins, Chris Cillizza, and nathan gonzalez. Im going to take the president at his word which is a dangerous thing to do that greenland wasnt a front burner issue. It never has been. So that isnt the real reason, if you take the president at his word, that he canceled the trip to denmark. So why is it . Is it this issue about guns . Is it this full retreat on the issue of expanding background checks . Kaitlan collins, you cover the white house every day. The president went from common sense, meaningful background checks two weeks ago to now its dead. Its not going to happen. We saw this before after pa parkland, whats happening . Its a pattern of behavior weve seen from President Trump before. Its not entirely surprising if you talk to people who know the president well. They kind of saw this come. Though some republicans did fear the president was serious about strengthening background checks this time. The president s change in stance comes after this long and sustained effort from not only nra officials like Wayne Lapierre, the nra boss, but also conservative allies, republican lawmakers, who said these arent going to make a difference. The background checks hed been pushing for saying he wanted meaningful Gun Legislation wouldnt have changed what happened in el paso in their minds and in dayton. And now it seems theyve been successful. It appears that call yesterday just cemented this stance that the president had already been shifting on in recent days after that vacation he had in bedminster. Turning to his canceling his trip to denmark which he was supposed to leave in a week and a half and he had a series of bilateral meetings scheduled and just a sign of how ready they were for the president to come. The u. S. Ambassador to denmark tweeted a photo yesterday where they had posteres up we the president s name on it ready to go. Even though the president himself made light of this reporting about greenland clearly was miffed by the response people got where people were saying i hope hes not serious about this. And the president is making clear he was. Chris, i think that it is really helpful to know finally how the president and republicans feel about guns and their solutions. I think its helpful for americans to know this is as good as it gets. Theyre not presenting solutions. They dont feel like coming back from august recess to figure it out. The president has back tracked again. We have to believe this is his real position. So as we all prepare to send our kids back to school next week, i think it is just good for americans to know that theyve given up. Okay . Now we just have to accept that do we like it like this or do we think that, you know, in if voters think in 15 months theres a way to do better, then they know what their choices are. Because its very clear this morning. Yeah. I mean, honestly, alisyn, i would be more cynical. Its not that theyve given up. Its they dont want to do anything. Giving up means theyve explored options and those options wont work. What i think it really is is there is no desire on the part of Senate Republican majority to do anything on guns. I think the reason for that is a couple things. I think the nra remains significant. There is a lot of turmoil at the top of nra, but it remains a very powerful lobbying group. What the nra has particularly done as it relates to the Republican Party is create this slippery slope argument you heard donald trump make yesterday which is effectively any gun control legislation, anything whether thats expanded background checks, red flag flaws, clip limits, all is a slippery slope. If you let that door open, you will suddenly at one point in the not too distant future have someone knock knock knocking on your door and asking to take your gun. Its simply not bore out in policy. Theres no attempt to abolish the second amendment. Theres no attempt to confiscate all guns. But that is the dynamic on which we work. It makes no sense. It suggests that any change represents all change. If one change doesnt solve the problem, we cant make any changes . It doesnt make any sense. But it is clearly the governing political dynamic. And candidly, alisyn, has been since at least newtown when we saw that amendment fail that barack obama pushed in 2013. One point. It does seem the red flag laws are still on the table. At the moment. The nra hasnt been too enthusiastic about that either. But that appears to be on the table at least according to republicans on capitol hill. Nathan, you pointed out the polls on this is clear. Expanding background checks is a 90 issue among the American Public with large majorities even in the Republican Party. So its not the polls that are driving these decisions exactly, you say. Right. I think this is actually a missed opportunity for the president. I mean, if we go all the way back to 20152016 campaign and the president getting elected, he was elected as a nontraditional republican who i dont think held the same policy views that the traditional Republican Party does. I think when we fast forward to today, i think the president is holding the Political Capital within the Republican Party. He is the most popular politician among the Republican Base and its not even close. If he wanted to get this done, if he wanted to have a legacy item, i think he could take on the nra. And i think that the nra might be surprised how popular the president is even though it is not a traditional republican stance. But kaitlans exactly right. I think the president also when you get certain people talking to him, having conversations, he can be convinced otherwise. And thats so now were back to the standoff that weve had for years and years, but i think this is really an opportunity that the president had to say, you know what . Lets have a legacy item and get something done even though its not what republicans have done in the past. Just one last point i think people should know, the nra hold on, chris. They gave 30 million to President Trumps campaign. So just think that might be an important thing. Just very quickly to add to nathans point, i do think it is really important to remember that the only way this was true the day after the el paso and dayton shootings, the only way the meaningful Gun Legislation gets through the senate is a hard push by donald trump. Anyone i talked to said its not going to work unless donald trump says i want this, i am going to work for it. Thats how you get wavering republican senators. Thats how you get Mitch Mcconnell on board. So when he walks away from it, even a little bit, that basically dooms it. This morning we know thats not going to happen. I just think we need to mark this moment. To chris moment, one source in the middle of these discussions wrote with me overnight. Dead, not going to happen. So its over. Expanding background checks is over. I will say i think its possible, kaitlan. Theres a tie between the background checks, greenland, and another major story which is the economy. The white house is now concerned about the economy. They admitted theyre lying about it talking about payroll tax cuts. Yeah. Everything so again, the greenland thing might be trying to distract from serious concerns about the economy this morning. Well, and a lot of things in the white house are pretty much everything in the white house has this focus toward the 2020 election and whether or not the president can get reelected. Whether youre talking about whether the president is going to make moves on Gun Legislation when hes got people like Wayne Lapierre saying hey we helped get you elected. Its a fervent part of the president s base. Now the president is turning an eye to the economy. And they are insisting we have no fears about a recession. Thats what white house officials and the president himself are saying. But behind the scenes, youre seeing some of those concerns come to life with the president saying yesterday, yes, ive been considering this payroll tax cut for some time. But also considered other measures as well. That shows they actually do have that concern. That is something that the white house has been weighing even though theyre saying publicly theyre not. Because another fear they have is if they do talk about things theyre going to do to stave off some kind of economic downturn, they fear thats going to lead to more americans tightening their belts. Theyre essentially trying to keep everything quiet that they are considering even though, of course, the president admits publicly yesterday it is something hes weighing. Okay. Thank you all very much. 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