Josh earnest was voted most popular press secretary by the press corps. After reading my twitter feed, i shot him and email letting him know that he can rest easy that his title is secure for at least the next few days. The president has been closely monitoring the Severe Weather in the southeast. He offered his condolences and support. Today President Trump is focused on fulfilling his pledged to pursue trade policies that put america first. The president began his day with a breakfast with key u. S. Business leaders with a focus on the manufacturing base. Business leaders included , the ceo of whirlpool, the ceo of ford, the ceo of johnson and johnson, the ceo of lockheed martin, the ceo of architects, the ceo of dow steel,l, the ceo of u. S. Elon musk comic kevin plank of corningmour, the ceo of , chief of staff rice previous reince priebus. Senior adviser stephen miller. The breakfast was an opportunity for the present to hear from americas top Business Leaders and take some suggestions about what policies and actions can be taken to allow them to grow our manufacturing base. The meeting included a Great Exchange of ideas, and the president has decided to reconvene the group in a month and have the meat on a quarterly basis. The president s vision is to negotiate fair trade deals, increase american wages and reduce american trade deficits. He has appointed a tough and smart number of trade experts who will fight on the half of American Workers. With that vision in mind, the president has taken several steps today. First he issued a president ial memorandum withdrawing the United States from the transpacific partnership. A multilateral agreement that includes the United States and 11 other countries. As the president said many other times, this type of multinational agreement is not in our best interests and he is moving quickly to advance trade policies that increase the competitiveness of the American Worker. The trouble administration will pursue bilateral trade opportunity with allies from around the globe. This is a strong signal that trump once strong and free fair trade so the world. Be reestablishing the mexico city policy saying the United States will and the use of taxpayer dollars to Fund Abortions overseas, along with coercion abortions. Finally, they issued a memorandum. It counters the dramatic expansion of the federal workforce in recent years. Filling vacant positions and creating new positions, except when necessary, to meet national or Public Security responsibilities. This does not apply to military personnel and ensures the american taxpayer gets effective and efficient government. Theier in the day, president discussed ways to deepen the bilateral relationship and egypts battle with terrorism. Theident trump underscored United States remaining strongly committed to the bilateral relationship which has helped both countries overcome challenges in the region for decades. The president committed to working with continued assistance to egypt. Commendedent also thent occ lcc egyptian president for the reform programs. Finally, the two leaders discussed the business of the United States in the future. They then recapped this mornings meeting and discussed next steps. They also had discussed plans to advance the presence legislative agenda to make more progress. Also, designations were acting heads of departments and agencies to maintain continuity in those critical positions. At 3 00, Union Leaders and frontline workers will meet with the president to discuss his proworker agenda. Include tomto flynn. Terry osullivan. Mcmanus, the general president of united association. Donald mullins. Frank spencer, united brotherhood carpenters. , mark hold of ironworkers local five. Joseph sellers junior, general president of the sheet Metal Workers union. Frost invaders and allies local 24. United Association Local five. Stephen dodd, the sheet Metal Workers union smart union. The president has been honored tremendous support from union working men and women on election day and is dedicated to growing and deepening their support. They made a priority to meet with these workers on they want the white house. It has hit American Workers particularly hard. The president s Top Priorities is to attract american jobs which have already seen happening through General Motors and so many more. At 5 00 the president will host a bicameral meeting with bipartisan meeting that will include the Vice President , the senate, the Senate Minority whip, the House Speaker, House Majority leader, House Democratic whip, the white house chief of staff, chief strategist , chief of staff to the Vice President and chief of staff on those respective offices. The purpose of the meeting is to get the president agenda working through congress. The American People are frustrated with the lack of ingress and he was no delay forging strong bonds with congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle. One of the other subjects that it should come up is the status of the nominees. It is important to note that at this point in 2009, president obama had seven of his nominees confirmed on day one and five more in the first week. As it stands, we have two. Democrats even held up the confirmation of cia director mike pompeo, needlessly leaving one of our most Important National security agencies without its top leader on day one. It is time for democrats to stop playing political games with the Core Functions of the government and to allow President Trumps talented group of cabinet nominees to get to work on behalf of the American People. Rounding out todays schedule, after the reception i mentioned, he will have dinner and a meeting with the House Speaker paul ryan and they will discuss the house legislative agenda going forward. Earlier today, nominated the next secretary of the air force. She grew up in New Hampshire and made history as part of the third u. S. Air force Academy Class that included women. She earned her masters degree and her doctoral degree as a Rhodes Scholar in england and served on the National Security office under president george h. W. Bush. We are all about big viewership ships and large audiences here, so i want to tell you about an effort we are undertaking here in the present Briefing Room to offer up more access to a group of journalists around the country. Im excited to announce we are your we are going to have four skype seats here in the Briefing Room that will open up the Briefing Room to journalists who lives 50 miles or beyond the washington, d. C. , area and any organization is welcome to apply for a day pass. We want to open up the field to a Diverse Group of journalists from around the country who do not have the convenience or funding to travel to washington. This gives a platform to voice that is not necessarily based here in the beltway. Looking ahead, the president will have a breakfast with the heads of the auto industry, including gm, chrysler, and ford. He looks forward to hearing their opinions about how we can bring more jobs back into this industry in particular. On wednesday, the president will host a swearingin ceremony for the new secretary of Homeland Security general john kelly and on friday we will do the same at secretary matus mattis the department of defense. Welcome his first foreign head of state, british Prime Minister may. With that, i look forward to taking your questions. When will you Start Building the border wall . The president has noted this was a serious priority of his throughout the campaign. He has already started to work with congress on the appropriations avenue of that. He is doing everything he can to direct agencies and congress to work on that as soon as possible. With obamacare, are you in and forcing the mandate or not . The mandate . The president has made it clear that he is going to work with congress, and part of the conversation is going to have tonight is on how we can work to implement both the repeal and replace. Of all the policy or action the president could of taking, that could have taken, he chose to reinstate a sitting policy. Does he see the reduction of abortions as an American Value . Can americans expect him to put his hand on legislation that will defund planned parenthood . The president has made it clear that he is a prolife president. He wants to stand up for all americans including the unborn. I think the reinstatement of this policy is not just something that echoes of that value but respects taxpayer funding as well. It ensures we are standing up not just for life, the life of the unborn, but also for taxpayer funds that are being spent overseas to perform an action that is contrary to the values of this president and i think continue to further illustrate not just to the folks here in this country but around the world what a value we place on life. Jennifer rodriguez. Janet, i am sorry. What did he mean when he said he would work to congress to get a special something, we dont know what it is, and when can we expect that to happen . And when do we expect the white house spanish site to be back up . Mr. Spicer two questions. Let me start with the latter first. As you know, we hit the ground running on day one. Weve done a lot of work on the website to make sure we are prepared to get as much information up as quickly as possible. We are continuing to build out the website on the issues area, but we have the i. T. Folks working overtime right now to continue to get all of that up to speed and trust me, its just going to take a little more time but we will work piece by piece to get that done. President has been feared that bot he will prioritize the as dealing with the immigration system, both building the wall and making sure we address people who are in this country illegally. The president is very clear that we need to direct agencies to focus on those that are in this country illegally and have a record, a criminal record or pose a threat to the American People. That is where the priority will be and we will continue to work through the entire number of folks who are here illegally. Right now the clear focus is on that. I want to ask you two questions. The president campaigned in the Corporate Tax cut rate of 15 . Today when he met with Business Leaders he mentioned that tax rate would drop to somewhere between 15 20 . Is he moving the goalposts there in any way . And on government spending, theres been reports of 10 trillion over the course of 10 years. Is that accurate, and would you be willing to ramp up entitlements to get there . Mr. Spicer on spending, there has been some degree of lack of respect for taxpayer dollars in this town for a long time. What the president is showing through the hiring freeze is that we have to respect the american taxpayer. They are sending us a ton of money and some people are working to or three jobs just to get by. To see money wasted is insulting to the hard work they do to pay their taxes. That comes to your question in overall spending as well. We have to look at how we are spending the American Peoples tax money. What the landing teams have been doing is going to these agencies and departments and talking about ways that we can create greater efficiencies, eliminate duplicity, and maximize the tax dollar. Its more its how do we respect the american tax dollar more going forward. The president is a very successful businessman and negotiator. Hes going to sit down and work with congress to get the best deal possible for american businesses so they can hire more people and we can expand and grow the economy. Hes going to work with congress on that. He understands better than anybody how to negotiate a great deal. Hes going to negotiate the best you on behalf of the American Worker and on behalf of the american businesses that are hiring them. That was a lot of the focus that went on today. The meeting was only supposed to last an hour. It overflow to another hour. He kept asking them, what ideas do you have, what regulations are stopping you from conducting more business . What are the ways that we can give you more Market Access to other countries around the globe . That is where his focus is going to continue to be. Had we create a market that benefits the American Worker . Its about lifting up those jobs through higher wages. Elijah cummings confirmed that President Donald Trump talked to him about the high price of prescription drugs. What does this when is this meeting going to be set, or is it coming up soon . Will he meet with the full body of the Congressional Black Caucus on these issues . Mr. Spicer im not aware of that conversation. Im sure youre the president in the last couple of weeks talk about the price of pharmaceutical drugs and the need to get those prices down and bring manufacturing back in the pharmaceutical industry to benefit the country. Its an issue that he will continue to work on. He understands as we Reform Health care and repeal and replace obamacare, that getting hold of the cost of prescription drugs and to allow greater access is going to be a key part of it. That is going to happen. What you are saying with respect to the other meeting, it is working day one here. Its going to start with the leadership. Hes going to have a great conversation with them, but i think youre going to see a right of meetings with all groups. He is someone who really enjoys that kind of conversation. I think you will see a lot of meetings occur like the ones that he did today. The Business Leaders coming in, the Union Workers. It is interesting. The president was asking these folks today, how many of you have been in the oval office . Three of them raised their hands. The Union Leaders, where hearing, we did not get a lot of attention. Here it is day one and the president is reaching out to some of the best Business Leaders and Union Workers in line workers in bringing them in and saying i want to listen to what is going on in your life. What can we be doing to help you . I listening president who is engaged in trying to figure out what policies and actions he can take, that the government can take, that he can work with congress to make peoples lives better and make their security better, to make their Economic Security better. Youre going to see a lot of that. That is what he did during the transition and thats what he is going to do going forward. He appreciates the ideas and opinions that come through the oval office or small groups where he gets to share their perspective and their ideas and opinions. Thats what is going to continue to do later this afternoon. I want to go back to what the gentleman said about the mandate. He said something about the obamacare mandate. With the numbers in the news from an alteration day and on saturday, do you believe you have the mandate to be able to force through what you have talked about, displacing portions of obamacare that really subsidize a whole piece of it to help low income people to have health care . Mr. Spicer what we have is a mandate to make health care more accessible and lower cost. Thats what the American People were promised under obamacare. Its not a question about a mandate or about forcing anything. Its about doing the right thing. Its about writing people what they have been promised. You go around this country and you look at market aftermarket market, they are down to one plan. Thats not what the American People were promised. In many cases youre seeing the rates go up 30 or 50 . That is not what they were promised either. I think he is gone bipartisan support for this, to work with congress and take executive action where necessary to implement Health Care System that provides more People Health care, truly allows them to keep the doctor and plan they are signing up for, lowers costs, create more competition. Do i think he has a mandate . Sure, but its not on this issue. All leaders have a mandate from the American People to fix the system and make it better. There is some discrepancy between what the russians are saying what the pentagon is saying on potential joint action. Can you clarify that, and generally is the president open to joint action in dealing with the russians . Mr. Spicer i would refer you back to