If putin likes donald trump, guess what, folks . Thats called an asset, not a liability. Now, i dont know that im going to get along with Vladimir Putin. I hope i do. But theres a good chance i wont. And if i dont, do you honestly believe that hillary would be tougher on putin than me . Paul joining the panel this week, wall street journal columnist and deputy eded to have dan henninger, Editorial Board member mary kissell, and Foreign Affairs columnist brett stephens. Dan, i want to ask, first, about a question of style, okay . Have you noticed any change from this a week before he becomes president between this and the campaign . No, very little, as a matter of fact. [laughter] what you see is what you get. Paul this is what were going to get as a president. This is what were going to get as a president. Look, paul, president elect trump, that press be conference, four years if not for decades the average person sitting out there watching these president ial press conferences has always said why doesnt the president just punch back against these people, these rhetorical questions, this spin, this insinuation . Well, theyve got him now [laughter] because donald trump is punching back. Paul no, it reminded me of that scene in the movie gladiator when maximus in the arena says are you not entertained. [laughter] there is that quality that its not really a press conference, its something meta. Im not quite sure what, but its more than simply an effort to offer news or information, but more to kind of entice viewers to keep watching. Well, i dont know. Whats the saying, when you go low, we go high . It seems like with frump and the media trump and the media, when the media goes low, he goes lower. Paul get used to it. That wont be the last but he did make news. One little item, he attacked big pharma. Big pharmas getting away with murder, he said, they make drugs overseas, they sell them back in the United States. The pharmaceutical industrys stock prices dropped immediately. Paul not only that, but his jab against mexico saying they will pay sent the peso into freefall as well, and thats a little bit of the downside, brett, for this kind of lets just wing it press conference behavior because as president , you can have a huge effect on stock prices, on individual companies. And mexico is a neighbor, and hes making it more difficult to manage their i remember watching george w. Bush weighing his words so carefully that he hardly knew what to say because i think he was he understood the consequences. But i think theres going to be a problem for trump over the long term which is that people are going to begin to tune this out, and hes going to be saying things whose shock value is inevitably going to diminish over time. Now, that may be good in terms of not roiling waters, but its also going to make the effectiveness of this form of communication diminish over time. Paul what about the russian dossier news, mary . He dispatched that in categorical terms, denied everything. And if, and so its kind of gone away because there wasnt much there. But is there any residual risk for the president elect . Well, the risk is that donald trump came out and denied every charge in the russian dossier, and it seems to have backfired on the media that publicized the report. Paul right. The risk is the press continues to dig, and god forbid they find any part of that dossier correct, thats the political liability here. Paul right. But most of i agree with you, mary. I think the press, though, does come out looking the worse for wear in the short term. Oh, for sure. It was a definite win for trump. It gave him an opportunity to bully the cnn reporter, and that kind of instinct he has to stomp on the media will only get sharper when the media makes goals like this. Paul and the russians, dan, he seemed tougher on putin and russia. He acknowledged that it was, the hack for the first time which i certainly was, i was glad to see. Yeah. I mean, thats clearly his position on russia has been so sort of out of phase with what virtually everyone in congress especially. I mean, here paul republican congress. Republican congress. He took a hit at Lindsey Graham in that press conference, oh, is he still down there underneath 1 . [laughter] Lindsey Graham is one of the three senators who has doubts about his secretary of state. He needs a majority of votes, and these people have votes, and if they dont vote for Rex Tillerson, hes got a problem. Paul so you think he should not be picking fights like that with senators, or do you think the senators, like the country, are just going to have to get used to this kind of president ial jostling and let it roll off their back . So long trumps agenda is based on votes in the senate and in the house. And if you certainly dont sacrifice votes like that. I think hes got to be a little bit careful i think the first rule of politics or good politicians you said you never have enemies in understand you never have enemies in politics, you have friends and potential friends, and trump is moving in the opposite direction. Paul you think its a mistake to single out Lindsey Graham like that. And Lindsey Graham owes trump nothing. So Lindsey Graham is onethird of his majority. [laughter] its also beneath the president to just have these offhand remarks. He needs to rise above it given its a Different Office than it is being ceo of the Trump Organization. Paul when we come back, the president elect unveils his plan to detrump the Trump Organization, but will it be enough to quiet his critics and protect him politically . The president elect will have no role in deciding whether the Trump Organization engages in any new deal, and he will only you dont let anything keep you sidelined. Thats why you drink ensure. With 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. For the strength and energy to get back to doing. What you love. Ensure. Always be you. I checked, everythings there. Wait a minute. Hey. Hold on, i can explain. You better have a good answer. Switch to geico and you could save a ton of money on your Car Insurance. Why didnt you say so in the first place . I thought yous was wearing a wire. Haha, what . Why would i wear a wire . Geico. Because saving fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance is always a great answer. Cmohappy birthday i survived a heart attack. Im doing all i can to keep from having another one. 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If you cant afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. Afoot and lighthearted i take to the open road. Healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose. The east and the west are mine. The north and the south are mine. All seems beautiful to me. My two sons, who are right here don and eric are going to be running the company. They are going to be running it in a very professional manner. Theyre not going to discuss it with me. My two sons and i hope at the end of eight years ill come back and ill say, oh, you did a good job. Otherwise if they do a bad job, ill say, youre fired. Paul president elect donald trump this week rolling out his longawaited plan to separate himself from his Business Empire while serving in the white house. Trumps holdings, which include more than 500 companies with 3. 6 billion in assets, will be placed into a trust during his presidency overseen by an independent ethics adviser and managed by trumps adult sons and longtime chief financial officer. The president elects decision not to divest his stake in the Trump Organization is being met with skepticism by some critics who question whether the plan adequately addresses conflict of interest concerns. Attorney Edwin Williamson is a former state Department Legal adviser. He joins me now from fort lauderdale. Mr. Williamson, thank you for being here. Thank you. Paul lets take the issue, first, from this you saw what mr. Trump did this week. Do you think it was adequate, first, as a legal matter to avoid conflicts of interest . Well, from a legal standpoint, its important to understand that trump, the president , trump is not, will not be subject to the federal criminal conflict of interest laws. Paul right. The president and the Vice President are exempted. Though what he has done, given the nature of his assets, i think, is about as much as he could do. The critics and particularly richard painter, normalizen who are constantly in the media on this, are demanding that he divest all financial interests, and that is just not workable. The trump business is built on the trump name, the trump name is essentially untransferable. In addition, the proposals that theyve put forward such as a Public Offering of his organization or a leveraged buyout by others would only breed an entirely additional set of conflicts. Paul let me ask you about one of those options in particular. You mentioned the trump brand not being transferable. It would be transferable to the children, of course, because theyre trumps. So why not do a leveraged buyout on their behalf . They would do it. Theyd have to borrow, no question about it, but presumably the banks would lend to them at market interest rates, and you could do that, and he would be able to divest his assets. So who is going to, who is thes boss of the regulators of the banks . Thatll be donald trump. So you have an entirely additional set of conflicts created right there. Besides, its a massive transaction. It has a, i have no idea what the tax cost would be. The president is not entitled to use a certificate of divestiture which, say, his secretary of state nominee, Rex Tillerson, can use to defer Capital Gains on his exxon stock. So it would be a massive hit, and i think people would still be concerned because of the, because the trump name would still, he would still have an interest in the trump name. Paul okay. Now, let me take up this issue that mr. Trump mentioned, the ethics officer whos going to sign off on any domestic, new domestic deals that the Trump Organization does. Now, theyve ruled out foreign deals for the duration of this, of the presidency, but in domestic, youre going to have an ethics officer. How important is it for the ethics officers advice to be transparent and that is open to the public so they can see it . Well, i think the issue as trump tries to set up these things like, you know, no communications with his sons and so forth paul right. Sr. Do that those are going to become targets in and of themselves. So the ethics officer absolutely has to be transparent, he has to address each issue that comes up, and he has to give an explanation as to why it was not something done for the purpose i dont think the doing new deals and things like that is the real issue. The real issues going to come up when trump proposes Corporate Tax reform. Paul right. Right, right. And theres a great how does this benefit him. Paul right. We faced that issue somewhat in the gulf war when the decision was made to impose sanctions on Saddam Hussein. The question was, well, does that create a conflict for, say, his secretary of state, the secretary of state who might have had some oil and gas investments, domestic oil and gas investments. And the office of Legal Counsel ruled that where there was a, the focus was on trying to undo the Saddam Hussein aggression, that that was not a particular matter which is the key term used in the ethics rule paul right. And, therefore, there was no conflict. So i think people have to step paul ten back from that and make it sounds like what youre saying is this is ultimately a question of political judgment, and thats my question i wanted to ask you. Is the fact that he maintains his stake in the company, setting himself up for some political attacks when democrats inevitably take back congress or and the media discovers some deal that they can say, they can imply benefits trump himself . Yes, thats and those are going to be constant. I think he should just say that he will not participate in a decision, in what is referred to in the ethics rules as a specific party particular matter to which one of the trump entities is a party, he will just recuse himself. And thats the standard thats set forth in section 502 of the standards applicable to employees of the federal government. And i, he would make those transparent, and it would be clear that he was not involved. But when he is its got to be understood that when he does tax reform, its going to have an impact on his interests, but its going to have an impact on my interests, foxs interest paul sure. Or the wall street journals interests, what have you. Paul thank you, mr. Williamson, for being here. Still ahead, as confirmation hearings get underway for some of Donald Trumps top cabinet picks, a look at what we learned this week about the administrations evolve aring Foreign Policy. Evolving Foreign Policy. Our nato allies are right to be alarmed at a resurgent paul hearings got underway this week for top members of Donald TrumpsNational Security team, the president elects picks for state, defense and cia all facing a grilling on capitol hill and often disagreeing with the man who nominated them. Heres secretary, defense secretary nominee general james mattis thursday on cooperating with russia. Im all for engagement, but we also have to recognize reality and what russia is up to, and theres a decreasing number of areas where we can engage cooperatively and an increasing number of areas where were going to have to confront russia. Paul trump tweeted friday morning, quote all of my cabinet nominees are looking good and doing a great job. I want them to be themselves and express their own thoughts, not mine. Were back with dan henninger, mary kiss el and brett stevens. Mary, just looking big pictures, how are the nominees doing . I think theyre doing very well. I think youre seeing experienced, sober people speaking their mind and feeling free to express positions that are at odds with the president elect. And its not just about russia. For instance, you saw secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson say he was in support of the 12nation Transpacific Partnership trade deal that trump said hes against. I think its taken a lot of the Democratic Senators by surprise, because theyre answering every question. Theres no dodging here. And i think it puts the opposition politically on a little bit on the back foot. Paul lets talk about tillerson first, because his main problem right now is not necessarily the democrats, though many will oppose him, its republicans like Lindsey Graham, john mccain, marco rubio who have doubts about his business deals while he was at exxon with russia. Did he allay those concerns enough, to your mind . Yes, i think he did. And, first of all, of course exxon was going to have business interests, and he was going to have to be a steward to the interest of exxons shareholders globally. The secretary of state is a very different job, and he was cleareyed about russia. One important point, he came under sharp questioning from marco rubio when, on the question of whether putin is a war criminal paul from syria. Look, its one thing for me to say as an opinion writer what putin has committed in syria or elsewhere, chechnya, are war crimes paul and you would agree he did. But its a much more serious matter for a secretary of state nominee at his confirmation hearing to say off the bat that Vladimir Putin with whom he will have to deal with one way or another is a war criminal. Thats a term of art that think Senior Administration official has to use carefully. And has potential legal interpretations. But i want to pursue this question of sanctions with russia because he got some criticism from Chuck Schumer, tillerson did, because he didnt commit to supporting continuing sanctions against putin. And the congress is moving right now to strengthen sanctions against russia on a bipartisan basis. Yes. For what reason . For the hacking of the Democratic National committee. Paul right. I think its too big an issue for the senate the get out in front of a new president and impose sanctions for this discreet event paul you do . I do. Youre trying to shape policy towards russia. And we saw in this, these confirmation hearings that general mattis and Rex Tillerson have views trump acknowledged are at odds with his public views. And i think we have, trump is operating on two levels here. You have the public trump who says these things to set the agenda. There is a private trump who will talk to general mattis and