Media and opposition forces, the president s chief strategist vows to reconstruct the administrative state. If you think theyre going to give your country back without a fight, youre sadly mistaken. Robert outside of washington you work for us. Obamacare saved my life. Please, please, please. Robert lawmakers face protest and pushback from constituents. Its pretty clear what theyre protesting and thats the outcome of last years election. Senator, were not protesting the election. Were protesting right to work, we are protesting losing our health care, we are protesting russian interference in the white house. Robert we explore the trump doctrine with molly ball of the atlantic, dan balz of the beash post, and julie hirsch fielddavis of the washington post. This is Washington Week. Funding is provided by xq institute. Additional funding is provided by boeing. Newmans own foundation, donating all profits from newmans own Food Products to charity and nourishing the common good. Ku and Patricia Yuen through the yuen foundation. The corporation for public broadcasting. And through contributions to your local pabs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Once again from washington, robert costa of the washington post. Robert good evening. Donald trump was greeted with cheers and multiple Standing Ovations during his first appearance as president of cpac. As the de facto lead ore they have conservative movement, the president reconfirmed his commitment to a nationalist agenda. President trump theres no such thing as a dwhrobal anthem a global currency or a global flag. This is the United States of america that im representing. Im not representing the globe. Im representing your country. Robert the president began his speech raging against his favorite enemy, the fake news media. He went on to talk about dismantling obamacare and stopping illegal immigration. Last year, the president skipped cpac. This year he was welcomed like a returning hero. Dan, is this a vivid example of how power unites the right . Dan it was extraordinary to see what happened this week with the embrace he got, not simply because he skipped cpac last year. As we went through the election, we all talked about and wrote about the likely civil war that would break out in the Republican Party, almost whether donald trump won or lost. Weve seen the opposite, at least on the surface. What we were reminded of is the degree to which one person, like donald trump, as the ability to redefine almost everything. Certainly to redefine the Republican Party as we have known it for a generation. Robert does the white house expect this unity among republicans to last, especially as President Trump he understand to Congress Next week to give his address . Julie i think thats the aim of this address and the aim of his first few weeks in office. He is sort of presenting himself as a man of action. Hes going to take action on all these issues that republicans have for so long wanted to see action on, repealing obamacare, doing a big tax cut. Sort of cutting regulation. All of the things that they have such a penalty up appetite for. If you talk to republicans on capitol hill right now, you see they really are hopeful that this can happen. I think there are a lot of doubts, though and a lot of questions about whether this president is going to be able to actually execute on this ambitious of an agenda and there really isnt much specificity yet in terms of how he wants to get these things done. The sequencing has been a question. Now theyre saying theyre going to do Health Care First and tax reformulater. But we still havent seen what this replacement is going to look like. What we saw in the town halls we were just looking at is that people are really concerned, not just democrats but also republican, how their constituents are going to react to whatever the white house puts forward on this. Robert its not Just Health Care and taxes. Molly, left unmentioned in that list is the deconstruction of the administrative state, the phrase used by white house chief strategist steve bannon. In the republican is the Republican White House in washington with them on this statement that was so strident at cpac . Molly yes and no. One thing is you almost didnt have any republican congresspeople at cpac. Ted cruz i believe is the only one to speak and many turned down offers. Theyve seen how the base of the party, that conservatism is what donald trump said it is and that can change. The deconstruction of the administrative state, scaling back the federal agencies roles in things, thats something that i think republicans can agree on. Republicans in congress agree with the administration, theyve largely been with one voice behind all of the cabinet nominees. Whose role in their agencies they largely see as scaling back what they saw as an everyly meddlesome executive branch in areas like Environmental Protection and the federal department of education. It is a conservative principle to scale back those agencies roles. They felt the Obama Administration made those agencies too aggressive. Where they dont agree is on things like immigration, on things like trade, on things like our governments posture toward russia. So you have a congress that, as julie said, is waiting for signals from an administration that hasnt given concrete signals. Robert whos got the power, can . Are you listening to Vice President pence, youve written about his power on capitol hill, or steve bannon . Dan you want to listen to Vice President pence. Vice president pence is your link to that white house and a dusted link on capitol hill because of his time there and because hes a much more conventional conservative than donald trump who is all over the lot, ideologically. As you watched cpac, you would have to say the intellectual architect of the Trump Administration or the biggest influence on donald trump is steve bannon. If youre a conventional republican in any general session o sense of that word, that will make you nervous because he has a world view that is contrary to what the Republican Party of the last 40 years has been about. Robert one thing bannon said at cpac is the media remains the Opposition Party. You had the president come to cpac and talk about the media as the enemy. Is this an experience of inexperience at the white house . Are they reacting to media scrutiny . Or is it a strategy to make the media an Opposition Party . Julie i think its a strategy. We saw it progress in a much more orderly way than they have in the past. Its been offhanded comments by the president , a tweet here but here you had steve bannon come to cpac and say the media is the Opposition Party, its only going to get worse. The next morning we had donald trump come and unleash this very aggressive attack on fake news, he charged that reporters are making up sources. Its not to be believed. Theyre just trying to hurt him. Its very dishonest. Very cunning. Its a strategic attempt to undermine him. And then, you know, a few hours later at the white house, sean spicer, the White House Press secretary, limited what is usually an oncamera Daily Briefing to an offcamera briefing in his office with a select group of reporters, which did not include the New York Times or cnn, whose coverage the president has taken issue with. It didnt include Huffington Post or politico or other mainstream publications that cover this white house. But it did include breitbart, which steve bannon used to be the head of it did include one america news and fox news. What youre seeing is, i think, a very strategic decision that, you know, the press is our foil here and were going to aggressively go after it. Its a way of undercutting outlets that maybe doing coverage of the white house they find unflattering. Its easier to say its all lies, all fake, than to say, ok, heres our side of the story. We disagree. Robert real quick from everyone, as we saw what happened at the white house with some organizations being banned, you wonder who is running this trump white house. Is it chief of staff Reince Priebus . Is this steve bannon . Does anyone belief its a convenient partnership . Molly there are competing powers cent Power Centers in the white house. Its been trumps m. O. In his business, his campaign and now in the white house to have competing Power Centers around him and pit them against each other to some extent. Its possible that that may be a fruitful management style on some level. In terms of getting the best work out of people. But it theres going to have to be decisions on some of these things when you do have one part of the white house that is toing a more conventional republican line, Reince Priebu ss point of view and one part more bannonite and theyre putting competing executive orders under the president s nose and having him decide on a whim what to sign, thats a difficult way to run an actual country. We have seen them have a lot of challenges in that regard just because the chaos is affecting their ability to get results. Its going to affect their ability to get their agenda through congress, and their ability to do big things even through the executive branch like the travel ban that they had to pull back. Robert while the president was being cheered at cpac, republican lawmakers were facing a reveelt of angry constituents attending town Hall Meetings. Many of the people who were concerned about the republican plan to repeal and replace o obamacare, there were many of them at town Hall Meetings but theres another. Former House Speaker john boehner. All this happy talk that went on in november and december and january about repeal, repeal, repeal. Well do replace, replace. I started laughing because if you pass repeal without replace, first, anything that happens is your fault. You broke it. But most of the Affordable Care act, the framework, is going to stay there. Robert whats fueling this newfound activism out will . Molly the activism at the town halls i think is largely organic. The president and others have said that this is all paid protesters, that theyre all being ginned up by george soros and the teachers unions. But you cannot buy protests this big both because it would cost too much money and because this kind of passion only come when people are really excited about something. There was a progress i movement in this country before donald trump got elected and many of those organizations are trying to piggyback on the grassroots anger thats out there. But i think very similar to the tea party in 2009, there is a legitimate organic groundswell of public anger out there and its flooding these town halls. Robert do the democrats see an ability here to take advantage politically of all this Grassroots Energy on the left . Theres a race ongoing right now for Democratic NationalCommittee Chairman and it seem like the Democratic Party is still trying to figure out its future. Dan i think the Democratic Party leadership has been surprised by what happened since donald trump has been sworn in. The size the womens march was way beyond what anybody saw or expected. What we have seen since then is that kind of passion if you talk to members of congress, they will say they are get manager response in their offices, theyll send out a survey on an issue like the Affordable Care act, the response is way over the top of what they expected. What were seeing at the town Hall Meetings, way beyond what people would have expected. Its forced the Democratic Leadership to recalibrate what they do. So the first issue is how much can they cooperate with donald trump . I would say and i think everybody would agree, much less than they thought six weeks ago. Its going to be painful for anyone who looks like theyre cooperating too much with donald trump. But the bigger issue you raise is what happens to this energy . Can it be sustained into 2018 and the mid term elections . I think that democrats, Democratic Leaders are trying to figure out how do you perpetuate that . Will it be selfgenerating for that much time . Robert julie what do you make of the white house as they look at these town halls, is it a threat to their agenda in congress as senators and congressmen face hostile attendees . Julie i think what the white house is seeing is sort of the proof of what theyre hearing privately from some members of congress whone they say, we cant just go out there with repeal and nothing, nothing to replace it with, as john boehner said in that clip, its very revealing. Donald trump keeps say, if i wanted to i could just leave obamacare in place and just have it collapse and blame it all on the democrats. That would be just fine but i dont want to do that because thats, thats not good for the country. But the reality is that he knows he has to, you know, come up with a solution. The white house knows thats whats expected of them and what is not clear is whether republicans on the hill are going to step forward and say, listen, weve heard this from our constituents. Heres what we think we need to do. And the white house is going to take that and run with it. Or if the white house is going to say, heres what you need to do, were going to go out there with you and help you sell it. Donald trump said im going to campaign in the midterm elections and campaign against democrats who try to block us and help the republican cause. What these town Hall Meetings say to the white house is, there is a huge political price to be paid if they get this wrong on health care and they may already be paying it. The longer they wait, the more they pay. Robert base odden your reporting, is Speaker Boehner right . Do many republicans privately, in the white house, or on capitol hill, do they think maybe a full repeal and replace on health care is impossible or this grand promise isnt going to be able to be repealed . Julie i think some are worried about this. I think republicans feel this can be done but i dont think theyve reached a consensus of what that looks like. Without leadership from the white house its difficult to do. You would think at the beginning of a presidency that there wube the Political Capital there to say, ok, were going to go bold and heres what its going to be and were going to help you sell it. But until theres something to sell, i think republicans are really theres a question in their minds whether theyre going to have the backup they need to get some of this done. I dont think theyre going to be willing to go forward, as boehner said, with repeal unless theres a very robust plan that they think will work. Dan one of the forces in this battle are the governors, who are in town this weekend. We were told today that hill republicans have been talking to republican governors on the medicaid piece of it. What to do about that. And theyre still absent a consensus on that. The governors feel that thats an important element for them. They want to weigh in and want a voice on this. Robert do you think theyll pull aside the president on sunday night at that event . Dan i suspect some will. And i would think that kasich, who saw the president today, raised the issue. Robert health care is not the only issue causing this administration headaches. And this isnt the only issue on americans minds they feel president s executive order rolling back lgbt protections and aggressive immigration guidelines have sparked protest. Weve seen some real tension, id like to get julie and dan on this too. With secretary of devos an the department of education, theres been active debate in the cabinet about whether rolling back the lgbt rules makes political or moral sense. Molly thats right. Reportedly within the administration you had this sort of sessions wing advocating for this rollback of the obe ma protections for transgender kids and betsy devos who, despite her reputation as a quite conservative, including socially conservative person, is friendly to lgbt issues and didnt want this to happen. So this an example of an issue thats a huge cultural flash point and where you know, the social conservatives who are very well organized within the Republican Party, within the conservative movement, they want this white house to do their bidding. They feel they got trump elected and now they deserve things in return. But there are other school offingsthouth even within the administration, even within the white house, and with a president , again who hasnt been in politics and doesnt have a wellarticulated ideology, you end up with a squabbling that can sort of go either way. Robert the squabbling is happening, but in politics we track who is winning. It seems that attorney general sessions, the confidant of President Trump, is deeply shaping policy not just on lgbt but on immigration. Julie absolutely. Jeff sessions came out of the debate on transgender bathrooms on top. He basically which is interesting because donald trump himself has been fairly open to lgbt rights and he made a comment about Kaitlyn Jenner being welcome to use whatever about Caitlyn Jenner being welcome to use whatever restroom she chooses i