Meet the Press NOW — February 3

Welcome to Meet the Press. Now, Dave tears in Washington as the closing bell sounds on Wall Street. And markets in America and around the world brace for the next phase of President Trump's trade war threats. After steep losses earlier in the day, markets rallied to close slightly lower after the US Agreed to pause tariffs on Mexico, leading to hope that a similar detente could be reached with Canada and even China before tonight's midnight deadline.

President Trump was expected to speak with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last hour. Earlier today, when reporters asked the president what conditions could lead him to pause tariffs on China, his answer included, and annexing Canada. We can always look what I'd like to see Canada become our 51st state. As a state, it's different.

As a state, it's much different. And there are no tariffs. So I'd love to see that. But some people say that would be a long shot.

Over the weekend, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had this stark warning for Americans if Trump's tariffs are carried out. I want to speak directly to Americans, our closest friends and neighbors. This is a choice that, yes, will harm Canadians, but beyond that, it will have real consequences for you, the American people. As I have consistently said, tariffs against Canada will put your jobs at risk, potentially shutting down American auto assembly plants and other manufacturing facilities.

They will raise costs for you, including food at the grocery stores and gas at the pump. President Trump today also spoke about the deal he reached with Mexico's president agreeing to pause tariffs in exchange for new commitments from Mexico to help secure the border. They've agreed to put in 10,000 soldiers permanently, like forever, 10,000 soldiers at their side of the border and stop fentanyl and illegal aliens from coming into our country. The waiting game to see if the president will or won't fire.

The first shots tonight in the trade war with Canada and China comes as he faces warnings from members of his own party about the consequences of imposing sweeping tariffs. What about tariffs against our allies? It will drive the cost of everything up. In other words, it'll be paid for by American consumers.

I mean, why would you want to get in a fight with your allies over there? I hope we don't end up with long term, 25% tariffs against each country. I don't believe that's productive. It's going to hurt Americans, American companies, American exporters.

It'll hurt American consumers long term. So, yeah, I just can't predict where this all goes, but I'm concerned. The business community is also pushing back with the Wall Street Journal's editorial board calling Trump's tariff strategy, quote, the dumbest trade war in history. Joining me now is CNBC senior national correspondent and chief energy reporter Brian Sullivan, NBC News White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, and NBC News Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley, here on set with me.

Yamiche, I want to start with you. On Friday, President Trump said there was nothing Canada or Mexico could do to prevent the tariffs from taking effect. So what is the White House saying today about delaying those tariffs on Mexico? Well, the White House is now saying that President Trump was able to get concessions from Mexico that led him to believe that a pause was okay to do.

Mexico is saying they're going to send up to 10,000 Mexican troops to the southern border. That's going to be, they say, to fortify the border to stop drug trafficking. White House officials have been saying that these tariffs were all about stopping fentanyl from coming into the United States and they would secure the border better. Though I have to make a point that the president has also said that these terrorists would, in his words, quote, make the US Very rich and very strong.

So there's an economical component to this as well. But it sounds like these terrories is a bargaining tool, a diplomatic tool to get Mexico to do something that President Trump wanted him wanted that country to do. And Yamiche, one more. We know about Trump's conversations with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today.

We mentioned that they were expected to speak within the last hour. Do we know that guy Underway? It sounds like it is underway because the White House secretary just said right outside the White House that she believed that call with Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, was continuously and ongoing with President Trump. It's gonna be very interesting to see there's a pause that happens there.

We know that Trudeau, as you play for, for the viewers, had a very strong statement after these tariffs were rolled out. And of course, Canada also implemented its own tariffs against the U.S. we've also seen Canadians doing things like booing the national anthem at sports games, at hockey games. So it's become something kind of personal.

The president also said before this call that he wanted to see Canada become the 51st state. That's something that Canadian officials are pushing back on, saying Canada is going to remain a sovereign and independent country. But I'm definitely watching and talking to sources to see if we get anything more specifically whether or not there's something that can be worked out after that phone call today. And Yamiche, the president spoke with the leaders of Canada and Mexico today.

So are there Any plans for him to speak with Chinese President Xi? President Trump said there are plans to speak with the leader of China. We're not sure when that's going to happen. The White House secretary said she died would be in the next few days.

We should remind folks that with China, they're saying that they're talking about putting in their own, they're calling countermeasures, but they're also saying they're going to file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization. So China's looking at this and acting a little bit differently than Mexico and Canada. So very interesting to see what happens there once the president connects with the leaders of China. Michelle Sender at the White House for some reason.

Thank you, Julia. I want to turn to you. Give us a reality check here. How much of a difference will 10,000 Mexican troops at the border make?

It can make a big difference, Gab. Just in covering the last administration when Mexico tripled their interdictions of US Bound migrants, that is what brought the numbers of the border so far down. That combined with Biden's asylum executive action in June all hit at the same time and they started plummeting. And when Mexico isn't interdicting and they're not standing at the border, we have seen the numbers go up.

But also standing there, as you have many times, I talked to migrants who have complained about the treatment from that National Guard. That's a National Guard that began under the first Trump administration from negotiations just like this with Mexico. It's not something that Mexico had stood up before, especially when it came to immigration. But they have been able to deploy these people all along the Mexico border with the United States.

And in some cases they're having complaints from immigrants that have been treated inhumanely. And Julia, I want to get to some of your new exclusive reporting on the Trump administration and catch and release. It looks like that's not exactly over as much as the administration said it was. Yeah.

At least in the interior of the United States where Trump promised to do the largest deportation operation in American history. You know, you follow those numbers you've been on those ride alongs on X ICE is putting out every single day, these large numbers of arrests. What we're learning now is this arrest don't necessarily mean deportations, in part because they can't detain all the people that they're arresting. They haven't gotten more funding for that detention space.

And so if they're deeming someone not to be a threat to public safety or they think there's some kind of humanitarian reason or they think they're not going to be able to deport them. They're releasing them. Oftentimes they're being put on ankle monitors or some kind of monitoring program. But those numbers of releases and the people in that program have really stayed the same.

The rate of release is the same as unpoled as it was in the prior administration. Have we heard anything from the Trump administration about that? I mean, they promised that they were going to catch and release not from the White house, but from ice. They have said in the statement 10 BC News that yes, there are conditions in which they have to release.

And one of those is when they're up against space constraints. So speaking of space constraints, part of the reason that they're ramping up Guantanamo Bay maybe to work on that very issue. What's the latest on Guantanamo Bay? What can you tell us on how soon Guantanamo Bay could see more migrants?

Yeah, absolutely. It's an answer for that, for the space constraints. And what Trump said at first on Guantanamo, he wanted to make a banner for 30,000 migrants. That's counter then to what we heard later from Homeland Security Secretary Christine Nobody says she just wants it for migrants with really serious convictions who will be part in Guantanamo.

They're running into a lot of legal problems there, as I understand it. There are lawyers throughout ichs and the White House looking at what hurdles they might get into because they don't want to spend billions on expanding detention capacity in Guantanamo only to have that in joint in court. I can't tell you, though that based on the prior administration's figures, they only had room for about 200 migrants at Guantanamo. Way less than 30,000.

Way, way less. And Juliette, big picture of this for us. You know, just two weeks or so into it feels like much longer. But just several weeks into the new administration, has the Trump White House, when it comes to their immigration policy, have everything that they've enacted.

Do you think that they've run across roadblocks that they've expected, or is this as easy or harder than they thought? It's a good conversation to have a few gay. And I think if you look at the border, they have really brought asylum to a standstill. In fact, there's just a lawsuit waged in D.C.

today to say that Trump is violating that. But inside on those promises, it hasn't quite gotten to the level of shock and all the days of thunder, everything that we heard about, at least tangibly. The fear, though, I think is palpable. And you hear that through immigrant communities and you're seeing a lot of things that are being lined up to expand this.

As far as what they came into, though, look, there are transition meetings that the Trump administration, Trump transition had at the Biden administration. They knew the money that they were walking into. They knew the capacity. But still we kept hearing these promises of just this grand sweep of immigrants and to deport millions and millions from said that in this girl address.

And I think that just based on the numbers they want to do, that wasn't going to be possible, at least in the beginning. But look, there's a lot of time ahead of us. We're only two or three weeks in here now, just a few weeks. Julian's the airline security correspondent.

Thank you so much for being here. I want to turn now to Brian Sullivan from cnbc. Turning back to the breaking news off the top, Brian, what's been the reaction on Wall street to this apparent shift by President Trump on Paris, on Mexico? Well, Gabe, the mood changed wildly over the few hours that the stock market was open to debt.

If you woke up this morning, your first instinct was look at the markets, look at the futures, go right back to bed. That turned. The market opened up way down. Dow down 655 points at one time.

That turned. We did end lower, but just about 100 points, which on the Dow at 44,000 is not that much on a percentage basis. The delay, or at least what we expect is the delay of the tariffs on Mexico by a month, leading many in the market gave to believe that maybe we could see the kind of same delay with Canada, China, totally different issue. We could talk about that.

10% tariffs, new tariffs, by the way, on top of the existing tariffs from the Biden White House. But the delay on Mexico sending buyers into the market today, market still an edge. Not going to say it's not, but it calmed down as the day went on. And Ryan, it appears that the tariffs on China and Canada, including Canadian oil, will still take effect, at least for now.

I'm checking my phone to see if anything came out of the president's conversation with Justin Trudeau. But what does this all mean for consumers and prices? By the way, you're right to check your phone because the headlines are coming so fast. David, it's already on our side of the camera to know exactly what's going on in it by minute.

Let's talk about what we know right now. And here's what your viewers and listeners in the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains have to worry about. A lot of the oil that is being refined into gasoline. If you live in Michigan or Minnesota or Montana, I'm not just speaking states of them, but you get the point.

A lot of your refined gasoline is coming from imported Canadian oil. Right now there's going to be a 10% new tariff on quota tax. That's what tariff is on that oil. So we can expect if this goes on and it may end tomorrow.

It may. And today with this phone call, true that you mentioned, we don't know if this extends a few weeks or longer. I would expect the market participants I talked to say that in those areas that rely heavily on imported Canadian oil, the upper Midwest in particular, in the Rockies in general, probably a 15 to 20% increase per gallon in the price of gasoline. And Ryan, China said that they would take countermeasures.

Is it clear yet what that could look like? It's not because I remind our audience that Trump put on tariffs his first time in office. Biden then layered on top of those with 100% tariff on electric cars that were imported from China, as well as some solar panels, semiconductors, etc. These are 10% tariffs on everything made in China.

So they're not getting rid of the Biden tariffs, they're layering on top of it. Listen, here's the reality. We buy a lot more from China than they buy from us, but they do buy a lot of our debt and an increase in the indebted America. Will those countermeasures perhaps gave mean not buying as many US treasury bonds, US Debt, or maybe selling some?

We don't know what those countermeasures might be. I'm not going pretend to know. But I will say this trade war with China has been bubbling up for really five or six years now. Does seem to be taking another leg higher.

Brian Sullivan, senior national correspondent with cbc. Brian, thank you so much. I want to turn now to Ontario Premier Doug for. Thank you so much for joining me here, sir.

We're waiting to hear what happened in that conversation we mentioned between President Trump and Justin Trudeau. Do you have any indication what happened? Not yet, but we'll find out shortly and hopefully cooler heads prevail. You know, this is the last thing that Canada wants and should be the last thing that America wants.

We're the two closest allies in the world, you know, closest friends in the world. And I think the only people that win is China. White wack, closest ally. I agree with both senators from Kentucky and Wisconsin.

Great, great senators and great people. I absolutely love America, so do Canadians. And let's work together and build an ANCAN fortress. And sir, what was your reaction to President Trump's decision to delay tariffs on Mexico, but not in Canada, at least not yet?

I was, I was a little shocked because we're, we're the US number one customer to 28 states, Ontario alone. We're the number one export destination to 17 states and number two to 11 other states. You know, when China's cutting, cutting the US off on minerals, who has the critical minerals? Ontario and the rest of Canada does.

And energy, 60% of the energy is coming from Canada as well. If it goes up to 25% tariff on oil, you're paying another 75 cents a gallon down there. And inflation's gonna happen on both sides of this moves forward, and people are gonna be laid off. Interest rates will go up.

This is. This is an absolutely terrible, terrible idea. I don't want this to happen. I want to build the two strongest, most successful and prosperous two countries in the world if we stick together.

Now, the President says, President Trump says that he wants Canada's help to stop the flow of the dangerous drug fentanyl into the U.S. what leverage does Canada have here? Well, I'm just gonna give you the facts. The real numbers from the U.S.

border Patrol that we pulled out. Canada represents 0.001% of fentanyl compared to Mexico. And I think that's too much right off the hop. I think it's too much saying that 25,000 kilos of cocaine and heroin and opioids are coming from southern border into Canada, not to mention 95% of the illegal guns here, that heinous crimes are committed are coming out from the U.S.

my point is, let's work together. We're already working with the dea. We're working with the US Border Patrol, and let's tighten up the border. There's no doubt.

But don't compare us to Mexico. It's night and day. So I want to play something President Trump said today about Canadian export sources. We don't need them to make our cars.

We don't need them to give us lumber. We don't need them for agricultural products because we have all the agriculture we need. They don't take our agricultural product, for the most part, our milk, dairy, etc. A little bit they do, but not much.

We take theirs. And as far as cars are concerned, they took in a big percentage, almost 19% of the market. And, you know, I wouldn't mind making our cars in the United States. So we have a problem there.

I'd like to make our cars in the US we don't need Canada to make our cars. So the Canadian economy is largely driven by exports to the U.S. so what's your response to that? Do you take him seriously when he suggests the U.S.

doesn't need Canadian exports? Well, I always take the President seriously, but there's facts. The facts are Ontario is a massive auto manufacturing province. We ship back and forth these parts 70 times the autopsy going since 1960s.

So we import 1.3 million American made cars. We export 1.3 million American cars, which 50% of the components on those cars that we export are American parts. It's very integrated. The supply chain is so tied up you just can't turn a switch and turn it off.

If that happens, weapons auto plants in the US will shut down. Auto plants and Canada will shut down again. Let's focus, you know, focus on China. That's the problem, not Canada.

We're two great countries and let's work together and build that am can fortress. It's just not accurate when he's saying we don't need Canadian anything from Canada. Well, let me. 1.2 billion barrels a year go down to the US at 60% of your imported energy.

High grade nickel from Ontario, uranium for your nuclear weapons all come from Canada. Our product to keep your farmers going. 87 comes from Canada, Aluminum comes from Canada. So I can put the list on how you go on for another hour.

You have two options. We either battle this out, which does not make sense, and both countries will get hurt, there'll be layoffs in both countries, or let's work together and keep an eye on the real enemy, China. Oh, from your Ford, you said Ontario will pull American liquor off the shelves. So the Premier of British Columbia called it a red state liquor ban.

Is an effective strategy to target your response on red states, especially when President Trump doesn't have to face voters again. Well, Ontario is the largest purchaser of alcohol in the world. We buy 3,600 products from 35 states and that's a total billion dollars. Just Ontario.

It's probably double or triple that across the country. But we can't be under attack and just roll over. Those are one of the many tools that we have. That's the last thing I want to do.

I want to work with the U.S. i love the Americans and so do Canadians. Let's work together. This is totally unnecessary with all the problems going around in the world.

Attack your closest ally and friend. And I talked to many senators, many governors and congress people, not one Republican Democrat thinks Canada's a problem and thinks we should be attacking Canada. It's unprecedented. Shocking, actually.

Premier Doug Ford, thank you so much for your time. I really do appreciate it. And coming out the lunch coming up, states are preparing for President Trump's trade wars. I'll talk to Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who state's biggest trade partners include Canada, Mexico and China, about the rising tariffs and the potential impact.

Plus, inside the Trump administration's mission to dramatically overhaul the federal government and its workforce, including a sweeping ouster of FBI leadership. You're watching MEET THE PRESS now. And welcome back. Joining me now is Kentucky Democratic Governor Andy Bashir.

Governor, thank you so much for joining us here. MEET THE PRESS now. And I want to inform you and our viewers that just a few moments ago we just got a report from inside the White House reporter asking the president how his call with Justin Trudeau went. He said very good.

And asked if he was still imposed tariffs on Canada. He said simply watch. So, Governor, Canada, Mexico and China are all among Kentucky's top import and export partners. I, for one, am a big fan of Kentucky river myself.

But what is the likely impact of tariffs specifically on the Commonwealth of Kentucky? Well, the impact can be devastating. I mean, we have the best economy of our lifetime in Kentucky right now. We've broken every record for private sector investment, new jobs, wages.

Things are looking up for the people of Kentucky. But when you look at what these tariffs will do and what the response will be, it's going to harm my state significantly. Canada is our biggest trading partner. You know, last year we had over $40 billion of exports.

That's shattering our record by far. About 9 billion. Of that, over 20% goes to Canada. So this is a really important trading partner, US and we've already seen that the retaliatory actions have included many parts of Canada pulling bourbon from the shelves.

So let me give you just three numbers. When it comes to bourbon, 95% of the world's bourbon is made in Kentucky. But all the bourbon worth drinking, 30% is the amount that Donald Trump won Kentucky by. And 0 are the numbers of bottles of Kentucky bourbon that are now on some Canadian liquor store shelves.

This is something that impacts us directly and Donald Trump's policies stand to hurt and hurt badly. Some of the very people that helped elect him. And governor, though, what's in your power here? Is there anything you can do to soften the blow?

The Kentucky is. Well, I can certainly lift my voice, make sure that I'm explaining how these tariffs will harm our families Talking about how I believe Donald Trump became president again because those last group, removable voters, their gut check was that he would spend more time trying to lower prices. But that's not what he's doing. He's signing more executive orders on culture war issues than he is on the economy.

And the actions he's taking on the economy, he's admitting, could raise prices and cause pain the people of the United States. I think some of the people of Kentucky that made that gut check vote are going to feel very betrayed if his actions ultimately make it more expensive to buy groceries and to fill their gas. Governor, to that point, you know better than anyone that Kentucky voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2024. Trump ran on these tariffs.

There are likely a lot of people in the commonwealth cheering him on for these moves. What's your message to them? I don't think that these voters were looking at an across the board tariff and the damage that could happen from. But my message to the American people is you wanted a president that would be more focused on the economy and less focused on other things.

And we've gotten anything but that. And if this president puts these tariffs into play, if he, if he does this to Canada, eventually to Mexico, what's going to happen is your grocery prices are going to go up, your gas prices are going to go up. It's going to be one individual that did that, and that's Donald Trump. Governor, on Friday, the president said there was nothing that could delay these tariffs.

Now Mexico's tariffs are delayed. Do you think this is all just a negotiating tactic? Well, if it's a negotiating tactic, it's a tactic that threatens the livelihood of so many different Americans. People will lose their jobs if these tariffs go into place.

He threatens to harm or devastate or create a great economy where people are finally starting to do, do better and feel better. This is, this is Donald Trump potentially writing a legacy where he took an economy that was really starting to work and because he wanted to be strong and powerful and negotiate some great deal, caused harm to the American people. And is it sustainable to base trade and financial policy in one month increments like this? No, absolutely not.

These are important alliances and partners with the United States. It's not just Canada and Mexico. But when you look at what's coming with Europe and our European allies, those alliances, a healthy Europe is important for world stability. And this threatens so much the economies of countries that are supposed to be our friends, that we depend on for global security.

It's a very dangerous game. And Governor, I want to play what Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell said last night about these tariffs. It will drive the cost of everything up. In other words, it'll be paid for by American consumers.

I mean, why would you want to get in a fight with your allies over this? Sounds like he agrees with you. That's how he feels. What do you want to see him do in Congress?

Well, first, he is speaking out and I'm grateful. And Rand Paul has been speaking out, too. So when you have Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul and a Democratic governor of the same state all agreeing that tariffs like this are a really bad idea, it's because tariffs like this are a really bad idea. And my hope is that they will use all of their leverage and talking to the White House, but then taking action.

Listen, the Senate Congress's job overall isn't to do whatever a president tells them to do. It is to be an independent branch of government of checks and balances and to not let just roll over them. I mean, so much of the funding that's been paused, that's been paused wasn't just a part of some budget. It was a part of a law that was passed, a law that is on the books where Congress said we are going to put this program into play.

We're going to help the American people. And a president can't simply just stop those laws from being executed. Governor Andy Bishop, Kentucky Governor, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.

And thank you for liking Kentucky Bourbon. Thank you, sir. All right. After the break, new details on the recovery effort following a deadly mid air collision.

His crews removed more debris including one of the plane's engines from the Potomac River. You're watching the press now. Stay with us. Stay informed with the NBC News app.

Breaking news just coming in moments ago. Watch, read and listen throughout your day. And now unlock even more with a subscription. It's the best of NBC News with few ad instructions, including ad free articles, podcasts and full NBC News shows, plus deeper access and exclusive content.

Let's just take a step back. It's more context and clarity from the reporters you trust. Download the NBC News app now and subscribe for more. Welcome back.

Moments ago, Washington, D.C. officials gave an update on last week's deadly collision between an American Eagle passenger plane and an Army Blackhawk helicopter that killed all 67 people aboard both aircraft. We just learned that in addition to the 55 victims that have been identified, more victims bodies were recovered today are in the process of being identified. And as the painstaking and delicate process of removing the wreckage and recovering the victims continues.

Earlier today, an engine and part of the fuselage from the American Airlines plane was lifted out of the Potomac River. Meanwhile, the NTSB has recovered the black boxes from both the airplane and the helicopter. Investigators say they expect to be able to determine what happened inside the Army Blackhawk in the moments before the fatal crash. And join me now from Arlington, Virginia, is NBC News correspondent Aaron Gil Krasarin, thank you so much for joining us.

Cruiser. They're still recovering wreckage from the Potomac. Right. So what's the latest from the salvage operation?

So, Gabe, we just heard from the colonel who is leading this operation for the Army Corps of Engineers. It seems as though they've wrapped up their work for today. We understand from him that they have met all the targets they set out for today in this salvage operation. You may be able to see some live pictures here.

This is a wing that was just lifted out of the water in the last 15 minutes or so. The colonel telling us that this was the last thing they expected to be able to retrieve today. This is a three day operation to recover the plane from the Potomac river here. You know that earlier today the first thing they were able to remove was one of the two engines that are in the water right now.

They also were able to recover part of the fuselage from the water here today. All those items being loaded onto the barge that you see in the picture here. And they will ultimately tomorrow be taken to another vessel that will then take them to the hangar here on the airport property where the NTSB will officially take control of those items. We also understand that remains were located and are now in the process of being identified.

The D.C. fire Department, along with the D.C. medical examiner, has taken control of that part of this. Obviously, they want to recover the remains that the 12 people who are unaccounted for at this point and identify them positively before they update the numbers, as it were, for how many remains have been recovered and identified.

This one game. I think it's also worth noting that two we've learned that two Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority employees have been arrested for leaking surveillance video of the crash. We are still working on more information about those individuals, but they've been charged. We understand this.

The misdemeanor charge has been released as well. So that's the addition here at dca. Wow. Aaron Gilchrist, thank you so much.

Aaron, live in Arlington, Virginia, outside dca. We appreciate it. And up next, Elon Musk tests his influence inside Trump's White House, vowing to shut down the US Government's main agency for providing international humanitarian assistance. They're watching the press now.

Welcome back. President Trump is making sweeping changes to the federal government and escalating a purge of government officials, including eight senior leaders of the FBI who were fired on Friday. One of the latest moves is stripping the agency in charge of foreign aid of its independence. Today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he is now the acting director at the United States Agency for International Development, known as usaid.

Ruby's announcement comes after Elon Musk tweeted overnight that he and President Trump were shutting down usaid, which they legally cannot do without commerce. And this weekend, USAID's director of security and his deputy were placed on administrative leave after trying to block Doge officials from accessing the agency's secure systems. The FBI. Meanwhile, some agents have begun to pack up their deaths as rumors swirl of mass firing.

Some agents have even been sent a survey about their roles in January 6 cases, sparking fears of retaliation against officials who were part of those investigations. Joining me now is NBC News justice and intelligence correspondent Kendall Lanyon. Also with me is NBC News White House correspondent Juan Hilliard. Thank you both so much.

Ken, I want to start with you. Big picture what's going on at the FBI. It's a crisis. I mean, people are not doing their jobs.

Right now. We're talking to dozens of current former officials and they are really, really rattled. You know, the firing of the eight top officials was unprecedented but expected. That's the kind of thing Trump elected to do, disrupt these agencies.

But this possibility of a purge of hundreds or thousands of FBI agents who worked on generous cases, that's really got people up in arms. The idea that these agents who were assigned to these cases would be punished because they work on cases on Trump in like that's really worried. And you actually have some new reporting on this internal FBI document that might shed some light on which agents the Trump administration may be targeting. Right.

What can you tell us about that? Well, what we found out is that the document says that they use the FBI Sentinel case management system to go through and find the names of these agents who work on these cases. And they counted 2,400 cases in total. And I'm told there's many as five or six thousand people involved in those cases that have been flagged now.

My goodness. So if hypothetically five or six thousand agents were fired from the fi, what does that do to the agency? It would be crippling. It would be terrible for national security.

We have a Super bowl next week that The FBI is trying to protect already. The people who've gone out the door have years and decades of national security and criminal experience. And it also sends a very chilling message to people don't work on a case that politicians don't like. Does the White House have the legal authority to do this?

Well, experts tell me they don't in terms of career civil servants. And in fact, that's the other thing that's remarkable, is your leadership is openly resisting this. The acting FBI director told his word for his memo that, look, FBI agents can't be fired without due process. You're entitled to a hearing.

That's the law. That's Supreme Court decisions. And so they can't just summarily walk FBI agents out the door who have career civil servants. Thank you so much for joining us.

I really appreciate it. Turning out to Vaughn Hillier, who's on Capitol Hill today. Vaughn, you've been following the developments at USAID and with Elon Musk. Walk us through what's happening right now.

Right. I think, Gabe, USAID and what is currently taking place, an effective crippling of this major agency, I think, is representative of Elon Musk in doge's efforts within the federal government for the executive branch. We should be clear here. Just a few moments ago inside the Oval Office, President Trump was asked multiple times about Musk, and he effectively endorsed his actions so far and said he takes no issue with how Elon Musk has gone about managing these agencies over the federal government in his capacity as head of doge.

But when you're looking at usaid, you're looking at more than a thousand individuals, individuals who have either been fired for a place on administrative leave, billions of dollars in foreign aid that have been frozen today. Employees that are still retained were told to not report to USAID headquarters In downtown Washington, D.C. today, as a great many of them, over the course of just the last hours, they lost their internal network access, they lost email access. They're serious questions about the future of this agency.

And Vaughn, you mentioned that just a short time of the president to endorse what Elon Musk was doing. Musk is not technically a government official. Does his involvement in this administration raise any red flags from a legal standpoint? There are question marks, I think, objectively from reporting.

And it is not typical to see a private citizen come to the federal government in such a capacity as this without being confirmed by the United States Senate and effectively finding a way to use other employees to access such major personnel files and order the cutting off of congressionally appropriated funds. Democratic lawmakers have been very vocal and questioning the legality of this. We have found out in just about the last hour that according to the White House, that Elon Musk is now considered a, quote, special government employee. An individual with that designation is able to work in the Federal Government for 120 days.

Previously, President Trump had suggested he'd be working for the government and outside capacity for two years. But he's been turning over financial disclosure information that is question mark. And the extent to which he has been granted the top level security clerk. There's a lot of questions that we're frankly still looking for the answers to.

You know, going back to the merger of USAID and the State Department. How would that even work? The State Department, according to Secretary Marco Rubio today, is going to fold in usaid, which again calls into question whether without the congressional authorization, you can effectively get rid of an agency that Senator Chris Murphy said that they may try to use this as a way to avoid legal, legal troubles or issues with this move here. At the same time, what we've seen over the course of these last two weeks is again a freeze of billions of dollars in foreign aid and assistance.

Marco Rubio is technically, according to President Trump, going to be the acting administrator of usaid. But in a letter to Congress, Secretary Rubio said that he's going to to designate Peter Morocco within the State Department, another official to actually oversee usaid. And so there's a lot of question marks about exactly what's going to happen to these funds. Because again, in real time, we're looking at individuals, not here, just in the US but also staffers of USAID that are working in more than 130 countries overseas who are actively losing access to US IDs, internal networks and USAID.gov, the entire web page has been down for 72 hours now, so it's not clear about its future.

Gong Hill, you're tracking a lot of developments for us. Thank you. I want to turn out some breaking news on those tariff threats from President Trump and that critical phone call this afternoon between the President and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau just took to social media to say that he agreed to new measures to reinforce Canada's border and that the proposed tariffs by the United States will be paused to paused for 30 days.

We're still awaiting confirmation from the White House, but it comes after the President also granted a 30 day pause in tariffs with Mexico after the Mexican president made similar commitments. We're going to take A break. And we'll be right back. And breaking news Joining now on set is Leanne Caldwell, chief Washington correspondent for pop, Eugene Robinson, columnist for the Washington Post and the NBC News contributor in Mark Short, director of Legislative affairs in the first Trump term and chairman of the board for Advancing American Freedom.

I want to get right to that breaking news. Just within the past few moments, Canada's prime minister has announced that there will be a 30 day pause in all of this in the tariff threat from President Trump, although we do not have confirmation from the White House just yet. Man, your reaction to all this? Is this just part of one big show?

Well, as we said at the break, shocking that Canada that these tariffs are going to affect because this is a pattern, right? I mean Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened his two weeks in office threatened tariffs and now three countries have backed down and there's been some sort of agreement. So these tariffs don't go into effect. So we know that this is his negotiating tactic.

The question is, is when it doesn't work and when these tariffs actually go into effect. Right now he's three for three. He's saying least he's getting what he wants. We'll see how if that is actually true.

What is he getting though? I mean, what does he get? So Canada is going to reinforce 10,000 troops. That's what he's getting.

Okay. From Mexico right now. They sent 10,000 troops in 2021 to the border. Is this 10,000 extra troops?

Do we have any expect that these, that the 10,000 work groups are going to stop Fentanyl? That's the question I'm answering about Canada. There's no fentanyl to stop. Right.

Canada is implementing this border point. Canada something like point of like 0.2% of the fentanyl that comes into the United States comes through the Canada border. This will have absolutely no practical impact. And Mark, I want to get to you a second, but I want to get to Yamiche andor White House correspondent who can bring us up to speed on this.

Yamiche, have we heard from White House yet? Have they confirmed what Canada's prime minister didn't say? I am checking my phone right now and I'm not sure that they've confirmed yet what Justin Trudeau is saying. But this also happened with Mexico.

The Mexican president put out that the chair of terrorists of that country were paused before the White House was able to confirm it. So it sounds like that this is what this is happening. I want to put up that Justin Trudeau, I don't know if you have tweet for people, but Justin Trudeau posted online they're going to be at 30 day pause in tariffs. And he said that Canada's been taking a number of actions in order to sort of stir up the border.

I want to say he's saying he's going to appoint a new fentanyl star. He's going to list cartels as terrorists. He's going to ensure 24 hours, 24 seven eyes on the border. He's also going to launch a US Canada joint strike force to combat organized crime, fentanyl and money laundering.

It's really striking to hear Canada talk about this and talk about these new measures, especially because Justin Trudeau over the weekend, he's pushing back that only about 1% of the fennel that ends up in the United States comes through the northern border comes to Canada. But it is showing you that Canada is willing to straighten the border and beat up its border security in response to these terrorists or these threats of terrorists. Now, it's also interesting, 10,000 personnel are going to be on the board. We're not sure that's new troops, but we know the next going to be saying new troops outside the White House.

Thank you. Mark, I want to turn to you. Look, we just listed what Canada is giving the president appeasing the president, if you will. Is this worth all the drama?

Well, I think the markets were top determined. Now they close about the same. But what he's getting, is it worth all the uncertainty? Is it worth him politically?

Yes, I think he looks at it as the average American. Looks like Columbia yielded to him. It looks like Mexico did. Looks like Canada did.

Americans voted for they thought you would take on the border challenge and then he's securing the border. So politically, yes, but I think the biggest difference is again, I think in the first administration he used this tactic very effectively to get concessions from China. Now he's using it to get concessions from allies. And I think the reality is he has advice around him who are much more committed protectionists.

And so I think this is a delay, but I think we're headed toward trade wars very soon. This is not over anything. During the first Trump administration were in that administration, what was the thought? Was he using tariffs just like he is now?

Were there restraints on him before? He just thinks, I don't think restraints. I think he's consistently been protections. But he had economic advisors, also national security advisors who believe in the benefits of trade, not just for economic reasons, but for peace reasons.

That's not the Case now, the team that is around them are ardent protectionist. That's what they believe. They believe that with strong tariffs they'll bring back manufacturing jobs in the west America. And they're committed to the strategy.

And so even though this is a temporary pause, I think it's only about time for comes back and stronger force. And Mark is arguing about how pen politically is that. What if in the short term, but what happens if there's economic pain that comes from this and there is more inflation or the economy does take a hit, what happens then? Yeah, I mean it's a risk.

Supposedly Donald Trump isn't running for re election again. So maybe he doesn't care what happens close to him politically. But there is a very slim majority of the House Republicans, there's a Republican majority in the Senate and they have to run for reelection in two years. And there's already some grumbling, quiet, private grumbling, a little bit of public grumbling from Republicans about the tariffs that no one didn't go into effect.

But if they actually do go into effect and you see these Republican districts who are hit really hardly, especially these farm districts, it's gonna hit red states probably potentially more than blue states gonna hit everyone. But anyway, there is going to be some, there could very well be political blowback. Does Trump get blamed for it exactly? Well, we have so much talk about and we're running low on time.

Eugene. Oh, interview thoughts on the merging of USAID and the State Department. What do you make of this? I have no idea.

So are we going to continue? Are the functions of USAID going to continue under Acting Director Mark Approving a Secretary of State Ruby, or not? Yeah. Critics said that USAID had a lot of waste in it, that it needed to be looked at from the bottom up.

That's what the supporters of which Trump did today. You can always look at agencies from the bottom up. You can always look for waste, fraud and abuse. But that isn't what was going on.

This administration was saying that there was some sort of Marxist cabal in charge of usaid. And a lot of noise was coming out of coming from Elon Musk, an unelected first bro who is kind of running rampant through the government. This is actually a serious situation. Is there political opportunity for the Democrats here if they talk tough on this particular issue?

Look, I think there is. I think Democrats have to be number one. I think they have to be serious about the effort by President Trump and his administration to take the power of the purse away from Congress. You know, to rescind spending and programs.

And the Congress has approved. That's what Congress is supposed to do. It's not what the president supposed to do. Mark, do you foresee a clash between Elon Musk and Marco Rubio in the near future?

I don't know. I think that there's probably a lot of different personalities there. And I think that Trump always wants to be the top one, so we'll see how long they last. The larger point of Elon Musk, his influence only seems to be growing.

We've heard from Vaughn earlier that they're essentially making him a pseudo government employee for the next 120 days. Where does it, where does he go from here? How does he, where do you see this go? I don't think that there's a lot of public support out there for usaid.

I think the reality is for a lot of Americans, they did feel like our government's too big, it's too bullied. They want to see cuts. They feel like a businessman is taking cuts to the federal government. Government to take us back where we started, though, Gabe, you know, I think that this builds into the narrative of drain the swamp.

There are few things swampier than actually tariffs that you have all sorts of bodies, higher debt exemptions for. You know, speaking to the idea of draining the swamp, a lot of voters supposedly voted for that, but gunning these federal agencies, is that what they voted for? Is that, is this what Trump voters expect? Potentially, yes.

But I will say one thing. On usaid, Donald Trump is talking about eliminating the emergence of China overseas. Well, there's a lot of fear that eliminating USAID will, USAID will leave a vacuum for China to come in and do what the Americans were doing. And this is one final question.

What is swampier than giving the world's richest man control over, for example, disbursement of funds in the US Treasury? That is a great question to end on. Eugene, thank you so much. We talked for a while here.

Thank you all so much. I'm Dave Gave Gutierrez. We're back tomorrow with more of the press. Now the news continues with Brian Nobles in for Hallie Jackson right now.

Hey, everyone. I'm Dylan Dreyer, co host of the third hour of Today and mom to three wild boys. I've learned a lot my years as a parent. Mostly that I don't have it all figured out yet.

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