The president for banning transgender citizens were serving in the military. Violates the equal protection clause of the constitution. President trump has given the pentagon six months to return to the previous policy that barred transgender soldiers. British Prime Minister theresa may is under pressure on two fronts as brexit talks resume. Eu negotiators want her to reveal her hand. The Opposition Labor Party is trying to lure her critics to its side. In theushing to keep Single Market for the longterm transition. A mysterious chemical haze that left more than 100 people in the english coast with burning eyes and breathing problems has dissipated, but the cause remains a mystery. The gas cloud appeared on sunday, sending people fleeing from the beach 60 miles south of london. Global news 24 hours a day powered by our 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. Im mark crumpton. This is bloomberg. Julia live from bloomberg World Headquarters in new york, im julia chatterley. Scarlet im scarlet fu. Joe and im joe weisenthal. We are 30 minutes from the close of trading in the u. S. Julia gasoline surging to the highest level in years. Joe the question is whatd you miss . Scarlet testing a state home to almost one and 12 u. S. Workers. Joins us andmemani says the odds of a regime change at the fed are increasing. President trump will hold a News Conference with his finnish counterpart. We will bring his remarks when they began. Julia lets get to our top story lets bring in our Houston Bureau trees bureau chief who has been on the grounds that the hurricane made landfall. Explain what the conditions are like on the ground. How many people are we talking about having been displaced and who are lacking basic resources like electricity . Of thousands of people forced out of their homes and more will be. Two more large evacuations order in suburban houston where a reservoir, the army corps of engineers had to release some water. The walls of the reservoir has first and folks are warned to get out of the neighborhood. Continue. S will therereeveral more da of is raiin store for us. Joe what kind of rain as the region still looking at . Depending on where you live, you have a few dozen inches. Thats half the year worth of rain and in the next three or four days, they are expecting to double that, so we will get a full years worth of rain in a matter of six days. The ground is completely saturated. We have been listing to the governor of texas speaking about the governors the governments response to this crisis. President oken to the on multiple occasions with cabinet members ranging from the secretary of health and Human Services to Homeland Security, transportation, energy and im leaving some out the fema i would have to grade the federal Government Bonds an a plus. Julia would you agree with that in terms of getting everything done and addressing this crisis that the government response has been top notch . Middlehe ground, in the of this catastrophe, they are invisible, and that is not putting down what they are trying to do. Ae federal government is reactionary force. They will come in once the floodwaters start to receipt and do an assessment and figure out how can they help the state and city rebuild, but the real you see the coast guard, you see the fire the 12,000and National Guard troops are out there actually rescuing people. Some very brave people there. Thank you very much. Is having a storm major affect on the u. S. Energy sector. Refineries have been idled and weve seen capacity reduced by 10 . Joining us to assess the effects on the economy and the oil industry is bloombergs team leader for oil coverage. One of the sobering fact on the storm is that two thirds of harveys losses are likely to be uninsured, especially for homeowners. I wonder if you know the extent to which there will be coverage for the refinery industry . Better. T will be you have to have some kind of protection against these kinds of losses. Builtin to a is lot of their business number of business model. What part of the Energy Infrastructure is being the hardest and do we know any specific locations that will be out . Guest the refining industry got hit the hardest. Is the biggest refinery in the u. S. Is in port arthur, texas and that is in the direct path of the storm right now. Joe give us some scale. How big is it and how does it compare to others . Guest they can refine 600,000 barrels of crude oil a day. That asooking at plants we get the Corpus Christi refinerys back on, we could lose just as much from port arthur. Have 10 of capacity down or more. We are definitely not out of the with yet and you are starting to see from the gasoline prices in aboutrk, theres concern getting supply in the near term. Theres less gasoline being put into the Colonial Pipeline that as the mainew york pipeline that services the eastern part of the u. S. There will probably be higher prices for a little bit, at least in new york. Pointed outu have so far the situation is more of aut this is gasoline story than an oil story and the markets have reflected that. But can we take a snapshot of the situation and compare it to what we have seen with the likes theurricane katrina and say reaction we have seen in terms of Energy Prices has been incredibly mild. Guest it has been muted. We saw a quick run up last night when the markets opened in it has come back just a little bit on gasoline. Fairlybecause we have a much higherm and supplies and we did in katrina. So we can talk about the gains the shale industry has made. Markets,rms of the they were almost asleep at the wheel, the are they underestimating the impact . Itst it depends on how long lasts. If we see the refineries clean up and come back quickly, then there isnt any reaction and we will go back to where we were. Weeks andlasts two theres a lot of damage to refineries, its too early to tell. They are still getting flooded next week before we get any damage assessments. Take us away from harvey for a moment. The wall street journal is reporting saudi arabia and russia are pushing for a threemonth extension on the production cut. It has failed to lift production to the level opec wanted. Why would an extension change that . Guest thats a good question. Where are Cutting Supply demand is shrinking, it could be an attempt to keep prices from dropping back to 40 or 35, more of a defensive mechanism are anything else where you trying to limit the declines rather than boost the prices. Scarlet great to have you on. The American Red Cross is asking for your help with the disaster in texas. The organization has dozens of shoulders up and running but it expects the crisis to grow exponentially and thousands of texas will end up relying on the red cross for food, water and a place to stay. Go to red cross. Org for all the details. All donations are taxdeductible. Still ahead, uber has a new ceo at the wheel. We will explore the road ahead for the embattled ridesharing company. From new york, this is bloomberg. Scarlet whatd you miss . It is official barry diller confirming the companys ceo has been tapped to lead uber. Troubled ride hailing start up in june under tremendous investor pressure. Joining us with more is brad stone, bloombergs head of technology coverage. What i find fascinating is the leadership search for a new ceo was chaotic. There were battles between kalanick. And travis is this split repairable . If not, it makes the ceos job difficult. Brad the most promising side is that they did settle on a ceo. Travis and his allies were pushing for the former ge ceo, jeff immelt. Benchmark and its allies wanted the hp ceo, meg whitman. The dispute even turned to litigation with benchmark suing. But hes a great pick, and entrepreneur. He built expedia not just into a major travel brand online, but a Global Platform that can accommodate for kinds of brands. Hes been ceo of a Public Company which one day uber hopes to be. So this is a sign it certainly going to be his first job, to repair some of these divisions on the board. Joe you talked about the success he had at expedia. Expedia shares tumbling in the wake of this news, down 4. 5 going into the close. What did he do . That stock has had an incredible run, well over 1000 since the crisis. What did he bring to that companies that that company that shareholders are going to miss . Brad he turned it into a technology company. Withd these relationships airlines and then booking. Com becomes an aggregator of deals and blows expedia out of the water. Over the past decade, he has basically caught up and assembled a brunch a bunch of brands under the umbrella. Homeaway, which is expedients competitive answer to airbnb, thats probably why shareholders are reacting negatively. For all of his progress, his and theyve done got to incorporate homeaway and answer the disruption airbnb poses. It is expedias loss, but hopefully uber thinks it is their gain. Julia the critical question for me is what does this Company Look Like in the future . To stick with the mold of being a start up and not worrying about profits or do they need to transition and grow up and being a mature and be a Mature Company and go for profitability . It feels like thats the direction benchmark was trying to push uber in. What do you think . Rat is the critical question. Travis has the accelerator brad that is the critical question. The resources to the bottom line where the company was hemorrhaging and lots of regions where it did not have a home field advantage. What he might bring is more reason to this grow at all costs philosophy. Anddown in some markets maybe reach the kinds of deals they have reached in china and russia, getting out of markets where the percentage of the home ,ield player is slowing down try to turn the company toward profitability and an eventual ipo. It is clearly what uber needs and hopefully they will get it. I want to turn our attention to apple. The announcement came that they will hold a Product Announcement on september 12. The only mystery here is what its going to call the anniversary phone. Is reportingeague we will get what they might call the seven s or s plus, which is the iteration on last years phone but then a third phone to mark the 10 Year Anniversary with a display that will go to the edges and face wrecking russian and premium features. We dont know what they will call it that what might be interesting is if they hold that event at the new campus because they have not yet showed off the steve jobs the at her and it would clearly amplify the message and Product Launch if they were able to hold their. Scarlet its all about the optics. Brad stone joining us from san francisco. Julia time for the Bloomberg Business flash and a look at the biggest is the stories in the news right now. A new chief executive officer meeting with Fiat Chrysler to discuss a partnership. A criticalhrysler part of its lending business. A report that apple will hold a product lunch announcement next month. According to the wall street journal, the company is expected to release new smartphones and a smart watch in time for the holiday season. One suggestion is there will be a showcase device to mark the 10th anniversary. Leaves taking a maternity with his wife. They announced the birth of their daughter where else, on his facebook post. Theyre saying we will do everything we possibly can to make sure the world is a better place for you. August joins older sister maxima. Thats your Bloomberg Business flash i hope thats wrong did they have the baby in august . Scarlet organic the president is speaking right now. Lets go to the president in washington d c. Mr. Trump i look forward to the trip. We will be leaving at 8 30 in the morning. We dont know which sections, we will be notifying you soon and we will be traveling throughout certain parts and may go back on saturday depending on where the storm goes, we may also go to louisiana on saturday. The biggest ever. They are saying it is historic. Its like texas if you think about it. Historic amount of water in particular. There has never been anything like it. It people are handling amazingly well and the people of texas as you know have really persevered. When you watch the spirit and enthusiasm and helping each other, the teamwork, it has been something and even in finland, i think they would say it has been really incredible. Leaving tomorrow at 8 30 in the morning. We have done quite a few cabinet meetings to make sure everything is coordinated. We are dealing with congress and a verying to be expensive situation. We want to take care of the people of texas and louisiana when that happens. The flow seems to be heading toward louisiana as we speak but we will be there for the people of louisiana also. We will see you tomorrow and i guess you will see both of us in a couple of minutes in the east room. Thank you all very much. You have been listening to the president in comments he made moments ago with the finnish president. Some of the headlines from the president he says finland has a trade surplus against the United States and talked about the storm, harvey, and how he is working with congress on a theonse to harvey and says response has been going very well. He will be traveling to the region shortly. We will be keeping an i on the headlines and get you more as they cross. From new york, this is bloomberg. Scarlet im scarlet fu. Whatd you miss . The line on this chart shows the number of contracts that are net long on the euro. Positioning on the euro versus the dollar is the most bullish since 2011. The euro has been on a tear versus the dollar as of late. That is the blue line. It took nothing at all on friday to drive the euro to its best levels and 2015. If you look at the euro plus performance year today, its the second best performing g10 currency after the krone. For the euro to get to that high but it might take nothing for it to unravel. Julia this is the reason why i paused to give you a comparison, given all the central bankers we have looked at or listen to over jackson hole, these are the key inflation gauges for all the Central Banks. Ecb,u look at the fed and pray much in line. I made the point on friday that if you look at the fiveyear, its below the level it was before mario draghi began qe. Nowhere near is that 2 inflation target. No surprise that that stimulus will continue. Not good newss for janet yellen as you tries to hit her inflation target amazon announced price cuts to various items at whole foods today. Heres good news for avocado lovers this is the seasonality chart of avocados every year for the last 10 years. You can see a very consistent pattern. Avocado prices tend to rise in the summer and we are now at the time when they start to fall. In addition to amazon coming into the market and chopping prices on avocados at the store, theres a general time of avocado inflation coming up, so maybe add guacamole to all your meals. Load up on it in the autumn. Avocado figure in to the pce core . The market closes next. With less than four minutes to go, we are looking at a mixed trade on the dow, little changed. The s p 500 not moving much. From new york, this is bloomberg. Scarlet whatd you miss . U. S. Stocks closings are mixed this afternoon. Gasoline surges to the highest level in two years. Chesley. A scarlet im scarlet fu. Joe im joe weisenthal. If you are tuning in live on twitter, we want to welcome you to our closing bell coverage every week day from 4 00 to 5 00 p. M. Eastern. Scarlet we are looking at a mixed close for u. S. Stocks with the dow and s p 500 will change right now. S p 500 literally moving up by one point. The nasdaq the winner here, up by 3 10 1 . The u. K. Markets closed for a holiday there. This is what tends to happen. Julia negative feeding through from europe as well. The euro feeding into sentiment concern here for european exporters. That was coming across, too. Joe a quiet final week of august. Not a ton of econews or political news. Scarlet grabbing the headlines is the storm, the harvey storm across texas. We see a lot of movers on the back of that storm. I am thinking of travelers, the insurers are of course feeling some pain there. Ankshire hathaway, owner of Insurance Companies getting taken down as well by half of 1 . On the other end, refining energy gaining in the wake of harvey. In terms of individual games, Sprouts Farmers Market down by almost 10 on the day. This is after amazon unveiled lower prices at whole foods. Joe was talking earlier about avocado prices. I believe it is now one dolla 1. 99 a pound. Joe each. Scarlet a drop in avocados. That is the approach that whole foods is taking over that amazon is taking at whole foods. We have some m a to tell you about. Kite pharmaceuticals, 11 billion, a 20 jump in kite as a result. Joe now lets take a look at the Government Bond market. Scarlet was talking about how it was a quiet day. There is. 10 year yield just a tick lower to 2. 16. That is at the low end of recent trading, but not much action today. Julia lets take a look at currency. We are talking about the euro here. A 10year chart at this strongest level for the euro since january 2015. We pushed above the highest we saw in the asia session as well. Mario draghi no question back on euro strength. Not sure that is the reason to continue to buy eurodollar. He is certainly not going to stand in the way. I think that is the message from analysts here. On the other side of that trait come you have the dollar here. I am showing you bloombergs dollar index here. We traced the levels for those of you that are interested. It can touch the 50 replacement level. Just want to give them there. Eye on mexico as well as seeing significant retracement from the losses we saw in dollar mexico. You can see that on the back end of last year. I am surprised we have not seen more weakness in mexico with donald trump talking about blowing off nafta. Markets ignoring. Joe yeah. Nafta will be perhaps a more interesting story than people realize. Lets finally look at the commodities starting with the intraday action in oil and gold. Oil tumbling. West texas intermediate down 2. 5 . Obviously, there is that diminishment of u. S. Refining capacity due to harvey. It could create some surplus in the amount of oil we have. Gold having a nice day up 1. 5 an ounce. 00 on we are looking at a oneyear chart here. Remember, gold really got crushed right after the election. Interest rates shot up. Slowly as the rate story has reversed, so has gold. It is now at its highest level since about september. Gold on a very nice run lately. Those are todays market movers. Scarlet whatd you miss . Janet yellen did not give up much new information on the Central Banks policy stance in her remarks at jackson hole. How does that change the calculus for who might lead the central bank in 2018 . Lets bring in christian. You save the odds of a regime change at the fed actually have increased. Yes. If you want to get renominated, the thing you do not even a very public forum is to take on the president from a deregulation standpoint. That is what janet yellen did. I think she is basically saying if she does not get nominated, she is ok with that, so i have to say that the probability has precipitously, but i think probabilities today have to be lower rather than hire. Higher. Joe it seems like it is always a game. Maybe i should not call it again. Lets imagine what the economy is going to do, and then the common imagine what the fed people do and then imagine the policy. Now there is a new wrinkle because they have to forecast a theoretical she they do not know. I will point you expect they see the unaffected see where markets start pricing in different federal regime . Krishna i think that is a really good question because while the initial policy initiative under, lets say, a cohn administration and a yellen administration are working to be relatively the same, the risk of inflation are going to be substantially higher in a cohn administration. Curve steepening risk is higher if there is a regime change. Worrying about that is important. I do not think it clarifies in the early fall as we get closer to the announcement date to the end of the year. That is when things start heating up. Joe because we do not know a ton about gary cohns views on monetary policy, so why do you see were to be named, the risk inflation . , theya any practitioner have been harping on the fact policy has been somewhat wrong. Either you get the growth picture meaningfully higher by doing things, tax reform and all of those things and perhaps deficit finance reform. All that adds to interestrate being higher and Inflation Expectation higher curves things deeper. Can you tie it down for us what is the probability janet yellen leaves and gary cohn takes over . Krishna i think at this point, lowerds, i would define, than 50 odds that janet yellen is the fed chair in 2018. Julia what about gary cohn taking over . Krishna i think it is really more about is yellen there than someone else . I dont know. Julia for markets more dovish, do you believe anyone that takes over for janet yellen will be deregulationo see regulatio and whether we need to see more stimulus and policy if inflation does not play through . Krishna i think the initial expectation was that somebody who is a hawk and more rulesbased policymaker will become the chairperson. I do not think that probability in the current context based on the people who are going to be doing the nominating is possible. Julia true. Scarlet the author be regime change may have gained by attack, but policy is likely to continue, right . It is also very high that we are going to see if there is a gary cohn at the fed. They are reducing the Balance Sheet but not in any big rush. Krishna absolutely. If you look at the Trump Administration, i dont think they have many quarrels with janet yellen from a low rates standpoint. They have quarrels with janet yellen from a regulation standpoint, and that is the position she was taking out. Scarlet does this become a purely political decision, or does it all premised on the regulation standpoint . Krishna it is not a political decision. It is just that she believes the regulation is not a good thing post financial crisis. A lot of people in the Trump Administration disagree with that. Joe talk about u. S. Politics. I am curious, how much would uslife the u. S. Political situation to the reversal we have seen in certain markets like the u. S. Rates market, gold, or the dollar, which are different ways of saying the same thing . 10 year yield, 2. 751, closest to his postelection lows. Is the political backdrop actually to blame for the . Krishna i think policy action coming from washington that we were expecting beginning of the year just has not materialized. The likelihood that growth breaks out from the 2 trend not beo 2. 5 trend rate, 3 or 4 the administration was advertising, that possibility has come up. That come back if the tax package is more meaningful, but having tossed a bag out the door, it is difficult to see how all of that plays out. Fed might mean the same thing in terms of monetary policy, how do you see positioning in terms of treasuries . Krishna that argues with remaining low for the perceivable future. Down the road, if they have monetization, i do think people are assigning significant probably to that, that, ratesdo start me remain low the front end, but the curve may stephen meaningfully steepen meaningfully. Julia we will keep you with us and discuss the fate of the bull market. How much longer can it continue . Scarlet coming up, we are awaiting a joint News Conference with President Donald Trump and his finnish counterpart. When they begin, we will bring it to you live. From new york, this is bloomberg. Mark it is time now for first word news. Texas Governor Greg Abbott warns that hurricane Recovery Efforts are only in the beginning stages. He says the governments response to the devastation left by harvey has been well coordinated. I have spoken with the president on multiple occasions with his cabinet members ranging from the secretary of health and Human Services, Homeland Security, transportation, energy. I am leaving some out, but also the fema administrator. I would have to grade the federal governments response as an a plus. Mark Governor Abbott also says a major priority remains making sure people have access to food and water and the Mexican Government is offering assistance. Acting Homeland Security secretary tells bloomberg it is still too early to predict cost estimates on the toll of the devastation left in the wake of harvey. He outlined immediate priorities for the department. There are not literary estimates at this time. We are doing what the president asked us to do. People first and paperwork later. Duke that atry least 30,000 people are in official shelters. Thousands more have been displaced. Gas prices rose to a twoyear high up more than 6. 5 as no caps on the storm harvey flooded texas refineries. The storm closed more than 20 of the u. S. Fuel production capacity. Gas prices are expected to fall in the next few weeks, however, as refineries recover and the peak season ends. Global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. Im mark crumpton. This is bloomberg. Scarlet thank you, mark. We are waiting a joint News Conference between President Donald Trump and his finnish counterpart. We will bring you it live when it happens. This is in the east room of the white house. It is due to begin shortly. Julia we are back with krishn. report in which some investors there is nothing magical about the passage of time. As we have said time and again, bull markets do not buy of old age die of old age. Seeing that we not would cause him to worry is one of the questions. You have more to elaborate on that. One of the arguments for being thesened in many cases, still look cheap relative to bonds, you think rates are going nowhere fast. Krishna absolutely. If this bull market is going to die, it is going to die because the fed started tightening policy more aggressively than what we have been expecting. There is no sign that is likely to happen. What will drive that is significant amount of pickup in inflation and Inflation Expectations. Again, no sign of that. At some point, if gary cohn comes in there and that changes, maybe things get hairy at that point. That is so far out in the future to worry about at the moment. Julia i am glad you brought that up because we have a viewer question who said, how do you evaluate the regime change of the fed in terms of changing productivities to investment . Could you envision a situation where they work really with the fed would work with the treasury . Your eyes are widening. Krishna that is a possibility. That is a possibility more likely with a cohn regime as opposed to a yellen regime. Wayink at this point, it is premature to talk about that. In the near term, the productivityled change can only come about as investments pick up in the u. S. , and for that, we need more nearterm fiscal policy or tax policy coming out of the congress and current administration. We can talk about how likely that is. Julia a private sector is going it alone. Look at the blackstone saudi fund. Doing it without the government backing this is early or at least financially. Scarlet even if it is a governmentsponsored event. Joe speaking of international investment, a common theme we hear from a lot of investors is they say the u. S. Looks pretty good, fine. If not all fall apart anytime soon, but all of the real opportunities are in europe or japan or emerging markets. How do you View International allocation at this point . Krishna we will concur with that. In fact, we think Growth Prospects in emerging markets are improving rather than deteriorating. The u. S. Probably remains 2 . Europe has surprised meaningfully on the upside. Emerging markets are surprising on the upside. I think growth is getting deeper rather than shallower in emerging markets. That is encouraging. The biggest challenge with respect to International Investing in my mind is really the strength of the euro. At the moment, it is not a big worry. Mario draghi probably does not push too hard, but if this trend continues, it has to take a toll on the european economy and Growth Prospects. Outlook for european equities, t oo. It is something to monitor and how the ecb reacts to that will be critical. Julia i what point does it become a problem . We are filed 120 here. Krishna getting into the problem zone. If it becomes sustainable or sustained at those levels, i think europe growth will slow down. Europe cannot take euro at these levels for a long period of time. Scarlet of course, earlier i was showing lady gaga how long the euro position had been declining. Now they are the highest since 2011. More of a crowded trade. Krishna absolutely. Joe from the perspective of the u. S. Investor, we have seen in euro terms of the dax in june, it has been trending down the last two months. However the dax in dollar terms is holding up just fine. For a u. S. Based investor, can they worry a little less about the euro strength knowin . Krishna yes, but getting of the day, the impact on the economy will be real. We as investors, equity investors, have to worry about that a lot. The european economy has surprise on the upside in a meaningful way. Five years ago, so italy europe was going to grow at 2 , i dont think i would have believed it and nobody would have. That is where we are. The economy is critical and a high euro does not help that much. Scarlet thank you so much for joining us. Oppenheimer funds serial and head of fixedincome. We are awaiting a joint conference with President Trump and his finnish counterpart. In fact, he has just walked out. They are going to be beginning to speak in the east room of the white house. We had earlier comments from the president in which he said trade surplus was not a good thing. President trump it is my great honor to welcome the president to the white house. We have just concluded a very positive meeting, and i want to begin today by extending my thoughts and prayers to those affected by Hurricane Harvey and flooding andhe of all of the other difficulties they are currently going through in houston, in southeast texas, and now it is looking more and more like the state of louisiana will be also affected. My administration is coordinating closely with state and local authorities in texas and louisiana to save lives, so we think the First Responders and all of those involved in their effort. We are working directly with texas Governor Greg Abbott, who by the way, is doing a fantastic job, and his entire staff likewise, as well as with governor john bel edwards, who is very much involved in starting the process of louisiana. We have pledged our full support as texas and louisiana battle and recover from this devastating and historic storm. There has probably never been anything like this. Under the supervision of fema, long,strative rocker brock there has been a tremendous amount of work done. He has been so outstanding in so many ways. More than 8500 federal workers are involved in the texas effort alone. I have also today declared emergencies in louisiana at the request of governor edwards. Recovery will be a long and difficult road, and the federal government stands ready, willing, and able to support that effort. Right now, the single most important thing is the safety and security of those still in harms way, including the First Responders, who have been so terrific and brave. Protecting the lives of our people is my highest priority. Every asset at my command is at the disposal of local officials. Tragic times such as these bring out the best in americas character, strength, and resilience. We see neighbor helping neighbor, friend helping friend, and stranger helping stranger. You see that all over. You watch it on television. You see such incredible work and love and teamwork. We are one american family. We heard together. We struggle together. Believe me, we endure together. We are one family. To the people of texas and louisiana, we are 100 with you. We are praying for you. We are working closely with your leaders and officials. I will be visiting the impact zone tomorrow to ensure that you are receiving full support and cooperation from the federal government. On saturday, we think we are going back to texas, and also, we will be going to louisiana. Spirit ofn defeat the the people of texas and the louisiana. Right now, every american heart sends its love and support to those whose lives have been upended, totally upended, totally, by this very horrible storm. We ask god for his was wisdom and strength. We will come out stronger. Believe me, we will be bigger, better, stronger than ever before. The rebuilding will begin, and in the end, it will be something very special. I just want to thank everybody in the affected area because it has been absolutely incredible to watch the spirit, the cooperation, and the love. I would also like to share a message to the people of finland, who have recently suffered a terrorist attack. We stand in solidarity with you against the terrorist threat. We must all Work Together to deny terrorists safe havens, cut off their finances, and defeat the very wicked ideology. Americans are grateful for your steadfast support as an ally in the fight against terrorism. Appreciate it. Including your membership in the coalition to defeat isis. Finland makes important contributions to the coalition and its effort in afghanistan and has troops on the ground in iraq training iraqi soldiers. In Afghanistan Taliban and provides troops and financial contributions to support the Afghan National defense and Security Forces on a modernday frontier between barbarism and civilization. That is what you have. It is barbarism versus civilization. We are particularly grateful to the finnish citizens who have sacrificed for our mutual security. Expert in a leading cybersecurity. In fact, we should be calling you pretty soon. You do do a fantastic job with cybersecurity, and i congratulate you. I think a very short period of time, we will be right there with you. Believe me. The u. S. Is a proud partner of finlands European Center of excellence to counter modern threats, including cyberattacks. In addition, we look forward to your leadership as chair of the arctic council. The arctic region has strategic and economic importance for both of our nations. Very much so. The foundation of french of is our shared love of freedom. On behalf of all americans, we congratulate you and the finnish people on the 100 anniversary of finlands independence. 100 years. Fantastic. In honor of finlands centennial, the United States is confronting an additional halfmillion dollars is contributing an additional halfmillion dollars to the fulbright foundation. Through the program, we are sending more of our best and brightest to finland, forging Lasting Connections between americans and finns. On the economic front, we seek fair and reciprocal trade to benefit both of our countries. I applaud Finnish Companies for their commitment to increase investment in the United States, adding new technologies and adding good jobs for hardworking americans. Thinthank you. Partnership ish rooted in our common values. As president , i must say i want to thank you, president , we have discussed and look forward to further strengthening these of commerce, cooperation between our two countries so that our citizens and our nations can thrive and prosper together. Mr. President , i would like to thank you very much for being at the white house. A great meeting at the oval office. It is my honor to have you here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. President , i want to thank you. Scarlet listening to president , his remarks in the News Conference with his finnish counterpart,s also limited by the u. S. Being in solidarity with the lead after a terror attack in the country and he praised the lord as a partner in the effort to fight isis or the islamic state. He devoted a lot of time to harvey and how he will be visiting the impacted area tomorrow in texas. The governor has pledged full support. Gordon,ing in now crack executive editor at bloomberg news. Why do we start with harvey . Because one thing that has been sent from the governor of texas, greg abbott is the federal response thus far has been an a plus. The president wanting to spend more time on a response. Thus far, they have done everything they can do. Craig yeah, look, donald trump is having a pretty good day so far, a pretty good weekend. He has worked hard to show the American People he is on top of it. He got a couple of videoconference briefings. He has been tweeting quite a lot through the weekend. He is heading to Corpus Christi tomorrow to take a look at the damage, but not really in the heart of it in houston. Look, these things, we watch the president not long ago and george w. Bush faltered badly in the face of hurricane katrina. Fema seems completely overwhelmed. In this case, donald trump had a man down there in brock long who is considered a guru. He has a republican governor in texas, so it is easy to praise a republican president , but from everything we can see as dramatic as the pictures from houston are and the devastating damage, no one is faulting the federal governments response. Julia you did say he is going to be at the impact zone and perhaps back in texas on saturday. Just in terms of similar events in terms of crises in the country, is that normal for a president to visit areas like this that have been so badly hit in the face of five or six days . It seems like he is making a real concerted effort here. Craig it is a delicate balancing act that over the weekend, donald trump engine mentioned tha. He and his team must have included that over 60 is a little bit out of the west part of the danger zone so he can fly and beyond the ground in texas and see some of the Recovery Efforts without being in the way. A return trip five days later, you risk maybe you are taking a little bit of an advantage of the situation, but he is the president. He has a lot of people on the ground there. These are american citizens that are suffering any danger. He is within his right to go down and take a person look. Wants to convey that he is a hands donald trump wants to convey he is a handson president. He goes tomorrow and he may go back again on saturday texas louisiana to show he is on top of this. Joe as you say, there is a particular reason to think the federal government is doing a bad job right now. It seems to be doing well. Starting next week, however, there is going to be a very serious challenge for the white house and republican allies in congress with a series of things that have to get past legislationwise. They are now going back to cuba q a in the white house the white house. I wonder what you tell the people of texas to expect in terms of a longterm recovery effort, in particular refuting with some key congressional leaders, you have also threatened the Government Shutdown potentially next month over border wall funding. Are these going to hamper the funding that would be needed longterm . President trump no. You will see rapid action from congress, certainly from the president , and you will get your funding. It is a terrible tragedy. Your governor has been absolutely outstanding in what he has done and his entire staff. And hespoke with greg, is working like twitter for 24 7. We expect to have requests on our desk very soon. We think congress will feel very much the way i feel. Very bipartisan way. We think you are going to have what you need and is going to go past. Texas is a unique place. It is a great state, great people. I think you will be up and running very quickly. Really very quickly. Yeah, i think you will be in fantastic shape. I have already spoken to congress. Everybody feels for you and what you are going through, but at the same time, they have Great Respect, even additional respect for the state because you have handled it so well, so brilliantly, but it is a long road. Still pouring. Still a lot of rain. Nobody has seen anything like it. I have heard the words epic, historic. That is what it is. But you will have what you want i think very quickly. You can ask a question to the president. Thank you. Theres the situation make you reconsider the possibility of a Government Shutdown. Does this situation make you reconsider the possibility of a Government Shutdown . President trump it has nothing to do with it. I have spoken to many of the people we are talking about, and everybody feels the same we i do. Mr. President , i wanted to ask you, russia has metal in u. S. Politics. They have a military exercise coming up in the next week. In th in the baltic, there are tensions. What kind of advice can you give in dealing with this adversary . We are not feeling ourselves as advisors, but we are feeling ourselves as doing all what is possible to maintain peace, and that is what we are doing in the baltic sea area, too. Actually, you referred to a different kind of military training, which is going to happen there. I have to tell you that a couple of weeks ago, i met president media. Nd their i asked why the navy is having training in the baltic sea area. It is not athat block. It is not against anybody. My answer was that we are also training in the baltic sea with the United States and sweden and it is not a block and it is not against anybody. So we have to be very careful that this huge training, huge military trafficking does not cause any accidental problems because we know that from might grow whatever. That is why it is important to continue to work with nato to enhance dialogue between russia and nato, and it is going forward. Broadcasting company where you are. Thank you. I have a question to President Trump. Thes raising the issue of security situation in the baltic region and the baltic sea specifically and has been concerned about the russian planes flying there without transponders on. So my question to you, mr. President , would be, mr. Trump, would you consider russia as a Security Threat . Well i consider many countries as a Security Threat unfortunately with what you look at is going on in the world today. A few weeks ago, our great Vice President mike pence, who is right here, was in the region and spent a good o bit of time there. We consider it an important part of the world. We have great relationships there. I would consider many countriess threats. Hopefully we will not have to handle them, but if we do, we will handle them. And i have a followup . Can i have a followup . If the situation in the baltic were to escalate, what with the usb ready to do in that unfortunate circumstance . President trump we are very protective of that region. That is all i can say. We have great friends, great relationships. We are extremely protective. Thank you. A question for the president . Yes. Do you have a question for the president . Do you have a question for the president . It is all right. You dont have to. [laughter] mr. President , from finland. Did you speak about Climate Change at all . Initiative ofr cleaning up the arctic and doing it with the United States . Was your idea received here in washington, d. C. . We discussed a lot about carbon. To expect everybody what happens is that from the atmosphere, black carbon covers the arctic. We know what happens when sunshine meets black. It melts the ice. The problem is not only arctic. We lose the arctic, we lose the globe. That is reality. We must fight against those emissions spreading black carbon. I understood the United States is going to. Sources, a lotl of them in russia, they are oldfashioned Energy Plants using heating. The other problem is flaring. You know, in oil fields, they flareup the extra gas, and the amount is huge yearly. They flare more than 40 times more than finland spends. The business to the picture. It would be a Good Business to renew those oldfashioned plants, to make more with less energy. It would be a business of gas, whichtake that has now burned. Areink these elements things we can continue discussing in the arctic council. We have inherited the chairmanship from the United States and continue the work. Trump we had a very good discussion in particular on the arctic and black carbon. We have much in agreement. One of the things we also agree ,n, we want Crystal Clean water and we want clean air, the cleanest ever. Very important. John roberts, yes . Mr. President , thank you so much. Mr. President , i have a question for you as well, but if i can start with the president. In the middle of Hurricane Harvey , you chose to pardon former terrorist arpaio. I wonder if you can tell us what was behind her thinking for pardoning the sheriff and as well what you say to your critics, even some in your own party, who say it was the wrong thing to do . President trump a lot of people think it was the right thing to do, jerod. In the middle of a hurricane, i assumed the news would be far higher than they would be. The hurricane starting. I put it out that i parte pardoned shayrat joe. He has done great for the people of arizona. Very strong on illegal immigration. He was treated unbelievably unfairly when they came down with a big decision to go get him before the election voting started, as you know. He lost in a fairly close election. He would have won the election, but they hammered him i before the election. I thought that was a very, very unfair thing to do. When i mentioned him the other night, you saw the massive crowd we had. People went crazy when i said, what do you think of sheriff joe . Or something to that effect. The placement absolutely crazy when i was in arizona this week. As far as partisans are concerned pard ons are concerned, i thought some of you ask me to question. Sheriff joe is a great veteran of the military, great Law Enforcement person. Somebody that has won many elections in the state of arizona. I wanted to look at some of the other people over the years, and if you look at, as an example, the president hard and mark rich marc rich who was charged with crimes going back to the income including illegally buying oil from iran while it held three american hostages. Was not allowed to do this. He was pardoned after he donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the clintons. Then you have dangerous criminals. President clinton pardoned rosenberg, a member of the weathered underground. A bank robbery that led to a guard and two Police Officers being killed. Drug dealers. Clinton commuted the sentence of carlos, a central player in a cocaine ring that stretched from california. Criminal leaker. Leaker . Heard the word president commuted the sentence of chelsea manning, who the countless sensitive and classified documents to wikileaks and others. Horrible, horrible thing that he did. Commuted the sentence and perhaps pardoned. President obama commuted the sentence of oscar lopez rivera, who was charged as part of a violent Independence Group from puerto rico responsible for 28 chicago area bombings and many deaths in the 1970s and 1980s. Sheriff joe is a patriot. Sheriff joe loves our country. Sheriff joe protected our borders. Sheriff joe was very unfairly treated by the obama administration, especially right before an election, an election he would have one, and he would have won, and he would have been elected many times. I stand by my pardon and i think the people of arizona who know him best would agree with me. Thank you very much. Mr. President , i am afraid i have to confess the question was fairly obvious. , i am suresident niinisto the president brief you today or you are aware of his new plan for afghanistan, it relies on bringing the taliban to the table for negotiations. Given the history and ideology of the taliban, do you ever honore that they would any kind of an agreement was ever made, or what day when the u. S. , finland, and other countries leave afghanistan reneg on them . President niinisto first of all, i want to underline that finland has been involved from the very beginning and all attempts to solve the situation in afghanistan. We have troops there. We have also Financial Aid going on all the time. We have to try. Waysve to try all possible to solve the situation in afghanistan. It has been ongoing are quite some time, for decades. Negotiations so you have to have full respect to the one you negotiate. To also fully believe that what fulfilledted is also these elements have to be all the time present when you discuss with each party in afghanistan. President trump i know there might be a couple more questions, but you want to take one more . Go ahead. Going to give her the same one . President niinisto no. [laughter] we have a lot of blonde women in finland. Mr. President trump, what kind of proof the ucs finland having in the u. S. Russia relations . To you think the link and be of assistance Getting Better relations . President trump i hope we have good relations. I will say it loud and clear and i have been saying it for years. That is very important. I believe someday that will happen. It is a big country. It is a nuclear country. Is a country that we should get along with, and i think we will hopefully get along with russia. Finland has been free of russia. Just about one of the few countries in the region that has been for 100 years. Russia has a lot of respect for finland so that is always good, but finland is doing fine with russia and i hope the United States will someday have a Good Relationship with russia also. It is very good for world peace and all things. Thank you. As a followup, if finlands relationship with russia deteriorates, what kind of assistance with the u. S. Be willing to give finland bilaterally if we needed it . President trump as i said before, our relationship with finland is a very important one, and we are always ready to help. One of the things that is happening is they are purchasing large amounts of our aircraft. It is one of the great planes, a great fighter jet. You are purchasing lots of other great military increment. Purchasing very wisely. I know all of the equipment, and i actually agree with everything you purchased. We talked about it before. I think finland is a respected country militarily. Large armed forces, as a country, really proportionally one of the biggest in the world if you think of it. Very respected militarily. Us militarily so hopefully it will never come to that. Thank you. President niinisto. President niinisto, did you discuss russia . Did you offer any assistance to the u. S. With their relationship with russia . President niinisto well, like i said earlier on, we did discuss i do russia but actually, not feel like being any advisor to anybody, but we try to do our best and hopefully we get results. I want to remind you that in meeting a year ago approximately, it was stated by all nato countries that with russia to be a determined part, you have to exercise dialogue. To wait elements have to be there two way elements have to be there. Thank you, mr. President. In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, the believe that cutting femas budget is the right thing to do . President trump was going to happen is th fema money is relatively small. They have the money necessary for texas and louisiana if we need, but the real number, which will be millions of dollars, will go through congress. I think it will happen very quickly. It will go very fast. I want to congratulate you on the network. Is a great network. If i may follow up with one other question from earlier. . Is your plan still to have mexico and for the wall President Trump yes, it will. One way or another, mexico will pay for the wall. We are right now negotiating nafta. In my opinion, mexico has been very difficult as they should be. Why wouldnt they be . It is one of the great deals of all time for them. One of the worst trade deals. Finland would never have signed nafta. This is not a deal you would want to sign. This is not a deal finland would know about. Nafta is one of the worst trade deals ever signed at any time, anywhere in the world. I can understand mexico is being difficult because, why wouldnt they be . They have had it their way. Mexico will pay for the wall, maybe through reimbursement. We need the wall very badly. Mexico has a tremendous crime problem. Tremendous. One of the number two or three in the world. That is another reason we need it. On, tremendous drugs are pouring into the United States at levels that nobody has ever seen before. This happened three or four years in particular. The wall will stop much of the drugs from coming into this country and poisoning our youth. We need the wall. It is imperative. We may fund it through the United States. Ultimately, mexico will pay for the wall. If i may follow up on two things you said, if i have to close down our government, were building that will. President trump i hope that is not necessary. If it is necessary, but i hope it is not necessary, th. The wall is needed from the statement of security, drug. From drug scores what is coming through, through that area that we are talking about. As you know, i have general kelly here. We have stopped traffic coming through 70 . I 78 . I think it is going to be 81 this quarter. In other administration, if they stopped at 1 or 3 , it would be a great thing. We are almost at 80 . We will be over 80 . Unique the wall to do the rest and you need the wall for the drugs. The wall will greatly help with the drug problem. Ultimately , that is a good thing for mexico also. Very Good Relationship with mexico, but i will say that dealing with them i have always said, i have talked about nafta many times, and i have said that we will either terminate it or negotiate it. We are in the process of renegotiating the deal. I believe that you will probably have to at least start the termination process before a theater deal can be arrived at because it has been a onesided deal. This includes, by the way, Great Respect for canada, great love for canada, but it has been a onesided deal for canada and mexico. And the United States workers, all of these incredible people who have lost their jobs because of nafta, they are not going to be suffering any longer. It has been unfair for too long. We will build a wall. We will stop a lot of things, including the drugs pouring in at levels like nobody has ever seen. We will be able to stop them once the wall is up. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, mr. President. Julia that was President Donald Trump leaving the eastern room speaking with the finnish president on a number of topics. Nafta, suggesting perhaps a termination process may need to happen before they reach a deal that is very beneficial to mexico. They are being very difficult, and why wouldnt they be . He talked about Congress Talking about billions of dollars, many billions in disaster aid in the light of what we have seen with Hurricane Harvey and standing by his pardon of sheriff joe. A number of topics to discuss. Joining us to discuss the News Conference, craig gordon, executive editor at bloomberg news. Lets start if we can with the pardon of sheriff joe. Standing by his decision on friday. Some bizarre comments suggesting he decided to tweet out that pardon due to high ratings but also pulling in a number of pardons in the clinton era as perhaps if the vacation for why it was ok in this case. Your thoughts . Craig no, he wasnt readily standing by his own pardon, doubling down you might say recalling the history of marc richs pardon by clinton, Chelsea Mannings pardon by barack obama. I think sheriff joe is a patriot, i will do it. I will tell you that the questioner referred to some republicans who have been critical of trump on this. Ryan,ir names are paul arizonas own senator john mccain, who certainly knows joe aripaio, so he has taken a lot of heat on this from republicans, and democrats pounced. A person viewed as employing very harsh antiimmigration tactics of latino voters down there in arizona. Did not care for that. That is something democrats are going to bring up between now and 2018 and 2020 to say that donald trump is no friend to latino voters, someone who believes joe arpaio is a friend of the president. Joe at the end of that, a question about nafta. I dont think nafta has gotten a lot of discussion. Hawkish. Hetoric seems is it possible this will not go as well as it has been assumed . President trump doubling down at the press conference saying mexico will pay for the wall despite the rocky official between mexican and u. S. Officials. You are correct in noting most market analysts are anticipating a firstquarter renegotiation simplyent of nafta because of the political landscape, not only in the United States ahead of the elections but also the upcoming mexico elections. We should note for those watching in terms of the Political Risk on the horizon with President Trump suggesting he feels there will be a quick resolution to funding for Tropical Storm harvey relief. When you look at previous political issues surrounding natural disasters, this has been a point of contention for whether or not any type of relief should be offset by other budget cuts. The president not taking a position on that particular point. We should note lawmakers set to come back from recess in just more than a week. A busy list for them to get through. And now of course with the issue of funding for relief for Tropical Storm harvey, just another item on their list. Julia they could do without that. Gordon,rilli and craig thank you so much. Scarlet the president will be traveling to corpus crispy Corpus Christi tomorrow to look at what has been going on with the rescue and Recovery Efforts. That does it. That does it. Julia best of bloomberg that does it. Julia best of bloomberg so we need tablets installed. With the menu app ready to roll. In 12 weeks. Yeah. The world of fast food is being changed by faster networks. Data, applications, customer experience. Which is why comcast business delivers Consistent Network Performance and speed across all your locations. Fast connections everywhere. Thats how you outmaneuver. And the lets start with a check of your first word news. Theident Trump Says Administration is fully behind texas as it continues his recovery from the devastation left behind by harvey. He spoke at a joint News Conference with the president of finland. Pledged ourump we full support texas and louisiana battle and recover from this devastating and historic storm. There has probably never been anything like this. Emma trump also commended the texas people for their tremendous spirit. He is planning a visit tomorrow with the first lady. Texas governor greg warns Recovery Efforts are in the beginning stages but the Trump Administration deserves in a plus for its handling of the crisis. He also says a major priority remains making sure people have access to food and water, and the Mexican Government is also offering assistance. Louisiana is bracing for potential flooding as heavy rain head east from houston. New orleans residents arrived at local fire stations to pick up sandbags