administration is making progress on trade agreements secretary pompeo alluded to that in the middle of the hearing as news broke that president juncker and president trump were making some kind of announcement on trade. we talked about policies. policies firmly in place and rejection of russian activities in crimea and beyond. brian: so, mike pompeo walked in saying okay, i know problem, don t know what s going on with north korea, here we are. the russian summit has been postponed russian summit 2 to 2019. does the president believe it yes. i will cite all the examples. now do you have any questions? trade going to affect foreign policy we just solved the eu perhaps. any other questions? do you sense a political agenda, house chris coons i felt like every senator was auditioning for their base. yeah. you had a lot of people trying to make hits and grandstands at that committee hearing. it s not surprising. i m sure it happens pretty often. bottom line i thought secretary pompeo com
it was right to the point. they suddenly surprised each other and both willingness to deal. there was dealing and wheeling on both sides. a little give on both sides, the europeans gave far more than the americans gave. did you see the expression onon clawed juncker s face when he walked out into the rose garden for that press conference. he looked a little depressed. mr. trump was smiling broadly. i think hard line trump won. ainsley: the picture tweeted out he was kissing his neck. lawmakers are getting closer to funding the border wall, you have the outgoing congressman joe crowley who was just beat by the socialist. he was saying that he wants us now, not only to put families back together but he wants to compensate those kids. listen to this. the damage that has been done to these children will be lifelong. in fact, i suggest they need to be compensated for what this administration did to them. i think that s a
professor. and ben white. a correspondent for politico. ben, to you first. you wrote that you said you feel like this is a positive. but you also felt that way soon after the president spoke to china. yeah, i mean it feels very similar to what happened after the beijing talks when secretary mnuchin was there. they came out and said we have an agreement with china to avoid all the tariffs. there was a positive notes. markets reacted positively. trump changed course and we started a trade war. $200 billion with more to come. on europe we don t know whether trump sticks to this whether he gets angry at juncker and the eu. we have we have not avoided the auto tariffs. the steel and aluminum tare nifs place. the impact of this trade war still happening. and frngly it s true that trump is absolutely freaking out and republicans are freaking out about the midwest numbers. down in the three midwesten states. the generic ballot the up 12.
tough trade talks at the white house. the european president juncker says, quote, we can also do stupid. this comes after the president says he will give $12 billion in aid to farmers across this country hurt by his own tariffs. prime exports have been retaliatory from china, mainly. lawmakers this morning are more than scratching their heads over this one. republican ben sasse likening it to making it 1929 again. let s begin with this meeting today on trade. i can t overstate how
the voices easier in the room where the president can make eye contact with reporters that he is familiar with asking those questions. but he repeatedly said thank you, which is the cue we use here to know that the president is not willing to engage. there are times he will engage at first. not at first, but then would think about an answer and then respond, which is why people try to wait until they are absolutely certain he will or will not take part in that. so i think that is just a kind of data point to tell us that the explanation given a week or so ago does not necessarily stand up to the president s normal practice. on the issue of trade, this is one of the things where the president is most fierce in terms of his insistence that he has the right negotiating tactic even when republicans in states that are severely affected by this, rural states, farm states are encouraging him to take a different position. notable as well, there was not a handshake. the president sort of touche