being way over their skis once he came back and offered his to two cents. well, i m sure there were conversations about this, which seemed like an impromptu decision to come back. and i doubt that he had prepped to talk about this. but certainly we have seen, time and again, especially in recent weeks, this president doing things his way. i mean, we have heard from a lot of folks inside the white house. he is feeling increasingly confident that he is the best person to decide how he speaks, his decision making on policy, on hiring, and we are really seeing sort of an emboldened president or as some people say, an unshackled president, perhaps, trying to do things his way. unshackled is the word sarah palin used when the 2008 campaign ended. so it elicits all sorts of reactions in me. but barbara mcquade, let me ask you about an unshackled
on hiring, and we are really seeing sort of an emboldened president or as some people say, an unshackled president, perhaps, trying to do things his way. unshackled is the word sarah palin used when the 2008 campaign ended. so it elicits all sorts of reactions in me. but let me ask you about an unshackled president in the context of his legal exposure in the stormy daniels sort of back and forth. and let me ask you about sarah huckabee sanders contention that the president had prevailed in an arbitration. that seems inconsistent with what the president said today, is that he had no knowledge of any agreement with him. if he had no knowledge, how can a spokeswoman claim that he had known nothing about it? and i think that arbitration decision is not going to hold up. we ve got a matter now pending in court where the position of stormy daniels is to invalidate this agreement altogether. and so i think in light of this admission, and even the position that michael cohen has taken,
of us. what your reporting is on how the president s feeling because he seems to be unshackled. jeff mason s reporting, you know, he is getting rid of what he views as the dissenters in his cabinet. based on my reporting, i m hearing the president is look at this moment as a time to return to trump being trump and that he wants to be his own com director, his own chief of staff. doesn t mean he s going to make cutler the economic adviser. he wants people who understands his campaign mentality. the turning point i m told was that the weekend rally in southwestern pennsylvania. he said to his aides, i want to do more of this, more rallies, more being out there, throwing political punches day in, day out. wants his cabinet to be filled with allies. people would have a rapport with him. kristen well kerr, those are the very moments that have been the most heavily criticized, not only by allies aary ies around but leaders in both parties, that rally in pittsburgh was considered a disast
entries, has been called informally by the press corps the s-hole apology tour, because the president was so late to apologize to the african union for that slur. this, his first trip to africa, arriving, you know, at 4:00 this morning at andrews. you know what that s like. i certainly do and not knowing how his day was going to proceed and look at how it did. so unusual now to see with what happened last week with gary cohn, now with tillerson. the direction president trump is going in terms of who he surrounds himself with. clearly wanting loyalists around him. the dissenters are out. and that will have implications for policy, from trade to north korea to russia going forward. robert costa, how are you feeling about how the president s feeling? he seems to be unshackled. how am i feeling? i could use another cup of coffee, andrea, at this point. what are you hearing about how the president is feeling? i know how you re feeling. you re as whiplashed as the rest
all been addressed because that s what brought them into the trump coalition and that s what they want to see movement on before he stands for re-election. you ll be covering this today but as you watch what s unfolding at the white house, what are you thinking about how this has come down to president trump and somebody he s known for a long time, chuck schumer, the democrat from new york, them having a one on one meeting in the white house? i think what s remarkable is where there s been bright spots, it s when trump has been unshackled from the wacky hard-liners. yeah, i m perfectly open to doing a clean daca and moving on. it was the hard liners who we know now were brought added to that meeting so the president wouldn t veer out of the parameters that the hard-liners like steven miller have made for him. if the people that are trying to pull the president s strings, he has hard line immigration instincts. he certainly believes in a wall that can be see-through in some