Developments out of the white house on this afternoon. President trump raising the stakes of what could become a trade war with china. The white house also imposing some strong new sanctions on russia. President trump looking to impose an additional 100 billion in tariffs against china. This comes just days after china announced 50 billion in tariffs on a number of key u. S. Exports. The head of the president s economic counsel tried to tamp down all the talk of a trade r war. Were not running a trade war. If you read this thing, youll see, this is just a proposed idea which will be vetted by ustr and open for public comment. Nothing has happened. Nothing has been executed. I read about theres no there, there yet, but there will be. The Trump Administration also this morning imposing sweeping new sanctions against members of Vladimir Putins inner circle. Nbcs geoff is at the white house for us. A lot of news from 1600 pennsylvania avenue. So lets well get to tariff stuff in just a minute. I want to start with this wall street journal report that just dropped a few moments ago. Apparently, according to the journal, chief of staff john kelly says it is now time for scott pruitt to go. Yeah, and we know that john kelly a few weeks ago called together a group of misbehaving cabinet subjects, craig, and urged them to get their act together to be more careful in terms of their spending and management of their respective departments and agencies. Scott pruitt is a different case in this way. We know the president , were told the president likes him personally. Scott pruitt is seen as being one of the most effective members of the trump cabinet in terms of executing the trump agenda. Hes overseen the rollback of a host of obamaera environmental regulations and policies. He also has the support of lots of key conservatives and conservative media. Thats one reason why it appears scott pruitt has a bit of a longer leash than have other cabinet members who were sent away under similar circumstances. Lets talk tariffs here for a moment. Again, we just heard from larry kudlow insisting none of this has happened. May not happen at all. But do we know what prompted this announcement that there would be perhaps another 100 billion . White house Officials Say the president s actions are a response to years of unfair trade practices by china that they say have gone addressed. Thats what accounts for this escalating rhetoric. The president ordering his administration to at least consider tariffs on an additional 100 billion in chinese goods. China, meanwhile, says it will counter any effort they see as u. S. Protectionism. They say theyll counter that at any cost. But the president this morning said in a radio interview that tariffs targeting china could cause some pain in the u. S. Economy but he says the country is going to emerge stronger as a result. But to your point and some of the video we saw earlier from larry kudlow, the president and his advisers dont appear to be on the same page, at least in terms of tone. This might be a Good Cop Bad Cop strategy. But Administration Officials have spent the past two days trying to tamp down fears of a trade war. Larry kudlow said this morning that the u. S. Could still hammer out a deal with beijing, so its certainly an effort to calm the marketed roiled by all of this. The time with regard to the tariff announcement. What about this announcement regarding sanctions on russia . Well, senior Administration Officials tell us the sanctions arent aimed at punishing russia for any particular event but is instead a broader effort aimed at the totality of russias destabilizing actions around the world. Russias ongoing occupation of crimea. Its support of bashar assad. Its cyberhacking, efforts to interfere in democracies. So to date the Trump Administration has issued russia related sanctions against nearly 140 russia related individuals and entities. And we should point out that these sanctions, they say, have been carefully coordinated with u. S. Allies, particularly those in europe, craig. Geoff bennett at the white house, thank you. Let me bring in ben white. Hes the chief economic correspondent for politico. I want to play a snippet of President Trump from an Interview Program just a few hours ago. Take a listen. Weve already lost a trade war. We dont have a trade war. Weve lost a trade war. Im not saying there wont be a little pain but the market has gone up 40 , 42 , so we might lose a little bit of it. But well have a much stronger country when were finished. Is the president right, ben . No. Hes not right. We, obviously, have not lost any kind of a trade war with china. Do they abuse certain practices in intelectual property and Technology Transfers . Sure. But we benefit enormously from lowcost products that we import from china and our manufacturers and our Agricultural Companies and farmers love the export to china. He sees it, if we have a trade deficit with china, were losing. No serious economist believes that. Hes not right about losing the trade war and hes not right about there just being some shortterm pain. Hes injected enormous amounts of volatility in the stock market for no apparent good reason and no end game here. I hear him talk about well wind up much stronger and better. I dont hear anyone saying what they expect them to do. How you win on this. Im not even aware of any ongoing talks with the chinese. Frankly this makes absolutely no sense at all. Do you get the sense perhaps that this is just perhaps maybe more of what this president does from time to time, bluster, that at the end of the day, these tariffs wont come to fruition . Its all just talk . It might be. That raises the question of why bother with the talk and make everybody nervous and markets freak out and people who sell soybeans and hogs and pork to china worry about what their future is going to be. So i dont know what the purpose of it would be. Obviously, trump thinks that by realitying this saber and then having larry kudlow come out and talk things down a little bit, hell scare the chinese and convince them they need to come through with some kind of concessions. I dont think the chinese are going to do that. They have a zillion ways to fight back against us beyond just tariffs. They can start selling their treasuries. They hold a ton of our debt. They can stop allowing tourism. Pull people out of the u. S. , out of universities and devalue their own currency. Endless number of weapons to hit us with. We lose on Consumer Prices and then wind up losing on our export numbers. You find the big win here. I dont know what it is. Ben white, always good to have your perspective. Let me bring in natasha bertrand, staff writer for the atlantic. Also an msnbc contributor. And here with me in new york city, carol lee, Nbc News National Political reporter. Lets turn back to the sanctions now. The new russian sanctions include seven russian oligarchs, 12 companies they own or control. 17 senior russian officials, estateowned Weapons Trading Company and the Russian Financial Corporation bank. Why these institutions . Why these people . Well, it sends a really strong message to russia. A much stronger one than the expulsion of the 60 diplomats. Now its really actually its interesting to look at who was chosen to be under these sanctions. Experts that ive spoken to have said its really a whos who in terms of highlevel russian officials. Really prominent olgarks and, of course, the companies they control. But its also interesting to look at who wasnt sanctioned. You didnt have prominent figures connected to, for example, alpha group listed on the sanctions list which a number of experts were surprised by and you had dereposkov. And another that attended trumps inauguration. His u. S. Associates gave millions to Trumps Administration fund. In many ways this list was surprising. That doesnt make it any less effective, but it was an interesting look at how the state department or how the treasury is dealing with these new round of sanctions on russia. Carol, any sense of why the administration chose to act now . Well, if administration Officials Say this is this has been some time in the making. Theyve been pulling together this list for weeks if not months, and now theyre saying theyre doing this because of a number of different things. Its sort of a cumulative response to whether its the invasion of ukraine to meddling in the election. But in the phone call that senior Administration Officials did with reporters in advance of this, they really stressed that its that russias continued intervention in western democracies was a big reason for taking these steps. And frankly, these are the people in here on this list, there are some that are quite notable. Oleg dereposkov. Alexander torshin, someone who tried to set up approach the Trump Campaign about a meeting between the trump and putin who don junior met with briefly at a National Rifle association gathering during the campaign. And there also seem to be trying to target very specifically russian oligarchs and while not necessarily hindering the econo economy. Its an interesting approach and frankly one of the toughest theyve taken since President Trump came into office. Natasha, do we expect any sort of retaliation from russia . Its an interesting question. As of right now, the russians are theyre really angry about this move that the u. S. Took. Its not something that they can respond to semitrically like they could with the expulsion of the diplomats. We saw a titfortat in that and now we dont know what theyre going to do in response. But it is a very significant move that the Trump Administration took, and its one that, you know, of course, experts are always saying that it could be made Even Stronger if the president himself came out and actually put his own face to the statement. Put his own face to the words that he issued this morning when he was when he came out and blessed the sanksss essentially by putting his name on the statement. So this is definitely a positive move. This is a step in the right direction. But whether or not trump actually is willing to be the face of this is another question entirely. Carol, that goes to an article you wrote a few days ago where you talked about or wrote about the president s desire not to have his aides speak publicly about russia sanctions or any of the consequences that the country might face. Oligarchs, company, what have you. Do you see that position changing . And whats behind it . I dont think we have seen it changing. Whats behind it if you talk to people inside the white house, they say the president is conflicted. He wants to still have this better relationship with russia in part as one official told us just to prove that he can. And he also doesnt want to be seen as kind of appeasing his critics who say he needs to talk more tougher on russia. And so he doesnt want his aides sometimes to talk about these things and he certainly doesnt have anything really negative ever to say about vladimir putin. But theres a complete disconnect. If you look at the actual policies, they are tough and theyre getting tougher. Yet the rhetoric is not there. Particularly from the president. A president who has been known to engage in heated rhetoric from time to time. Correct. Natasha, any word from russia yet . The sanctions just a few hours ago. Have we gotten any response from the kremlin . Any response from some of the institutions or individuals who were sanctioned . We have gotten response from certain officials who say this is all an attempt by the United States to hinder competition between the two countries. But, of course, this is not something that should have come as a total surprise to them. The treasury issued a list in january, late january, of 200 russian of 96 russian oligarchs. 96 of them were on the list of forbes billionaires, world billionaires. This is something they should have been preparing for. Whether they actually thought that the Trump Administration would follow through on it is another question but it certainly did not fall out of the blue. Carol lee, good to have you here in new york. Thank you. Reports about epa secretary scott pruitt. Those reports keep adding up asking for sirens for reassigning people who told him no. But the president just offered a new defense of pruitt. Also that new reporting about the chief of staff wanting him gone. Plus parting thoughts. Republican Congress Trey Gowdy leaving office. Says he never really liked it in the first place. No, i dont like the job. To the extent men judge themselves based on what they do for a living, i dont have a lot to show for the last seven years. Wow. Also had some tough love for the Republican Party as it stands in 2018. And breaking his silence. President trump weighs in on Stormy Daniels for the first time. And now her lawyer says his comments may actually help his case. If you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, Little Things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. 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And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Environmental Protection Agency chief scott pruitt is facing a slew of ethics violations but still has his boss support. Do you believe the Fake News Media is pushing hard on a story that im going to replace ag Jeff Sessions with epa chief scott pru whoit is doing a great job but is totally under siege. Do people really believe this stuff . So much of the media is dishonest and corrupt. All this coming a day after the president sang his praises on air force one. I think that scott has done a fantastic job. I think hes a fantastic person. I just left i just left coal and energy country. They love scott pruitt. They feel very strongly about scott pruitt, and they love scott pruitt. Can also tell based on that interview that the president was taking in the first day of the masters. Just a short time ago, the wall street journal came out with this report. John kelly urged the president just last week to remove pruitt from his post. A few moments ago, before we came on the air here this afternoon, House Minority leader nancy pelosi adding her voice to the chorus of folks calling for pruitts resignation saying in part, quote, epa administrator Scott Pruitts tenure has been a part of the Trump Administrations culture of corruption, cronyism and incompetence. Pruitt must resign. Lets bring in rick tyler and political analyst and jason johnson, politics editor at the root. Also an msnbc contributor. Rick, let us remind our viewers and our sirius satellite listeners of just a few of the issues plaguing scott pruitt. 50 a night condo lease. His use of taxpayer dollars for private travel. His use of a special hiring authority. Spending on a soundproof phone booth. We just heard the president double down on his support for pruitt. But at this point, do we think that scott pruitt can actually stay on, even now especially considering john kelly seems to want him gone . I think john kellys job is more in danger than scott pruitt. This is one of the cases where donald trump likes what pruitt is doing at the epa. I like a lot of the things that pruitt is doing at the epa, but the optics of these things really are inexcusable. But it looks like the president is going to weather this one out. 23 ethics issues, jason. Huffington post reporting that scott pruitt right now facing at least 23 ethics issues. Does this send a message in washington that anyone is safe as long as they carry out the president s agenda . No, craig. It delivers even more Important Message which is anyone thats safe in washington, d. C. , if donald trump likes you. Seriously, thats how his personal doctor can run the veterans association. If donald trump has a personal relationship with you, not just a tweet, i like michael flynn, but if he has a personal relationship with you, you are generally not going to get fired no matter what you do unless perhaps theres a Domestic Violence charge. And i also say this because this notion that hes going to keep pruitt on because pruitt is pursuing trumps agenda with the epa. Trump doesnt really have an agenda with the epa. Hes not concerned about Environmental Protection issues or pushing back regulation. Scott pruitt is doing what many base line republicans want. Hes going to weather this storm. I dont think the presiden