What is he going to do about it . Hes already tweeting about it this morning. Also speaking out, a former playboy playmate details her alleged affair with the president. If Melania Trump is watching this, what would you want her to know . What can you say except im sorry. We begin with big changes at the white house. Signaling that President Trump is itching for a fight. Ditching advisers that urge cooperation in favor of those who are pushing confrontation. The implications for the president and the nation could be huge. John dowd, the attorney who urged cooperation with muellers investigators, is out. Also out, h. R. Mcmaster. In his place, the president has named john bolton, an outspoken war hawk. Lets bring in the panel. Bill krystal. Andrea elrod. Retired colonel jack jacobs. And Michael Allen is the managing director for Beacon Global Strategies and served on president bushs National Security counsel. Guys, welcome, good to see you here in washington. Axios is reporting Something Interesting this morning. The wording of it is really what got me. That donald trump is bringing on john boldin because he feels he will deliver, quote, the Foreign Policy the president wants. Particularly on iran and north korea. What do you make of that, the Foreign Policy the president wants . I think theres a lot of truth to that. I think well see at least two strategies very soon. One, the iran deal. I expect we will ramp up the asks we are making in the ad addendum to the deal. Number two, i dont expect this summit to go off or i dont expect there to be any real breakthrough with north korea. Think were finally going to see the real maximum Pressure Campaign that President Trump wants. Bolton is a very tough lawyer, very efficient and will force through many of the sanctions the president wants. Colonel jacobs, bolton has been accused in the past of interpreting intelligence the way the Bush Administration wanted it interpreted, the way he wanted it interpreted. When you hear those words deliver the Foreign Policy the president wants, are we talking about another situation which could be the means justifying the ends . You know, its always a bad idea if youre running an organization to surround yourself either with people who are not very good or almost worst, people who agree with you on absolutely everything. So any mistake youre going to make is going to be magnified. Its extremely dangerous to do that. You need people around you have who decenting voices who are thoughtful. The National Security adviser has a specific job to serve both the president and nation and, in doing so, cull away information that comes from a wide variety of sources, suggest National Security objectives and ways to achieve them. Its Something Else again to have somebody who agrees with you on absolutely everything. Youre talking about dissenting voices. You have bolten who is calling or has call form preimtive preemptive strikes on iran and north korea. Trump, while he was campaigning, called on not interfering in everybodys business and not being the police of the world. Not being out there focusing on the economy here at home. Listen to what he would say on the campaign trail over and over. We will stop racing to topple foreign and you understand this foreign regimes that we know nothing about. That we shouldnt be involved with. This destructive cycle of intervention and chaos must finally, folks, come to an end, come to an end. Adrian, what do you make of that . Donald trump doesnt want to get involved when hes on the campaign trail but he is surrounding himself with a number of hawks. I guess you would call it a shift in Foreign Policy. At least the way he ran on the campaign trail, but youre exactly right, he ran as somebody who was trying to get us out of these war, some of these conflicts. And now hes hired somebody who is the extreme version of being hawkish. Its hard to really figure out what his strategy is here. It seems he is surrounding himself with people who have a more interventionist view on Foreign Policy. Bill, ill get to you in a moment, but we alluded to this at the top of the hour. Weve got breaking news on the on omnibus bill that was passed. Trump tweeted just a few minutes ago he may veto the bill that would avert a shutdown. Lets bring in peter a lexen der at the white house with more. Peter, whats going on . This is a stunning development, perhaps not surprising, given the president , his past behavior. Just yesterday from this white house, we heard that the president will sign this omnibus, that it funds his priorities. But the president now going against what we heard from his own advisers as early as this morning. Heres the tweet, he writes, im considering a veto on the omnibus spending bill based on the fact that the 800,000plus Daca Recipients have been totally abandoned by the democrats, not even mentioned in bill. And the border wall, which is desperately needed for our national defense, is not fully funded. A couple fact checks on that. He refers to 800,000plus daca resippants. The number closer to 900,000. This is significant to recognize. Because he has to sign this by the end of today to avoid a Government Shutdown. The senators, lawmakers, they are out, they wont be back until monday for whats called a pro forma session. Theyre not back for legislative work until april the 9th. So this throws a wrench into a conversation that appeared to be concluded. The president , as you can tell with this move, obviously trying to make a political statement here, trying to say im the one that was looking out for Daca Recipients. Most americans paying attention to this for a while know where the facts lie on this. If he really were concerned about daca recipient, he would have supported dealing with daca independent from anything else. Thats obviously not the move he chose to make. The president trying to earn some political points by suggesting hes the one looking out for dreamers in this country. Katie. This is a perfect example of the president of questioning whoerns you take seriously the president on twitter. Is this something people should worry about, that he might veto this bill . Or is it just politically posturing in order to get some attention and to claim that he is the one that really wants to protect daca . Katie, you make an important point there, about what the president says on twitter. This is the way he likes to publicly vent. He likes to make a show on a lot of topics. Consider two headlines youre focused on this morning. The shakeup on both inside and outside the west wing. Just 11 days ago, the white house excuse me, the white house said publicly no plans. The times reporting of the shakeup in the team is wrong. Then we saw he brought in the man named digenova and the other resigned. Then a week ago today, the president said there were no changes coming in terms of National Security. He said there are no changes at the nse. Then today obviously were covering the fallout from h. R. Mcmasters departure and boltons arrival here. So you make an important point. Nonetheless, its interesting to watch the way the president s head works on things like this and the way he thinks he can turn this equation around in his favor. Its all a reality show. Just those two exam peoples are the most recent ones. But if you go back, theres many examples of this white house saying one thing and then finding out another only days later. They wonder why they have a credibility problem, number one. Bill what do you make of this . If the president say hes not just shouting off on twitter and he doesnt actually mean he might not sign this, what happened . The government would shut down at midnight unless senators and congressmen can return and pass a continuing resolution to keep things open. It makes it hard to believe hes really going to veto it, especially since he said yesterday he would sign it. About half of republican senators voted against it. This is really a clever way, perhaps, in the trump universe, to signal to conservatives this isnt his thing. A little distance from republicans on the hill i think going forward, that will be trumps strategy more and more, especially if republicans lose the house. You can easily see trump in 2019 triangulating, attacking republicans on the hill almost as much as democrats on the hill and thats his style. Thats what he does when he was campaigning. Right. He thinks it worked then. The fact youre actually if youre mcconnell or ryan, you see this tweet, you think, oh, my god, i twisted arms to get this thing through partly for the administration with assurance he would sign it. You probably have a miniheart attack. I am surprised how republicans go back and end up trusting him. Well, hes the president. He is the president but hes also the president that campaigned against republicans and campaigns against democrats and has thrown them under the bus time and time again. So what do you do when youre a republican lawmaker . Why embrace him if you cant trust him . Im with you. I wish they trusted him less. Look, he just fired his secretary of state and his National Security adviser. He replaced john dowd who wanted to accommodate mueller with digenova who accused the Justice Department of conspiracy theories. And yet safeguarding mueller. Dont worry, he wont fire him. How confident are we of that . He just fired his National Security adviser. Steve bannon yesterday said the Trump Administration is going to war against mueller. You think people should listen . On this, he probably understands the president s thinking pretty well. Maybe they could have done something this week to signal it is unacceptable for the president to go after mueller. Ive talked to republicans this week who says no, weve been told by the white House Counsel nothing is going to happen so dont worry about it. I went through the twitter feed this morning. They do trust the president too much, theres no question. Lets talk about the lawyers and the shakeup. Digenova is in, dowd is out. Bannon says this is donald trump going to war with robert mueller. In 2018, i said this the other day, its just getting its going to be 2017 on steroids. Its going to be trumpier than 2017. I think youre absolutely right, katie. We reported last night what this means in terms of the shakeup on the legal team is theyre preparing the way for the president to get ready for a mueller interview, which is what we know john dowd spent blood, sweat and tears avoiding. He wanted it to be very calculated. He wanted questions they could respond in written answers to. We are in a totally different zone with this legal team. With joe digenova, hes going to let the president be unleashed to speak to mueller. Which really could end up were all shaking our heads, it sounds like the last thing you want. Theyre going to discover that muellers demands are unreasonable and theyre not going to speak to mueller and theyre going to fire mueller. Are they going to continue to go on the attack, the way theyve gone on the attack . I should introduce you. Julia ainsley. Im ready to jump in. I appreciate it. You face is so ubiquitous now, you dont need an introduction. Will we see more of the president s legal team going after mueller . Why did dowd come out over the weekend and trash mueller and the investigation only to resign . I think the key between the trashing and the resignations is when john dowd walked it back a little bit. We saw it go further with the daily beast. Then everyone said thats just my opinion. I think the president didnt like that he walked that back. He wants somebody whos going to stick to that. Joe digenova has already done that on cable news. Hes saying this is all a conspiracy theory. He doesnt want that white shoe careful lawyer anymore. Its crazy if we go back through dowds history on this legal team, hes the one who took that fall when the president tweeted he knew flynn had lied to the fbi. John dowd took the fall time and time again. Made it look like he was the one blundering to cover up for the president s blunders. Joe digenova might just own it. Theres also reporting in vanity fair that Donald Trumps friends had been, quote, stoking his desire to go on the offensive for months. That muellers probe is a, quote, coup detat. Why would you listen to friends over lawyers . Why bother to have a legal team . Exactly. What we just saw the breaking news about trump and maybe vetoing the omnibus, this is why his legal team does not want him talking to mueller. You never know whats going to come out of his mouth. He could say one thing one day and Something Else completely different the next day. Hes not credible. You cant trust what hes going to say. You dont know if hes going to Say Something that is incorrect. That hes actually going to go in there and lie. Thats why the legal team does not want him going into a conversation with robert muler. Is this an admission trump is the kind of forest in the trees, you know, its so much chaos, so much craziness, you kind of get obsessed with each day, zig and zag. But underneath it hes been consistent in certain ways. Both in what he would like to do in Foreign Policy. Finding people who will accommodate that rather than stop him. I think h. R. Mcmaster we will learn from misstorians probably presented a lot of foolish things from happening. The one thing hes been obsessed with from the beginning of the presidency, the mueller well, the fbi investigation and then when comey gets fired the mueller probe. What does he want to do . He wants to stop it. Wants to impede it. Limit it. At the end of the day, he wants to stop it. I think that will override hell have faints in one direction or another. But hes been pretty consistent on that and i dont see why he wont go ahead the reason not that hes foolish, the reason hes scared of what muellers going to discover. That is what i wanted to point out. Is this basically a tacit admission that the Mueller Investigation is legitimate, is valid, can potentially find things . And the only real strategy that donald trump and his legal team have is to discredit them and hope that this plays out in their favor in the court of Public Opinion and that there is not any criminal action taken against them . I think youre right. We always talk about how the lawyers are worried that he would commit perjury but i think theyre worried he could tell the truth. Theres a lot of things donald trump could say about his trip to moscow in 2013, about his emails, i mean, theres so many questions that could put him on the spot. Were entering this territory where hes getting anxious and he wants to surround himself with friends rather than competent advisers. Were heard his former personal lawyer, who isnt as experienced, but hes been a longtime trusted friend and lawyer to donald trump and he would want to surround himself with somebody like that now as its getting closer to this point. Going back to the omnibus. Bob corker who has been at odds with the president a number of tiles and also embraces the president at other times is tweeting please do, mr. President. I am just down the street and will bring you a pen. The spending levels without any offsets are grotesque, throwing all of our children under the bus, totally irresponsible. Hes no doubt going to read that tweet. Hes no doubt going to be influenced by that tweet. Maybe he will be some of his closest supporters on the hill who voted against the bill. Tom cotton, a lot of conservative senators. The democrats did get a lot on this bill. Trump can veto it on both conservative spending grounds and be nice to Daca Recipients grounds, i suppose he thinks its a win for him. In the real world, there will be chaos here. Trump isnt adverse to chaos. Most of us think if the governments going to shut down in less than 24 hours, you probably should sign this bill that got passed basically 2 to 1 in the house and senate thats just oldfashioned thinking. Have we ever had two shutdowns in one year . Youre asking the i dont know that off the top of my head. Because youre here and because i want to get your take on bolton, because you do know him so well. Hes very hawkish on russia. When he goes in, theres a number of questions. When he goes into the white house and is the National Security adviser, is he going to change trump on russia or is trump going to change him on russia . Hes changed everybody on russia. Thats determined i think to be pretty nice to putin. John bolton has written critically and hawkishly how would he respond if donald trump had the phone call he had with putin while bolton was there . I think bolton understands what hes getting into and he knows the National Security adviser helps the president make policy and i think well end up with trumps Foreign Policy, not john boltons. I think mcmaster really i mean, i have friends who were on the never trump side, no one should go to work for this president. Theres some truth to that. But i think h. R. Mcmaster did a service for the country. He replaced michael flynn. Think about what the world would look like. Lots of people are worried about bolton. People are worried about bolton because although hes been in government for a long time, he hasnt had a job at this level. Hes always had a boss. If i were putting together a government, i would want john bolton in it actually, because hes a useful troublemaker and pushes the edge on certain things. Im not sure id want him in charge of the National Security apparatus. Everyone whos close to the situation has a high regard for what mcmaster did. They could have arranged things in the Defense D