Alike. We have to believe that at some point common sense will prevail. But we see no sign of that in this action today. And still all good on the jobs front. 223 jobs added in may. But should the president be previewing a strong jobs report an hour before its released . And signed, sealed and soon to be delivered. A top north korean official heads to the white house today to hand over a letter from kim jongun. All signs suggesting that the june 12th summit is back on track. I will tell you, weve made Real Progress in the last 72 hours toward setting the conditions. Power of the pen. The president says that he may extend clemency to two celebrity felons after pardoning right wing pundit dsouza. He just wanted me to be out there to be a bigger voice than ever defending the principles i believe in. We begin this morning with the trade war. Triggered by the white house and now inviting threats from the United Statess closest allies that could end up costing American Consumers and u. S. Businesses millions of jobs and billions of dollars. The president says he is trying to make things fair but even many republicans are saying his way of going about it is a huge mistake. I have a great team to break all of it down. But first, i want to explain whats going on here. New steel and aluminum tariffs have been in place for about nine hours. Already u. S. Allies are threatening to push back and to do it hard. On thursday, the white house said it would allow tariffs to go into effect against canada and mexico and of course the european union. The white house is arguing it is a matter of National Security and that it is protecting the United States workers. But officials denied the decision is part of a larger trade war. Are you sparking a trade war with these new tariffs . I think the president s protecting american aluminum and steel. These are blips on the radar screen. I dont think they change the fundamentals of relationship. A blip to a billionaire like wi willbur ross maybe. Heres the thing, you would not know that from the reaction besides those two gentlemen. Heres what our allies said. Let me be clear, these tariffs are totally unacceptable. Its totally unacceptable that a country is imposing unilateral measures. Unfortunately, the worst Case Scenario was presented which is imposing tariffs on your allyings. Okay, but lets say youre not a world leader. Why should you at home care . According to the chamber of commerce, the administrations trade policy could threaten as many as 2. 6 million jobs. And even if your job is not impacted, your wallet certainly could be. According to the conservative leaning American Action forum, the tariffs the president is imposing will raise import costs for u. S. Companies. If the companies past those expenses on to customers, which they usually do, it will cost americans 7 million bucks. That is before our allies impose their own tariffs. Canada says it will impose tariffs on nearly 13 billion worth of american goods. Everything from steel to toilet paper. The eu says it will tax more than 7 billion worth of goods like motorcycles, bourbon. And mexico have plans to put tariffs on everything from pork bellies to fresh fruit. Many republicans, theyre furious, insisting the administration is doing far more harm than good. Pat toomey called it bad news. Orrin hash says it will harm americans. Ben sass, he called it dumb. Lamar alexander said it was a very big mistake. Everyone from paul ryan to the Koch Brothers have come out in opposition to the tariffs. The Editorial Board went as far as to say mr. Trump is treating United States allies worse than he treats adversaries like russia and china. Now, why would he do that . The editorial also says President Trump risks undermining the United States economy. Although you wouldnt know it by todays job number. This morning, the Labor Department is reporting the economy added 223,000 jobs in may, far more than expected. Unemployment fell to 3. 8 . And black africanamerican unemployment at its lowest level since the Labor Department started tracking it in 1972. Those are some good numbers. Bottom line, the economy may be the best thing the president has going for him. Heres my question. Why risk blowing it up, sir . Amman jabers, washington correspondent. Brendan greely, the editor of the Economic Research note. All we know so far. And bob torricelli, a former democratic senator from new jersey. Amman, lets start with you. I want to break down the numbers because its a very good jobs report. But i really want you to dig into the wage number. Because we were at full employment a month ago, six months ago. Lets talk about where we are now for those who need raises. I think youre exactly right. To spotlight that, weekly raises, hourly wages, were both up in this report. Thats a measure of the quality of jobs. The overall jobs number is something we Pay Attention to in politics because it affects the american political landscape. More than just the number of jobs, peoples frustration is about woehether or not they themselves are doing well. Whether or not they are advancing in their careers. And those wage numbers we saw this morning are important for that psychological boost for American Workers to feel like, you know what, ive got a quality job, not just any old job. And were also seeing the number of available people out there in the labor pool, thats coming down. A lot of people who werent working are now working. The people who are working are seeing a boost in their wagings. Thats all to the good of the economy, stef. And getting wages higher, both very big positives. The president , he certainly wanted us to Pay Attention. At 7 30 this morning, he sent out this tweet, looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8 30 this morning. Lets talk about why thats valuable. I completely understand why the economy is a win for the president. But to send this tweet out one hour before, it becomes public, the number couldnt be taken more seriously in washington and wall street. So the security around these numbers is incredible. Where amman just was in the lockup, ive been there before. They take away your cell phone. They put you in a room. You dont have access to the internet. If i were to before 8 30 text my wife and say the job numbers look good, i think im going to be home late, i would never work in financial journalism again. These numbers are so tightly guarded. Its not just the top line number, its all of this detail about Different Industries that are tradeable. If you can get that information early then you can make a decision in financial markets. Traditionally, the president gets that number the night before. Thats exactly right. But weve never seen a president make any comment. I reached out to the sec this morning. Saying hey, boys and girls, you care about this . And theyre declining to comment. At 7 oovt7 21, we didnt see ae action change but we saw volume change. People at home are going, who care, the president is excited about it, he wanted people to look ahead. I understand that sentiment. But the president is also taking action that could impact trading. Millions, possibly billions of dollars. Its in keeping with everything the president does. Deeply unprecedented. Deeply suspect. And yet very effective. Were all sitting here talking about the jobs numbers. They were good but we were primed to be looking at them because we knew they were going to be good because he told us. No president before this one has made as much of a big deal out of individual Economic Data, right. This is a president who also he dumped on that data while he tweets about production numbers. No president has talked about Industrial Production numbers before. Often the jobs numbers look really good. In addition to the good numbers, he has a habit of cherry picking Economic Data and putting it in his tweets to make things look better. He uses the numbers that work for him. Joe, whats stunning to me is the economy is chugging along. Why would the president make such an aggressive move on these tariffs against our closest allies . The eu, canada and mexico . I love my avocados. Well, you know, he has threatened china a number of times, and chinas basically threatened him right back. He wants to show that he can do this. Its terrible policy. I mean, name one thing in the last year and a half that hes done thats actually helped the economy. You cant. Hes got the wind at his back the entire time. I dont know if i would say that. I mean, deregulation at the very least or the threat the fact that companies no longer fear massive regulation, theyre spending more. Consumer confidence, business confidence, is up. Theyre actually not spending more. You take a ill give you a little example. The Export Import Bank of the United States has basically been shut down by the obama administration. They cant get a quorum. They cant back up loans. There are companies all over the United States that can no longer export goods you mean trump administration. The trump administration, im sorry. Can no longer export goods because they cant get financing from the Export Import Bank. That matters. That would create jobs. I mean, he loves this tariff stuff because it allows him to push other countries around. To show that the United States is the big boy. And he claims that theres an unfairness there. But the truth is that these economies, mexico, canada, the United States, are so intertwined. The Automobile Industry alone is so intertwined between the two countries. If you start messing with tariffs, you actually could really do serious damage to the Auto Industry. No doubt. Heres, senator what wilbur ross said yesterday. These are blips in the radar screen. I dont think they change the fundamentals of relationship. Everybody has spats every now and again. Every family does. Every country does with others. Theres nothing weird about that. I think everybody will get over there in due course. Get over it . What do you think, senator . If we all agree, not an interesting conversation. Im not going to be in the position of how trump governs or handles himself. But i dont think it is fair to say theres not a problem. I agree with you. This cannot go on, the United States having half trillion, 700 billion deficits. It is not secure for the United States to let the chinese have 3 trillion worth of foreign currency. There is a National Security problem. And we can all make fun of them about the fact that ourporting. A great power cannot only make 55 of its steel, must have a Steel Industry for mobilization purposes and National Security. Donald trump may take it too far. He may be inartful. He may act like a clown. But it is not fair to say there is not a fundamental problem there. Its great that the president is taking this head on without a doubt. Is he doing it in the right way . Im inclined to agree with you, senator. I think that there was absolutely a problem with china. And there has been for two decades. The genius of the Trump Campaign is they recognized there was deep anger about the way we traded with china for a decade and a half. We saw that, we recognized that. As soon as we saw the union voting numbers come in on election night. The problem is the way were going about it is by angering all of the allies whose help we need in addressing the very real problem of the way china trades, the way china supports its own industries with its own state controlled banks. The way china steels intellectual property. The way china overproduces on steel. They hallowed out american manufacturing. Germany is not the problem with american manufacturing. The political problem here is this should have been done through multilateral organizations. In concert with our allies. I believe youre talking about tpp and the president pulled out of that. But heres the problem. Loving bill clinton as i do and barack obama, we didnt. We didnt. Boom. Hes absolutely right. We didnt. Wait a minute, donald trump did not parachute into the white house. He got there because of a set of political and economic circumstances. And this is one of them. And ill Say Something to your representing the entire journalistic class of america now. If i hear one more reporter talk about how this is a violation of free trade and steel and protectionism. There is no free trade and steel. The chinese make 55 of the steel. And 12 of the world economy. Its government policy. Dont tell me were violating some sacred right. Were not. I play my tamborine to the senators hymn. Were so mad at china, lets punish those canadians. Theyre really going to hurt us on a National Security level. Its ridiculous the way you approach this is to punish mexico and canada who are not only staunch allies but have basically helped our economy even as weve helped their economy. Okay, hold on. Amman jabbers, i want you to weigh in. Bob is 100 right. What china has done to us for years is a problem. And good on the administration for wanting to go after them. Though you could argue the way theyre doing it makes absolutely no sense. But what is this administrations rationale for lumping in canada and mexico . Look, the president of the United States is making a huge political bet here. Hes betting that the benefit to the domestic aluminum and Steel Industry are going to outweigh the cost that youre talking about in terms of the increase in prices for American Consumers, the damage to u. S. Relationships with some of its allies, all of the damage to the free market and the potential for a tariff escalating war in terms of a trade war with some of these other countries. Those damaging, the president is betting, is going to be less than the benefit of having more jobs in the domestic American Steel and aluminum industry and to the centsenators point, thi administration argues very much you have to have a domestic aluminum and Steel Industry for National Security purposes. If there should be another world war, major catastrophe, the United States has to be able to produce steel and aluminum here at home. Except of course, robert, to you, there are more companies that use style and more jobs relying upon that. Thats right the National Security argument. Lets stay on National Security. The United States has a navy of 250 ships. 250. During the cold war it was 500. It used to be more than 1,000. What if certainly in the age of putin and the age of china today you wouldnt argue that it is impossible in your lifetime there could be another mobilization if there was a russian move into europe. Not impossible, right . Whats your plan . How is it you intend to defend the United States if steel has to come from japan . Its an ally but you got to get it here. From germany. Its an ally but you got to get it here. This is a great nation with enormous responsibilities. Has to be able to mobilize economically. We cant. The administration produced a compelling document that said everything youre saying and in a dition if we want to be able to make the high quality metals that we need to be able to make to make jet fighters, we need a broader industry to support that. The problem, again, is intent matters. And execution matters. Do we have a problem with chinese overcapacity and steel . Absolutely we do. But throwing out a tariff of 15 when the one industry thats doing well is the Auto Industry . All right, it is, let me tell you something. I dont believe in cults except the elon musk cult you know what let me tell you something, when i pick up the newspaper, giving the chinese trade advantages, 25 tariffs on a tesla getting into china and you need a 49 partner and you have to share electric Car Technology were not about to go down the elon musk negotiate with china. You dont punish canada. We do negotiate with china. Thats the deal they put on the table. Okay, you know what, we have to leave it there. Were going to commercial. Good news, elon musk probably agrees. If he didnt, hed give you a no rating and shut you down on twitter. You know elon musk, why dont you just run a tight company and you wouldnt have to worry about journalists. Up necxt, an nbc news exclusive report. The russia investigation shines a spotlight on someone new, a close friend of Jared Kushner. Later, President Trump hints more pardons might be on the way including for Martha Stewart and former illinois governor. Its going to be interesting. Late nights jimmy kimmel has his own theory. He part pardoned a far right man dsouza. It sounds like somebodys putting together his own oceans eleven team or something. He lowe on our rooms, guaranteed . Lets get someone to say it with a really low voice. Carl . Lowest price guaranteed. What about the worlds lowest limbo stick . How low can you go . Nice