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WH Touts Trump's First 100 Days Achievements; Ivanka Trump Faces Rough Reception In Germany; State Department Removes Mar-a-Lago Blog Post; President Trump: Everything In Government "Involves Heart"; Trump Starting A Trade War With Canada. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired April 25, 2017 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:30:00] JOHN KING, INSIDE POLITICS HOST: -- campaign promise among these laws. But, yes, he has signed 28 laws. The White House points to this. Twenty-five executive orders signed by the President. He's been very busy doing that. More today. That's a number bigger opinion President Obama, George W. Bush or Bill Clinton. The question again is what do they do? Some of them roll back regulation. Some of them months from now and years from new might have a big impact on the economy. Others defer campaign promises like asking for studies on trade issues and things like that.

This is the 100-day agenda he promised to enact or fight. These just the partial list. The President said he would enact or fight for these initiatives in the first 100 days. Repeal and replace Obamacare, tax reform, border wall funding, infrastructure, new trade tariffs, label China currency manipulator. That was supposed to happen on day one. And the common core education standards. None of this has been done. None of it. At best you would have to say incomplete to the President or as Chris Christie, his friend, the New Jersey Governor says, maybe a "b."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I'd give him a "b" and I would say the reason i give him a "b" is first and foremost because of Neil Gorsuch. And I think getting that done and getting it done in the way that he did with someone with Gorsuch's integrity in his record is going to be something that will well survive his presidency.

I also think some of the things he's done by executive action have been very good on the regulatory side. And I can see even in New Jersey that businesses are responding really well. You know, and I think that some of the implementation and some of the ways that his staff has served him has not been extraordinarily good. And I think, you know, they've got to get their act together in that regard and serve the President better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This is a big part of the conversation this week. What is the grade? And President Trump like all presidents is kind of in the eye of the beholder . If you're a big supporter especially in these early days, you tend to stand by them and we've seen that. He's held in base -- held as base. If you're Democrats, you go through that list, you go back and you say nothing. If you look at the top promises, the things he promised to either get done or at least push for action in the first 100 days, he's got none of that. So what's the verdict?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go ahead.

ABBY PHILLIP, THE WASHINGTON POST: I mean, I think he is pretty confident that he's done a great job as he is with a lot of things. But there's also some clear signs that he's really frustrated that he has not gotten to a few pet issues specifically tax reform. Like late last week he was talking to people on the outside who were basically telling him you've got to get something on the table, you've got to put something on the board on tax reform and the next day he declares it's going to happen on Wednesday. And so, whether his staff is ready or not, the President wants something on the table for an issue that's really important to him.

Health care he was really anxious to get it out of the way so he can move on. There's some clear anxiety coming from the top filtering all the way down about some really big issues that he think is sort of congesting his administration in the very early stages.

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: They would make the argument certainly about, you know, that the executive orders that he had signed are -- prove that he's moving toward the place that he wants to get to. We all know that some of those things didn't work out. Obviously like the travel ban did not go well for the administration.

But there are some other executive orders that have to do with the EPA and rolling back the regulations that the Obama administration put in place. That his supporters do really appreciate. Also, you know, on trade. So there is some --

KING: He signed the -- I don't mean to interrupt but some of those -- even some of those haven't been implemented yet in part because you've got to write new regulations and then probably because they don't have people at the agencies to do the work. You can sign a piece of paper that says roll back Dodd-Frank and some agency has to roll back Dodd- Frank. I'm not saying it won't happen. It won't be significant down the road. But some of these things are just pieces of paper still at the moment even though they could some day be important.

MATT VISER, THE BOSTON GLOBE: That is like a good salesman, you know. And he -- that's been one of his strengths. I mean, even -- he would sell the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City as state regulators are trying to close it down or as bankruptcies, you know. So I think we're seeing him try and put the best possible spin on what has happened. But, you know, looking at the checklist of things that he hasn't done, there's a significant amount there that he still needs to draw attention to.

JACKIE KUCINICH, THE DAILY BEAST: So I really don't think you can diminish the importance of getting Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. Chris Christie said it there and it was a promise that he made to a lot of people who weren't sure about him. A lot of these people really liked Mike Pence frankly, and they trusted Mike Pence to make sure that, you know, Donald Trump stayed on the straight and narrow. So the fact that that got done I think put -- really put a lot of people at ease who -- that was one of the most important issues. And one of the reasons they hit the button for Donald Trump.

KING: And may be bought him some time with the base that might be saying where's the border wall funding. Might be saying why didn't you label China currency manipulator. Maybe because he has one very significant accomplishment. He gets a little grace on others.

I think it was Abby who mentioned the President is pretty confident about himself, right? He's not someone who expresses a lot of self doubt.

Here's what he told our friend Julie Pace to the Associated Press last week about his 100-day. He said, "When the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi left from Iraq, he said Trump has more success in eight weeks than Obama had in eight years. We have had tremendous success, the President said, but we don't talk about it. We don't talk about it."

[12:35:07] We don't? He's very humble.

VISER: Classic Trump moment.

KING: It is a classic Trump moment. Let's look -- you mentioned Neil Gorsuch. Let's look at some of the highlights from the White House perspective in the first 100 days. He did nominate and confirm a Supreme Court justice. That's a big deal. He bombed a Syrian air field. The administration says that sent a message, critic say what's the strategy.

He has wrapped up immigration enforcement. No border wall yet but all these raids and all these enforcement I think does had a signal. They have changed things there. A federal hiring freeze, I think that has expired for the most part. Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines Greenlit, those are moving forward. We did say he was going to withdraw from TPP and he did that even though it was kind of (INAUDIBLE) completely late in the Obama administration.

So there are some things here. You know, again, they did not repeal and replace Obamacare. He did not give his tax reform proposal before the Congress even though were get outline tomorrow. He did not get any common core education center speculation (ph). The big things if you go back to his Gettysburg speech, these are the things I will do and fight for in 100 days. That part of it is bad. But there are other things.

VISER: The other thing is to look for, is he growing or learning, you know, as a new president. Because he did come in with no government experience. So I think you give him a little bit of benefit of the doubt, but you want to see, you know, some growth and how he's changing and learning how to deal with Washington.

And, you know, it hasn't -- he hasn't changed the swamp yet, you know and I think that's another thing that his supporters --

PHILLIP: We have a unified Republican government right now.

KING: Right.

PHILLIP: Republicans have the House, the Senate, and the presidency. They ought to be able to do some things. I think that's why the expectations are so high.

KING: And I think to your point, does he grow. The issue on which he has not succeeded so far is convincing the ideological folks in his own party, conservatives and the moderates, I'm the president, we've got to make a deal, I need things, it will good for you at the end. He doesn't make that cage.

Everybody sit tight. Fascinating day today in Germany for the first daughter Ivanka Trump on defense for her dad after a tough reception.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:41:03] KING: Welcome back. You could say it's a daughter's job to fend the family but that task becomes a little more complicated when your dad is President Donald Trump. Ivanka Trump debuting overseas this morning as the White House adviser and finding herself fighting off jeers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OR DONALD TRUMP: He's been a tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive in the new reality of --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You hear the reaction from the audience.

TRUMP: I think in my personal experience and you were asking me about my role as a daughter and also adviser. As a daughter, I can speak on a very personal level knowing that he encouraged me and enabled me to thrive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Ivanka Trump got a chilly reception after the event telling reporters, "Politics is politics as I've learned." Another question from reporters, was that moderator too tough? Ivanka's answer, "I'm used to it."

The message from the first daughter, this is now part of her new day job. But there are still many questions. Here's two. When she speaks, which job is he actually doing? And which of her father's men interests is she keeping an eye on?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To whom are you representing? Your father as the president of the United States, the American people or your business.

TRUMP: Well certainly not the latter and I am rather unfamiliar with this role as well, as it is quite new to me. It has been a little under 100 days, but it is just been a remarkable, an incredible journey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Tough debut.

RESTON: I think that's the question, though, it's interesting that she got it, that a lot of people have about her role in the White House. She is what, you know, people say is the closest that he has to someone who will tell him to back down or back off even if he doesn't take that advice. But -- I mean, I think she is still figuring out how to define her role. There are moments when she's been in the Oval Office, then stayed there for three hours.

People say her father is much calmer, you know, and that the discussions go better. It's just going to be interesting to see that evolve over here. And she's going to have to expect to take tough questions if she's got that title in the White House.

VISER: It's also interesting to see her out speaking. You know, you see her a lot. She's -- and we know, you know, that she's very influential. But usually she's sort of sit sitting next to her father. She's out there more. I mean, she's not on Sunday shows yet but, you know, I mean, she's doing being more of a spokes woman for the administration which quite frankly is probably a good things for them. I mean, she says things quite well and she's very articulate. She had a good debut at the Republican Convention but since then we hadn't heard a lot from her.

PHILLIP: But this is the part about Ivanka that always complicates the situation for this administration. She is a little bit different from her father. When she spoke at the Republican National Convention, other people listen to that speech and they said, well, that could have come out of any Democrat's mouth. And it doesn't really reflect, you know, the man who was being nominated for president United States.

So she's in a lot of ways of paradox. And for people to take her seriously there has to be some merging of those two things at some point, where her views and her father's actions come into line.

So far we just haven't seen that yet. And we saw it again today where she's talking about something that people are looking at and saying well, we don't see that from President Trump.

RESTON: But we do know that she and her advisers, you know, are reaching out to Democrats on the childcare issue, that she plans to step up her role on that and get it, you know, get some kind of policy into the budget later this year. So we may see a more policy oriented Ivanka coming up, but --

KING: But if her dad can't get Freedom Caucus votes on health care, can the daughter get Freedom Caucus votes on a government mandate of childcare? It's a government mandate of child care. And her last name also is Trump. KUCINICH: Yes.

KING: And one of the questions of this administration was, and this is the 14th week and 12 of the weekends, President Trump has been to at least one property that bears his name. Ivanka Trump still has, even though she's divested some stuff, put some stuff aside, her name is still Trump.

[12:45:12] One of the issues as she travels to Germany and gets the rough reception is the State Department was embarrassed yesterday. They had to pull down a blog posting and we can show it to you. This is from ShareAmerica. It was also posted on embassy websites overseas, "Curious about the President's winter White House also known as Mar-a-Lago?"

Trump is not the first sitting president, you know, and this is a graphic of the web posting. If you look at the posting itself, it has a picture of Mar-a-Lago and it goes on. Now they pulled it down. The intention of the article was to inform the public about where the President has been hosting world leaders. It sure seemed like an ad.

(CROSSTALK)

RESTON: -- a little bit there.

KUCINICH: Yes. And it's a private club. I mean, I know Ivanka stepped away from businesses, but it doesn't help for appearance sake when she's sitting in on some of these foreign leaders including President Xi and all of a sudden they get patent, approved in China.

KING: And that's a holding (ph) brand.

KUCINICH: Exactly. And so things like that, whether or not anything wrong, anything happened, the appearance of impropriety.

RESTON: Is a trademark issue.

KUCINICH: Exactly. Wholly. And -- so that's why that question by that moderator was completely valid. Is she there to represent her businesses? That's a question.

KING: And I want to read you something from, again, back to the Associated Press interview with President Trump. He says, "Here, everything, pretty much everything you do in government, involves heart, whereas in business, most things don't involve heart." He's talking about the issue of health care coverage.

"What's the switch been like for you?" He says, "In fact, in business you're actually better off without it." Meaning, as a CEO of a business -- and again, let's be fair. And he's talking about -- what he's talking about is their access to health care. And as a CEO, you're saying, you know, I have to cover my employees, what's the best deal I can get? How much does it cost? But it's interesting to hear him say in business you're better off without it.

VISER: Well, I think -- and people -- if you talk to people close to him, it's -- the transition from businessman to politician, and nobody sort of fully expects him to make that full transition. But he is also making a transition from a privately held company into a publicly held government, you know. And so, he hasn't sort of gotten used to that transparency. The differences in being a public figure in charge of a public organization in the United States government.

KING: And I think the fact that he's gone 12 of the 13 or 14 weekends to a property with his name on it. That is his answer to the ethics watchdogs who say you need to separate yourself more from this. I think that's his answer.

We'll see how it plays out as we go on in all of that. That is it. So up next, President Trump talks tough on North Korea, Syria, and now Canada? Yes, the trade dispute with the United States neighbor on the north.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:51:50] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can't continue to allow China to rape our country. And that's what they're doing. Chinese taking our jobs, our money, our base, our manufacturing.

What they've done to us is the greatest single theft in the history of the world. The greatest abuser in the history of this country rampant theft of intellectual property.

A currency manipulator. They break the rules in every way imaginable. I have many friends in China. They agree with me 100 percent.

We have lost all of their respect. They think we're run by a bunch of idiots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Most of you probably remember that. Welcome back. China was candidate Trump's favorite whipping post. He vowed as you heard him there to label them a currency manipulator. He said actually it would be on day one. Well, he didn't.

Now President Trump has adopted what you might call this approach to cracking down on trade. Keep your friends close and your enemies across the border but not the border you might think. The President started off this week by slapping tariffs on imported softwood lumber from Canada, the great white north. Canada says it will sue.

The two nations normally chummy relationship isn't in such a great place right now. Wilbur Ross is the president of Commerce Secretary (INAUDIBLE), "It's been a bad week for U.S.-Canada trade relations.

Let's go back in the room. I covered the Clinton White House and the George W. Bush White House and these were constant issues. This is not a new issue. The softwood lumber issue in particularly, the dairy issues from time to time, back and forth, the issue is the Canadian government subsidizes some of these products from the U.S. perspective. So it's not a new issue. The question is, you know, the President seems to be almost happy to publicly pick a fight with Canada.

PHILLIP: Well, he needs a new enemy to put on the table. I mean, he really does need China's help with North Korea, so he's kind of put that issue aside and he needs someone else to take his place. This is how he has always worked. You have to have someone who can be the bad cop to your good cop and show so that -- he can show that he's fighting for the American worker. It's kind of a smart issue for him because this is actually something that a lot of Democrats are very supportive about.

The Democrats who represent Wisconsin are very happy about Trump talking tough on this dairy issue. It's not as clear -- it's not a partisan issue in the clearest sense. And as you mentioned, a lot of these tensions began going way far back into the '90s. But even in the Obama administration, in the last 18 months, they've started to make some noise about some of these issues.

KING: And the diplomats kind of are aghast like you're not to publicly chastise Canada, agreed (ph) from the north. But to your point, if you're a dairy farmer of Wisconsin or if you're in a lumber business across the prairie (ph), you think there's a president talking specifically about the things I care about.

RESTON: And that was the promise during the campaign, right? America first. So this is an issue that fits into that particular framework. So I think that, you know, we will see -- there will be a series of things that Trump does here, particularly if he's not happy with his 100 days coverage. There may be small fights but that get a lot of attention and make it look as though he is helping the people he promised.

[12:55:03] KING: They had a meeting -- I just want to bring these pictures, they had a meeting at the White House, obviously, President Trump and Prime Minister Trudeau. They were here and said things, you know, they promised that things are going to try to workout great. There's no questions Prime Minister Trudeau have a different political bend than President Trump. But they did have a nice meeting here and they both talked very highly of one another.

We're talking about during the break Ivanka Trump spent some time going to the theater with Prime Minister Trudeau. But the President tweeted this just today, "Canada has made business for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other border states very difficult. We will not stand for this. Watch."

VISER: We've not heard as much about NAFTA, you know, with negotiations but this does seem like the opening bid in trying to negotiates some aspects to that. A lot has been focused on Mexico. Now he's, you know, turning his focus to the north to a nicer neighbor typically.

KUCINICH: And I believe Trudeau responded with something calming the temperature or saying something like we'll continue to, you know, work with United States.

RESTON: I mean, they'll always going to get mad at Trump for like -- for going after Canada, right?

KING: We'll keep an eye on that one in the second 100 days. Thank you for watching "Inside Politics. See you back here this time tomorrow. Wolf is up right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. in New York. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

We begin with breaking news. More travel --