million a year. we have to do something. and they transship. we're going to accept their products. but it's going to cost a lot of money from the standpoint of the transshipper. thank you very much, everybody. >> president trump in the roosevelt room at the white house surrounded by representatives of the steel and alum numb industries and key cabinet members, signing two proclamations announce 25g% tariff on imported steel and a 10% tariff on imported alum numb to take effect some 10 days from now. here on c-span, we're opening up

phone lines, getting your reaction, your thoughts on the trade tariffs or then tariffs on alum numb and steel are they good or bad for the economy? how about your community or your job? 202-748-8920 is the numb for democrats. 202-748-8921 for republicans. and for independents and others, 202-748-8922. we'll get to your calls momentarily. reaction on twitter first from the democratic lead ore they have senate, chuck schumer, tweets, the president and i may agree on trade but the slap dash way these tariffs were constructed has few of us cheering. i strongly urge president trump to rethink these tariffs and focus his policy more directly at china and countries that ship cheap chinese steel to the u.s. grover norquist of americans for tax reform quotes, tariffs are taxes, tariff os are taxes, tariffs are taxes, tariffs are

taxes on american consumers. your thoughts, we start with billy in new york. -- billy in north carolina. >> this was a good -- caller: this is a good day for the american people. we have been trying to get this done for a while. we have to protect the american people and the american people ourselves. we start protecting at home, we'll get stronger and stronger. that's biggest thing we need to do democrats, republicans, everybody, we need to take care of each other and this is a beginning of something very good , take care of our job the countries that don't like us, take our money but still don't like us. we need to protect everybody home, we can do everything among ourselves, take care of ourselves, all our people in the great united states of america and we can do that with stuff like, things like this host: you talked about home what about at home there in fwreevel, what impact do you think it'll have? caller: we're in eastern north carolina so we're kind of

eastern part of the state is behind the rest of the state, i'm talking about myself now, i've been here a long time. not talking bad about it but that's the way it goes. we had big strbak in the time but we lost that. i think it's just going to help, it's going to trickle down from when you take care of the big steel companies and the alum numb companies it trickles down to the aluminum people putting p side, putting up alum numb awnings, it trickles all the way through. it's time to take care of american workers. caller: thank you for that, billy. next, aaron in mancado, republican line. caller: i was going to say i love the president's plan on tariffs. fellow republicans have spoken about it, more backboned conservatives but if the economy was as easy to predict as some say we wouldn't be in this mess.

i love the outlook president trump has on trade and instituting these tariffs is going to help, especially the flyover states a lot of people, especially the democrats in d.c. have shut out. so i'm happy about this i think it'll help the economy as a whole. host: to our others line, new philadelphia, ohio, lloyd. caller: hi, how you doing. i am tickled with what mr. trump hand whoever helped him do this. i'm a staunch democrat but i'll tell you he's turning me around. i love the way he thinks. i've been saying this for years also. and i am totally for it. i was -- i'm a retired steelworker, i was president of the -- president of the union and this will bring our tax base up, awesome. thank you. host: how long has it been since you worked at the steel mill? caller: it's been three years

now. host: the president surrounded there by a number of workers from the alum numb and steel industry. a report from "the washington post," the headline online at washingtonpost.com says trump imposes tariff orns steel and alum numb but offers releaf to allies. they write that the tariffs, which will take in effect 15 days, initially will not apply to imports from canada and mexico so that u.s. officials can assess progress toward a new north american free trade deal. in racine, wisconsin, it's bill, excuse me, it's john on the others line. john, go ahead, you're on the air. caller: thank you, thank you very much. my concern is what he was saying about our security factor with the tariffs, how we were being treated unfairly by other countries. whether they were alliars not. now, i can understand you know, taking care of our workers and taking care of our interests.

my concern is, bhar we -- what are we doing about the russians? what are we doing about that security? why are we so concerned about trade when we should be concerned manufacturer about our own security and democracy when it comes to our elections. i don't understand why money and our security takes second place. money comes up first and it seems like everything we do, whether it's national defense that we go ahead and give other countries the munitions and armament they use, give away, we have to replace. or that helps the economy, or we have to just put aside that the russians were kmpmiesing our elections, whether they compromise the votes or not is questionable i pose to our commander in chief but i think most civilians, people who are been in the military or not, can understand there was some manipulation. it would be far -- a far stretch of the imagination to think that not a single vote was manipulated by the botts of

russia. those are my comments. host: all right, john, thanks for that. your calls and comments on trade tariff, etariffs just announced on steel and alum numb from president trump. 25% on steel, 1% on alum numb of you see number on your screen. some reaction from pete sessions who is the chair of the rules committee on the house side saying that while i understand the need to make sure we are engaged in trade deals that put americans first a broad set of tariffs would make american businesses less competitive and raise prices on american consumers. the president calling the previous deals an assault on the economy. will burr ross is the commerce secretary there in the room as the president signed those proclamations and the president saying that the tariffs were the result of a nine-month commerce department study on the issue. trenton, new jersey, is next up, bill, on our democrats line. caller: yes. hello? host: go ahead.

caller: i think president trump is dead on spot with what he's doing. import and export need to build up to strengthen our infrastructure which is greatly needed today. he's right on spot with that. i pray that we -- that men and women in the white house and all his staff are with him. god bless him, democrats and republicans, i'm a democrat myself and i tell you, this is greatly needed today. host: they used to have the slogan in trenton, new jersey, i don't know if it was on the bridge over the delaware river there was something that said trenton makes and the world takes. so do you think these tariffs will be good for manufacturing, for the steel or alum numb industry there in trenton? caller: i do. american steel needs to be rekindled and built back up again. he is right on spot with it. host: appreciate your call.

appreciate that. christmas valley, oregon, manley on the democrats line. go ahead. caller: hi. you know what's interesting, we have a steel mill here in yerg that's called oregon steel mill. that firm a few years ago was bought out by russian people and the new name of the company, it's still oregon steel mills raz. t's the letters eg now they also own steel mills in colorado and i'm curious if this is a payback situation, you know. because no money changes hands but the profits go to moscow. i just would be curious about that. had somebody look -- have somebody look into it and see how our president is dealing with this. i'm curious to see the funds are distributed on a company like

this. host: let's go to neighboring washington state. richard, republican line, go ahead. caller: wow. this is a long time coming. finally somebody going after working age jobs for americans. american workers have taken it on the chin while the global economy has grown for china, canada, and many of our allies. it's surprising to me that the politicians let this get so far out of hand already. i'm just really pleased that president trump went to bat for the working people of the country. some of our mills will get back to the capacity they should have been at a long time ago. too bad that allentown, detroit, and some of the larger cities that produced a lot of these manufacturing jobs took it on the chin so badly. it will be nice to see some of these jobs come back and maybe

some of the plants to reopen. host: i want to point this out, president trump mentioned this in his comments, pointing out a tweet from elon musk, this is from yahoo news, elon musk, the tess la head is siding with president trump on tried with china, citing a 25% import duty on american cars. let's get one more call from kenneth , in south bend, indiana. clip hello. host: you're on the air, keb net, go ahead. caller: well, i never voted, i was in vietnam when i was eligible to vote at 18 and i've never had too much pride in our government, but trump has done more than any president sense i've been alive. if he decides to run again, i'm going to break my tradition and go out and vote. that's all i got to say about it. host: appreciate you waiting on the line and getting thru, kenneth.

more of your calls tomorrow morning on "washington journal"," certainly getting under way at 7:00 a.m. eastern as it does every day here on c-span. coming up in just over 15 minutes, 20 minutes or so, we're going to take you lye to american university here in washington to hear from former national security advisor susan rice, that's at 4:30 eastern. just a bit later on, christine lagar, the managing director of international monetary fund in conversation on this international women's day. she'll be interviewed by opinion writer katherine rampel of "the washington post" coming up at 6:00 p.m. eastern. while we wait for the event at american university to get under way at 4:30, part of today's "washington journal" focusing on trade as a matter of fact. peter desk, a democrat from vermont. issue ofin with the guns, a lot of talk about