>> kimberly: he currently hosts the weekly radio show. happy birthday, uncle bob. we love you. >> dana: happy birthday to jamie. set your dvrs. never miss an episode of "the five." >> bret: president trump says tariffs are coming for steel and aluminum imports, sending wall street investors running for cover. we will talk live with a republican senator not happy with the ideas on trade or what the president said about guns. what would more gun control due to people who make and sell guns in the u.s.? we will explain vladimir putin says russia has weapons the u.s. cannot defeat. pentagon calling it bluster. this is "special report" ." good evening. welcome to washington. i am bret baier. president trump going heavy-metal tonight, imposing tough new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. it's a move he says designed to

protect vital american industries. critics say it will backfire, who hurt u.s. consumers and possibly ignite a trade war. john roberts starts us off tonight with another presidential move very few people saw coming. >> the timing of all this, the announcement took everyone by surprise. the white house hasn't figured out how this is going to work but the president was eager to get the word out. >> thank you very much, everyone. >> wasn't on his public schedule today, and the white house insisted an announcement wasn't coming until next week. today president trump unveiled punitive sanctions on foreign aluminum and steel. >> 25% for steel. 10% for aluminum. it will be for a long period of time. >> the ad lib announcement blindsided white house staff. the press secretary insisted it shouldn't be a surprise.

the president talked at length during the campaign about the impact of foreign metals being dumped into the united states. the stock market tanked on the news. at one point down more than 500 points. former u.s. trade representative senator rob portman concerned the president announced tariffs before any of the details were finalized. >> it depends what countries might be exempted, which products might be exempted. we don't know the details. i understand that's going to come out next weekend president at his comments today. >> portman agrees that tariffs are needed to protect steel companies and products essential to national security. republican senator pat toomey of pennsylvania said we should use existing laws to combat dumping. in a statement saying "changing course from this approach by invoking national security as a means of imposing new tariffs on all kinds of imported steel is a big mistake that will increase costs on american consumers, cost our country jobs, and invite retaliation from other countries."

the action is predominantly aimed at china witches dumping cheap steel products into the u.s. >> you like the tariffs we are talking about. you like the tariffs where they won't be dumping on our country. what they do is they don't massive amounts of product in our country. it kills, destroys our companies and jobs. >> the move may affect america's closest allies. canada declared any tariff against it steel would be unacceptable. britain said we are particularly concerned by any measures that would impact the u.k. steel and aluminum industries. one group that definitely likes the plan, the steel and aluminum company chiefs who met with the president today. >> we are convinced we will see very quick action, definitive action, and action that is meaningful and long-lasting. >> a day after the white house communications director hope hicks announced she would soon be leaving the white house, shooting down reports the national security advisor

h.r. mcmaster was on his way out the door. the white house saying there are no personnel announcements at this time. >> bret: we will follow it. thank you. markets did not take the tariffs news well. dow plunged almost 600 points before closing off 420. s&p 500 down 36. nasdaq lost 92. deirdre bolton of the fox business network joins us from new york to telus may be what all this means. good evening. >> good evening, bret. markets closed near their session laws after president trump said the u.s. would place a 25% tariff on imported steel, 10% tariff on imported aluminum. one strategist told me if you own a steel mill great. if you don't, you are out of luck. steel and aluminum among the only ones that closed higher in today's session. many see the president's plan is a strike against china analysts say china floods the world's markets with cheap metals. the trick is we buy metals from

allies such as canada and japan. cautioning against creating a backlash. the president's plan exceeded by a few percentage points the most aggressive levels the commerce department had included in the study last spring. industry leaders voiced concern, including the head of the motor equipment manufacturers association. metal tariffs hurt american manufacturers that you steel and aluminum which means americans are going to pay more for everything from cars to beer which is sold in aluminum cans. potential trade wars also threaten american exporters. an american firm can lose access point blank to a foreign market or american goods are taxed so heavily in retaliation that lost money and lost jobs follow. american farmers with a lot to lose. they sell tons of soybeans to china. american distilleries sell lots of bourbon in europe. answering his critics,

president trump has implied the benefits of new trade limits will outweigh the costs. the president has said he would not sign the formal order until next week. officials are saying companies and countries can petition for exemptions to the new policies. this may be president trump's way of starting negotiations. >> bret: see where that goes. thank you. there were some positive economic numbers out today. governments as real disposable income was up six tenths of a percentage point. biggest increase in more than five years. consumer spending also rose as incomes shot up. weekly applications for jobless benefits hit a 49-year low. the white house is not commenting on reports jared kushner's former company procured hundreds of million of dollars in real estate loans after kushner met with ceos from apollo global management and citigroup. a spokesman for kushner's attorney says mr. kushner has met with hundreds of

businesspeople during the campaign, transition, and in the administration. to hear ideas about improving the economy. he said no role in the kushner companies tends joining the government and is taken no part of any business loans or projects with or for the companies after that. the downgrade of kushner's security clearance provided another opportunity to stop democrats taken a swing at the son-in-law. >> i don't think he should have been there to begin with. especially with the portfolio he had. the president doesn't place a high value on experience, knowledge and judgment. he just, i guess, it's people he knows and trusts. >> bret: sarah sanders called kushner a valued member of the of administration. president trump has opened the white house to extensive and often live coverage of some of his meetings, as we saw yesterday in the cabinet room. tonight chief national correspondent ed henry looks at

whether the president's open mic policy shows effective leadership over something else. >> collect president trump unplugged. offering the kind of transparency to negotiations that sent shivers down the spines of washington insiders but delights his supporters. >> i will take the heat. my whole life has been heat. >> in january, the president riffing on immigration. using off-the-cuff humor. this week come around two. president free associated on gun control in a way that delighted dianne feinstein over the possibility of a bipartisan deal. it alarmed republicans like pat toomey because the president accused g.o.p. leaders of not going far enough on enhanced background checks because of fear. >> you are afraid of the nra. >> a reminder of the political

risk with such a rare transparency in a meeting like this which president obama found when he opened up a 2010 health care roundtable to cameras and showed off his mastery of policy details but also looked thin-skinned. >> let me make this point, john. we are not campaigning anymore. the election is over. >> i am reminded of that every day. >> president trump set off alarm bells on the right with comments on guns that left feinstein cheering and republicans like john cornyn looking like he would rather be in a dentist chair. >> take the firearms first and then go to court. >> feinstein today was still gushing about the meeting while cornyn could not downplay it more. >> the question is will he stick to what he said yesterday? >> this was what i would call a brainstorming session. we have a lot of different ideas. >> january when the president said he could accept a clean bill on daca without border

security. house majority leader kevin mccarthy quickly intervened to put a stop to it. as of today, there is still no deal on daca which may be an indicator of what happens on guns. >> bret: thank you. as we said, not all republicans on the same pages president trump when it comes to tariffs and what he he said onn control. nebraska senator ben sasse has some serious problems about what the president has been saying. thanks for being here. let's talk about steel and aluminum. you have a real problem with what the president announced today. >> trade is great for america. it's great for american families. no trade war has ever worked. we don't want to make america 1930 again. the forgotten men and women of america don't want to be drafted into a trade war. it doesn't work. trade creates jobs. trade lowers prices for american families. trade wars do the opposite. >> bret: your statement was read to sarah sanders today.

>> i don't know that the president will or should have or apologize for american workers. certainly not to senator sasse. >> the president ran on this. he feels strongly about it. when i talk to him, its workers, ranchers, farmers. wages and jobs. the president's objective is we have to give more jobs back to america. reduce the deficit. that will ultimately put pressure on wages. >> bret: do you believe there are countries that are dumping steel? >> there are. there are laws we should use for dispute resolution. here's what happens if you start down a trade war path. if you own a steel mill, today was great for you. if you consume steel, and every american family at the store bought something that has metals in it. today is a bad day for you. when the trade war gets worse, there's going to be retaliatory tariffs against the farmers and ranchers america and the

producers and the workers of america. we're going to lose as consumers and producers. >> bret: to explain to people at home, there are countries who charge more for steel at home and then put their steel in the u.s. at a lower price which then burdens those companies. if you talk to the states where they saw many, many jobs leave, a lot of those states donald trump won by 55, 60, 65%. they are saying why not repatriate the american supply chain and do it here. >> what trade has done over the last decades, it's driven down prices for american consumers and created jobs. there are all sorts of challenges with what china does but what that requires is that we engage more in asia pacific not pullback. >> bret: this president has already said, he ran on it. he wasn't going to be in the tp tpp. and he ran around the country on this platform. the country elected him. for people who say why doesn't that matter, how do you respond? >> this is leftist economic

policy. we tried it a bunch of times over the last two centuries. every time, american families have suffered. it is bad policy. i get that the president ran on this but there's a whole bunch of issues, once he got in the white house, he started listening to advisors. his regulatory reform agenda has been great. this trade policy will be disastrous. >> bret: the other thing you have a concern about is what he said about guns. basically due process. he has since, the white house has since walked back that and said he wasn't talking about affecting the second amendment. you kind of jumped on it put out a statement. >> here is what america means. it means we believe rights come to us from god via nature and government exists to secure and protect our rights. government doesn't give us rights. when you say something like take the guns first. grab the guns first and later we will have due process. what that means is government's first and hopefully you have a bureaucrat you trust to decide what rights you have.

that's not how america works. american citizens have the whole bill of rights available to them and in the cases of people who are deranged or have committed crimes, then we do due process and take away certain privileges they have. >> bret: do you think there is a possibility of getting something on school safety and guns out of the congress? >> i think yesterday you saw david french issue a proposal that the white house was paying some attention to. didn't get a lot of play in yesterday's reality tv governance meeting they did. david french was talking about gun violence restraining orders. there is interest in that. in the cases of people with mental health problems, we should do something to make sure they can't get access to weapons. that needs to happen via due process, not through some bureaucrat who gets to preordained who gets what first amendment and second amendment rights. >> bret: understanding you don't like what he said at the meeting, there were a lot of people loved at the meeting on immigration and the meeting on

gun control say it's open. he has democrats and republicans throwing out ideas. why is that so bad to be talked about in a negative light as reality tv? >> transparency is great but you don't try to rewrite the constitution shooting from the hip. i think that's what you saw yesterday when you saw dianne feinstein giddy, ecstatic about the idea that there will be new gun ban in america. >> bret: you know that's not going to happen, senator. you are there to prevent that from happening in this president isn't going to push that, is he? >> i am excited by the fact the white house today said a bunch more truly american thinks about the bill of rights and what rights american citizens have. yesterday in the meeting, the tape is the tape. if you say you are going to grab guns first and worry about due process later, that's not something you give your listeners and viewers a lot of comfort. >> bret: you are characterized as a senator critical of this president. you, senator flake,

senator corker. fair? >> i don't think so. pundits love to job on -- jump on issues. i am principal by principal. >> bret: let's go down the list of his accomplishments. tax reform. neil gorsuch. >> wonderful. fighting for the judges. he has nominated great judges. >> bret: most federal appeals court judges. >> chuck grassley is not a great process. we set the all-time record. >> bret: permit for the keystone pipeline, other energy moves. >> regulatory formed by this president has been strong. >> bret: 860 obama regulations suspended. the u.s. embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. military crackdown on isis are usually seen as forcing to retreat from iraq and syria. >> a lot of progress. >> bret: withdraw from the paris climate agreement.

>> yes. >> bret: and force the redline and syria. "wall street journal" op-ed says the only good thing about donald trump is his policies. fair to say there are a lot of things this president has done that you are definitely supportive of, but how he talks about that or his communication of it and how he comports himself, you have a problem. >> no, that's not my problem. i am the second most conservative senator by voting record and 1 of 5 people in the u.s. senate has never been a politician before. we need disruption. the city doesn't work. one of the great things about the president as it us an opportunity to look at business as usual things that don't work. i supported the vast majority of what he is done. judges chief among them but at the level of basic civics, we have a crisis that the next generation doesn't understand the american idea. 41% of americans under age 35 tell pollsters they think the first amendment is dangerous. on the left you have all bunch

of people disinterested in religious liberty. bowling tells us that you have a bunch of people disinterested in freedom of the press. the freedoms of the first amendment, they are bundled up as one thing. we are not doing a better job of civics. when you say things from the bully pulpit of grab the guns first and deal with due process later, that doesn't help solve the civics problems. my concerns are about passing on the american idea of a free republic. at the level of policy, there's a bunch of stuff i'm doing to help the administration and i applaud a lot of it. >> bret: we appreciate your time. rob next, putin shows off his nuclear powered missiles. should you be worried. here is what some of our fox affiliates around the country are covering tonight. fox 5 in new york. equifax says personal information was impacted by last year's data breach.

the company says the additional consumers have their names and personal driver's license numbers stolen. that brings the total number of americans affected to 148 million. fox 2 in san francisco. police released body camera video. officers firing their weapons at least 65 times. police spokesman says no one was hit by the bullets. the suspect eventually turned himself in. live look at st. louis from fox fox 2. the big story there, prosecutors say they do not have the picture at the heart of a felony case against the governor. they plan to get it. republican eric reitan's charged with taking a compromising photograph of his mistress. he has admitted to the affair but denied any criminal wrongdoing. the story from missouri. that's tonight's live look outside the beltway from "special report." we'll be right back.

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♪ >> bret: russian president vladimir putin says he has new weapons the u.s. cannot defeat. he says he is not bluffing. the trump administration, the pentagon, is not impressed. rich edson has the alarming specifics from the state department. >> new nuclear powered missile. invincible against missile defense. all according to the russian government. video animation shows this missile cruising around international defenses headed toward the west coast of the united states. standing in front of that video on boasting of the claimed advances, russian

president vladimir putin. >> translator: no one wanted to speak with us constructively. no one has listened to us. you listen to us now. >> at the annual state of the nation address, putin unveiled other claimed russian advances. senior state department official says it was deeply unfortunate to watch a video depicting a nuclear attack on the u.s. and that it is not the behavior of a responsible international playe player. >> we don't think it's responsible. we don't think that kind of imagery, the portrayal in a cheesy video of that kind of attack being conducted on the united states as being a responsible action. >> as for the reality of russia's capabilities, to u.s. officials say it's touted new missile is still in development. these weapons that are -- have been in development a long time. >> our nuclear posture review takes this into account. >> putin delivered these threats in the hall less than three

weeks before the election. while president putin challenge the west, candidates permitted to oppose putin debated. the president of the eurasia group tweeted "putin has grain missiles, no question. he also leads an economy smaller than canada's. the u.s. should not be overly distracted by a putin election speech." as russia supports rebels fighting the ukrainian government, the state department has approved $47 million in arms sales to ukraine. 210 antitank missiles and a significant boost in legal aid. >> bret: rich edson, thanks. breaking news about the investigation into one of the fbi surveillance of the trump presidential campaign was granted under false pretense. catherine herridge is here. exclusive information. >> the letter to jeff sessions obtained today by fox news, the

republican chairman of the house intelligence committee says the surveillance warrant. carter page appears to be a clear violation of fbi rules for submitting evidence to the fisa court and may violate criminal statutes. citing the fbi's internal rules and procedures the letter reads in part "the accuracy of information contained within fisa applications is of utmost importance. only documented and verified information may be used to support fbi applications to the fisa court." the letter questions how the trump dossier compiled by christopher steele meets the standard for the original application in october 2016. justice department has until march 8 to explain whether the rules have changed. house panels republican chairman devin nunes went further and told the attorney general but the use of false and unverified information security surveillance warrant would be a violation of multiple criminal statutes, including conspiracy, obstruction of justice and contempt of court. >> bret: thank you.

up next, one gun control means for the people whose livelihoods depend on guns. first beyond our borders tonight. top united nations aid official says the five hour delay in fighting in a suburb of serious capital are not working. comments, as russia accuses syrian rebels of showing the humanitarian corridor it has established. activists say government air strikes and shelling killed nine people today. german chancellor angela merkel shocked many in our country when she acknowledged the existence of so-called no-go zones. she says germany must do something about them. the notion their places in the country were outsiders including police cannot safely visit has previously been dismissed by officials in germany and in france. major winter storm closing airports and stranding drivers much of europe. several deaths being blamed on

the unusually cold, snowy winter weather. some of the other stories beyond our borders tonight. we will be right back. plus...what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i made a point to talk to my doctor. he told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots. eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. eliquis had both... ...and that turned around my thinking. don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. if you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily... and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop.

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♪ >> bret: alarming news about what happened in the early moments of the law enforcement response of the florida school shooting. fox news has learned the commanding officer on the scene apparently ordered some of the initial responders to stage and set up a perimeter outside instead of immediately ordering or allowing officers to rush in to neutralize a suspect. the broward county sheriff office policy states the top priority is to enter a building to preserve life. the office says the case remains active and it will not comment further. state law enforcement and legislative officials are investigating. with all the talk of new gun laws, tonight we take a look at what that potentially means to the people whose livelihood

depends on firearms. correspondent doug mckelway reports from upstate new york where one gun maker is facing a very difficult choice. >> the town is nestled in the finger lakes region of new york five hours and a world away from new york city. it's here that tom runs his business just right carbines. the son of a man who is antigun coming he is a gifted gun manufacturer. his semiautomatic has 44 ports. simple, reliable, accurate. he sells 75 a week but these are stressful times. >> 2013 i was at the show in las vegas and everyone is fine on monday. tuesday morning when i woke up, my gun was illegal. >> the passage of the safe act was heralded as one of the strictest in the country. >> mentally ill people,

criminals, should not have access to guns. you should limit these high-capacity magazines. >> come believes many restrictions were arbitrary and random. it meant lost business in new york. the safe act mandated no changes to the working parts of the weapons. >> the same function, same operation, same caliber. they just looked different. >> one of the sponsors told fox news these are not cosmetic changes but are features that enhance one-handed shooting on rapid reloading recap abilities that no sportsman needs. the ever-increasing cost of compliance has driven many gunsmith's out of new york. remington, in business here since the 19th century, relocated to alabama. beretta pulled out of maryland. car arms move to pennsylvania. so far, farnoli is resisting.

>> moving the business probably isn't going to happen. >> farnoli asks, will more laws work when existing ones didn't? countless red flags ignored and government institutions failed. >> what they take away will never come back. >> democrats in the new york legislature proposed new gun control measures that the senate blocked. >> bret: doug mckelway, thank you. georgia lawmakers have voted not to grant atlanta-based delta airlines a $50 million fuel tax exemption. republicans were outraged when delta decided to cut ties with the national rifle association. they dropped an earlier and then went to the budget that would have renewed the tax break. president trump has already called the opioid abuse epidemic of crisis. today the administration brought together a wide array of people determined to do something about it. correspondent kevin corke has more from the white house.

>> we are with you 100%. we are fighting for you, and we're going to win. >> today president trump made it clear that as fights go, this one is only the first round. >> if you want to be we can talk about blue-ribbon committees, that's not the answer. you have to have strength and toughness. >> the gathering, a follow-up to last october when the president declared the crisis of nationwide public health emergency. >> as americans, we cannot allow this to continue. it's time to liberate our communities from this scourge of drug addiction. >> the white house has embarked on a comprehensive plan to tackle the problem. education and prevention, treatment and recovery, law enforcement and introductions. the latter produced the justice department's first ever indictments against chinese functional manufacturers. national take back day. a record 456 tons of expired and

unaided pushpin drugs collected. critics have accused the administration of doing little to change the lives of those impacted. a spokesman writing "actions speak a lot louder than words. with people's lives on the line each day, transactions say he does not take this crisis seriously." to some the opioid battle as a political one. the crisis has had a disproportionate impact on rural americans. and often overlooked part of the electorate that helped propel the president office. or in the case of states like new hampshire and minnesota, nearly did. >> where you have the highest levels of abuse is exactly where his forgotten men and women liv live. they are going to say yes, good for my man donald. he is paying attention to the problems my neighbors have. >> for contacts, and 2016, president trump lost new hampshire by fewer than 3,000 votes.

he came within a percentage and a half of winning minnesota, state that last went red in 1972. >> bret: thinks. president trump says he is ready for a 2020 fight. but who will he be fighting? we will list some of the possibilities next. are defined by the things we share. and the ones we love. who never stop wondering what we'll do or where we'll go next. we the people who are better together than we are alone... are unstoppable. welcome to the entirely new expedition. big thinking in the finger lakes is pushing the new new york forward. we're the number one dairy and apple producers in the eastern united states supported by innovative packaging

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>> bret: it has been a while since we have seen that animation. this week we learned president trump has named his campaign manager for the 2020 election. we have less certainty about the other side of the ticket. tonight peter doocy looks at some of the possibilities for the democrat nomination battle. >> the early search for a democrat who could beat trump is scattershot with dozens of names in the mix. >> we have built two or three new hotels. i think we are going to need them leading up to the caucuses. there are going to be a lot of

candidates. >> the obama era throwbacks, joe biden's first among democrats in a recent quinnipiac poll. obama has said he thinks former massachusetts governor duvall patrick would be a good president and longtime attorney general eric holder is talking himself up. >> i think i have the guts. >> the next category, the establishment. virginia's former governor terry mcauliffe told "the washington free beacon" there is nobody better than to take on trunk than him. california governor jerry brown isn't ruling on a run. andrew cuomo is testing out attack lines while borrowing his slogan. >> we are going to make america america again! >> if the party wants a progressive, there's plenty in the senate. there is bernie sanders, kamala harris, elizabeth warren, kirsten gillibrand. cory booker. >> i am up for reelection in 2020 as a senator and i will be

there. >> if mayors motivate the base, there may be three. formerly the mayor of new orleans, eric garcetti from los angeles. others, celebrities like oprah, george clooney, even the rock. >> would you run? >> seriously considering it. >> former missouri secretary of state jason kander, former hud secretary, john delaney, seth moulton. >> it doesn't necessarily mean they are running this cycle but with day -- why not think about it? >> that group of democrats reveals nobody knows what the base is going to look like. that's why the new hampshire chairman tells me he thinks the split is going to wind up being

generational because democrats are going to have a choice between candidates in their 30s and 40s versus i -- some in their 60s and 70s. >> bret: thank you. follow-up on last nights story about extravagant spending of the department of housing and urban development. undersecretary ben carson. we learned that the purchase of a dining room set priced at $31,000 has been canceled. white house press secretary sarah sanders says the department will look for what she called an option more responsible. president trump says he wants big tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. republicans howell. the market tanked. followed from the meeting on guns is picking up steam. we will talk about that with the panel when we returned. with advil's fast relief,

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♪ >> any country that devalues their currency in order to take advantage of the united states and its workers will be met very, very sharply. and that includes tariffs and taxes for their goods coming into the country. we will be imposing tariffs on steel imports and tariffs on aluminum imports and you're going to see a lot of good things happen. you're going to see expansions of the companies. 25% on steel and 10% for aluminum. it will be for a long period of time. >> bret: president announcing tariffs, not making it official until next week. the markets got spooked by all of that. a lot of people were surprised it came out today. when it comes to steel imports,

the united states is the world's largest steel importer. 26.9 million metric tons of steel imported into the u.s. in 2017. here is the interesting thing. if you thought this was all about china, the top ten sources of steel imports in the u.s., they are not china. number one is canada. brazil, south korea, ten of the top 12 are allies of the u.s. aluminum, china's number three. canada, 43%, the number one exporter into the u.s. of aluminum. what about this and where it heads? let's bring the panel. mike allen, cofounder of axios. katie pavlich, mo elleithee. my, there's a big battle on this issue. the president campaigned on it. shouldn't be a surprise.

but rolling it out like this was. >> it was a surprise, not just to the markets. it was a shock inside. i can't overstate how unusual it is for white house aides, a couple hours before a big presidential event, to have no idea. this tells you how they think compared to how the president thinks. they were telling us he can't do this. the paperwork isn't done. the president has been saying he wants to do this. axios has reported, saying bring me my tariffs. this is a president getting what he wanted and the chart you showed is part of the argument that aides have been making to delay, try to put it off, buy some time. >> bret: gary cohn is one of those pushing back. has a supporter eight in wilbur ross in converse, robert lighthizer and he campaigned on it. some of the states affected. >> the administration is gambling on the idea that the ends will justify the means.

they know it's a big risk. shows that tariffs aren't always good for the united states, and not when it comes to putting taxes on our allies. this might be about china. we need to find ways to punish them. they steal our intellectual property, they cheat on the economy. a number of people of pushback on the way the president is going about this but i think we have to give it time. this is a president who has blown things out before. people have panicked. issues statements of combinatio condemnation. this is a big risk for the administration but will have to wait and see. >> bret: robert lighthizer and senator sasse earlier. >> the response that we are going to start a trade war is nonsense. we have a very, very imbalanced relationship with china. the president is beyond engage. he cares about jobs and wages. politics never comes up. when he is not thinking about jobs and wages, its wages and jobs. >> trade is great for america.

trade is great for american families are no trade war is ever worked. we don't want to make america 1930 again. lee forgotten men and women of america don't want to be drafted no trade war. if you own a steel mill today was great for you. if you consume steel, and every american family at the storage might buy something that has different metals in it, today is a bad day for you. >> bret: this is 2 for 2 for democrats when it comes to gun control and this issue. how does it stand? >> i don't know you will find unanimity and the democrats on this. there are democrats who support free trade and who are nervous about a trade war. i thought senator sasse's point was interesting. if you are a steel manufacturer, you are happy. if you are a steel consumer, hold on to your horses. things are about to get rocky. the last time we had one of these, in 2002 when president george w. bush imposed tariffs on steel, we sought not

just threats of retaliation from the e.u. on the american agricultural sector. american farmers ought to be sweating right now. but you also saw manufacturing plants that are consumers of steel put out reports talking about how they had to lay off 200,000 american workers and jack up their prices. there's going to be a lot of political alliances for and against this. >> bret: tariffs in the bush administration lasted 21 months. they were pulled down for that very reason. threats of retaliation. does this go through? does this see a lot of resistance on capitol hill? >> the important thing to watch, and you're 12 countries there tells the story, over the next week, there's going to be a ferocious battle in the west wing and elsewhere for which are going to be the carve outs.

president did this. if you are against it, you consider it a crime of opportunity. the president had a couple aides who were for it and they pushed it through. now they will try to sweat it out, do we take out canada, europe? it's going to make a huge difference. >> bret: you can almost hear the phone's ringing on k street. get over there. i want to talk about guns and we have a montage, some of the sound from the past day and a half. >> the president said a lot of things right yesterday. in similar meetings we have been disappointed in the past. >> i will take all the heat you want to give me. i will take the heat off democrats and republicans. >> that cannot happen on guns. >> i know that if the comprehensive bill came to the floor on background checks, it would win. >> there are things that have widespread bipartisan support that we can act on and get past. >> a week will go by. another week, another week another week.

people will be on other things. we can't let that happen. >> bret: the president has gotten praise for these open meetings. the one on guns yesterday really raised some eyebrows, especially from the nra and gun supporters. >> i don't know where to start. for the president to sit there and punch the nra in the nose multiple times, while downplaying their importance, saying he doesn't necessarily need them and then for him to have dianne feinstein, senator dianne feinstein, she was jumping for joy out of her seat, resubmit her ban on a number of semiautomatic weapons. i have talked to a number of nra members saying we are willing to give the president a pass on the number of things but the second

amendment and caving to the emotions of this, the do something attitude, when this was a failure at the local level in the federal level. it's a redline for us. >> bret: i am cynical on the political thing. the positioning of dianne feinstein could be trouble for her. how close are you to donald trump? there's all kinds of plays. >> i don't know if this plays into primary politics. i am old enough to remember when one of the number one talking points against barack obama and hillary clinton and bill clinton was the democrats are going to come and illegally seize your goods. yesterday the president of the united states sat there and said seize the guns first. due process later. a republican president has gone further talking about illegally seizing firearms than any democratic president has. >> bret: mike, ten seconds. do something get done? >> it does but minimalist. the calculation is that whatever credit republicans would get for

going further on guns than they have in the past, they would pay more of a price with their own people. it's going to be a couple things. nothing like what the president was talking about. they told him that around the table. they said "not this time." >> bret: that was 12 seconds. thank you, panel. when we come back, a first for firster ladies. including sinus congestion and pressure. claritin-d relieves more. .

i want you to pick a new truck for your mom or dad, knowing that they could possibly pass it down to you one day. cool. but before you decide, you should know that chevy silverado's are the most dependable, longest lasting full-size pickups on the road. which means that ford f-150s are not. (laughs) which truck would you pick? the chevy. the chevy. the chevy. there you go. boom. that was obvious. plus it looks cooler. no doubt about it. now they know what to get me. (laughs)

>> bret: finally tonight, a new first lady's exhibit is officially open to the public in dallas. former first lady laura bush was part of that project. >> walk right in the front door and here is one of my dresses to start with, of course. this is eleanor roosevelt who was one of the most active first ladies. she said she would be the president's ears and eyes. one of my very favorite first ladies right here my mother-in-law. she was, of course, loved and admired first lady but admired really for her care taking. we want the whole show to be more than just the style of first ladies.

and the gowns they wore. the real idea is how influential first ladies ar are. >> bret: it's a great exhibit. you can check it out in dallas. thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. that's it for this "special report," fair, balanced and unafraid. "the story" hosted by martha starts right now. >> martha: hey there, bret. good to see you. breaking tonight, president trump defiant about trade and royaling the market. new insight tonight as to why as we watch a tale of two presidencies and two white houses. one is a white house under siege. the other plowing through an aggressive agenda. so while veteran reporter karl bernstein and others paint a picture of of a white house in chaos. >> there is now a subtext that people in the white house will say to you. it is unclear to them whether donald trump can effectively govern. whether is he capable of it in terms of his own abilities and whether or not