i'm going to ask you -- >> felony friday? >> felony friday. what tunes are you going to be spinning tonight on the beat? >> you know, that's a big question. other than your new album, we like kendrick lamar a little bit. >> very good. >> what do you think of kendrick lamar? >> great. great. who do you have on the show tonight? do you know yet? >> i do. i think what i'm most excited about is we have my old boss, floyd abrams -- >> oh. >> talking tact emp ining about conference on leaks with jeff sessions. >> thank you so much. sunday 8:00 a.m. ari starts at 6:00. weekdays on msnbc. that does it for us for now. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks so much, mika. good morning. i'm stephanie ruhle with a lot to hit today. starting with president trump. answering to the report that special counsel robert mueller impaneled a grand jury in front of a friendly, friendly crowd in west virginia. >> most people know there were

no russians in our campaign. are there any russians here tonight? any russians? >> trump's attorneys saying they hope this speeds up the process of clearing their client. >> we have no reason to believe the president is under investigation here. >> and just out, a strong jobs report, 209,000 jobs created as president trump takes credit for the market surge. we'll dive deep into the jobs report in just a moment. but first that explosive new reaction this morning to "the wall street journal's" latest report, special counsel robert mueller impaneling a grand jury investigating possible links between russia and the trump campaign. you're in luck, the best team of reporters and analysts to break it down. my friend petr alexander outside the white house. peter, love the shot you took last night. the rainbow over the white house.

is the white house feeling like there's a rainbow looking over them this morning? >> reporter: clear skies here today p today. i think they're feeling a little better. the president was enthusiastic last night, a coordinated, spirited attack by white house officials xwroup heard from his daughter-in-law, laura trump, you heard from the governor of west virginia. then the president came out as the main act and basically dismissed again this entire russia story as in his words a total fabrication. i spoke to his outside attorney john dowd yesterday who says they have no reason to believe that the president himself is under investigation. here's the statement that we received from ty cobb. he's the attorney inside this white house. here's what he had to say. he said we favor anything that accelerates mr. mule ears work and remain committed to fully cooperating. mr. comey told the president at least three times he's not under skre investigation and we of e hard nothing that would change that. the only concern at the white house is that this be done as fast and fairly as possible. again, the president went on the offense, attacking not just

hillary clinton, saying it's she who should be investigated but also going after democrats in general saying this is all a fabrication because democrats lack any message and any vision here. the president gets prepared to take off for his bed minister property, a working vacation for more than the next two weeks. this white house does feel like as evidenced by the president's remarks, it is going to push back on this as aggressively as it can. >> summer vie case acation in n jersey. that is music to my ears. bloomberg news white house reporter shannon petty piece and my panel, i'm psyched for this one, msnbc political contributor and politics editor at theroot.com just back from california, jason johnson. "new york times" reporter kate kelly, back from a family trip in ohio. shannon, you were in d.c., you cover the white house. what are sources telling you about how the trump administration is digesting the grand jury news?

how do you even say, oh, oh, untrue, when this is happening? >> i remember back to the may time period and talking to people in the white house who told me that they genuinely thought this mueller investigation would be wrapped up by the fall. you know, this will be distraction of the summer, by the fall we'll be able to move on. finally, okay, all right, you know, and here we are, it's august, and now we're just at the grand jury stage. kind of shows a long road ahead. and what's happened in past investigations involving administrations is, you know, not only will the principal, key players get brought in, but there's going to be a number of people from the west wing who get brought in as witnesses, even if they didn't do anything wrong. a number of people from the west wing from the principals like preeb problem, all the way down to people like press secretaries or press stabiliassistants will called in front of a grand jury, that's traditional, so they all have to hire lawyers, get big

legal bills, they can't talk to each other because then they could be corroborating. there will be a lot of suspicion in the west wing, is someone saying something about me or what should i be saying. it will infect the west wing and that's the risk for the administration aside from the investigation and any charges. but the distraction and the us is suspicion and all the things that come with a west wing embroiled in an investigation. >> shannon, those i speak to never thought it would end this early, but what they did think was i didn't have anything to d with it, i'm going to separate myself out, separate myself out. given the context of what shannon said, all the people who are going to be brought in and questioned, and it doesn't matter if trump's base doesn't like the media, when you are facing a grand jury in private and have to go to work every day at the white house, what is this going to be like? >> it's going one of the most toxic work environments ever because everyone's going to want to stab everybody else in the

back. you don't know what that person told. >> more than they already do. >> you don't know who's checking your e-mails, you're going back through your phone. it will be a toxic environment in what is already a problematic environment. also, when they speak in public and interact with other people they have to make deals with you can't do the sort of leslie nielsen, nothing to see here. there is now a grand jury. there is something to see here. >> all right, kate. the president's attorney, ty cobb, said there's no reason to believe -- he has no reason to believe that the president is under investigation. is that not yes for the time being but clearly they're going to be going after quite a lot. >> sure. the thing here that will cause nerves is the lack of information really about what is happening based on the impanelment of the grand jury. politico had a good column written by an attorney talking about how the one thing we do know is that mueller is now pursuing a case that is criminal in nature as to posed to just a counterintelligence investigation. and he has the authority to g very broad. it's true we don't have specific

information that the president is under investigation. we don't know, although we could make educated ges guesses, as to who mule ears targets could be in the investigation, but absolutely it will create a lot of concern. the apprehension, the uncertainty is the worst thing. >> the lack of transparency. "the wall street journal" a week ago said president trump, if you want to have a successful presidency, open your kimono, tell us what's going on. shannon, i have to share something that the president said last night on the podium. just listen to this. >> most people know there were no russians in our campaign. there never were. we didn't win because of russia. >> i'm saying this tongue-in-cheek, shannon, but for the president, give b how serious this is, to even get on a stage in west virginia and say never any russian, not in our campaign, i don't know, i remember sitting across from boris epstein about 15 times during the campaign and after and last i checked he was born

in moscow. so what is the president thinking with this kind of narrative? >> the strategy that they're taking makes no sense to lawyers i talk to who have been involved in these cases before in whitewater, iran contra. the strategy you're supposed to take is stop talking about it, say we did nothing wrong, we have nothing to hide, we'll cooperate with the investigators, we hope it's a quick and swift investigation. don't keep talking about it. don't keep tweeting about it. don't make it an issue. talk about your agenda, issues people care about. the administration keeps going on about how no one cares about russia, yet the speet, you could tell this is something like many issues grating at the president, he can't contain it, he has to get it out. but, hey, there's a jobs message, an economy message they want to talk about. >> right. >> i think the strategy last night is very much of a piece of the way that trump handles potentially sensitive situations

that are getting under his skin. actually, i think it's good politics for his base at the very least. think about the west virginia governor switching parties as part of this event last night. there's been good reporting on hit the morning but i look forward to hearing more of the back story. >> hallelujah, praise the lord, this tent show revival worked. >> it does work because he's still got a strong base of support. i just came back from this tamly trip to ohio. it is still trump country. his supporters do not care about the details of these investigations. >> it's not about his supporters. this is about can i get anything through the house and senate because nobody trusts me. can i interact with anybody else because no one trusts me. lots of people now in my own office think i might be going down. >> i'm not saying that's not a major issue, but i think the support matters because it translates into how much support he has within the congress, within the senate, you know, based on their read of the -- >> okay. then exactly on that note, you have to think about now this bipartisan push that we're

hearing to keep robert mueller in his position. i mean, lindsey graham from south carolina, a good old southern state, saying we need to do everything possible to keep robert mueller in his position if the president goes ahead and fires him, that will be the downfall of this from the si. >> at this point, everyone -- this was happening slowly but surely even before the impaneling of the grand jury. i think the whole reason that mueller was appointed and the reason the senate was okay with it, they're like, look, if this blows up, we don't want this grenade in our hands. the fact they're trying to insulate mueller, it's like, none of us want to be associated with this, if he finds something, great, if he doesn't, great, but they're trying to protect themselves. again, i believe if they can't get any major policy done this year and nobody can get anything dourg during an election year, it is every man and woman in the house and the senate for themselves. >> and a lot is riding on the tax reform package. >> it's unclear whether he'll focus on tax reform but he's definitely running a victory lap on the jobs report. petr alexander, i want to wring

bring you back in. the market -- i won't say doing well. it's been on a tear since the election. it's steadily improved since the last election. when you look at that jobs number this morning, it is a good one. >> exactly right. more than 200,000 jobs created in the last month, unemployment right now at a 16-year low. these are the points the president wants to be talking about and he is this morning, again on twitter just tweeted "excellent jobs numbers just released and i of only just begun. many job-stifling regulations continue to fall. movement back to the usa." he's also touting mazda and toyota with the planned construction of a new plant here, i believe, several thousand more jobs in the few which are on that. this is the topic the white house thinks serves itself best, but what's striking is you talk about wall street and the numbers, how well the markets are doing, as i talk to people, trump supporters who are sort of bought into that populist message, wall street, that's happening there, does not benefit them in the same way it may do the people of new york

city and washington, d.c., on the coast, given so few americans are as invested. >> peter, you bring up the absolute best point. this is one of the reasons trump supporters came to be. it was president obama touting the strong market and the economic recovery is when you heard people throughout the country say, are you kidding me? i don't own stocks. only 20%, the highest 20% of the income bracket in this country own 92% of the stocks. so the majority of those people in that base were at those rallies aren't benefitting from this. kate, could this be a huge mistake for the president when we're really not seeing wages increase? >> one, i don't think he has a lot of positive talking points at the moment. two, just pointing to a record that frequently sets all-time highs is just a good solid thing to point to in terms of success during the time that he's been in office. what's interesting, i find, is i think there was an ebullience

about the trump administration and the conservative agenda that was likely to be passed, the health care, taxes, infrastructure, early on this year. i think we expected that perhaps to taper off as the reality of passing that agenda and how difficult it was set in. but, in fact, what we got was a very strong earnings season. and the notion that companies are strong in the u.s., whether it's because they've moved a few jobs back or -- >> and those companies are no longer worried about more regulation, even if trump doesn't deregulate, there was huge regulatory overhang and fear. when you had a president obama and an elizabeth warren in such a position of power, you didn't see companies spending all that cash on their balance sheet. it wasn't happening. >> look, it's now six, seven months into the presidency. trump can actually take credit for some of this economy. this is not just sort of -- >> the data hasn't even gone through system. >> he can't just say -- it's not entirely just drafting -- i will say this, some of the urban numbers are good, unemployment is down in cleveland, down in pittsburgh, down in baltimore, but the problem is all these job

numbers which seem so positive for president trump, he's still under 40%. so if jobs aren't making him more popular, what is this president going to be able to do? because he's still under water. >> can't argue business sentiment is up, big business, small business. it is a positive. do you know what sentiment is? it's a feeling. feelings change. we'll take a break. 15 minutes away from the opening bell. will the market live up to the president's hype this morning? itis good one if you own stocks. but up next, much more on what a grand jury actually means legally. does it make an indictment more likely? well, it definitely makes things more uncomfortable. before we go, the white house still reeling. are they from leaked transcripts of president trump's conversations with foreign leaders in conversation with the president of mexico, trump called new hampshire a drug-infested den. stephen colbert decided to give trump some fatherly advice. >> donald, you te're the presid of the united states. it's like being a parent.

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welcome back. it is friday. i'm stephanie ruhle. you're watching msnbc. new this morning, "the new york times" says a d.c. grand jury has already issued subpoenas in special prosecutor's robert mueller's investigation into russia's attempted interference in the 2016 election. the grand jury was first reported by "the wall street journal," but here's a key point. a grand jury is not a trial jury

that determines dpi s guilt or innocence. our guests joining us. mika, i'm unfamiliar with how this works. what is the significance of grand jury and what does it do? >> so, a grand jury allows a prosecutor to go deeper into an investigation. issue subpoenas, demand document, call witnesses for a full development of the record before they decide whether or not to charge someone with a crime or in certain cases of a grand jury issue a report about what's happened. it's important that this grand jury is in washington because they're only supposed to look at crimes that happened in their jurisdiction, in washington, where the white house is located, they look at crimes not just for flynn and manafort that might have happened in northern virginia but at the white house itself. >> so malcolm, when you look at this and the president continues to say it's just a hoax, who has to sign off on robert mueller getting to get this grand jury?

>> well, i mean, this is all justice department. >> and the justice department is saying a-okay, we believe you're in the right to dig up this information. >> yeah. this is under the purview of the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, and the special counsel themselves. look, president trump is operating on a political platform here where it's in his interest to go to west virginia and say that none of this exists, right? at some point, people are going to have to believe their lying jais eyes. the grand jury is not playing games. my wife a saturday on a d.c. grand jury and they go through, sift the evidence that people have brought in, they can issue subpoena, hear material, and then they determine whether an indictment should go out or not. this isn't just going to -- people aren't just going to be interviewed and let information occur. something is going to happen with this material. and if robert mueller thinks that it's in d.c. and that it's material, then at some point, wait until jared kushner or

michael flynn are called in to testify before this grand jury. things will only get hotter and donald trump can't deny it. >> mieke, when you saw this news, what was your reaction? did you think uh-oh, we're about to get his taxes? >> so, on this one, they may already have his taxes. we don't know what kind of information there is. the power of the special counsel to get a wide variety of information is quite big, so they are probably sit ong a mountain of paper already. what i thought when i saw this was in washington, i thought, wow, this is about the trump white house. >> why do you say that? >> originally they started with a grand jury in northern virginia and that had been looking at flynn and manafort and some of the foreign registration, foreign agent issues. but when they said they were looking at a grand jury in washington, now we're looking at questions of were the forms incomplete, were there things happening with the white house staff itself that's located in washington, or perhaps even the president that might be

questioned and especially the obstruction of justice charge that happened in d.c. itself. >> all right. but ty cobb, the president's attorney, said he was unaware of a grand jury and said to the best of his knowledge the president remains not under investigation. >> that's right. because a grand jury, stephanie, does not actually inform the target of the investigation. they usually meet without the target even knowing. so the president's lawyers have no idea who this grand jury's actually looking at. >> yowza. malcolm? >> i just think it's wishful thinking. what do they say, though, the wheels of justice grind finely and slowly? i don't think that's the case. i've been sayinger this for some time. this is wood chipper of justice and right now it is processing an enormous quantity of intelligence from the intelligence community that's being turned into evidence. they have a mountain of material, which is why they need 16, you know, career prosecutors to go through all the financial information alone. but as time goes on, people are

going to be dragged in for this thing. and if they're not prepared, if they're living in a la la land where they don't believe this is reel, the reality is going to bite them, hard. >> reality bites. you might want to coin that phrase. >> might have been a movie. >> malcolm, mieke, wow. there are no such thing as summer fridays this year. thank you both so much. up next, we are moments away from the opening bell after another strong jobs report and you know the market has been kicking it this week. but the president trying to own the success of the market, what's he going to do if it falls? and before we go, guess who's back? sean spicer will leave the white house at the end of the month, but it won't be for the dance floor. i got to tell you, this one breaks my heart. according to tmz, the former press secretary as turned down the opportunity to appear on "dancing with the stars." i'm still holding out for the mooch.

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i'm rule rule. time for your "morning primer," everything you need to know to start your day. the president heading for his golf course in bed minister for a 17-day working va caution.

who doesn't want a vacation in jersey? the senate also left for ressz yesterday but will hold pro forma sessions in order to block president trump from making any ve ressz appointments. isn't that amazing? republicans, they control things. in 90 minutes, session sgs ajefd dan coats will hold press conferences on combatting intelligence leaks. a fire engulfed one of the world's tallest residential buildings. amazingly, no injuries have been reported. the fire was brought under control after a total of three hours. and police dashcam in texas caught this incredible video as a small plane comes crashing down right next to a highway. look at this thing. two men were injured in the crash. one of them remains in serious condition. and fore! basketball superstar, a gift for me, everybody knows i love steph curry and he's an extraordinary golfer. took his sweet stroke the

course, teed up in the web.com tour elie mae classic. i don't know who he's golfing with, can't see, well, he shot 4 over par, which is good enough to be tied for 142nd place. last year he golfed with tom brady and jordan spieth. it was like, an under armour showdown. in today's "money, power, and politics," we are watching markets and how exactly they will react to the last hours better than expected monthly jobs report. the market will open in just about a minute. this morning, the labor department reported 209,000 jobs were created last month. the nation's unemployment rate ticked down to a tenth of a percent to 4.3%. that matches the 16-year low first reached in may. joining me now, cnbc's dominic chu, the domino, and politico's chief economic correspondent, ben wright, who if you dent read it, you must. ben, it's fantastic.

i want to to start with you, ben. we'd to say what's the market going to d? in reality, trader s look at th jobs number, make bets and decide who pays for egg sandwich that morning. how big a deal is the jobs number? about six, eight months ago, president trump dumped all over it. >> six, eight months ago the jobs report was fake, the unemployment rate was phony. now he loves it. 4.3%, 209,000. almost identical numbers to the end of all of 2016, in fact, a slightly slower pace than under the last year of barack obama. as far as wall street is concerned, traders are concerned, this is a very status quo report. it's help informal the sense that we're not slowing down but we're certainly not speeding up. the fed is still going to be raising interest rates. i'd be surprised if there was a big market reaction to this. this is exactly in line with what we of soon for seven years since the recovery began. >> the strong earnings we of seen from corporate america

which has helped markets has been a gift to the trump administration because we thought we were going to get tax reform, health care, infrastructure, we didn't, but suddenly you look at corporate america and earnings are good. >> they're terrific. two quarters of double-digit earnings growth. we just came off a very strong earnings quarter and that's driving the market. they started the year hoping for giant tax cuts under trump. i think they're still benefitting from fewer regulations on banks, banks are doing really well. but most of this market is fundamentals. it's 2.67% economy, good corporate earnings. very little to nothing do with donald trump. and if they get tax reform, great, maybe it drives the market higher. if that fails like obamacare, i don't think it's a disaster. >> but it is, dom chu, a big deal, definitely to ben's point to financials without the threat of more regular lace, which banks were so afraid of, as were corporates across the board. it is a positive, it is going to have companies spending more. >> well, it will because a lot of people expect it, right? this idea of a lesser regulatory kind of environment, taking the

hand cutchs off, taking the gloves off, companies can do business the way they want to d it, a lot of the reason for optimism here. to ben's point, we are seeing earnings growth that is pretty decent. if everything else goes as planned for rest of this corporate earnings season, we're going the see 11% earnings growth. that's pretty darn good. it's all about the fact that the economy's doing all right as well. this is a good enough tight market. we're not going the see huge swings up or down in this kind of environment. but all of this incremental data seems to be just a little more fuel, a little more fuel. of course this doesn't last forever. we just don't know what that catalyst is going to be that's going to take this market down. >> the fuel that so many people in america need are increased wages and people who need actual jobs. when you dig boo this numb fweshgs biggest gains were in food services and bars, drinking places. we saw business and professional services up as well as health services. manufacturing added 16,000 jobs. wages did go p up. 3 tenth tn%, not much, but it is moving in the right direction.

what stuck out no v to you? not just for the markets but if you dig into the economy, people who want more. >> here's the interesting point about that. you mentioned the strongest job gains came from like food and beverage, restaurant-type industries. this is very much a discretionary spending category. we only go out to eat, go on vacations, take like nice cruises, that sort of thing, when we feel slightly comfortable about our financial situation, about our paychecks, about our job security going forward. it might actually be a positive sign when people are starting to spend more on that type of stuff and when people spend more on that type of stuff, restaurants have to hire more people, bar tenders have to be hired, people who -- maids and everybody else who works in this hospitality industry. sop if you're looking for like one of those second layer, third layers of the economy stories, one of the things that we want to look at for sure is hospitality and leisure and whether or not that strength does continue. that's going to be a big factor. >> is the president in some risky territory, though, patting himself on the back and taking

credit? ten minutes after the number, he tweets, excellent jobs numbers just released and i've only just begun, many job-stifling regulations continue to fall. movement back to usa. he's not wrong. the dow is kicking it. but i mentioned this earlier, those forgotten americans still feel forgotten. wages up slightly. >> we're still at 2.5% annual pace on wage growth, which isn't terrible, but it's also not great so you're not seeing people in trump country getting big raises. so he will be in some danger if he keeps talking about great jobs reports and, you know, gangbusters, economic growth, if those wages don't pick up, if manufacturing, jobs don't pick up, because as the domino was saying shitis good to have these restaurant jobs, bar jobs, people are spending money, those are not super high-paying jobs. you want more in manufacturing, more in business and professional services. they're doing okay. i think the real risk for trump is less talking about jobs numbers and economic growth and when he keeps touting the stock

market. he's tweeted at least a dozen times in the last month -- >> it's eric trump's favorite topic. >> is rocking, which is fine, take credit for whatever happens on your watch, but if you're taking credit for a bull market, you're going to get the blame for a bear market. if the stock market tanks that's all on trump. presidents typically don't do that for that reason because stocks go up and they go down. >> with regard to bringing jobs back, dom, i have to ask you, the president tweeted this morning, toyota and mazda to build a new $1.6 billion plant here in the usa and create 4,000 new american jobs, a great investment in american manufacturing and you can't forget this foxconn plan we haven't seen any ground broke, a $10 billion plan. should the president be taking this victory lap? in theory, these are real jobs but it also reminds me of, i don't know, carrier. >> all right. yes. you're right. i mean, this is a situation where toyota -- i mean, i would

put a little more stake in what toyota and mazda are saying because they are two corporations that have pretty decent reputations around the world for being decent carmakers. of course toyota is the bigst one out there. if they're saying it, there's something to be attributed to the environment the u.s. is in. i would also point out, this jobs story is about creating like ben said those higher paying jobs chshg these jobs are, if they are in manufacturing. it helps bolster the middle class. toyota and mazda are not doing this out of the goodness of their heart. yes, that may be part of the story, but there are financial incentives to doing so -- >> like what? >> well, first of all, if the current -- without getting too wonky about this, if you create cars in america, you don't have as many issues with foreign currency and that type of thing affecting your bottom lines so if you're toyota and mazda, having a plant making american cars for sale either here or elsewhere shields you from some of that financial roller coaster ride that comes as exchange rates change every day, every second. that's one of those reasons why. but if you talk about the

reasons why car companies want to do this here, remember, bmw, mercedes, european car companies have big operations in parts of the southeast, alabama, south carolina. there's a reason why carmakers doing that here. not just because they want to create american jobs. that's big part of the story. also because it helps them financially in their bottom line. >> bottom line aside, good to hear more jobs being created in the united states. dom, ben, thank you. we'll take a break. when we come back, trump organization in a contract dispute. can you believe we're even talk about this? with the secret service. why the people tasked with protecting the president don't have offices inside trump tower. first, by all accounts, john kelly's tenure as chief of staff is off to a strong start, even changing the way the president acts during meetings sh at least for now. >> i read that trump is trying to impress his new chief of staff, john kelly, by listing a lot of facts during meetings. yep. all snapple facts, but still they're facts.

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tap one little bumper and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. liberty mutual insurance. welcome back. i'm stephanie ruhle. talking about a standoff under way between the trump organization and the secret service. "the washington post" reporting secret service has pulled out of their trump tower space here in new york city and relocated to a trailer park that is parked outside on the sidewalk all over a fight over you'll never guess what, a lease. a spokesperson with the trump

organization tells a "washington post," quote, after much consideration, it was mu which willy determined that it would be more cost effective and logistically practical for the secret service to lease space elsewhere. joining me now is "the washington post's" jonathan o'connell, one of the reporters on this story. walk me through exactly what happened. i'm going to guess some of the extraordinarily nice stores, gucci, for example, downstairs from trump tower, doesn't feel like it's a great idea to have a secret service trailer parked outside trump tower. >> sure. i mean, it's an unfortunate situation. obviously the secret service is trying to d their job here, trying to keep the president and his family safe. but there are a number of factors here that make this a unique and kind of more difficult situation than they typically face. for one, obviously, the president's home is in trump tower, which is a complicated building in that there are lots of different users and people that go there every day. today, his company, the president's company, still owns trump tower and thus it's the president's company that

negotiates on behalf of space there. and we don't know the specifics of what the sort of falling-out here was between the president's company and the government, but ultimately they had enough of a falling out where they couldn't agree on space to keep the secret service in trump tower which you think everybody would be interested in making sure of course that the trump family is safe and the people who work in the trump organization are safe and now the secret service is downstairs on the sidewalk. >> is it over the price, how much they were paying? >> there's couple factors here and neither side has gone into details yet. price is certainly one of them. obviously, midtown manhattan real estate is among the most expensive real estate in country so, if, for instance, the trump organization felt they were being offered too low of a rate in order to give up that space, it's a cost to them, which is sort of ironic given all the alarms we've been ringing about the concerns about the president continuing to own his company and all the money that the company could be make while he is president. in this case, maybe the company felt like they wouldn't be p make enough money off of having

the secret service in there. the other thing is logistics. obviously from the secret service per spk tif it's better for them to be inside the building they're trying to keep safe and nearer to the people they're trying to keep safe. you would think that would be something that the trump organization and the trump family would have interest in. >> fair to say it is complicated. i remember when the campaign first started there was empty space in trump tower. great reporting. next, congress gone. i need to get on their schedule. the senate on recess. later today, the president leaves for his new jersey vacation as d.c. hits pause. we'll ask if legislatively they're ever going to actually hit play. but first, giving new meaning to idea of a vacation high, american green, a maker of cannabis products, has just bought a deserted town in california with plans to make it into a pot-friendly tourist des neigh. in a statement, american green's president said, "we're excited to lead the charge for a true

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change the conversation. >> today they're unveiling another one of their theme weeks. >> oooooo! theme weeks! e. >> possible collusion between a member of the trump campaign and hackers. >> all week at the white house, we are celebrating -- >> president trump slamming his own attorney general. >> throughout this week we've been talking about the american dream. >> anthony scaramucci is out. >> that of course is the daily show being funny, but we have to get serious. the white house's theme weeks have not been a success and making progress for the next two weeks could be tough. congress is out for august ressz, the president set to spend the next 17 days at his new jersey golf resort. so what is this white house actually doing? joining me now, shannon pettypiece, white house reporter for bloomberg news, and my panel, jason johnson and kate kelly. shannon, a reality check.

some people are saying bringing general capitol hill in, this is a reset, but a reis the of what? the person who drives taking us off the general da is no one el. >> and the question, can you change a person? or can you just change the environment around them to make it more conducive for that person to operate in. i don't think anyone is thinking that kelly is going to change trump. but can he change the environment around him to help him get his agenda going. i think over these next two weeks a big focus from what i've been hearing a bit is getting the communications messaging under control. if you can get that messaging and get the tweets under control, which i know we talk about all the time and it never happens. if you can get the tweets under control and the messaging out of the president at these rallies under control and get them to stop talking about attacking a talk show host or going after russia -- you start freaking out members of congress and world leaders and move forward. >> what is it that general kelly is going to do that is so

different? okay, steven miller who writes the president's speeches got up to the podium in his wildly inappropriate and abusive jamboree and general kelly was already at his post and it had been reported people in the white house were high fiving steven miller right, left and center. jason, the president and his tweets, you can change the environment, but i'm pretty sure he's all alone in his gold guildguild guilded bed while he's tweeting. >> he wakes up every day angry and upset and decides to tweet, retweet something and there's nothing -- look, unless kelly wants to sleep next to his bed, you can't stop the president from tweeting. it's silly when people say you can control a 70-year-old man. none of these changes will take effect. >> general kelly, if you read "the times" will not even try to do that. he's not going to take away the phone and try to control the

president. what he will try to control is access to the president. even family members have been asked to check in with general kelly if they want to get time with him and also trying to curtail the number, the list of issues that get to trump for his consideration. so that side factions can't come into his office and whisper in his ear about some issue. >> he's not a 7-year-old who is not like tell him that grandma passed away. russia is there. you cannot hide that from him. >> but, you can distract. it is what the president does so well. some people are aghast saying how can these leaks have come out about the president and the prime minister of australia. but if you actually -- >> one of my favorite stories from yesterday. >> if you looked at those conversations the president had, sure, they were embarrassing. but trump being trump. where the white house wins in those leaks is now we're talking about the leakers at 11:00 a.m. jeff sessions gets to please the president. distract us all away from robert mueller and go up there and say,

these leakers, we have to stop them. they're rocking our democracy. it's a win for the white house this distraction. >> i agree with your points on authenticity as well as strategy here. however, i do think the transcripts, whoever leaked them show an embarrassing superfishiality. in terms of being focused on the optics. at points not even seeming to care terribly much about the outcome of the policy dispute. look, this is going to make me look so weak and i have only been in office for a week, i can't go there. >> are you surprised? anything in those transcripts that surprised anybody in any way? it was trump being trump. he hasn't surprised us. >> no government experience, ran a family business. i think that's probably how you would expect that person to talk to a world leader. but, i would like to see the transcripts from the past month. you know, that was early on in the administration the first few weeks.

i'm very curious and i don't know the answer to that. has he learned any lessons about how to deal with these world leaders. the g-20 seemed to go a bit better than the g-7. he seems to be more comfortable on that turf. i really like to see, is he learning any of these lessons spaerns with foreign policy and dealing with these international abroad. >> take away the phone and limit the tweeting to whatever was going on that day in terms of estate meetings. >> as soon as the president can let it rip on his own, he gives a speech leaving out article five his aides who say to him as he's walking out of the g20 we'll put your surrogate in a seat and the president insists that his daughter, ivanka, take his seat. it is the president who hurts his own credibility while forcing his own children into the white house while saying things that are totally off agenda. >> that's why his own senate is

saying, look, we have to constrain him. that's why every other weekend he has to run some back to some rally to make himself feel good about himself. at the end of the day he's losing washington, his own white house and his ability to control his party. i don't think this is sustainable. i don't know what is going to happen when this country actually faces a crisis that trump didn't create himself. >> he is not losing washington because he just gained a whole grand jury there. we are going to take a break. in about an hour, attorney general jeff sessions, i just mentioned it and director of national intelligence dan coats will announce a crackdown, guess what, on leakers. i would love for those two gentlemen to tell us who leaked those transcripts. we're going to share that news conference with you when it begins. but, first, president trump heading to new jersey for vacation and taking time off didn't bother seth myers. you know what, my team is doing this to hurt me, but the destination did. they have a problem with the garden state? >> 17 days in new jersey doesn't

sound like a vacation. it sounds like an episode of "i survived." that's more days than chris christie has spent in new jersey. so that's the idea. what do you think? hate to play devil's advocate but... i kind of feel like it's a game changer. i wouldn't go that far. are you there? he's probably on mute. yeah... gary won't like it. why? because he's gary. (phone ringing) what? keep going! yeah... (laughs) (voice on phone) it's not millennial enough. there are a lot of ways to say no. thank you so much. thank you!

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that wraps us up for this hour. i will see you, again, at 11:00 with my friend ali velshi and i will send you to d.c. with my friend and colleague hallie jackson. >> stephanie ruhle, thank you very much.

good friday morning from washington. where most people are heading out of town for the summer, but you know who is still at work? the special counsel. and also at work, the attorney general. next hour rolling out his plan to try to stop the leaks that have fired up this administration. president trump fired up, too. coming in hot to his working vacation starting today. rallying supporters in west virginia and slamming those new headlines about russia. and you know what else he mentioned at that rally, coal. bragging about how well that industry is doing. in the next couple of minutes you'll join us as we head overseas for an nbc special. how china is trying to clean up its image literally and leaving the u.s. behind. lots to talk about on this summer friday. but, first, nbc kristen welker over at the white house. walk us through some of this news related to the special counsel and the president's comments on the russia investigation, which he is calling a total fabrication. administration officials have been out t