we're going to fight this terrible road. we'll take this case as far as it needs to go, cluincluding up the supreme court. >> president trump promising to push back after the travel ban was blocked by the federal judge. the white house sensing trouble with the republican health care plan. what is the president saying as the house speaker acknowledges it has to change. president trump doubling down on the claim he was wiretapped after the chairman offering a much different take. welcome to "early start."

i'm dave briggs. >> nice to see you bright and early. 4:00 a.m. in the east. i'm christine romans. this is thursday, march 16th. let's begin with the president vowing to appeal the federal court order that blocked the travel plan. blocked again. a tennessee rally, the president declaring he will go to the supreme court to overturn the hawaii order by judge watson. that issued hours before the travel ban was to take effect. >> the justice department slamming the order. and strongly disagrees with the federal district court ruling which is flawed and reasoning and scope. senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny has the latest. >> reporter: christine and dave, the white house is crafting the legal strategy in the wake of another federal judge putting a restraining order on the travel ban. president trump minced no words

wednesday night. he went after that judge. he expressed regret about making changes of the first ban to the second ban. he called it a watering down. >> a judge has just blocked our executive order on travel and refugees coming into our country from certain countries. the order he blocked was a watered down version of the first order. that was also blocked by another judge. and should have never been blocked to start with. >> reporter: at the rally which was paid for and organized by his re-election campaign, not the white house, especially went after the travel ban ruling and after the health care. almost trying to create the magic during the campaign. the realities of governing are different. the president sounded like he

was on the campaign trail from a year ago. this latest judge's ruling makes it clear that governing is more difficult than campaigning. christine and dave. >> why did the court rule against the trump administration travel ban again? in a 43-page ruling, the judge made it clear it did not pass legal muster. trump surrogates suggesting it was a revamped muslim ban. listen to steve miller suggesting it will be implemented despite legal setback. >> you will still have the same basic policy outcome for the country, but responsive to technical issues brought up by the court and those will be addressed. in terms of protecting the country, those basic policies are still going to be in effect. >> late last night, five republican appointed judges on the ninth circuit court of appeal signalled support for the

travel ban. the judges say in part whatever we as individuals feel about the president or the executive order, the president's decision was well within the powers of the presidency. the circuit is the court that shutdown the position on the first travel ban that would consider any appeal from the justice department of the hawaii judge's ruling. >> how is this legal setback being received overseas? cnn's ian lee is tracking the latest from cairo. good morning. another judge at odds with the president of the united states. adamant he wants to ban immigration. legal visas and immigration for a time from these countries. >> reporter: good morning, christine. it has been a mixed bag when you look at reactions from the region. many countries affected by it have come out against this ban with iran going as far as a quid

pro quo by banning americans with some exceptions. when you look at the rest of the region, for the most part, countries have been quiet over the ban, probably not wanting to invoke the ire of the white house. iraq has been taken off this ban and this comes after lobbying from baghdad to get them resolvremove removed. it created a potentially dangerous situation for troops fighting alongside iraqi forces against isis in iraq. we did hear from deputy crown minutes muhammad on tuesday. he called the president a true friend of the muslims. when you look at individuals yesterday here in cairo which is home to many refugees from syria and yemen and somalia and libya,

there was a lot of confusion as they were trying to talk to the u.s. embassy asking what this means. as we know, at the 11th hour, the federal judge in hawaii blocked that ban. >> ian lee for us from cairo. thank you. republican plan to repeal and replace obamacare may be in trouble. the chairman of the house freedom caucus mark meadows claiming he has the votes to kill the republican health care bill. a cnn head count found 19 republican votes against the measure or leaning no. speaker paul ryan refusing to commit to bringing the bill to the floor next week. >> negotiations will be needed to keep republicans unified behind the bill and trademark deal could save the day. the president blamed departmemo for the bill's troubles. >> if we submitted the

democrats' plan drawn everything perfect for the democrats, we wouldn't get one vote from the democrats. that's the way it is. that's how much divisiveness and other things there are. >> the republican health care bill heads to the committee. i want to bring in sunlen serfaty with the latest. >> reporter: good morning, dave and christine. the house bill climb is getting steeper by the day. here is the math with all this which is important. the house bill in the current form can only afford to lose 21 republican votes. according to cnn's latest count, already 19 house republicans have said no to it or they are leaning that way. speaker of the house paul ryan wednesday evening would not commit to bringing the house bill to a full house vote next week. instead, he largely deferred when he was asked about the

schedule. he deferred to the majority leader. saying he sets the schedule here. notably in an interview with jake tapper, paul ryan refused to say if he believes this bill can pass in its current form right now. >> we have consensus. we are fine tuning. going to the goal line with our president to get this done. it goes to the senate. >> you have consensus. if it came up in the house this afternoon, it would pass? >> it is not coming up this afternoon. this is going through the legislative process. it hasn't been finalized. no offense, that is a goofy premise. >> reporter: the mechanics of what happens next will start moving along. they will markup the bill and when it gets through that committee, it goes to the rules committee. paul ryan indicated that will happen likely early next week or some point next week. this is the committee that is

very important. this is the committee where they would potentially make tweaks and changes that we are starting to hear about from white house aides and from the speaker himself. clear this is inching along slowly on capitol hill. very clear some changes of some magnitude will be made. thank you, sunlen. tom price defended the republican health care bill at the cnn town hall. price faced tough questions about repeal and replace, including one from a cancer survivor under the obamacare medicaid expansion. >> medicaid expansion saved my life and medical bankruptcy. i earn $11.60 an hour at my retail job and i cannot afford to pay for cancer care out of pocket. my life depends on access to doctors and medical care. >> it is important to appreciate the system worked wonderful for

you. that is wonderful. we need to keep that in place. the fact of the matter is the program is having difficult providing the care for all individuals on it. >> price seemed to narrow the scope of the promise that no one will be quote financially worse off under the republican plan. he told a woman about a spike in premiums he doesn't believe she will be worse off from a health care standpoint. >> not a money standpoint. the trump administration releasing the budget blueprint. you can expect deep cuts to government agencies, but huge boost to military. the 28% budget cut. the president's budget provided to us by officials. the 38% cut to foreign aid. officials in the epa tell us they are expecting a 25% cut. budget director mick mulvaney says the house of urban and

development will be moved around. there are programs there that can't justify their existence and they will no longer exist. the cuts will create room to spend big in other areas. mostly the pentagon. military spending increase suggested at $54 billion. then the border wall investment. that will increase over time. the release this morning will not be a complete budget. this is the blueprint to set priorities. the full budget is expected by may. that will include entitlement spending. you look where they are trying to cut the budget. the smallest part of the budget. no touching entitlements there. the president promised he would not touch medicare, medicaid and social security. some say they are touching medicaid. >> with the health care bill. >> this budget, major opposition

awaits that in congress. >> sure. >> marco rubio says we do the budget. president trump not backing away from his wiretapping claim. hear what he said that contradicts the chairman of the house intelligence committee.

with top republicans turning on him, president trump is doubling down the claim he was wiretapped during the campaign. he called the allegation wrong. the president insisting he has proof he will reveal by the end of the month. >> i have been saying a lot of things. for the most part, i'm not going to discuss this because we have it before the committee and we will be submitting things before the committee soon. that hasn't been submitted as of yet. it is potentially a serious situation. wiretap covers a lot of things. you will find some very

interesting items coming to the forefront the next two weeks. >> top republicans are not buying it. listen to devin nunes making it clear he considers the president's claims baseless. >> that evidence still remains the same. we don't have any evidence that took place. in fact, i don't believe just in the last week of time that the people i talked to, i don't think there was an actual tap of trump tower. >> frustration with the trump administration is building among republicans. iowa senator chuck grassley accusing the justice department of lying to lawmakers when he promised to share information about potential investigations involving russian the white house. a global manhunt for two of the four suspects indicted by the justice department for the hack of yahoo! in 2014. two are accused to be russian

spic spies. spying on executives and spam operation and using yahoo! accounts to target g-mail. really a remarkable case laid out there. two of the four suspects are in custody. one arrested in canada. another has been arrested in russia for spying on the u.s. the other two men are still at large. >> a huge win for the justice department. >> fascinating. and timing of all that. layout the government linked operation to use criminal hackers to get the information. >> the first of many such arrests. election results in the netherlands to tell you about dealing a blow to the loyalists there. we'll tell you about it next. if you have medicare

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welcome back. dutch voters carving their path and steering clear the extremist trends in europe. the results are still being hand counted, some decisions are clear. the ruling party is in line for a victory. the dutch people voted against the populous movement which gave rise to brexit and maybe even donald trump. let's bring in cnn's hala gorani. the populism have swept through and the people have rejected it? >> reporter: of course.

why would people be fast facina with the results? the uk and the surprise of the donald trump election vehicle t victory in november. this is the first of many elections where you had a far-right and tti-anti-immigran europe european poll ac politician gee wilders. the incumbent mark rutte got the most number of seats. the parliament here is 150 seats. this is the election where loss of seats for the biggest party is considered a victory and the status quo is considered the biggest possible news. that is because geert wilders did not manage to get that number of seats. that biggest percentage of the vote that would have signified the netherlands, the first test after the election of donald trump, perhaps would have been

the next domino to fall in the populous wave. that being said, the prime minister won. why? he did drift to the right in rhetoric. he embraced the anti-immigrant rhetoric that was something that geert wilders made a central plank in his platform. it is a strategy that has worked for him. the next big test is france in april where you have the national front leader marine le pen. >> fascinating. the existential questions happening in europe. hala gorani in the netherlands. thank you. various trumps all around the world. president trump won't go down without a fight after his second travel ban meets the same legal fate as his first. jack knocked over a candlestick,

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we're going fight this terrible ruling. we're going to take our case as far as it needs to go, including all the way up to the supreme court. >> this morning, defiant president trump vowing to push back after the latest travel ban is blocked by a federal judge. and the white house sensing trouble with the republican health care plan. what the president's saying as the speaker acknowledges it has to change to pass the house. and president trump doubling down on the claim he was wire p wiretapped by president obama. despite a different take. welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. trump budget expected at 7:00 a.m. some cuts across the board. state and epa. you will break it down. >> we will look at it. president trump vowing to appeal a federal court order to

block the 2.0 version of the travel ban. at the tennessee rally, the president declaring he will go all the way to the supreme court to overturn the order by hawaii judge derrick watson. that order issued hours before the ban was to take effect. >> the justice department slamming the order saying it disagree was the federal district court ruling which is flawed in reason and scope. our senior white house correspondent sijeff zeleny has latest. >> reporter: the white house and justice department is crafting legal strategy on what to do next in wake of the federal judge putting a stop on the travel ban. president trump minced no words wednesday night. he went after that judge and expressed regret of making changes of the first ban to the second ban. he called it a watering down. listen to what he said. >> a judge has just blocked our

executive order on travel and refugees coming into our country from certain countries. the order he blocked was a watered down version of the first order. that was also blocked by another judge. and should have never been blocked to start with. >> reporter: at the fiery campaign style rally which was paid for and organized by the re-election campaign, not the white house. he went after the travel ban ruling as well as health care and other pieces of his agenda. the realities of governing now are so different. the president sounded like he was still on the campaign trial from a year ago. the latest judge's ruling makes it only clear that governing is more difficult than campaigning. christine and dave. >> he really enjoys campaigning. why did the court's rule against the trump administration travel ban again?

in a 43-page ruling, the federal judge in hawaii made it clear the measure did not pass legal muster citing several examples of surrogates suggesting it was a revamped muslim ban. listen to steve miller saying the planmplemented despite setback. >> you will have the same policy for the country, but responsible for technical issues brought up by the court and those will be addressed. fr in terms of protecting the country, those policies will still be in effect. last night, five republican appointed judges on the ninth circuit court of appeals signed legal support for the president's travel ban. judges say whatever we may feel about the president or the executive order, the president's decision was well within the powers of the presidency. the ninth circuit is the court that shotdown the position on

the first travel ban. it would consider any appeal from the justice department of the hawaii judge's ruling. >> how is the legal setback for the travel ban being received oversea overseas? s cnn's ian lee has more. what is it like over there? >> reporter: good morning, dave. it really is a mixed bag of reactions in the middle east. you have countries targeted by it. most of them have come out against the ban. including iran who has implemented a quid pro quo. saying americans traveling won't be allowed in. they have had a few exceptions. iraq was on that first travel ban. they aren't on the second one after heavy lobbying by baghdad. this is very important as u.s. troops are fighting along side iraqi troops against isis. the rest of the region has been quiet. we have not heard from some of

the coupntries that usually com out when the u.s. makes a move like this. noticeably turkey. we did hear from the deputy crown prince muhammad who met with president trump on tuesday. he said president trump was a true friend of the muslims. as far as individuals go, the people who are affected by it, a lot of confusion and a lot of anxiousness. yesterday, the u.s. embassy here in cairo had a facebook chat with people called ask a officer. a lot of people wandering what the ban means. especially people for one of the six countries. at the time, the u.s. embassy said they didn't know. we know this morning after that federal judge in hawaii blocked that ban. at least for now, that is on hold. >> thank you, ian. a lot to learn.

turning to health care. republicans plan to repeal and replace obamacare may be in trouble. the chairman of the house freedom caucus claiming he has the votes to kill the republican health care bill. cnn head count found 19 republican votes against the measure or leaning no. it could lose 21. speaker paul ryan refusing to commit to bringing the bill to the house floor next week. >> last night, president trump telling fox news, republicans need to be unified behind the deal. trademark deal making could save the day. the president blamed democrats for the bills' troubles. >> just remember this. if we submitted the democrats' plan drawn everything perfect for the democrats, we would not get one vote from the democrats. that's the way it is. that's how much divisiveness and other things there are. it's a problem. >> today, the republican health

care bill heads to the budget committee. let's bring in sunlen serfaty with the latest from capitol hill. >> reporter: good morning, dave and christine. the climb the bill is facing is getting steeper by the day. here is where we are with all of the math. that house bill in the current form can only afford to lose 21 republican votes. according to cnn's latest count, already 19 house republicans have said no to it or they are leaning that way. speaker of the house paul ryan wednesday evening would not commit to bringing the house bill to a full house vote next week. instead, he largely deferred when he was asked about the schedule. he deferred to the majority leader saying he sets the schedule here. in the interview with jake tapper, paul ryan refused to say if this bill can pass in the current form right now. >> we have consensus.

we are fine tuning consensus. going to the goal line with our president to get this done and it goes to the senate and they start over. >> you have consensus f. it came up in the house this afternoon, it would pass? >> it is not coming up this afternoon. it is going through the legislative process. that has not been finalized. no offense, that is a goofy question. this goes through four committees. >> reporter: the mechanics of what happens next will start moving along today. this morning, the house budget committee will markup their portion of the bill. when and if it gets through the committee, the rules committee. speaker of the house paul ryan says that will happen next week. this is the committee that is very important because this is the committee where they would potentially make tweaks and changes we are starting to hear about from white house aides and from the speaker himself. clear this is inching along slowly on capitol hill, but

changes of some magnitude will be made. dave and christine. >> thank you. the trump administration is releasing a hard power budget. later this morning, expect cuts to agencies. state department with a 28% budget cut. this is an kooccording to the pw of the budget. budget director promises hud will be cut. he wants to eliminate programs. that is causing alarm among advocates for the poor. specifically low income heating assistance and weather programs that literally keep people warm in the winter. national endowment for the arts could be cut out. the cuts will create room for other areas. the full budget is expected by may. the budget is the administration's wish list.

it is almost -- it shows you the priorities of who is in the white house. we will get that at 7:00 a.m. >> not met with welcome arms on social media. it wasn't by marco rubio. someone asked him about early reports. he said we do the budget here. >> congress eventually does spend the money. president trump not backing down from the wiretapping claim. hear what he said that contradicts the chairman of the house intelligence committee.

big story. markets and money. fed reserve hiking interest rates. here is what it means. interest rates will tick higher. credit cards, auto loans, mortgages are more expensive. savers. you could see a bit of a

benefit. rock-bottom rates on cds will move higher slowly. do not panic. the mortgage rates are tied to the ten-year treasury bill. those are moving higher in anticipation of the move. the fed signalled gradual. mortgage rates hit a 17-year high. for a 30-year fixed rate loan, rates will remain below 5% for the year. for the average home buyer, the .25% will cost $57 extra per mon month. with top republicans turning on him, president trump doubling down on his evidence-free claim he was wire ttapped by presiden

obama. he claimed his allegation wrong. the president insisting he has proof that he will reveal by the end of the month. >> i have been seeing a lot of things. for the most part, i will not discuss it because it is before committee. we will submit things before the committee soon. that hasn't been submitted yet. it is potentially a serious situation. wiretap covers a lot of things. you will find interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks. >> top republicans are not buying it. devin nunes making it clear he considers the president's claims baseless. >> that evidence still remains the same. we don't have any evidence that it took place. in fact, i don't believe within the last week of time that the people i talked to, i don't think there was an actual tap of trump tower. >> all right. frustration with the justice

department building. among republicans. iowa senator chuck grassley accusing justice department officials of lying to lawmakers when they promised to share information about the investigations involving russia and the white house. will another billionaire challenge president trump in 2020? mark cuban rumored to be considering a run for the white house. we ask him every time we talk to him. is he in? is he out? his answer when we get a check on cnn money stream next. feeling 100% means you feel bold enough to... ...assist a magician... ...or dance. listerine®. bring out the bold™

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welcome back. dutch voters appear to be steering clear of the trends running through europe.

the votes of the election are hand counted, some are clear. ruling party is in line for a victory and says the dutch people voted against the populous movement which gave rise to brexit and donald trump here. for more on the votes and what it could mean for europe, let's bring in hala gorani live for us in the netherlands. you make a good point, hala. a country of 18 million people, but really is a symbol of what has been happening in so many democracies around the world. >> reporter: this is the case where the status quo, christine, is actually big news. the d-66 party that is very pro european came in among the top three or four parties in the country. party of the incumbent mark rutte lost seats which is the biggest party in the country. european leaders across the continent were delighted.

the french foreign minister and angela merkel expressing absolute relief that this was the result in the netherlands. as you mentioned, this was the first big test in europe after the election of donald trump and shock result of brexit in the united kingdom. coming up in the next two weeks is a significant election. that is the election in france. where marine le pen is pulling ahead of the establishment parties. france is a bigger country. what happens there is going to impact europe. she is extremely against the eu and would push the referendum for france to exit eu. france is a founding member of eu. a victory would mean the end of the european you're i don't kun it. has it stopped the populous wave? we will know if a few weeks.

geert wilders did not do as well as expected and many in europe are relieved about that. >> thank you, hala gorani. that french election coming up will be a nail biter. >> they call le pen the female trump. secretary of state rex tillerson is in japan this morning. this comes at a pivotal time with the relations in the far east. south korea is dealing with turmoil and china trying to play a larger role. cnn international correspondent will ripley, good morning to you. this is a major trip. he has been very under the radar, rex tillerson, at this point. what is he saying? >> reporter: dave, he certainly has been under the radar. the secretary of state with some questions he did not answer. we saw his motorcade move in. he is having a working dinner with the japanese counterparts.

we expect they are talking about the new approach the trump administration will take in regard to the nuclear and missile development. we have not gotten specifics when asked about them. secretary tillerson issued a scathing indictment of diplom diplomatic policy over the last 20 years in regards to north korea. that includes president obama and second bush and bill clinton. he said during that time, more than $1 billion of u.s. food and energy assistance went into north korea, the country accelerated the development of nuclear warheads and missiles. those missiles being able to reach the mainland united states. will the approach involve going from a region approach with japan and south korea to a global approach as some in the state department have been telling cnn? that is similar to the iran model which candidate trump blasted on the campaign trail. and no word if they intend to

sanction chinese companies that do business with north korea. secretary tillerson not addressing any of that. we know he moves on to seoul tomorrow and beijing where the discussions will take place. one thing is clear, dave. what has happened so far regarding north korea hasn't slowed weapons progress as all. >> will ripley, thank you. the back drop is a 29% cut to the state department. elsewhere, the deep freeze in the east. extending down to florida with possible record lows this morning. meteorologist pedram javaheri has the forecast. >> good morning, dave and christine. 50 million people across 14 states dealing with freeze warnings this morning. much of the south in particular with temperatures cold and you work toward the north with winter weather advisories left in place. this is from our departing disturbance. lake enhanced snowshowers and scattered snowshowers in northern new england. the storm system pulls away.

cold air settled in place. back out to the west, 90s in the forecast in phoenix and death valley, california, close to 100 degrees the next couple days. here is what is going on across the south. 23 in atlanta. 27 in jacksonville this morning. orlando in the 40s. about 19 record temperatures could be set later on into this morning with the temperatures across the area. how about the forecast? the warming one for the south. takes up to 67. washington up to 60. new york city warms up, but very little and into next week, guys, i don't like saying this. you look at the forecast. it doesn't warm up beyond 45. it wants to cool off next week. pedram, thank you. cnn money stream. the stock rally back on track thanks to the federal reserve. solidly higher after the fed hiked interest rates and signalled more to come. stocks in europe and asia

rising. higher rates boost bank profits. those are not the best performers. apple is the biggest gainer. 20% this year. strong iphone sales. visa and boeing the best performers. nike shoe lines and better sales against under armour has them running strong. mark cuban is a tough critic of donald trump. he says he is a poor leader. the recent leaks from the white house is the defects in the president. cuban supported hillary clinton during the election. how does he feel about potentially running against the president in the next election? >> cuban 2020. is that a possibility? >> i don't want to say no, but it is not my dream to be president of the united states. what i like to have influence? i love helping create jobs and

helping spur industry. i'm good at that. if i can continue that, i'm happy. i think one other significant issue right now, technologically illiterate. we are about to go into ai. we are going to see a change in the nature of employment. these companies he is building factories with don't pay attention to the number of jobs for the factories. pay attention to the number of jobs in the companies two and three years out. >> he is not the only tech expert to say the president is focusing on the wrong way to create jobs. cuban made money with start ups and still active. jake asked. he said there are a lot of people in business who think people if president trump can be president, why shouldn't they be running? >> what a fascinating debate that would be in 2020. "early start" continues right now.

we're going to fight all the way up to the supreme court. >> president trump promising to push back after his new travel ban was blocked by a federal judge. how will the administration make its case? the white house sensing trouble with the republican health care plan. what is the president saying as the speaker of the house acknowledges the bill will have to change to pass the house. president trump doubling down he was wiretapped by president obama. despite the chairman offering a different take. good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. it is thursday, march 16th. 5:00 a.m. in the east. we expect #trumpbudget on twitter. that is the place for politics. you will break it down for us later on.