kristen welker at the white house. kelly o'donnell, she is on capitol hill. cnbc's ron insana with me in new york. he's going to break down what this new tax blueprint from the white house actually says and of course, we also have han strks nichols at the pentagon. we will start with kristen welker, he is at the white house, where treasury secretary steve mnuchin, director of the national economic council, just unveiled president trump's tax reform blueprint. the headlines here, slashing the corporate rate to 15%. down from 35%. they say simplifying tax brackets for individuals. they say just three of those now they want. 25%, 15%, 25%. also deduction changes as well. krist kristen, again, just a blueprint here. you can already hear the critics saying it's going to blow a hole in the deficit unless they find some way of paying for this, but take us through the highlights, what the white house says it's trying to do here. >> reporter: well, you're absolutely right. republicans saying that this

well, kristen welker, we'll begin with you because you were in the room. what did you make of this scene? i should add for the record, our pentagon producer says the president did not give any authority to drop this particular weapon because he did not need to. that authority had been transferred to the pentagon during the obama administration. so, it made for an interesting dynamic. let's just say the president's personality doesn't quite lend itself for him to say, no, didn't come from me. >> that's right. i think that he clearly wanted to give a full-throated support of the military action that was given, brian. but as you pointed out at the top, he didn't say yes to what was a very specific question, did you authorize that bomb. instead, he said, everyone knew what was going on and pivoted in that way. and, look, the bottom line is this is something that he clearly supports. it allows him to flex his military muscles as well. the question we tried to get to today, brian, was, was he given a heads up? now, neither the white house nor the pentagon would

white house correspondent kristen welker has details. >> reporter: with the president's first 100

kristen welker has confirmed this news for us. kristen, characterize this for us. what are we seeing here? >> well, steve bannon has been one of president trump's closest advisers from the time of the campaign, through the transition, a he was put on the national security council, according to one source, to really oversee work in concert with michael flynn. now, of course, he has since been removed. there is a new national security adviser. so this is sort of a part of that natural process of transition. but certainly, this is a significant shift inside this white house at a critical moment when the president is facing his biggest foreign policy tests yet. when it comes to north korea and those recent provocations, as well as syria and that chemical weapons attack that the president is now going to have to contend with. steve bannon continues to be, i am told, one of the closest advisers, but it does take him off of the list of those people who will now be huddling to deal with these national security issues in that capacity. so it certainly is significant. no wor

kristen welker has details. >>> with the president's first 100 days in office fast approaching this saturday. the government is set to run out of money midnight friday. could shut down and potentially cloud his first major milestone. his press secretary sounded confident but offered no guarantees. >> can you guarantee there will not be a government shutdown? >> i can't guarantee -- but i feel very confident that that won't happen. >> reporter: the biggest sticking point, the president insisting he wants the spending bill to include funding for the border wall, but for democrats who are opposed to the wall, that's a nonstarter. >> this is ultimately on donald trump. >> it will be the democrats that shut this government down to block the funding of the wall. >> while the president is trying to downplay the 100 day benchmark, calling it a ridiculous standard. a second try at health care reform, his second biggest push to repeal obama care failed the first time. on monday he's set to unveil his tax plan. that plan is designed to make good on a campaign promise. >> we are going to lower taxes. >>

we get more from nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. >> reporter: tonight president trump making a number of stunning reversals as he faces multiple foreign policy crisis after repeatedly calling nato obsolete on the campaign trail. >> nato in my opinion is obsolete. maybe nato will dissolve. and that's okay. >> reporter: now, mr. trump changing his tone while standing next to nato secretary general in the east room. >> i said it was obsolete. it's no longer obsolete. >> reporter: the move aimed at getting nato allies to ramp up their support in foreign fights and also pressing those countries to pay their fair share to support nato's mission but another striking reversal tonight after vowing to label china a currency manipulator as a candidate. >> they are grand masters of currency manipulation. >> reporter: tonight telling "the wall street journal" they're not currency manipulators, explaining taking that step could influence his talks with china on north korea. the president wants china's help to press north korea to back off its recent nuclear provocations and saying t

kristen welker has more. >> reporter: tonight, tensions escalating between the united states and russia, two senior military officials tell nbc news while it's not clear the russians were involved in the syrian chemical weapons attack, they are assessing and at a minimum acknowledge the russians didn't stop the syrians. this, as russia and iran ramp up their rhetoric condemning the u.s. air strikes and arguing the military action will only energize the terrorists. all setting the stage for a high stakes meeting between secretary of state rex tillerson and his russian counterpart in moscow on wednesday. >> secretary tillerson's message to russia in the end will be this is not obama's administration. >> reporter: tillerson speaking out during his diplomatic trip in italy. >> we rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocent anywhere in the world. >> reporter: tonight, press secretary sean spicer making it clear military forces still on the table when it comes to syria. >> if you gas a baby, if you put a barrel bomb in to innocent people, i th

>> kristen welker, thank you. >>> we're getting new details about the u.s. strike on isis in afghanistan, and the unpress dented battlefield use of that massive weapon dubbed the mother of all bombs. dozens of isis fighters were killed, afghan officials claim. we get incredible new video from the moment of impact. richard engel has that for us. >> reporter: new images tonight of the biggest nonnuclear bomb in the u.s. arsenal splashing down on an alleged isis strong hold. the blast from the 21,000 pound 30 foot long so-called mother of all bombs spread over a mile in a valley in eastern afghanistan. >> this was the right weapon against the right target. >> afghan officials say at least 36 isis fighters were killed by the blast. but cautioned exact tolls after so much destruction are difficult to know. some locals seem to welcome the strike against isis, but said it was terrifying for them. >> translator: my house was shaking after the blast described a witness. i saw a big flame, and everywhere was burning. so why was it launched? u.s. military officials say

is monitoring developments, kristen welker is in washington. kristen, what's the latest from there? >> reporter: good evening. the trump administration is on heightened alert. the president monitoring the situation from his resort in mar-a-lago where he will make time for golf and getting updates for national security st with him. the issue isn't preventing the vice president from traveling to the region for an 11-day trip starting tomorrow. his first stop will be seoul where senior officials say he'll reiterate america's commitment to allies. meanwhile, the other big headline tonight, white house officials announcing they won't immediately make public the names of people visiting on official business and obama era policy. national security because they want to protect the identities of people that might have sensitive information. some are slamming the decision saying it shows lack of transparency. a senior official arguing national security and privacy concerns come first and notes the obama white house made exceptions. lester? >> kristen welker, thank you. >>> we're also getting

white house correspondent kristen welker has details. >> reporter: closing in on the 100-day mark, tonight, the trump administration forced to revisit a controversy from day 23. that's when general michael flynn was fired as national security advisor. now the white house under fire for not turning over to congress information about flynn's business ties to russia. >> the white house has refused to provide this committee with a single piece of paper in response to our bipartisan request. >> reporter: the committee says flynn may have broken federal law by not asking permission or disclosing that in 2015 he was paid nearly $34,000 to attend this dinner for a pro-putin russian television station, nor did flynn disclose his firm was paid more than $500,000 to lobby for the turkish government. nbc's kasie hunt speaking to the republican chair of the oversight committee. >> reporter: do you think michael flynn broke the law? >> it doesn't appear as if he complied with the law. >> reporter: tonight, the white house saying most of the requested documents were handled under the obama administration

they told kristen welker, ridiculous. tell me based on what you know, is it possible that prince, russia and the united arab emirates, all acted on their own? >> i guess it is possible, but it is just curious how every day, there's some sort of connection or meeting that emerges that connects russia and the trump administration. i'm baffled by why there was such aggression, whether it was through former nsa director general flynn, in this case, erik prince, why they need to do these meetings before the inauguration. it undermines their mandate. i don't understand the aggression. the only issue that was really pressing on this was iran, it seems like. it was focused on iraq. why make deals with russia, especially at a time when the administration is under scrutiny? >> i'll ask you what you make of this. when you hear about these various places and times and people who may have been used, any of them could be wrong, but it is a little strange when the reports keep coming up that people with contact with the trump administra

savannah. >> kristen welker at the white house. there is more incoming fire for the white house tonight. questions swirling about the mystery sources about the explosive surveillance claims made by devin nunes. now there are reports at least three white house staffers were involved raising the question whether this was all an elaborate cover for the president's discredited wiretapping claims but the congressman is pushing back hard tonight. here is nbc's hallie jackson. >> reporter: tonight more of a mystery than ever before, who was the secret source who told powerful republican devin nunes u.s. spies may have scooped up communications from the trump transition team. the head of the house intelligence committee shooting down reports that staffers played a role in the revelation. >> those reports are mostly wrong. this is something i've known about for a very long time from people who were not affiliated at all with the white house or anybody there. >> reporter: but the washington post is now naming a third white house official who

>> kristen welker at the white house, thanks. >>> president trump today struck a potentially major blow to planned parenthood surrounded by women, he privately signed a bill that allows states to withhold federal funds from planned parenthood and other groups that provide abortion services. it reverses a rule that was finalized just before president obama left office. >>> for the first time, we are hearing about the extent of the injuries suffered by that united airlines passenger who was dragged from his seat on sunday. the video sparked national outrage and a pr crisis for the airline. now, dr. david dao's attorneys announced their intention to file a lawsuit and tonight, we're hearing from his daughter. nbc's tom costello has details. >> reporter: dr. david dao dragged from that united flight on sunday is now out of the hospital. >> my dad is healing right now. >> reporter: but his daughter says his injuries are severe. >> we were horrified and shocked and sickened to learn what had happened to him and see what had happened to him. >> reporter: his attorneys say dr. dao suffered a co

kristen welker, topic one is steve ban non. it was highly unusual this very strange arrangement set up for this national security council. and now a sigh of relief all over washington and the foreign policy establishment of republican and democratic white houses watching that bannon has now been taken out. >> you're absolutely right, it raised eyebrows all over washington when the president announced that steve bannon would be serving on the national security council. here is f here is what we know. he has been removed from the national security council. he was initially put in place, we're told, to oversee then national security advisor michael flynn. that raises all sorts of questions about how much faith this white house and this president had in michael flynn, but i was told he was put in place to make sure that he was following out the vision of the president. now, we are also learning just moments ago that this was, in fact, the action of the new national security advisor, h.r. mcmaster who was very clear that he wanted t

kristen welker at the white house, and jeremy bash, nbc news analyst and former chief of staff to leon panetta. first to you, kristen. this balance between their domestic record, their dependfeg the lack of achiefments, and now a foreign policy crisis front and center and a lot of mixed messaging on these interviews from the president. >> absolutely. well, first of all in terms of the first 100 days andrea, there has been a frenzied push to try to show that the president has had some establiaccomplishments reversing an obama era policy on the environment earlier today. but you're right we have seen time and time again overshadowed by the foreign policy crisis. president trump saying in that interview there could be a major military conflict, holding that out there, a warning to north korea and it counters what we heard from secretary of state rex tillerson. he called for a diplomatic suspension and to ramp up sanctions. we know with senior administration officials they want this to be resolved diplomatically, but they're not taking that off of the table. we also know they have been rea

nbc's kristen welker brings us more. >> reporter: president trump making a number of stunning reversals as he faces foreign policy crises after calling nato obsolete on the campaign trail. >> nato in my opinion is obsolete. maybe nato will dissolve and that's okay. >> reporter: mr. trump changing his tone while standing next to nato's secretary general in the east room. >> i said it was obsolete. it's no longer obsolete. >> reporter: the move aimed at getting nato allies to ramp up support in foreign fights and also pressing their countries to pay their fair share to support nato's mission. another striking reversal after vowing the label china a currency manipulator as a candidate >> they are grand masters of currency. >> reporter: telling the "wall street journal" they are not explaining taking that step could jeopardize talks with beijing on confronting the threat of north korea, the president wants china's help to press north korea to back off its recent nuclear provocations, and analysts saying the shift in policies reflect a one-time candidate who isdjusting to serving in the nati

we get details from nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. >> reporter: the entire u.s. senate heading to the white house in buses for an urgent and unprecedented briefing on the north korea threat. >> it was a sobering briefing. >> reporter: inside the room, the defense secretary, secretary of state, director of national intelligence, and chairman of the joint chiefs, saying they told senators north korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons is an urgent national security threat, that they are pursuing diplomatic measures, but are prepared to defend ourselves and our allies. one senior administration official saying that includes military preparations. >> north korea is the most dangerous spot on the planet right now. >> reporter: it comes as the top commander in the pacific unveils a new warning tonight, that part of the u.s. is already within striking distance of north korea's arsenal. >> kim jong-un is clearly in a position to threaten hawaii today, in my opinion. >> reporter: the fear, that north korea may develop nuclear missiles that can reach the west coast, and tonight,

kristen welker, nbc news, the white house. >>> another big story we're following tonight, the surprise announcement from the embattled head of the house intelligence community, devin nunes saying he'll step aside from leading the russia investigation as ethics complaints trigger an investigation into nunes himself. nbc's kasie hunt explains from capitol hi hi hill. >> reporter: devin nunes dodging questions, slipping out of the capitol of his dramatic announcement. he's stepping back from russian medaling in the u.s. election. his decision coming as the bipartisan ethics committee announced it would investigate whether he illegally revealed classified information in this bombshell press conference last month. >> the intelligence community collected information about u.s. citizens involved in the trump transition. >> reporter: in a statement today, nunes called the ethics complaint entirely false and politically motivated. >> did he mishandle information? >> reporter: paul ryan met with him saying he supports the chairman's decision. clearly chairman nunes made some mistakes here? >> i

nbc news white house voendent kristen welker, jeremy bash. and jack jacobs one of only 75 living recipients of the medal of honor. colonel jacobs is on the faculty these days at west point and an msnbc news military analyst. kristen welker we'll begin with you because you were in the loom. what did you look of this scene. i should add our pentagon producer says the president did not give any authority to drop this particular weapon because he did not need to. that authority had been transferred to the pentagon during the obama administration. so it made for an interesting dynamic. let's say the president's permit doesn't lend itself to say, not -- didn't come from me. >> that's right. i think that he clearly wanted to give a full throated support of the military action that was given, brian, but as you pointed out at th p, he didn't say yes to what was a very specific question. did you authorize that bomb? instead, he said everyone knew what was going on and pivoted in that way. look, the bottom line is this is something that he clearly suppo

kristen welker from the white house just spoke with the president. >> reporter: it was extraordinary. president trump spoke with me for a few moments from the oval office. i had the chance to ask him about healthcare, the fact that, of course, his initial push for healthcare reform was defeated. he said, look, he's still negotia negotiating. he is still trying to get a deal. of course we know he went go golfing with senator rand paul over the weekend. i asked him about that meeting. he said it went well. i asked him if they discussed specifics. he said they did in fact discuss specifics, wouldn't get into what those specifics for. this notion he's not read in on the details is simply false. he said he's been read in on all of the nitty-gritty details all along. i tried to get him to characterize how serious ts effort is to revive healthcare. he indicated he's very serious about it. hallie jackson reporting vice president mike pence met with some house leaders as well, discussed the possibility of reviving healthcare reform and came away from that meeting with a very positive sense the

kristen welker is joining us now. one of the thing that s that th president said repeatedly is that chi in is a currency ma nip pay l-- manipulator. what is the one message they want to send? >> reporter: well, the president was just asked about the message he wants to send to north korea during the egg roll, and he said the message is, you've got to behave. he's turning to china to ramp up pressure on north korea. and over the weekend after that failed missile test, the president not saying very much. but here's what he tweeted a short time ago. he tweeted, the first 90 days of my presidency has exposed the total failure of the last eight years of foreign policy. so true. and then he references fox & friends discussing this. bottom line, you're starting to see trump doctrine emerge around the edges, chris. the fact that he's taking a tough stance on a number of these different foreign policy crises, directing air strikes in syria and then, of course, we saw the administration drop the mother-of-all bombs last week in

nbc white house correspondent kristen welker has more on the president's week. >> reporter: with the president's 100 days in office fast approaching this saturday, government is set to run out of monday friday, could shut down and cloud his first major milestone. his press secretary sounded confident but offered no guarantees. >> can you guarantee there will not be a government shutdown. >> i can't guarantee. but i feel very confident that that won't happen. >> let me tell you, it will be the democrats that shut this government down to block the funding of the wall. >> reporter: while the president is trying to downplay the 100-day benchmark, calling it a ridiculous standard, there's a frenzied push to notch last-minute win, including a second try at health care reform. his biggest legislative push to repeal obamacare failed the first time. on wednesday trump is set to unveil his tax plan. according to one of the president's top advisers, that plan is designed to make good on a campaign promise. >> we are going to lower taxes. >> reporter: slashing the corporate tax rate from 35 to 1

. >> we have reports and analysis from nbc's kasie hunt, kristen welker and chief legal correspondent ari melbur. kasie, on capitol hill, we need to explain the background here. all this starts well before the election. >> it does, chris. at issue is the -- are these payments that mike flynn received from rt, the russian network with ties to the russian government, and jason chaffetz and elijah cummings wrote to the white house and other government agencies saying hey, we have a lot of concerns about this and we would like to see all of the documents related to the former nsa director's contacts with foreign officials, with any foreign governments and leading to these payments. so we saw a relatively rare joint press conference today with elijah cummings and jason chaffetz after the white house declined to provide them with documents they had asked for. i caught up with jason chaffetz one or o aft that and take a look at what he had to say. >> this goes back for, you know, a year prior to donald trump ever becoming the president, so it's not as if the white house isn't responding. the

and, of course, kristen welker at the white house. let's bring in ambassador christopher hill, former u.s. ambassador to south korea. the lead negotiator for the six-party talks on south korea during president clinton's administration. now the dean at the joseph korbel school at the university of denver and ambassador mark lipert, on president obama's national security council staff. first to you, ambassador lipert. difficult to read the political situation on the ground but you now have an impeached south korean presidency and acting president and there is some reporting from the region that the tensions right now might lead to this acting president having a better chance than the more left leaning challenging opposition party. i don't know what your read is. >> the acting president has decided not to run. he's not in the race. the left leaning candidate is ahead in the polls but what's interesting is a centrist candidate who ran five years ago, he's a billionaire doctor, came out of nowhere. he has surged in the polls. his essential

gordon thank you, kristen welker, thanks. up next, president trump voices optimism over potential new deal on health care. looking at a possible vote as early as next week, as caitlin put it, maybe not. a democratic member of the house joins us next on how he plans to stop it, but first, as we told you yesterday, sarah palin joined kid rock and ted nugent for dinner at the white house. how the three of them together -- this one is like ted nugent, kid rock and sarah palin walk into a bar, but no, it was in the white house for dinner. >> president trump called to invite, just to touch base, and asked if i would invite a couple friends. >> you invited kid rock. kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. kevin, how's your mom? how the three of them see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you. the whole country booking on choice hotels.com. four words, badda book. badda boom... let it sink in. shouldn't we say we have the lowest price? nope, badda book. badda boom. have you ever stayed

kristen welker is at the white house. tore those who may not have been paying very close attention, bring us up to speed. how did this controversy start and how now is the white house seizing upon it? >> well, first to the susan rice reporting. yesterday, various news outlets including bloomberg reported that she had unmasked names of some officials related to the trump transition, trump campaign, as a part of gathering intelligence and surveillance. she responded to that for the first time today, as you saw, with andrea mitchell, exclusively. and just to highlight the crux of what she's saying, katie. what she is saying is, look, the act of unmasking an individual or learning their identity does not necessarily cross the line or violate any laws. what would violate a law, she says, is to leak out classified information. and you heard her push back very vigorously against that information. when andrea asked her point-blank, did you leak the name of mike flynn? she said no, that she didn't leak that name and she never woul

., and around the world, kristen welker at the white house, kelly kobe bayia in seoul and hans nichols in cairo. first to ali arouzi there on the ground. good morning to you, fill us in. >> reporter: good morning, hallie. there's been little public comment from tehran in the latest developments. the only person who has weighed in so far is foreign minister zarif who led the nuclear negotiations. he tweeted earlier war and u.s. sanctions can't mask its admission of iran's compliance with jcpoa. obliging the u.s. to change course and fulfill its own commitments. zarif and president rouhani are heavily invested in the success of the nuclear deal. rouhani touted this deal as a panacea for many of iran's problems tying his political fortunes to the success of the deal. if it's in trouble, then he's in trouble. also, secretary tillerson's tough words last night are not going to fare well for the moderate mr. rouhani as he seeks a second term in office in next month's presidential elections. in fact, it's going to be ammunition for hard liners who want to shoot down his chances of re-election

kristen welker is at the white house. kristen, talk to me a little bit about why the white house is denying the request for the documents that the house oversight committee has asked for? >> reporter: two reasons, katy. first of all, they say that they don't have a number of the documents that the oversight committee is asking for. they say that michael flynn's security clearance was conducted during the obama administration, and so those are documents that they do not have. they referred that request to dod. they also say that any documentation that they do have related to conversations that michael flynn may or may not have had with foreign entities is too broad. they say that he spoke with a number of officials in foreign governments on a daily basis, and so they say in order to provide specific documents, they need a specific request. so that is the push-back from the white house, and very vigorously deny there is any attempt at stonewalling. i press one of the representatives based on what we've learned today that mi

nbc's kristen welker has more from the white house. >> reporter: good morning to you. president trump is in mara lago for the easter weekend. this week offered the most detailed preview so far of what is known as the trump doctrine. remember, mr. trump campaigned as a hawkish pro military candidate, promising to vanquish isis. his foreign policy successes so far outweigh his domestic agenda which has been on the rock from health care. in an interview with afb president bashar al assad denied he's behind the chemical weapons attack that prompted u.s. military sykes. assad calling the assertion 100% fabrication and making a stunning accusation that the u.s. was actually behind the attacks. a new provocation as the president mulls his next move on the world stage. >> thanks to kristen welker for that report. >>> also today, pope francis gets ready for the easter holiday, leading the way at the crosswalk commemorating jesus' last day on earth. that's it for us. i'm alex witt alongside ayman mohyeldin. "morning joe" starts right now. >> what should the american people make

welker, kristen, we're going to be talking about the u.s./european relationship. we should tell folks a little bit about the general secretary of nato, he is not from a military background, and economist by trade, two time foreign minister of norway. this will focus attention on europe, probably the russia threat and the other front, kristen, that this white house is dealing with. we've had mixed messages, again, in the last 24 hours. happens to be north korea. the world is a busy and dangerous place. >> reporter: it is. that's the other big foreign policy crisis for this president. president trump had a conversation with the president of china last night and cast it as a productive conversation, he said as they deal with menacing north korea. the first time we heard him describe north korea as a menace. he did that because of recent provocations by north korea. it launched another nuclear test. there are concerns it could, in fact, launch a sixth nuclear test. so president trump aiming to take a tough tone with china to get china to ramp up

i'm kristen welker in for steve kornacki. it is day 92 of donald trump's first 100 days and topping our agenda right now, barreling towards the first milestone. >> we'll be having a big announcement on wednesday having to do with tax reform. >> president trump adding a brand new priority to his already loaded legislative calendar. a look at the reality of what can get done before that 100 day mark. >>> also, is health care really back and can it even pass? >> they have not done the ground work yet among the members. this is why i was deeply opposed to bringing them back. >>> after two weeks of town halls in their home districts, is there even an appetite from congress on passing a new bill? we'll talk to one congressman straight

joining me now is kristen welker at the white house and casey hunt on capitol hill. nice dress, kristen. >> thank you. it was quite a meeting, andrea, that is for sure. and the president indicating that he is not ready to give up on health care. as you say. and a couple of headlines. i asked him how serious he thought this effort was to revive the push. he said, look, this is not about reviving it. he said he's a businessman and these negotiations are ongoing. and so he seems to think there is room for getting something done. when i asked him if he could work with democrats, he said the reity is he thinks tensions relations are just too raw right now. so he thinks he can still get something done with the same conservative republicans who, of course, derailed the initial effort and moderate republicans and according to some of our conversations with folks who are familiar with these talks, one of the potential compromises that they're looking at is allowing states to waive certain regulations as long as they can prove that they're going to lower premiums. of course, h

kristen welker is on the other side of the white house for us. out on the north lawn. we know that melania trump and baron will be moving to the white house over the summer, according to aides filling us in on the fact that as baron finishes his school year he's heading to d.c. tell me how the organization of the easter roll has gone. it's a fun event but it's a logistical big train to get running for the first lady's office. >> reporter: as you point out, the first lady hasn't officially moved here yet. she's in if process of staffing up as we speak. she just took on a communications director. so that was a bit of a challenge. she didn't have the typical staff and those large numbers in place that you would want to have as you prepare for the easter egg roll. but a white house official saying what they did, they reached out, got volunteer. they've within working overtime over the weekend to make sure that event goes off without a hitch. it's striking to hear from the first lady. we don't get to hear from her a whole lot. and to see here there with the president and wi

nbc's kristen welker has more. >> president trump staying largely out of sight this weekend. his motorcade rolling to easter services and he addressed north korea to taxes wurk his 28 million followers a happy holiday and defending his recent shift over china which president trump once vowed to label them currency manipulators. the president now reversing that opinion tweeting sunday why would i call china a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the north korean problem? we will see what happens, but it wasn't just foreign policy. mr. trump responding to the thousands who protested all across the country over the weekend demanding the president release his tax returns. emotions boiling over leading to arrests in california. for the most part demonstrators were peaceful but determined to get their message out, including some who live near his west palm beach resort. >> every other president has shown their tax returns and i think there's something in there that he wants to hide. >> the president who says he won't release his returns because he's under audit las

. >> meanwhile, nbc's white house correspondent kristen welker spoke with president trump in an impromptu oval office meeting. he said he's looking to get something done on health care and not looking for them with a co-lags calling it raw. >>> a story of national intrigue and trump administration days before the president was sworn in. nbc news has confirmed blackwater erik prince met with trump according to two intelligent sources familiar with the matter. prince is the brother of betsy devos. "the washington post" was the first to report this story. what they described as an apparent, quote, back channel line of communication between moscow and the president-elect. the meeting took place january 11th, nine days before president trump's inauguration in seychelles island in indian ocean. the they've been scrutinizing it as part of a probe in the 2016 russian meddling in the u.s. election. a meeting sought to persuade russia out of their relationship with iran, including in war-torn syria. washington post sources claim though prince had no formal role with the trump campaign or transition

kristen welker reports. >> reporter: president trump making a number of stunning reversals as he faces multiple foreign policy crises after repeatedly calling nato obsolete on the campaign trail -- >> nato n my opinion, is obsolete. maybe nato will dissofl. >> reporter: now mr. trump changing his tone while standing next to nato's secretary-general in the east room. >> i said it's obsolete. it's no longer obsolete. >> reporter: the move aimed at getting nato allies and also pressing those countries to pay their fair share to support nato's mission. another striking reversal after vowing to label china a currency manipulator as a candidate -- >> they are grand masters of currency manipulation. >> reporter: telling "the wall street journal," they're not currency manipulators, explaining taking that step could jeopardize his talks with beijing on confronting the threat of north korea. the president wants china's help to press north korea to back off its recent nuclear provocations. analysts saying the shifting policies reflect a one-time candidate who is adjusting to serving in the nation

kristen welker there. see you in a little bit. on the other side of the capitol is senator chris murphy, member of the foreign relations committee. thank you for joining us on the policeman. and we have plenty to discuss today. you're one of a handful of lawmakers who outright oppose the fact all together, not oppose the fact that the president didn't come to congress fist. but just against it. what kind of evidence would you need to see from the white house to get you on board for future strikes or military action? >> let's discuss the inhumanity of a strike inside syria tha is going to add to the chaos and carnage. it will have a response from assad and the russians, the iranians, the civil war will get more deadly. think of the i humanity of launching the strike amidst a policy from the united states that locks these syrian children inside the country. until we're serious about helping to take refugees and move home places of safety, these u.s. strikes make life more miserable for people inside. and as you mentioned, there is a

nbc's kristen welker has more. >> reporter: president trump staying largely out of sight this weekend. his motorcade captured rolling into his palm beach episcopal church for easter services, but in an easter morning tweet storm he issued everythi -- he once v label the country a currency manipulator. >> they're grand masters of currency manipulation. >> reporter: the president now reversing that opinion tweeting sunday why would i call china a currency manipulator when they're working with us on the north korean problems. we will see what happens. it wasn't just foreign policy. mr. trump responding to the thousands who protested all across the country over the weekend demanding the president release his tax returns. emotions boiling over leading to arrests in california. for the most part, demonstrators were peaceful, but determined to get their message out, including some who live near his west palm beach resort. >> every other president has shown their tax return, and i think there's something in there that he wants to hide. >> the president who has said he won't release his return

nbc's kristen welker has more on the week ahead for the president. >> reporter: with donald trump's presidency approaching the 100-day, ma, trk, the presidentd his aides are fulfilling a triumphant night. >> he's fulfilling promises at a breakneck speed? with 45% of americans, he's off to a poor start. mr. trump's job approval rating now stands at 40%, the lowest for any president at the 100-day mark in the history of the poll. still, a new abc news/washington post poll shows president trump is holding on to his base with 96% of trump voters saying they'd vote for him again. on twitter, the president calling the new polls very good considering that much of the media is fake and almost always negative. all this as washington faces a looming deadline. if congress can't pass a budget deal by friday the government will shut down. >> the government will stay open? >> believe it will. >> reporter: but one of the potential sticking points, republicans are looking to include funding for the president's border wall in the spending bill, a signature trump campaign promise. >> who is going to pay for tha

kristen welker has more. >> good morning to you. secretary of state rex tillerson is heading to moscow as tensions are escalating between the united states and russia. as we try to sort out how much the russians knew, if anything, about the syrian chemical weapons attack. tillerson is expected to carry this message, russia bears responsibility for assad's actions because it failed to follow through on a deal to get rid of syria's chemical weapons. we know the syrian envoy will be at the white house for meetings with h.r. mcmaster al month others. big day at the white house. >> thank you, kristen for that remark. >> attorney general jeff sessions is set to tour the u.s.-mexico border. sessions is to deliver the key address at the international associations of chiefs of police conference. >> that does it for us. "morning joe" starts right now. >>> good morning. it's tuesday, april 11. with us, msnbc contributor mike barnicle. >> hold on. hold on. i got one. >> say it again. >> mike barnicle is here, guys. >> everyone is kind of asleep

kristen welker, thanks for that. and it's been nearly six months since donald trump defeated hillary clinton to become the 45th president of the united states. clinton putting much of the blame for her loss on russian meddling and james comey's decision to announce just 11 days before the election that the bureau was looking at additional e-mails represented to the private server she used while secretary of state. now a new book "shattered" inside hillary clinton's doomed campaign takes an in-depth look at what led to clinton's defeat. everybody trust me is talking about this. i don't need to tell you that. joining us now to talk about it with us one of the authors, jonathan allen. this is -- boy, i don't even know where are to start. but here's where i will start. i think this is the quote of the book. you have hillary clinton here saying behind the scenes she's talking about the state of her campaign, she says i don't understand what is happening with the country. i can't get my arms around it. >> yeah, this is a p

>> all right, kristen welker at the white house. kristen, thank you for that. >>> turning to afghanistan, as kristen was just mentioning there, officials there say as many as 36 isis fighters were killed yesterday when the united states dropped what is being called the mother of all bombs. no civilian casualties have been reported yet. the u.s., though, still conducting its review. josh smith is the afghanistan correspondent for "reuters," he joins me from kabul. josh, thanks for taking a few minutes. let me ask withdryou in terms o fallout, the impact besides the bomb, itself, a day later, has this done anything to change the reality on the ground in afghanistan? fact that the united states launched this attack. >> well, for some time now, islamic state militants in afghanistan have been a primary target of the thousands of american troops who remain here. they've been targeted by both american warplanes as well as special operations forces on the ground. american officials say here that the reason they used this large bomb in this

i'm joined by nbc's kristen welker, phillip rucker and jonathan swan. kristen, you first. it is interesting. in all these directional changes that we've been seeing, particularly in the last couple of days, in fact, week, i guess, all of them seem to be moving toward the center into the more conventional presidency. >> well, that's right. i think you are seeing a president who is transforming from being a campaigner to actually being someone who inhabits the oval office. and all of the realities that come with that, chris. these challenges that he's facing on the world stage, for example, in terms of the fight against isis, syria, russia, recent provocations by north korea, and he's realizing, just to use one example in terms of nato, calling nato obsolete doesn't help him to achieve the types of things he wants to achieve in terms of dealing with some of those foreign policy crises. so he is moderating to some extent. in terms of the makeup, though, here at the white house and the struggle you and i have been talking about for days now, steve bannon has been sidelined cer

starting with nbc's kristen welker live at the white house. kristen, can they get a deal done before friday? the fact that we're leading with the wall, kind of makes me think no. >> stephanie, they have to get a deal done before friday because it would be a major embarrassment if the government shut down just ahead of president trump's 100th day in office. what does that deal look like? i've been talking to sources here at the white house and capitol hill, and say the likeliest scenario, you're going to see a short-term extension of the government funding bill. we're talking about a week or two. one of the major sticking points, though, stef is that the president and white house want some funding for the president's border wall. that was a key campaign promise. democrats are digging in their heels saying they're not going to go for that saying look, you give us funding for the border wall, we'll give you some money to keep obama care afloat. that's a fair trade. but nancy pelosi was pretty clear during her appearance on "meet the press" with c

kristen welker ist the white house. we have our

i'm kristen welker in for andrea. two presidents in the spotlight this hour. president trump here in washington at a drit cal meeting with the united nations security council to discuss international concerns over north korea's missile program and in chicago, former president barack obama making his first public appearance since leaving office. any moment now at the university of chicago where he once taught. and we have pictures of him arriving right there. joining me now to discuss all of this, nbc's ron allen in chicago. msnbc ctributor jonathan capehart editorial writer at "the washington post" and josh earnest press secretary during president obama's second term. thanks to all of you for being here. josh, what is a really big day for former president obama, what are your expectations? we've talked a lot about the fact that we don't expect him to engage president trump. what are you expecting? >> kristin, who says you can't go home again? president obama is going home again both to the community where he got his start in public service and back to the issu