26/04/2017 100 Days

The entire US senators on its way to the White House for a rare briefing

on Korea. On the Korean peninsula there has been competing of force

with each side demonstrating their military hardware. All options are

on the table. We want to bring Kim Jong Un to his senses, not to his

knees. NAFTA is one of the largest trade

agreements in the world that has been in place for more

than two decades. So why is the Trump

administration eager to get out? No President since Ronald Reagan has

succeeded in reforming America's tax code -

it's that tricky. But now Donald Trump says he can

break that loosing streak. The campaign posters

are printed with the French For Emmanuel Macron

it was less than a warm welcome in his hometown -

where Marine Le Pen the White House says

funding for that Mexican We go to the border where not

all residents are convinced. You build a 20 foot wall,

someone is just going to build a 21 Hello, I am Katty Kay in New York,

Christian Fraser is in London. The US Senate is about to decamp to

the White House as a top Admiral wants lawmakers a North Korean

attack on the US is possible. Mr Trump has summoned his senators were

briefing, quite a show. The television image of senators going

into the White House make the president look assertive in the

run-up to 100 days but then he has already shown his resolve coming to

Korea. The Carl Vincent Battle group is now positioned. And the US

Michelin is always there. The US military last night began to deploy

part of an anti-missile defence system. Sparky overnight in the

South. Meanwhile these are big strawberry pictures yesterday from

North Korea. Hundreds of tanks lined up on the beach for a massive

exercise in life fire. It is apparently only a tiny portion of

the total artillery arsenal assuming these photographs are showing the

real thing, they are a reminder that North Korea has a formidable

fighting force. All options are on the table. We want to bring Kim Jong

Un not to his knees but to the table. Russia and China do not seem

to respect international agreements they have signed up to.

Well among those US Senators on his way to the White House is

He joined me from Capitol Hill just before he left.

What do you expect from this rather unusual visit that the senators are

making, you included, to the White House for this briefing. Well I

certainly hope to hear an overview of the strategic plan and an

understanding of the gravity of the situation. An understanding that we

are in a situation that if not carefully monitored and planned and

executed could be spiralling out of control. So this conversation needs

to include dialogue with China and our allies and with the United

Nations. The White House has been ratcheting up the language at least

against North Korea in the last couple of weeks. Do you think there

is a risk that America might paint itself into a corner, might actually

exacerbate this crisis by the tone that is coming out of the White

House? Certainly the concern is that if North Korea was to launch a

ballistic missile and the US should respond with an attack on the

northern Korean homeland, North Korea might respond with an attack

console. This is the situation where console. This is the situation where

the situation spirals out of control and into war very quickly. So as you

ramp up a threat and certainly the movement of ships into the area, the

destroyers better than now connecting activities with both

Japan and South Korea, the movement of US nuclear submarines into the

area that has more than 150 cruise missiles aboard, all to send a

message but what is the aim in terms of an outcome to the situation. And

how do we get there without war in. This is going to be the important

component. Will it be useful at this stage for the US to tone down some

of the rhetoric and tried to calm the situation? I do think I will

know a lot more about this after this meeting of the White House. And

here more details about our conversation with our allies, South

Korea and Japan and China. We have been focusing a lot on the nuclear

threat from North Korea but you saw those extraordinary pictures coming

out of the life fire exercise of conventional weapons. Another

indication of how quickly even just on a conventional military level,

mistakes can be made and the threat that this poses to soldier song that

-- just south of the border. North Korea has artillery that could

destroy the city of cell and they're prepared to act on short notice. So

your point is right. Some of your Democratic colleagues have expressed

concern about this trip to the White House, they think somehow it is an

act almost of political theatre. The normal thing would have been for you

to have been briefed in the secure facilities in the Senate. There's no

question this is political theatre. You have 100 senators heading to the

White House instead of having three or four brief is coming to the

Senate. The Senate where we have appropriate rooms for top-secret

conversations. The White House when is no such room. So this is about

theatre, I've little doubt that the president show up for a few moments,

he will have cameras with him, I think there is a tremendous amount

of political theatre here. But you are going anyway? Yes, the situation

in North Korea is one we all have to take extremely seriously. And I do

want to have the chance to have my colleagues and myself question the

administration over their objectives, their plans, how they

intend to respond to certain things if they occur. What is the outcome

if they are looking to achieve. We have to leave it there, thank you

very much. The president said the other day I'm

not sure Kim Jong Un is as strong proceedings he is. No one in

Congress is downplaying the threat of North Korea but I get the sense

from that interview that they are concerned that the president is

painting himself into a corner. I think there are two forming groups

of opinion about what to do right now about North Korea. As the crisis

seems to get more urgent. There are those who believe the president is

doing the right thing by putting pressure publicly and visibly with

the senators going down, ratcheting up the language against North Korea.

They think that is useful and sending a message that this is not

an administration to be messed with. And those on the other side who

think we should be toning down the rhetoric at the moment because the

risk of some kind of mistake, of provoking North Korea into doing

something I do with conventional or nuclear weapons get increased by the

rhetoric is hot as it is at the moment. So those are the

counterpoints if you like in national security communities at the

moment. As everyone recognises that the threat is very real from North

Korea. Let's look at something happening just as we were coming on

air. The financial markets are responding to reports that the White

House has drafted in order to pull the US out of the North American

Free Trade Agreement. Of course Mr Trump railed against this agreement

during his campaign and called it a job killer. But pulling America out

of Nafta would come as still as something of a surprise. It is one

of the largest trade agreements in the world, signed originally in 1994

by President Clinton. The White House has confirmed that the head of

the National trade Council has drafted an executive order with

Steve Bannon and it is now being reviewed. The Canadian dollar and

Mexican peso have fallen on these news reports. The Canadian and

Mexican share prices are also down. We were joined by the chief economic

adviser for Alliance. What you make of these reports estimate it is part

of the negotiation approach that the Trump administration is taking. I

think the probability of the US pulling out of Nafta is very low.

However, they will use this to get attention from Mexico and Canada to

try to reform certain elements of Nafta. Are you saying that this is

just a negotiating tactic? Yes, I think this is part of the approach

they have taken with several other areas. And so far it has worked. So

the administration is continuing the administration is continuing

with what has worked for them so far. Just to be clear, if the

American -- the Americans did pull out of Nafta bought with the

economic impact be not just on Canada and Mexico, but globally as

well. For the three members of Nafta, Canada, the US and Mexico, it

would mean the return of that phrase we thought had been put away for a

long time, stagnant inflation. They would suffer a hit on growth and

high inflation. So both consumers and producers would be worse off.

For the rest of the world it would add to the destabilisation of

existing structure. You see Brexit as an element of that. So this would

be destabilising both for the three economies within Nafta and the

global economy as well. We are finding with Brexit it is not

easy to unpick a deal with the single market. Is at the same with

Nafta, because car parts for example go back and forth across the border

many times. You cannot replace something with nothing so you need a

replacement because supply chains have gone right across borders. This

is a very complicated equation. The reason why Brexit has been a slow

Brexit is because people realised early on that you have to have good

alternatives. And I think for any trade arrangement that has been in

existence for a long time, whether Brexiteer Nafta, you must have an

alternative. We will carry on watching the markets and this story.

Stay with us for another big announcement on plans for tax reform

by Donald Trump of the American taxes are so complicated that

American taxpayers spend 7 billion hours every year filling in their

tax returns. So the promise of simplifying the system has enormous

appeal. But it has proved almost impossible to do. Here is what

Donald Trump would like to do. He plans to cut corporate tax rates

from 35 to 15%, a drop of 20%. There would be taxed breaks for childcare

expenses. And also a cut in tax rates for individuals. The exact

figure still to be worked through. But it is not clear how the White

House plans to pay for these cuts. Here was Gary Cohn just a short time

ago. The president is going to seize this

opportunity by leading the most significant tax reform legislation

since 1986 and one of the biggest We have been working

on this very long time. We have had great meetings, we had

a great meeting last night with the leadership of the

house in the Senate, we have agreed on many of

the important principles We look forward to working together

with the house and the Senate very closely

in the weeks ahead. One of the reasons of course that

financial markets have been so giddy ever since Donald Trump was elected

is exactly this promise of tax reform and particularly a cut in the

corporate tax rate down to 15%. Do you think it is important now that

the White House lays out how it is going to pay for that proposed tax

cut? It is very important and there are two elements to the tax plan.

One most people would agree on, tax reform. Simplifying the tax system,

making it easier, making it transparent and making it less

captive by special interests. The majority of people would agree on

this. The other element is aggressive tax cuts. Which is the

other element of the Trump administration, hear people need

details because it is very simple, it is a race between economic growth

and debt. If economic growth when fine but if debt wins then the

economy will be worse off. So what people are going to be looking at

closely when the details come out, how much growth will this promote

and will it be enough to offset what is likely to be a higher deficit. It

is a fascinating topic. Just today in the UK the opposition Labour

Party said we want to pay for doctors and nurses by putting up

corporate tax rates so big business pays for it. And in America they

have completely the opposite attitude. I just wonder, is there

any evidence at all that cutting corporate tax rates so low actually

does what is is meant to do. The evidence is it is not sufficient so

if you just do that and nothing else, profits will go up but the

rest of the economy will not feel it. That is the concern. That you

may end up simply by altering the distribution among corporations and

the rest of the economy. So it is not sufficient. To make it

sufficient you have to move on a number of other areas and that is

why it is important to put this tax plan in the context of what else is

going to happen to enhance productivity of labour, on education

reform, on infrastructure building. Thank you very much. That is the

issue, are the tax cuts pro-corporate profits or

pro-economic growth. And that I think is where the debate is at the

moment. Russia now and the administration

will want to keep the reform this weekend -

what they will not want to talk Because it has now emerged

Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor who stood down

in February, did not disclose foreign payments he had received

from Russia and Turkey. General Flynn would have

needed special permission for his appearance at a gala in 2015

sponsored by Russia Today, For his work lobbying on behalf

of the Turkish government, he was paid more than half

a million dollars. Here was the reaction

from the Republican Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Jason

Chaffetz. That money was received by General

Flynn, we believe that it was. As a former military

officer, you simply cannot take money from Russia,

Turkey, or anybody else and it appears as if he did

take that money. It was inappropriate

and there are repercussions for the But this was the response

from the White House. To ask for every call and contact

that a national security adviser Right now, to ask the White House

to produce documents that were not in the possession of

the White House is ridiculous. Everything that he did was prior

to coming to this White House. There is nothing that is being asked

for in respect to his That would be a matter for them

to look into, not for us. Again, that would need

to go to General Flynn. I am puzzled. The White House seems

to be saying we did not know what was going on with general Flynn

before he came to the White House war before he came to the campaign.

We were running these pictures of general Flynn at this dinner with

President Putin, this particular picture, before the inauguration.

They must have known that he was being paid for an event like this

put up or at least could have been. There are two big issues, one is the

White House vetting process under the Trump administration. The

questions about whether Michael Flynn was properly vetted or what

Donald Trump just a keen to have him in office that they took his word

when he killed in those forms and they did not check what he had

actually building. The second issue I think, surrounding why the White

House is not giving up these documents. There is no evidence at

all yet that the Trump campaign had links with Russia to try to

influence the American election but every time the White House says

we're not going to give up these documents people get suspicious.

Smoke and fire and all that. So the White House is not doing yourself

any favours by not being transparent on this issue. Flynn had to go and

why not be clear about what actually happened.

President Trump may have given up the push to fund his border wall

in the spending bill that has to pass this week but that

doesn't mean he's giving up on the key campaign pledge -

shrugging off questions about how it will be paid for.

Landowners in Texas have received letters ordering them

to sell their land to the government to make way for the wall -

while more than 200 building firms have submitted bids to construct

the barrier - said to be over 16-hundred kilometres long.

As our North America Correspondent James Cook reports

from El Paso in Texas - at least one of the bidders has been

On the US-Mexico border a bizarre beauty contest is about to begin.

Some 200 companies have submitted bids to build Donald Trump's wall.

Soon a handful will be invited to make prototypes.

The bids include some eye-catching designs.

There is a wall in the medieval style.

Another which doubles as a nuclear waste store.

This one, made of solar panels, and even a design for a barrier

This will be 30 feet high and then six feet below in the footing.

Michael Evangelista said he had to search his soul before bidding,

as a Latino who wants to build the wall, he has received

I know that you're trying to build that wall and I think it's

There are plenty of people out there like me that would love

So why on earth did he get involved at all?

Members of my own family were initially upset about it.

But when they understood and I explained to them

that the reason why we are entering this conversation is

because we do not want this wall to have lethal options including

The border wall is a reality and if it is going to be done,

A treaty with Mexico prohibits building on the edge

Instead the proposed route slices through private property.

This is where they want to build a wall.

This would be part of the section that they want, 60 feet wide

But it would be no man's land because who is going

Noel Benavides has received a government letter telling him his

We need access to the river, we have water rights,

we have several feet of water rights from the river that right

now we're not using, but in the future we probably will.

A wall, you go back in history, it has never worked.

You've got a 20 foot wall, but someone is

going to build a 21 foot ladder to go over it.

In fact all along the border there is scepticism.

Here in Texas opposition to lengthening and strengthening

this barrier comes not just from President Trump's

But also from quite a few Republicans.

Now he is battling his own president on the home front.

I think building a wall from sea to shining sea is the most expensive

and least effective way to do border security.

We should be using technology, we should be using people,

we should be increasing intelligence on the bad guys that we are trying

to stop and stop them before they get to our border.

These are all things that are better use of American taxpayer dollars.

The White House continues to claim that the cost of a bigger,

better barrier, will be met in the end by Mexico.

But President Trump still insists that his wall will be built.

James Cook, BBC News, El Paso in Texas.

Well it will be built but the question is who is going to pay.

The President is sending his best wishes today

to the First Lady, Melania Trump - it is her birthday.

He is not sending his fond wishes however to the US

of San Francisco has just blocked the President's executive

order to withhold money from sanctuary cities -

those are cities that offer sanctuary to illegal immigrants.

It is the third time judges have blocked one of his orders -

and each time the stop has come from the ninth circuit

Once again the President took to twitter this

First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban and now it

hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings.

There is a technical issue because the judge is not part of the ninth

circuit. He would appeal to that but we are getting into legal details.

There is an issue here and the president had a point that there

seems to be more liberal and more conservative courts in the US and

that may come as a surprise to people who live in countries where

judges are not politically appointed. But here they are by

presidents and you end up with what is called for shopping work if you

have a political cause you go to a conservative court or a more liberal

court and you hope your calls will be heard by one of the judges there.

So he thinks there are too many liberal judges in San Francisco and

of course Democrats are going to San Francisco. The thing is there has

been a lot of anger on the front pages today saying he and he goes

again, criticising the judges. Some people would say you know what,

judges are big boys and girls, they know the rough-and-tumble of the

legal world, they make big decisions, they do have much power.

Why should they not be criticised. I do not think it is undermining the

credibility of the judges, not saying so-called judges which she

had done before. 18 of the 25 judges on the ninth circuit Court were

appointed by Democratic presidents for them and they tend to be more

Democrat. So he has a point but the thing is Republicans have played

this game before because under Barack Obama conservatives went to

court syntaxes which tended to be more conservative in order to return

some of the executive orders of President Obama. So both sides play

this game. He has 147 judges to appoint.

You're watching 100 Days from BBC News.

Still to come for viewers on the BBC News Channel and BBC World News.

How do you contain the threat that is North Korea. Senators are going

to the White House for a special briefing. And in France Emmanuel

Macron was booed by factory workers in his hometown. The reception was

much warmer for his rival, we will be finding out why. That is all

still to come. Try and sunny day for some for

others the shower clouds are still around and some of them pretty

menacing. They continued through the night and so far we have the raider

charts, development with power -- parts of the South and east. We

still have that chilly northerly airflow but Scotland and Northern

Ireland not feeling as cold as it did yesterday. The showers get

heavier across eastern England into the afternoon and some rumbles of

thunder and hail mixed in with that as well. Showers also affecting

parts of the East Midlands but further west due showers around

through the afternoon, many places will be dry. Temperatures still on

the low side for the time of year. Across the North of England. But

with the wind slightly larger than yesterday not feeling quite so cold.

Into the evening across Northern Ireland and men in Scotland pure

showers around. The showers this evening in East Anglia and the

south-east quickly fade away. But occasional rain in Scotland and

Northern Ireland, keeping temperatures up through the night.

The chill is still on though with southern parts of England and Wales

and temperatures below freezing in some areas. So cold and frosty start

across the South but a bright start here clouding over. A cloudy and

damp start for Northern England but slowly brightening up. Only a few

showers and increasing amounts of sunshine breaking through into the

afternoon. Still feeling a bit chilly further south. Into Friday

with slowly start to lose the northerly Akpro. Many places dry

after a frosty start. Temperatures slowly on the up back into double

figures quite widely. And the trend continues into Saturday with a

southerly airflow. Saturday looks like the birthday of the bank

holiday weekend at the moment because by Sunday and Monday low it

comes into play bringing windier but also milder weather. But also some

rain at times. We will keep you updated on night over the next few

days. Welcome back to 100 Days with me,

Katty Kay, in New York Donald Trump invites the entire US

Senate to the White House for a briefing on North Korea.

I have little doubt that the President will show up

for a few moments, that he will have cameras with him.

I think there is a tremendous amount of political theatre here.

There are reports that the White House has drafted

an order to pull the US out of the North American Free

Mr Trump has called the trade agreement with Canada

More now on one of our main stories - and in the next hour the US Senate

As a top US admiral warns lawmakers that a North Korean attack

on the US is quite possible, Mr Trump has summoned all the senators

They are all heading down there at. -- down there right now.

For more, let's talk to Congressman Bradley Byrne,

Everybody agrees that the crisis is real and seems to be getting more

urgent. What does the Trump administration hoped to do about it?

You are seeing a multilayered response, first working with the

Chinese, who have a lot of influence with North Korea. We are seeing some

effects, the Chinese doing some things to bring the North Koreans

back in a bit. You are seeing the Trump administration pushing primary

and secondary economic sanctions. That will also have a good effect.

The third layer is the military power we are showing, letting them

know we are serious and we have assets to bring to bear in that part

of the world if necessary. The third layer is the last option we want to

use but we have to show them that we have it and have the will to use it

if necessary. We can see the Senators getting in buses and going

to the White House. That is being televised, it is part of the display

of America and the White House taking this seriously. Kym Nelson

has no incentive to give up his nuclear arsenal. -- Kim Il-Sung. If

they give it up that is the end of them as a nuclear state. You will

never get them to voluntarily riddling quiz them. I don't

anticipate any thing permanent but at least temporarily we can get them

to stand down. The Chinese have the biggest stick here. President Trump

I think is right to work with the Chinese to get him to back off at

least for a period of time. You are right, he sees this as a threat to

his personal existence, because the regime in his mind is at stake. He

believes he will be at stake as long as he is considered to be a nuclear

power. We can't accept North Korea as a nuclear power because of the

danger not just the people in that part of the world but to people in

the US and other parts of the world. Admiral Harry Harris, who heads the

Pacific Council, said the US is weighing whether it needs to put new

missile interceptors on Hawaii on which is in range of Kim Jong-un's

missiles. Is that debate the US has to have, protection on US soil,

things like missile protection? I was there for his testimony today

and I think he was painting a very realistic picture of the us. The

ultimate decisions for that are up to the ticket of branch but it is

our obligation to authorise and appropriate the money to pay for it

so we will be part of that decision. I think he is wise to tell us the

things he told us. We may have to do a number of things we are not

accustomed to doing to make sure we are protecting the US, Hawaii and

the West Coast. I was of course confusing my Kims, the younger one

with his grandfather. That is the ultimate issue, the North does not

want to give up its nuclear weapons and it believes that if it does so

that will be the end of the state. How can any country negotiate to get

it to do so? Even the Chinese, it seems to me, don't have that power,

if they had that interest. That is the problem, how you get

leverage. The New York Times said they have enough material to make

nuclear bombs every six or seven weeks, they would have an arsenal as

big as Pakistan in a short period of time. We have seen the pictures of

the beach, that is 2% of what Kim has in terms of conventional

weapons. North Korea is not easily neutralised and this is what these

senators and congressmen are saying, that it has to be, you would think,

a diplomatic solution somehow, but how do you get the leverage?

You have to imagine that Kim Jong-un is sitting in Pyongyang, watching

what happened to Colonel Gaddafi in Libya, who gave up his nuclear

weapons and found himself out of office and out of life, thinking, it

didn't work then, I am not going to go down that same route.

They are two very different prospect. Libya is an awfully lot

different to North Korea. The French presidential frontrunner,

Emmanuel Macron, was in his home town in northern France today

but this probably wasn't Factory workers,

whose jobs are under threat, booed Mr Macron as he arrived

to talk to them, on somewhat No such worries for his rival,

the far right's Marine Le Pen. This was a surprise visit

to the same factory, arranged at the last minute,

perhaps to hijack Mr Ms Le Pen's welcome

was rather different. We were there last week, if you were

watching. It is part of the French "rust

belt", where hundreds Ms Le Pen's anti-globalisation

message is going down We're joined by Agnes Poirier

of the French weekly Do you think it is possible for

Marine Le Pen, by turning up at factories like this, saying she is

the candidate of the factory worker, not the corporation, to try to eat

into Macron's support? She has nothing to lose. What we have seen

since Sunday evening and Macron arriving, 32 points ahead of Marine

Le Pen, he finds it difficult to think he is not already president,

and that is quite dangerous. He should work. He went to celebrate

his victory on the first round at a Paris brasserie with his supporters

and people didn't like it so much. Jacques Chirac went through to the

second round and he didn't rejoice, and the element of gravity as is

probably still something that the Macron team is not grasping.

Francois Hollande, the current president, today reminded Macron

that it is not a done deal, that he should keep working. It is really

interesting because we were talking about Hillary Clinton last week and

this new book called Shattered, and the author said that her campaign

had no sense of purpose, nobody had figured out how to make the campaign

about something more than Hillary. I get the sense that that is going on

with Mr Macron. Yes, but to be fair he is a formidable political

phenomenon, if you consider that his movement didn't exist 30 months ago.

The fact that he is independent and he is a centrist and is very new and

very young, he is also responsible for the fact that the two mainstream

political parties have disappeared for the second round. Everybody

rallies around him. It is not really that Marine Le Pen loses in two

weeks' time, that he should win rather than leaving it to

circumstances. A lot of people will vote for him by default. He is the

anti-Le Pen candidate. This is a poster that Marine Le Pen has put

out. She has stood down as the political leader, if you will, of

the Front National. You can't see on that poster that she is the leader

of the Front National, there is a blue rose, it is very soft, she

looks like the mother of the nation, choose France, she says. She is

trying to stand outside the party system and say, elect me as a woman,

elect me as president. She is very astute, she has proved to be a

shrewd politician since being voted to the helm of her party, and she

hasn't put a foot wrong sense really. You see what she is trying

to do, she is trying to look already very presidential, already above

parties. She stepped down and she presents herself as independent,

just like Macron. She is bouncing about because she didn't do a very

good campaign, a few months ago she was credited at 28%. It was a

disappointment for her and her party that she managed to get 21%, which

of course is enormous. Thank you very much for that. It will be

interesting when they come head-to-head in the debate next

Wednesday. There were clashes today between the

Prime Minister Theresa May and the Leader of the Opposition Jeremy

Corbyn in the final PMQ ahead of the general election in June. Mr Corbyn

said the Conservative Party only represented the view of the minority

but Mrs May said voting for her would mean better Brexit

negotiations for Britain. The election is a choice, on the 8th

of June, between a Conservative government for the few and a Labour

government that will stand up for all of our people. The choice is

clear. Every vote for him is a vote for a chaotic Brexit. Every vote for

me is a vote to strengthen our hand in negotiating the best deal for

Britain. The British Prime Minister is

holding talks with the European president Jean-Claude Junker and the

European negotiator. There is a summit on Friday and we will cover

that because we have an extra programme on 100 days which

coincides with their first meeting on