Trump To North Korea: Do Not Underestimate Us, Do Not Try Us; Trump Meets With China's President In Forbidden City; Stock Market Posts Major Gains Since Trump Elected.
HARLOW: President Trump landed in Beijing just hours after a fiery speech aimed at Kim Jong-un's regime in North Korea. Listen.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Do not underestimate us and do not try us. We will defend our common security, our shared prosperity, and our sacred liberty.</s>BERMAN: Fiery, but maybe not as fiery as we have heard in the past, and the response from North Korea, "We are done listening." CNN's Jeff Zeleny live in Beijing traveling with the president. Jeff, it was interesting. It was a newer, perhaps softer and more calculated tone we heard from the president on North Korea.</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Poppy. It was certainly a more measured tone. The words were definitely harsh. He was definitely building an argument, in fact, to the world as well for why there needs to be a joint effort to confront the regime of Kim Jong-un. And particularly, of course, he was talking to the leaders of China here and Russia, as well, about the need to financially squeeze North Korea. But front and center in that address was also America's role in a Korean Peninsula and what America's history means in this moment. Let's watch.</s>PRESIDENT TRUMP: America does not seek conflict or confrontation, but we will never run from it. History is filled with discarded regimes that have foolishly tested America's resolve. Anyone who doubts the strength or determination of the United States should look to our past and you will doubt it no longer.</s>ZELENY: So, again, those words are hanging in the air here as the president arrived in Beijing, of course, for one of the most consequential stops in his tour across Asia. The economic message here -- in the economic meetings are first and foremost on the agenda as well as North Korea. The president trying to make the argument here as the red carpet was indeed rolled out for him when he arrived. He's sleeping now, but he will have meetings tomorrow with President Xi Jinping. Of course, North Korea on the agenda, but that's not all that is on the agenda here -- John and Poppy.</s>HARLOW: Not all at all, for a lack of a better way to say that, Jeff Zeleny. There's also an interesting dynamic going on between these two leaders, this power struggle between President Xi and President Trump.</s>ZELENY: There really is and that's why this meeting is the most consequential stop because, you know, China, of course, is an economic super power and President Xi Jinping has been consolidating power at the same time President Trump has indeed been losing it. Of course, he's been -- you know, it's been one year since his election, and there's no question, there's so much flattery going on here. The president was invited to have dinner at the Forbidden City, the only foreign leader to do that in generations here. But when President Trump was flying over to Asia, a reporter asked him a question if he was worried about the fact that President Xi is more popular, and he said, "Excuse me, so am I." So, President Trump clearly is defensive about his own popularity, and of course, this is all the more -- a central question here now with the election results back in the U.S., in Virginia and New Jersey. But front and center, when these two leaders meet today it's a power struggle as they really shape a new relationship for a new economic relationship and dynamic going forward. You'll remember, President Trump talked so much about China. He said it was raping U.S. jobs and taking down the economy. I do not expect to hear any of that today. It's all the president trying to bring him onboard, but a power struggle, no question -- John and Poppy.</s>HARLOW: What happened to that tariff that was going to be laid on Chinese imports? We'll see. Jeff Zeleny, thank you.</s>ZELENY: Or the currency manipulation, which never happened.</s>HARLOW: There you go. There's a long list. Jeff, we appreciate it. Joining us now, CNN military and diplomatic analyst, Rear Admiral John Kirby. It is nice to have you here with us. John is right when he said, yes, this was a fiery speech, but it was not as fiery as it could have been. Notably missing the words rocket man, fire and fury. Why? Why this change? I assume you are happy to see a little bit -- toned down rhetoric? REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY</s>CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: Yes, I am. No, I was, Poppy. Look, I think the speech was adequate to the task and it was appropriate for the audience and the venue where he was, the National Assembly there in Seoul. That is not the place to be throwing around fire and fury and rocket man. That said, those who wanted him to be muscular on Pyongyang, I think got what they wanted out of that speech. I think in general what I was happy to see in it was that he kind of aligned himself, finally, with the rest of his national security team because for months his team has been working well. I think in a very measured deliberate way to come up with a strategy to deal with what is undoubtedly a much more urgent problem for them than it was for the Obama administration. And yet, he's been out there tweeting things like rocket man, and saying things like fire and fury, and actually undermining the diplomatic efforts that his own secretary of state has been trying to pursue. So, for me, it was gratifying to see him speak in more measured and deliberate tones. What I would like to have heard that I did not hear was any mention about the strength of the bilateral relationship with South Korea. The speech was almost all dominated by looking at the past and how great South Korea is, which they are, and about North Korea, he did not really advance anything about the alliance that we share with South Korea.</s>BERMAN: You know, when we think of the past, he had one interesting line and we had to chance to play it for you there, "Anyone who doubts the strength and determination of the United States should look to our past and you will doubt it no longer." There are some who are noting as he stood there in that part of Asia, part of the U.S. past includes dropping two atomic bombs on Japan, was that part of that message or is it just the entire U.S. military past he was talking about?</s>KIRBY: When I heard it last night, John, that's what I thought the latter. I thought he was really speaking towards -- to the whole history of the U.S. in the Pacific and primarily the military history in the Pacific region, which doesn't include Hiroshima and World War II. That's the way I took it. I can see where so many people might take it the other way. Also, sort of irony of the line is that some of that past, even though he likes to throw strategic patience under the bus and claim that President Obama didn't do anything. Part of that past, the reason why we are so well postured militarily in the region is because President Obama did pivot the majority of U.S. military forces to the Pacific because we did put advance radar systems and advance ships and more troops in the Pacific region to build alliances and foster relationships. So, part of the reason he has capabilities is because of the previous administration.</s>HARLOW: That's a really interesting point. It seems like in the last 48 hours he has made somewhat of a pivot at least in his language when it comes to trying to make very clear that, yes, the United States prefers diplomacy. All of those around him in the intelligence and military community have said that. But he talked 24 hours ago about making progress on that front with North Korea and the words he used last night, America does not seek conflict or confrontation, but we will never run from it. Notable to you?</s>KIRBY: Yes. I was actually glad to hear him talk about diplomacy in that way, and I think it's valuable that he puts that front and center, as the rest of his team has. That said, Poppy, when he said that, you know, people are talking about he cracked open this door to diplomacy. He also kind of closed it a little bit because as soon as he said it he then said but you will have to meet the preconditions of no more aggressive actions and provocative behavior, and you will have to dismantle your nuclear program, which is we've all known from listening to Will Ripley, they absolutely are not going to do that. When you set preconditions like that to negotiations, you essentially close off negotiations. So, I was glad to hear him talk about diplomatic solutions. I don't think he really advanced the ball much on it.</s>BERMAN: Everything can be learned from listening to Will Ripley. All right. Admiral John Kirby, thanks so much for being with us.</s>KIRBY: Thanks, guys.</s>BERMAN: All right. Today marks one year since Donald Trump was elected president and he would be the first, second and third person to tell you the stock market has made huge gains since then.</s>HARLOW: CNN chief money correspondent, Christine Romans is here with us before the bell. Every time the president tweets and we don't talk about the stock market enough, I just think of you.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: He was standing in Seoul and talked about what a miracle it has been in the American economy and stock market. He talked about ISIS and his Supreme Court pick, too. The stock market is really a scorecard that this president really likes to take credit for. Let's look at what happened over the past year. Do you remember on election night last year --</s>BERMAN: I do remember election night.</s>ROMANS: I do remember the Dow being down 900 points. The world markets freaked out because they did not anticipate a Trump victory, and then it was off to the races. This is the Dow up 30 percent, 30 percent. Now let me give you some perspective. That's the Trump bump. Let's put it on top of the overall bull market and you can see how far we have come here. That Trump bump is 20,000, 21,000, 22,000, 23,000, and closing in on 24,000. There's a lot of reasons here. You know, corporate profits are very good. Companies are making tons and tons of money. The economy is strengthening. The job market is strengthening. Consumers are spending. You have global economic growth in general and peace, relative peace. So, these are all reasons why the stock market has been going up. But presidents get too much credit and blame for the economy and stocks. If you look at the chart again, you can see that a lot of people felt pretty bad under that Obama stock market rally. In fact, that's one of the reasons why Donald Trump got elected and now you have the president cheerleading the market. There's an interesting E-trade poll that found 61 percent of investors think it's a strong U.S. economy that is driving the things overall. That is about twice as much as those who said it was President Trump overall that was driving the economy. I will say, after Trump was elected, lots of business leaders felt like a switch had been flipped on from anti-business to pro-business, and a lot of that is sentiment and psychology.</s>HARLOW: But it matters.</s>HARLOW: Regulations being cut. Tax cuts, they think, are coming. If it's not tax reform they still think it will be big cuts for big companies and companies will make more money. The stock market reflects how well companies are doing, not necessarily how well you are doing, and companies are doing great.</s>BERMAN: I will be watching the markets to see how they react to the election results overnight, which, you know, purpose a counterweight to the administration going forward. All right. Guys, thanks so much. Thanks, Christine. A conspiracy theorist and a CIA director sit down for a meeting. This is not a bad joke. This actually happened and it happened because President Trump wanted it to. What sources are telling us about why they met, next.