Trump Gives Campaign-Style Speech To Gun Lobby Group; Trump To Mark 100 Days With Saturday Rally; Tillerson Nations Must Downgrade Ties With North Korea; Comedy Show Spoofs Trump Ahead of 100-Day Mark
HANNAH VAUGHAN JONES, CNN INTERNATIONAL GUEST ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Hannah Vaughan Jones sitting in for Hala Gorani live from CNN London and this is THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. Good evening and welcome. U.S. President Donald Trump is approaching a major milestone. Tomorrow marks 100 days since he took the oath of office, and the commander-in-chief is sending very mixed signals about how his term has gone so far. Just a short time ago, Mr. Trump spent part of his 99th day in office addressing the National Rifle Association. He is the first sitting president to address that powerful lobby since Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump took a positive tone to, again, reflect on his electoral win.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: November 8th, wasn't that a great evening? You remember that. It was a great evening. Remember that? They said, we have breaking news. Donald Trump has won the state of Michigan, Michigan. How is that -- Donald Trump has won the state of Wisconsin. Whoa. But earlier in the evening, remember, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, all the way up. We ran up the east coast. And, you know, the Republicans have a tremendous disadvantage in the Electoral College, you know that, a tremendous disadvantage. Then you go with Iowa, and Ohio, and all of the different states, it was a great evening, one that a lot of people will never forget.</s>JONES: But in a Reuters interview, President Trump struck a more reflective tone and spoke candidly about his time in office. He lamented the lack of privacy and freedom and said he found the workload to be challenge. Take a listen.</s>PRESIDENT TRUMP: This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier. I thought it was more of a -- I'm a details-oriented person, I think you would say that, but I do miss my old life. This -- I like to work so that's not a problem, but this is actually more work.</s>JONES: OK. Let's take a closer look at Trump's ups and downs so far. From Washington I'm joined by CNN's Stephen Collinson and our Nic Robertson is here on set with me in London. Gentlemen, welcome to you both. Stephen, I want to turn to you first. Let's talk about that National Rifle Association speech that the president just gave. He was very buoyant, looked very confident, but I suppose why wouldn't he be amongst his base?</s>STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. He was back in his comfort zone. We've had a week basically in which the president has had to endure repeated and grim assessments of his first 100 days in office particularly among the media and historians, who have basically pointed out that he has no grand legislative achievements. His attempts to do something big like repeal Obamacare, President Obama's health care law, they fought it actually yet again in the last few hours, and I think what he's doing now is going back to the places he feels most comfortable. The National Rifle Association, which is the powerful gun lobby which is hugely influential on American politics and where he won a lot of support. On Saturday, he's going to have a big rally in Pennsylvania, one of the states he mentioned there. This is about I think going back to where he feels comfortable and also saying, look, the people that supported me in that shock election win in November are still with me, and to the people who don't like him, and he's got the lowest approval ratings of any modern president at this time in his administration, it's almost like saying, tough, I'm not going to change, this is what you've got.</s>JONES: We have to talk about the Reuters interview as well. Very, very candid there of President Trump, he's sort of saying -- well, he said it exactly that it's harder than it looks being president. Did you sense any hint of regret that he perhaps underestimated the scale of the task ahead?</s>COLLINSON: Well, I think it certainly raises the question of, is Donald Trump actually having a very good time being president, does he actually want to be president? It also raises the question of whether, you know, what he was doing running for president if he didn't have a good idea of what the most difficult job in the world many people say entails. It's not unusual for a president to take office and then find, wow, this is huge, everything comes out at me really quickly is really difficult. What's unusual, I think, is for someone to talk about it so candidly and so openly early on. Presidents often say things like this when they're headed out the door, but this is what Donald Trump's like. He's very personal. He talks to journalists in this sort of candid way and that's very unusual. And also I think underlines, you know, the great inexperience of Donald Trump. He has had no prior political experience. His learning curve therefore is much greater and the fact that he wasn't a politician was the reason he wasn't elected in the first place.</s>JONES: And Stephen, just standby, I want to bring in Nic Robertson, who is in studio with me. Nic, a 100 days for Trump presidency, a 100 days of a lot of foreign policy as well. A surprise perhaps to Trump and to the rest of us.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. I think as we heard from the president, it's been 100 days of learning. I mean, look, he's learned a huge number of things. Number one, he came in and said China was an enemy and a currency manipulator. But he hasn't decided to call China a currency manipulator and said he can work well with the president there. He's realized he's learned on the job that if he wants to tackle the issue of North Korea, he needs the support of China. He's learned pretty quick as well with his cruise missile strike on President Assad's forces for using chemical weapons. When he did that, President Putin of Russia went from being a potential friend. Donald Trump had talked about, well, if he likes me, maybe that's going to be a good thing to overnight Putin become as foe because he backed Assad and the United States struck Assad's forces. So you know, there are some things that he's learned on the job there. There are other things that have been, you know, clearly some lessons to go. Angela Merkel, not doing the handshake in the oval office when she asked it. Angela Merkel at the press conference making a glib joke about how in his opinion they both shared somehow President Obama using the Security Services to eavesdrop on their phones. That was hugely embarrassing for the German chancellor. Doing that kind of stuff with big guests, that's people -- it's kind of a rookie mistake, but by his own words and what we see, there's an amount of learning, an amount.</s>JONES: Theresa May as well clinging onto her hand as well. Slightly embarrassing perhaps for both of them there as well. I wonder what the rest of the world has learned from the 100 days. Do world leaders now have a better measure of the man?</s>ROBERTSON: They're beginning to get one. Look, when he came in, he was unknown, untested. That was really unnerving for everyone. I think where people are at right now, there's a certain amount of unease about it. He's still unpredictable. This is a man who in his business like, the art of the deal if you like, a great disrupter going in to negotiate business negotiations and deals to hit the table hard, demand what you want, get your enemies off balance. The problem is his enemies like North Korea or President Putin or Russia who doesn't know what he's going to do next in Syria may be off balance, may be off guard, but at the same time his allies are off balance. They don't quite know what he's going to do next. We have Secretary Tillerson at the U.N. today saying that for the United States view, the international community should support the sanctions on North Korea. Diplomatically, that's great language that people want to hear, but what has President Trump done? What has the international community -- what has President Trump done? What has Secretary Tillerson done to engender that goodwill to now freely demanding and expecting to come from the international community? That's the sort of stuff that takes long-term diplomacy and skills to build up. They haven't put the box in place.</s>JONES: Stephen Collinson, I want to go back to you. Everyone is going to have an opinion on how the 100 days have gone so far. His approval ratings, Donald Trump's approval ratings, I think we have some stats we can put up on the screen, they're at rock bottom at the moment. However, on the other hand, the markets are doing extremely well over the last 100 days. Do you think that Donald Trump in doing this interview with Reuters, in which he was so candid, he's basically reclaiming the narrative, getting on the front foot before everyone else seems to have an opinion?</s>COLLINSON: Yes certainly and he's reaffirming the sort of economic nationalism themes that were so successful for him in the campaign. The Dow as you said is on track, it looks like, to be at its highest percentage of any modern-day president since World War II in terms of, you know, increasing value during the first 100 days. I would say that a lot of that, though, is based on expectations. It's based on the expectation that Donald Trump can enact a generational tax reform plan. We've seen he's not had a great record so far in getting things through Congress. Tax is even more complicated than health care. So I think a lot of this is sort of frontloaded. The other thing is that we had first quarter growth figures today, which was somewhat disappointing (inaudible) 7 percent. For most of that period Donald Trump was president. So there are mixed economic signals. I think over the next 100 days and going forward Donald Trump is going to have to produce results if the stock market is going to continue to be high and that, of course, is going to have an impact on how Americans feel and ultimately on his approval ratings and his capacity to move legislation, to bend the will of lawmakers to do what he wants.</s>JONES: Nic, final word to you on this. Tomorrow is Saturday. Tomorrow marks the 100-day milestone. What does Donald Trump do on a Saturday? He takes to Twitter. What do you expect?</s>ROBERTSON: I think we are going to -- I think probably if you judge what we've seen this week, there'll probably be quite a stream of tweets from him. They may come early in the day as well. I have my alarm set on my phone. Every time he tweets, I hear it. Sometimes it seems that it's starting at 6:00 a.m. in the morning or somebody is for him. So you know, I think we will have a raft of messages to affirm what he thinks he's achieved, ignore the bad, and even perhaps harp on a little bit about the reporters are not giving him enough credit as he did with the NRA again today.</s>JONES: Gentlemen, great to have you both. Our Nic Robertson in London and Stephen Collinson in D.C., thanks very much indeed. Now later on in the show, I'll be joined by one guest who says Donald Trump is gaining the respect of allies around the world and reinvigorating U.S. foreign policy. Plus a totally different political chat, the Simpsons weigh in on Donald Trump. I'll speak to the show's executive producer about how the president is inspiring comedy. That's all coming up on this show, THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. Now President Trump's rhetoric on North Korea's nuclear program has got even sharper as he approaches that 100-day mark. Here's what he told the Reuters news agency again on Thursday.</s>PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, there's a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea, absolutely.</s>JONES: The president forecasting a potential major conflict with North Korea, and today his secretary of state shared a special session of the U.N. Security Council where he steps up the pressure on members to distance themselves from a nuclear North Korea.</s>REX TILLERSON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We call on countries to suspend or downgrade diplomatic relations with North Korea. North Korea exploits its diplomatic privileges to fund its illicit nuclear and missile technology programs and constraining its diplomatic activity will cut off a flow of needed resources. In light of North Korea's recent actions normal relations with the DPRK are simply not acceptable.</s>JONES: So how is North Korea reacting to all of this? Well, our Will Ripley is the only American television journalist currently reporting from Pyongyang. Take a look.</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in North Korea, the government watching very closely the outcome of this U.N. Security Council meeting chaired by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. President Trump ratcheting up the rhetoric saying openly that a major, major conflict could break out with North Korea which is really unusual a U.S. president to use that strong of language when dealing with a country like North Korea which responds in turn with its own rhetoric. In fact, there's a new comment out from the North Korean state media, KCNA saying, quote, "In case a war breaks out on the peninsula, the U.S. will be held wholly accountable for it no matter who made the preemptive attack." They also in that commentary called the United States a gangster that's trying to turn the world against this country, but instead of backing down, they say they are speeding up their developments of nuclear weapons and missiles that could potentially carry them to the United States and other enemies. Speaking with North Korean officials here, they are defiantly opposed to any notion that they will buckle to international pressure. Even these new statements that are coming out of Beijing saying that the Chinese government is willing to work with the United States to try to find a solution to de-escalate the situation on the Korean Peninsula. China does have a considerable amount of economic leverage over this country with at least 70 percent of North Korean trade. They also control a major oil pipeline flowing into this country. If they were to cut that off, it could be a very severe situation for the people who live here. But in conversations with North Korean government officials they say they will not back down, they are not afraid, and, in fact, they only feel like they should work faster to build these weapons as fast as quickly possible to protect against what they view as the growing threat, perhaps the imminent threat of war with the United States. We have heard this kind of rhetoric before, but what we don't know, what is untested is how this is going to play out with North Korea's supreme leader, Kim Jong-un and President Trump, both who are clearly in this to win for their respective sides. Will Ripley, CNN, Pyongyang, North Korea.</s>JONES: Will with that exclusive insight into what's going on inside North Korea right now. Richard Roth has been tracking today's special session on North Korea at the United Nations and joins me now with all the details. Richard, we hear from Secretary Tillerson that all options are still on the table, but reiterating it as well, what a military leader just a couple of days ago, that this is all about bringing Kim Jong-Un to heel, not to his knees.</s>RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: The idea was to put pressure on both North Korea and China, the main ally of North Korea on the international scene. Whether that's achieved, I don't know. It was a sobering matter of fact, the detailed series of remarks especially by the U.S. secretary of state. He said it's time for the Security Council to live up to all of its resolutions and that it's really time to move into a different era. Strategic patience is over and North Korea is now the one calling the shots and it's our turn in effect he was saying. China said there should be suspensions of activities. The U.S. and South Korea should stop its military maneuvers and North Korea would stop testing. The U.S. thinks it shouldn't work that way. That it really should be North Korea to take firm actions first before there is any talk of dialogue, which is what China favors.</s>WANG YI, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): China makes two concerts efforts to address two urgent tasks. First, given the grave situation on peninsula China urges all parties to remain calm and exercise restraint provocative actions that would lead to miscalculation. There is and should be no double standard on this issue. Why we demand the DPRK to on serve the council's solutions. We also demand the U.S., the U.K., the other parties to refrain from or conducting exercises against the</s>DPRK. TILLERSON: We will not negotiate our way back to the negotiating table with North Korea. We will not reward their violations of past resolutions. We will not reward their bad behavior with talks. We will only engage in talks with North Korea when they exhibit a good faith commitment to abiding by the Security Council resolutions and their past promises to end their nuclear programs. And that is why we must have full and complete compliance by every country to resolutions that have been enacted by this body in the past.</s>ROTH: The U.S. secretary of state, his Chinese counterpart meeting right now in the U.N. building. There was no resolution, Hannah, no votes. It was not expect at the end of this session. All eyes will be watching to see how North Korea behaves in the coming days and weeks ahead.</s>JONES: Richard, we appreciate it. Richard Roth live for us there at the United Nations in New York. Stay with us here on THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. Still to come on the program, British police say they have foiled two potential terror attacks in 24 hours. We'll have the details. And Pope Francis becomes just the second pontiff ever to visit Egypt. We'll get a live report from Cairo coming up.