President Trump Signs Memorandums Affecting Economic Policy and National Security

And President Trump signing new executive actions just now. NTD correspondent Jason Blair joins us live from the White House. Jason, good evening. What can you tell us about the new directives tonight? Yeah, hey, Jack. As you said, President Trump signed these memorandums just not that long ago, and the information just came out minutes ago, actually. So here, these two memorandums are on foreign economic policy and national security. Let's get in the first one. The first one is a memorandum to defend American companies and innovators from overseas extortion and unfair fines. So the White House says, quote, "'Foreign governments have increasingly exerted "'extraterritorial authority over American companies, "'particularly in the technology sector, hindering success.'" Now, some actions they are considering taken to combat this will be tariffs. Tariffs will be one of the considered actions to respond, and then also to ensure that U.S. products and services are governed by America and not foreign governments. So then getting into the second one, it's called the America First Investment Policy. So this one is more about national security. National Security Presidential Memorandum says, "'Encourages foreign investment "'while protecting national security.'" And it does particularly state, "'From threats posed by foreign adversaries like China.'" Jack. Very interesting, some executive orders there. And Jason, while you're at the White House, we had Kash Patel, Howard Lutnick, to be the latest of President Trump's nominees to be sworn in. What updates do you have for us here? Yeah, Jack, Howard Lutnick was sworn in here at the White House a couple of hours ago. President Trump was there participating in the ceremonies. Now, Lutnick won his confirmation in the Senate on Tuesday, 51 to 45. He will be heading the Commerce Department. Lutnick is a businessman. So one of the things that Trump said during the announcement was that Lutnick will protect our workers and our wealth and grow our economy into the strongest in the history of the world. Now, also today, Kash Patel was sworn in as FBI Director by Attorney General Pam Bondi. He was confirmed by the Senate yesterday on Thursday, 51 to 49. And Trump was not at his ceremony. However, Trump did comment on Kash Patel being the FBI Director earlier today. Here's what he said about that. One of the reasons I love Kash and wanted to put him in is because of the respect the agents had for him. I think he's gonna be, I think he'll go down as the best ever at that position. And Kash Patel also made some remarks during his ceremony. Here's a clip from that earlier today. There will be accountability within the FBI and outside of the FBI. And we will do it through rigorous constitutional oversight starting this weekend. Yeah! So right now, Kash Patel will be leading the FBI at a time of unrest. The Trump administration has alleged several times that the agency has been weaponized for political reasons. Back to you, Jack. Jason, thank you very much for that update there.