Trump Vows To Support American Businesses, Veterans As 100th Day Approaches
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- As President Donald Trump nears his 100th day in office, he made announcements Thursday on trade and his efforts to support American business.
The president is signing an executive order that will establish the new Veteran Affairs Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection. The White House says it wants to overhaul what it calls the broken VA system.
As CBS2's Dick Brennan reports, the idea is to protect employees to speak out about wrongdoing.
"We're putting plans into place to fix those problems, and give our veterans the healthcare they need and the healthcare they deserve," the president said.
Earlier Thursday, Trump met with the president and first lady of Argentina, and made a crucial adjustment to his policy on the North American Free Trade agreement.
"I decided rather than terminating NAFTA, which would be a pretty big shock to the system, that we will renegotiate it," he said.
However, Trump warned that if a fair deal cannot be reached with Canada and Mexico, he may still terminate it.
The president also met with executives of the aluminum industry, and signed a memo ordering the Secretary of Commerce to figure out the impact of rising aluminum imports and whether tariffs should be imposed.
"Cheap subsidized imports have flooded into the market, destroying thousands of great American jobs," he said.
On Capitol Hill, there is said to be new movement on a possible health care bill. Members of the conservative Freedom Caucus are now ready to support a new version, where states could opt-out of some Obamacare regulations and insurers could possibly charge higher premiums for people with preexisting conditions.
"We're going to go when we have the votes," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, said. "But that's the decision we'll make when we have it. And something tells me that you'll probably be the first to know when that happens."
Meanwhile, the Department of Defense's inspector general is now investigating fired national security adviser Michael Flynn. In question is whether he violated the law when he failed to get permission to receive a payment from a foreign government.
"We have no evidence -- not a shred -- that he disclosed his payments," Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-MD, said.
At the same time, the White House is now acknowledging the administration had not vetted Flynn when he came into the Trump team, because he had already gotten clearance from his previous job in the Obama administration.
"Why would you re-run a background check on someone who was the head of the Department of Defense Intelligence Agency that had and did maintain a high-level security clearance," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.
