Axios

The pick to be the next chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, American Enterprise Institute economist Kevin Hassett, breaks with the president on a couple of key issues that helped Trump win the presidency:

• China: Hassett warned in 2010 that bashing China-U.S. trade policy would bring the U.S. back to the downward spiral in the 1930s.
• Globalization: "An absolute prerequisite for long-term economic growth is full participation in the global economy and trading system."
• Immigrant workers: [E]conomic growth could expand significantly if immigration in the U.S. were expanded."

Why it matters: The Financial Time smartly describes the pick of Hasset as fitting in with the trend that shows "nationalist forces have lost some ground when it comes to the economic advice reaching the president."

Three pieces of news came out of a briefing with pool reporters in Florida Friday afternoon:

1. Syria sanctions: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the U.S. will announce new sanctions on Syria soon "as part of our ongoing effort to stop this kind of activity."
2. China trade plan: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross also announced there is a 100-day action plan on trade with China, which he said would include "weigh-stations of accomplishment." Ross added it "may be ambitious, but it's a very big sea change in the pace of discussion."
3. Trump will visit China this year. But the dates aren't announced yet.

Steve Bannon's allies both inside and outside the White House are worried Trump is going to fire him. They're scrambling this afternoon to figure out a way to persuade the president he'd be making a grave mistake. They argue that getting rid of Bannon will cost Trump among his "America First" constituency, and gain nothing among Democrats or the press.

They say Trump's key to victory is to keep his base motivated. And that means keeping Bannon.

Here are the arguments his supporters are making, per one of Bannon's allies in the White House:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has received at least 85,000 applications for H-1B visas, meeting the cap for 2018 in the first four days of the lottery.

Congress allocates 65,000 visas for high-skilled immigration workers — with an additional 20,000 for workers with advanced degrees — that are in high demand in the tech industry. This is the fifth consecutive year in which the visa cap was reached in a few days. Last year, USCIS received 236,000 applications .

Why it matters: Demand is still very high for these visas even as the the Trump administration took a few steps this week to try to cut down on fraud and abuse of the program and encourage employers to hire Americans first.

Sean Spicer tweeted a photo of Trump getting briefed on Syria in Mar-a-Lago, and it looked eerily similar to the famous 2011 photo of Obama and his National Security team in the Situation Room during Osama Bin Laden's capture. Here are the two photos with the people's names and titles listed.

President Trump stated that the U.S. and China have made "tremendous progress" during a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Mar-a-Lago Friday. He also noted that the two leaders have developed "an outstanding" relationship.

Note: Trump and Xi did not discuss the U.S. missile strike in Syria, and Trump reportedly "ignored" questions about potential action in North Korea.

Syria's armed forces were warned about the U.S. military action hours before the missile strike on the Shayrat airbase, AFP reports. A Syrian military source said they "learned of the American threat and the expected military bombardment on Syrian territory," but were not told exactly where the strike would take place:

We took precautions in more than one military point, including in Shayrat airbase. We moved a number of airplanes towards other areas.— A Syrian military source told AFP

The nuclear showdown is over, and Neil Gorsuch will fill the ninth seat on the bench at the Supreme Court. The final vote tally is 54-45.

This comes after the GOP Senators voted Thursday to change Senate rules to confirm Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court by lowering the vote threshold to a simple majority of 51.

International powers are weighing in on the U.S. missile strike on a Syrian military airbase late Thursday night. With conflicting interests as the Syria crisis comes to a head, see where different global powers stand on U.S. intervention:

President Trump ordered a missile strike on a Syrian military airfield on Thursday night in response to the Syrian regime's deadly chemical weapons attack on Tuesday, which killed 70 and wounded hundreds more. Follow along for live updates:

Latest on the attack

• The U.S. is investigating whether Russia was involved in the chemical weapons attack, military officials told AP.
• A drone, belonging to either Russia or Syria, was seen flying around the site of the chemical weapons attack on Tuesday.
• The U.S. notified both Russia and Syria about the airstrikes hours before they launched.
• Syrian warplanes took off from the airbase that was struck in last night's missile strike, carrying out their own retaliation strikes in Homs, Reuters reported.
• Number of casualties (as of 9:36 am ET): Syrian officials said at least 16 were killed on the Syrian air base. Another 9 people, all civilians, died when three missiles struck two towns near the air base
• Number and type of missiles fired: 50 to 60 Tomahawk missiles were launched between 8:30 and 9 pm ET from two destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea.

Last night's strike on Syria, on Day 77 of the Trump presidency, was the first time the nation and the world had seen him act as commander-in-chief. He moved quickly and decisively, but now is a central player in what CNN's Fareed Zakaria last night called "one of the most complicated international crises I've ever seen in my life."

Truth is: Trump, for months, has been telling people in private to expect an unexpectedly harsh response to Syrian aggression.

The attack had the ancillary effect of separating Trump from Putin, who views the the strikes as "aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law," and believes the attack was done under a "trumped-up pretext," according to his spokesman.

President Trump is considering a broad shakeup of his White House that could include the replacement of White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and the departure of chief strategist Steve Bannon, aides and advisers tell us.

A top aide to Trump said he's contemplating major changes, but that the situation is very fluid and the timing uncertain: "Things are happening, but it's very unclear the president's willing to pull that trigger."

President Trump ordered a missile strike Thursday night on an air base from which the Syrian regime carried out a deadly chemical weapons attack on Tuesday. Shortly after the strike, he said:

"It is in the vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons... years of previous attempts at changing Assad's behavior have all failed and failed very dramatically."

Details of the strike:

• 50 to 60 Tomahawk missiles were launched between 8:30 and 9pm ET from two destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea.
• The target was al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs in western Syria.
• The strike was designed to destroy air infrastructure, but avoid a chemical weapons storage unit so as not to release toxins that might harm civilians in the area.

The role of Russia:

• Russians operating out of the base were given a warning, but Putin was not directly notified.
• Tillerson: "Russia has failed in its responsibility" to ensure that the Assad regime destroys its chemical weapons and has been either "complicit" or "incompetent."

How Trump decided to act:

• Trump: "Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror."
• H.R. McMaster: "The president was immediately notified upon news of the chemical attack..... There were three options we discussed with the president, and the president asked us to focus on two options in particular…. After a meeting of considerable length and a far-reaching discussion, the president decided to act."
• Tillerson: "We feel that the strike itself was proportional because it was targeted at the facility that delivered this most recent chemical weapons attack."

Our roundup of reactions to the attack can be found here. Timeline of how we got here below:

Timeline

Tuesday:

• An attack involving chemical weapons kills at least 70 people and wounds hundreds more in Idlib Province in Syria. Bashar al-Assad is deemed the obvious culprit.
• Tillerson initially refuses to answer questions about the attack but later releases a statement denouncing the Syrian regime. Trump condemns the attacks but claims Barack Obama's "weakness" is to blame.

Wednesday:

• Nikki Haley confronts Russia at the U.N. Security Council, and says the U.S. may take unilateral action in Syria.
• Trump says "you'll see" when asked how he'll respond to the attack. Later, at a press conference with the Jordanian king, he says his attitude toward Assad has changed and that the attack crossed "many lines," but would not say whether he'd take military action.

Thursday afternoon:

• It is reported that the Pentagon will brief Trump on possible military options in Syria.
• Tillerson says the U.S. is prepared to lead a coalition to oust Assad.
• Trump tells reporters on Air Force One: "I think what happened in Syria is a disgrace to humanity… so I guess something should happen."
• Trump arrives in Mar-a-Lago, where he reportedly receives a briefing from his national security team.

Thursday evening (times approximate):

• 5:10 PM ET: Trump and his wife Melania welcome the Chinese president and First Lady.
• 7:10 PM ET: At dinner with Xi and senior aides from both countries, Trump speaks briefly about how he and the Chinese president are forming a "friendship."
• 7:30 PM ET: NBC reports that strikes in Syria could be "imminent."
• 8:40 PM ET (3:40AM in Syria): Missile strikes on the Syrian base are initiated.
• 8:50 PM ET: The Chinese delegation departs Mar-a-Lago.
• 9:15 PM ET: News of the strike first emerges, leading to frantic media coverage.
• 9:45 PM ET: Trump delivers a statement announcing the strike.

Thursday evening Trump launched between between 50 and 60 Tomahawk missiles to strike an airfield in Homs, Syria in response to Bashar al-Assad's use of banned chemical weapons earlier this week. Here are the initial reactions to the U.S. strikes:

President Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping dined at Mar-a-Lago tonight with their wives and about 20 other people, including Ivanka Trump, Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, Wilbur Ross, and Reince Priebus, per a pool report. Trump sidestepped questions about Syria and North Korea, but said of the conversations with Jinping so far:

We had a long discussion already. So far, I have gotten nothing. Absolutely nothing. But we have developed a friendship. I can see that.

One key takeaway: Kushner sat by the Chinese couple, but Bannon was at the end of the table, just days after being sidelined from the National Security Council and amid reports of a rift with the president's son-in-law.