Joe On President Trump's First Overseas Trip: 'This Was A Disaster' | Morning Joe

SO WE HAVE A FULL TRIBUTE TO CHIEF COMING UP LATER ON
"MORNING JOE." NOW, AS WE PIVOT TO NEWS, I WANT
TO READ FROM DAVID IGNATIIGNATI PIECE IN "THE WASHINGTON POST."
HE WRITES, BRZEZINSKI WOULD HAVE BEEN APPALLED BUT NOT SURPRISED
BY THE RESULTS OF TRUMP'S GROUP OF SEVEN MEETING ON SATURDAY
AFTER WHICH GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL SAID THE ERA WHEN
AMERICA COULD RELY ON AMERICAN LEADERSHIP WAS OVER.
BRZEZINSKI'S WORRIES ABOUT TRUMP GREW OUT OF HIS BELIEF IN THE
INTERDEPENDENT WORLD THAT THE UNITED STATES HAD MADE.
HAVING SEEN WESTERN VALUES AND FREEDOMS CRUSHED IN POLAND, HE
WAS PROTECTIVE OF THEM. TRUMP'S POPULISM WAS ABHORRENT
TO THIS SON OF POLISH ARISTOCRACY.
BUT IT WASN'T JUST THAT. BRZEZINSKI DIDN'T THINK TRUMP
UNDERSTOOD WHAT A PRECIOUS CREATION HE WAS JEOPARDIZING BY
SO RECKLESSLY CHALLENGING THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE WEST.
>> THERE WAS A LOT OF FALLOUT ABOUT THAT FOREIGN TRIP.
IN A TWEET PRESIDENT TRUMP TALKED ABOUT HIS TRIP BEING A
GREAT TRIP. BOB CORKER SAID IT WAS EXECUTED
TO NEAR PERFECTION. IT WASN'T HE ADDED PRESIDENT
TRUMP SHOULD BE COMMENDED FOR THE TRIP'S SUCCESS.
JAMES MATTIS ALSO DEFENDED THE PRESIDENT'S TOUGH TALK.
ANDREA MITCHELL, I DON'T REALLY CARE WHAT POLITICIANS IN
WASHINGTON, D.C. ARE SAYING ABOUT A TRIP THEY KNOW WAS A
COMPLETE DISASTER. >> EMBARRASSMENT.
>> YOU LOOK AT THE PRESIDENT'S ACTIONS.
YOU LOOK AT THE GESTURES, YOU LOOK AT THE BULLYING OF HIM
PUSHING THE NEWEST MEMBER OUT OF THE WAY TO GET TO THE FRONT OF
THE PICTURE, THE AWKWARD HANDSHAKE WITH MACRON.
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY YOU HAVE ANGELA MERKEL AND HER OPPONENT
SAYING AMERICA TREATED US HORRIBLY.
WE CAN NO LONGER DEPEND ON THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
EUROPE IS GOING TO HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ITSELF.
THIS IS -- I SAID YESTERDAY, I'D BE HARD PRESSED FOR ANYBODY --
IF SOMEBODY CAN FIND A MORE DISASTROUS FOREIGN TRIP SINCE
KENNEDY'S 1961 SUMMIT WITH KHRUSHCHEV, I'D LIKE TO KNOW
WHAT IT WAS, BECAUSE THIS WAS A DISASTER.
>> YOU KNOW, THE EUROPEAN RELATIONSHIP, 70-PLUS YEARS OF
THE NATO ALLIANCE AND THE BORISH BEHAVIOR IS SO EXTRAORDINARY,
CAPPED BY HIS REFUSAL -- BAD ENOUGH TO NOT EXPLICITLY SAY HE
WAS COMMITTED TO ARTICLE 5, TO THE MUTUAL DEFENSE TREATY AT A
COMMEMORATION FOR 9/11 WHICH IS THE ONLY TIME IN HISTORY THAT
NATO DID DECLARE ARTICLE 5, TO COME TO THE DEFENSE OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND TO NOT COMMIT TO THE PARIS CLIMATE
ACCORD IS JUST SO SHOCKING. THAT'S THE THING.
HE HAS UNTIL JUNE 1st. HE'S GOING TO MAKE SOME DECISION
THIS WEEK. BUT THE FACT THAT THEY ARE
WRESTLING WITH THIS, AND WE SAW GENERAL MATTIS SAYING OVER THE
WEEKEND, HE'S TAKING IT IN. HE'S LEARNED A LOT.
EVERYONE TRYING TO GIVE HIM RUNNING ROOM.
BUT HE'S NOT GOING TO BE BULLIED INTO IT BY HIS STAFF.
THAT'S FOR SURE. AND FOR ALL OF THEIR BRAGGING
ABOUT RIYADH AND WHAT THEY DID -- IT WAS AN TRPG EXPERIMENT
IN RIYADH, THE FACT THAT THE IGNORED THE SUNNI SPONSORED
TERROR AND THEN TO GO TO EUROPE WHICH JUST EXPERIENCED TERROR
AND SEE THE RELUCTANCE TO SIGN ON, AND THE FACT THAT HE REFUSED
TO LECTURE THE SAUDIS AND THE OTHER ARAB LEADERS, BUT DID
LECTURE HIS NATO ALLIES IN EUROPE IS JUST STUNNING.
>> LIKE WE SAID LAST WEEK, WILLIE, HE'S FAR MORE
COMFORTABLE HANGING AROUND AUTOCRATS, WHETHER IN TURKEY OR
RUSSIA, WHEREVER THEY ARE, THAN HE IS WITH DEM KLATT CLI ELECTED
LEADERS IN THE WEST. >> CERTAINLY MORE DEFERENTIAL IN
SAUDI ARABIA THAN IN NATO. WE SAW THE HANDSHAKE WHERE HE
LEFT PRESIDENT TRUMP HANGING THERE.
A LOT OF PEOPLE READ INTO THAT. MACRON SAID, YEAH, I WAS SENDING
A MESSAGE BY NOT WALKING UP TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES FIRST. IN TERMS OF ANGELA MERKEL'S
COMMENTS, WHAT WOULD IT TAKE FOR HER, THE LEADER OF GERMANY, OUR
GREAT ALLY, TO GO OUT AND SAY THAT IN PUBLIC?
WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED BEHIND THE SCENES THAT PUT HER
IN THAT POSITION? >> THIS CAN'T BE EXAGGERATED.
YOU COULD HEAR THE THE TECTONIC PLATES OF HISTORY MOVE THE OTHER
DAY. THIS WAS BIG.
I THINK IT WAS A COMBINATION OF JUST POLICY DIFFERENCE AFTER
POLICY DIFFERENCE FROM RUSSIA TO TRADE TO CLIMATE, YOU NAME IT.
FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES. WHAT ANDREA WAS GETTING AT, THE
REFUSAL TO TALK ABOUT ARTICLE 5 COMING AGAINST THE BACKDROP
WHERE HE CALLED NATO OBSOLETE. BASICALLY WHAT MR. TRUMP
SUCCEEDED AT DOING IS MAKING CONDITION WHAT FOR SO LONG WAS
UNCONDITIONAL. THIRDLY IT'S THE PERSONAL, THE
CONVERSATIONS, THEY'RE NOT GOING WELL, TO SAY THE LEAST.
THAT'S NOT WHAT THESE PEOPLE EXPECT OF AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT.
>> LOOK AT THE HANDSHAKE. HE LOOKED LIKE A THUG, LOOKED
LIKE A GOON. YOU LOOK AT THE HANDSHAKE.
LOOK AT THIS. WHAT A THUG.
WHAT AN EMBARRASSMENT -- HE'S MAULING HIM LIKE AN IDIOT.
WHAT AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THE UNITED STATES.
>> OPTICS MATTER AND SO DO THE CONVERSATIONS.
>> IF IT WERE FOLLOWED BY POSITIVE CONVERSATIONS, YOU
COULD JUST SAY HE WAS AWKWARD. >> FOR MERKEL TO SAY WHAT SHE
SAID SHOWS THEY SEE NO TALENT, THEY SEE NOTHING BEHIND THE EYES
THEY CAN WORK WITH. >> AGAIN, THEY WERE SO
SEVERANCEAL. HE WAS SO SEVERANCEAL IN SAUDI
ARABIA, SO DEFERENTIAL. AND HE WAS JUST THE OPPOSITE, HE
WAS A BULL THIS THE CHINA SHOP OF AN ALLIANCE THAT WAS FIRST
BUILT WITH THE BLOOD OF YOUNG AMERICANS AND PEOPLE ACROSS THE
WEST BY FREEING THE CONTINENT AND THEN FROM 1947 FORWARD, WE
HAVE SPENT BLOOD, SWEAT, TEARS, BILLIONS OF DOLLARS BUILDING AN
ALLIANCE THAT DONALD TRUMP WANTS TO THROW AWAY TO MAKE POINTS
WITH VLADIMIR PUTIN. >> OR MAKE POINTS WITH HIS
DOMESTIC POLITICAL BASE WHICH IS WHAT THE EUROPEAN POSTURING
SEEMED TO BE AIMED AT AN AUDIENCE AT HOME, NOT THE
FOREIGN POLICY ESTABLISH OR EUROPEAN ALLIES, BUT INSTEAD
PLAYING TO THE CROWD WHO VOTED FOR HIM.
YOU SAID THIS THING ABOUT TECTONIC PLATES SHIFTING.
I NOTICED VALLEY NASR TWEETED OVER THE WEEKEND, LESS THAN
THREE MONTHS IN OFFICE, TRUMP HAS MANAGED TO UNDO SECOND
DECADES OF TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS?
DOES THAT SEEM EXAGGERATED ORR ON THE NOSE.
>> BASICALLY RIGHT. WE THINK OF THE WORD LEGACY AS
SOMETHING THAT WE WRITE AT THE END OF THE PRESIDENCY, BUT NOW
WE CAN WRITE IT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PRESIDENCY.
WHAT HE HAS DONE HAS MADE UNCERTAIN WHAT WAS SURE, WHAT
WAS FUNDAMENTAL, AND IN EUROPEAN EYE, HE HAS ESSENTIALLY PUSHED
THEM IN A DIRECTION THAT FOR 70 YEARS WE TRIED TO PREVENT WHICH
WAS GERMANY AND EUROPE GOING THEIR OWN WAY.
THE WHOLE LESSON OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20th CENTURY IS THE
UNITED STATES NEEDED TO BE INEXTRICABLY LINKED TO THE FATE
OF EUROPE. RUSSIA WOULD FIND BENEFIT FOR
ITSELF, GERMANY COULD BE CAST ADRIFT AND SO FORTH.
THAT'S WHAT WE'RE SETTING IN MOTION.
IT'S SO INTERESTING, WE BEGAN THE SHOW TODAY WITH JOHN
KENNEDY. HE WAS A PRESIDENT WHO READ
HISTORY, WROTE HISTORY, STEEPED IN HISTORY.
I THINK WE HAVE A PRESIDENT, BECAUSE HE'S NOT FAMILIAR WITH
HISTORY, LITERALLY DOESN'T UNDERSTAND HOW HE'S PLAYING WITH
HISTORY AND SETTING IN MOTION HISTORICAL FORCES THAT COULD
HAVE ENORMOUS CONSEQUENCES. >> THAT'S SOMETHING WE'VE SAID
HERE ON THE SHOW, ALSO SOMETHING I WARNED TRUMP OFFICIALS AND
TRUMP HIMSELF IN THE TRANSITION, AND I SAID IT PREETDLY, I SAID
YOU PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT HISTORY BEGINS ON JANUARY 20th, 2017.
YOU HAVE GOT TO GET A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT YOU'RE
STEPPING INTO, BECAUSE THIS DIDN'T START WITH JOHN KENNEDY.
THIS STARTED WITH HARRY TRUMAN, IT STARTED WITH THE MARSHALL
PLAN. IT STARTED WITH CONTAINMENT.
IT WENT THROUGH IKE AND JOHN KENNEDY, THROUGH NIXON, THROUGH
REGAN, THROUGH OBAMA. IT'S GONE A LONG TIME.
AGAIN, IN THREE MONTHS, ALL THE WORK OF THOSE PRESIDENTS TO
CONTINUE THE LINE OF A STRONG, FREE, SAFE, VIBRANT EUROPE THAT
HELPS THE UNITED STATES. WE'RE NOT DOING A FAVOR FOR
ANYBODY. THE MARSHALL PLAN WASN'T TO HELP
THE EUROPEANS. THE MARSHALL PLAN WAS TO HELP IN
THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM SO THE SOVIETS DIDN'T TAKE OVER EUROPE
JUST LIKE THE NAZIS HAD TAKEN OVER EUROPE.
FOR SOME REASON DONALD TRUMP DOESN'T UNDERSTAND?
>> WE HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN TO JARED AND IVANKA AND CHAMPAGNE
POPSICLES. >> WHAT?
THAT TASTES GOOD I BET. >> PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER WILL
JOIN US TO TALK ABOUT DR. BRZEZINSKI'S LEGACY.
>> TWO OF THE JOURNALISTS LEADING THE WAY WITH

Joe On President Trump's First Overseas Trip: 'This Was A Disaster' | Morning Joe | MSNBC

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