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Inside Politics
Trump Criticizes Trudeau, Won't Endorse G7 Statement; Trump Arriving in Singapore for Historic Summit with Kim Jong-un; Schumer: Dems Focused on Middle Class. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired June 10, 2018 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:12] JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm John King.
To our viewers in the United States and around the world, thank you for sharing this very busy Sunday.
President Trump just moments away for landing in Singapore for his historic summit with Kim Jong-un. The North Korean leader there already, met with Singapore's prime minister earlier today. The president has walked away from several big global deals and negotiated none.
But he arrives an optimist.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's unknown territory in the truest sense. But I really feel confident, I feel that Kim Jong-un wants to do something great for his people and he has that opportunity. And he won't have that opportunity again. It's never going to be there again. So, I really believe that he is going to do something very positive for his people, for himself, his family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: A fascinating moment on the world stage. Singapore follows the G-7 summit crackling with tension and name calling, among traditional U.S. allies. At the summit, President Trump graded his relationships with other leaders a 10.
But in an angry tweet after he left, he called Canada's prime minister weak, meek and dishonest and vowed even more tariffs on U.S. imports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: The president will continue to say what he says at various occasions. If the expectation was that a weekend in beautiful Charlevoix surrounded by all sorts of lovely people was going to transform the president's outlook on trade and the world, then we didn't quite perhaps meet that bar.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Plus, new midterm election guideposts. California's primary leaves Democrats upbeat about their odds of taking back the House. Republicans are more confident about holding the Senate if they can navigate the Trump effect.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: I think it's going to be very competitive. If you look at the history of off year elections two years into any new president, Bill Clinton lost the House and Senate, Obama lost the House and almost lost the Senate. Yes, I think it's going to be a knock down drag out fight all the way to the finish, but we're optimistic we can hold the Senate, still have the majority and still confirm the president's appointments.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: With us to share their reporting and their insights on this remarkable Sunday, Margaret Talev of "Bloomberg", Jonathan Martin with the New York Times", Sahil Kapur with Bloomberg, and Karoun Demirjian of "The Washington Post".
We're going to go live to Singapore shortly for president Trump's arrival and to set the stakes for his historic summit with Kim Jong- un. Kim landed in Singapore a bit earlier today. You see him here meeting with the country's prime minister.
But first, first, the dramatic and deepening G-7 divide better put perhaps as G-6 versus one. President Trump abruptly reversed course Saturday evening while on Air Force One, withdrawing his support for a G-7 communique. Instead, President Trump stoking his defiant trade and diplomatic war with traditional U.S. allies, promising even more U.S. tariffs on imports, and calling Canada's prime minister, calling Canada's prime minister dishonest and weak.
This is what upset the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUDEAU: It's kind of insulting, and I highlighted that it was not helping in our renegotiation of NAFTA. And that it would be with regret, but it would be with absolute certainty and firmness that we move forward with retaliatory measures on July 1st. I have made it very clear to the president that it is not something we relish doing, but it is something that we absolutely will do. Because Canadians, we're polite, we're reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The president's unprecedented about-face was announced in a tweet from Air Force One, escalating an atmosphere of mistrust and confrontation that played out in public remarks, private meetings and on social media throughout the weekend.
Check out this from the German chancellor, to convey the America alone and America unwilling to listen feeling that dominated the weekend. This, the team Trump perspective, the president holding court, telling the other economic powers, like it or not, he is determined to rewrite the rules of international trade.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're like the piggybank that everybody is robbing. We are talking to many countries. We're talking to all countries, and it's going to stop, or we'll stop trading with them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: We talk often about how disruptive the president is, how he breaks the china and tries to change the rules, been doing this a long time here. I don't remember a Sunday morning like this where the Canadian prime minister, the neighbor to the north, is furious at the president. The president of France, the chancellor of Germany, the allies left mad at the president, angry at the president, thinking the president doesn't get it.
And the president decided after he left to blow a negotiated document and essentially stoke a war with the six countries around the world that are viewed as America's closest, most trusted allies.
JONATHAN MARTIN, REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: You know, keep in mind this is one week after an extraordinary jobs report showing unemployment the lowest since 2000, booming economy in this country. And this is what alarms so many folks in Trump's own party is that he's got this incredible story to tell on economic growth going into the midterms, but because he's got this long standing conviction, and frankly, it's one of the only things that he truly does believe in policy-wise, about the country being taken advantage of. This is the gospel of Trump going back 30, 35 years now, talking about how other countries are ripping us off.
So, he's sort of fixated on this, that this is the worry that he could pursue this trade war and undermine this economy and undermine his party's chances in the midterms this fall.
To your point about this being a very different moment, I think this president has proven that the norms that we're all familiar with in the American presidency have no relevance to his approach. He just doesn't care. He's going to be who he is regardless.
But it is ironic though because for the last eight years, the Republicans' chief complaint about President Obama was that he's coddling our enemies and he is driving away our allies. And now you see precisely the same thing happening. Canada, our best friend next door, gets the cold shoulder while the president jets off to sit down with no pre-conditions with Kim.
KING: The happiest people in the world today are Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.
MARTIN: Yes.
KING: And traditional U.S. allies are upset. Here's how -- just at home, to the domestic audience, I want to talk
about the international consequences here and the international perspective here, but let's look at the domestic audience because the president plays his America's first card. Here's Breitbart, G-7 summit, Trump gives master class in America first to globalists.
So for the Trump base, this is candy if you will.
Here is the long time foreign policy thoughtful analyst Ian Bremmer. The U.S. is like LeBron. The best player on the court. Still can't win by ourselves.
So, you have this tension of between the Trump base and those who say Mr. President, even if you are right, you can't walk into this meeting and blow it up.
MARGARET TALEV, REPORTER, BLOOMBERG: But he is -- the president is counting on two things. One is that the Republican leadership and the Republican Congress will either stick with him or at least keep their disgruntlements on the down low.
MARTIN: Sure, right, in the midterms, yes.
TALEV: And number two, he is counting on the fact that the G-6, let's call them that for the moment, is not going to push back. They haven't so far. And what the discussions going on now in terms of the western ally side is one that says all right, guys, it's time to reassess.
The Abe method, the Macron method of the early year and a half of the opening of his administration has not worked. It's time to retool. But this was where they were going to figure out how to retool like live and in real time.
And so, part of the president's style is just like going to be stuff and assume everyone he was will blink. And up until now, it's pretty much worked. And so, this is the test of what the U.S. allies are now going to do.
KING: And to your point about the American political reaction of the Republican leadership, crickets. Crickets. This is a fundamental premise of today's modern Republican Party, free trade, global economy, lower tariffs. The president goes in, walks away from his party's heritage, if you will, and its roots, and nothing from the leadership over the weekend. Nothing.
Senator John McCain did tweet, ailing senator, brain cancer, home in Arizona, he tweeted out to our allies, bipartisan majorities of Americans remain pro-free trade, pro-globalization and supportive of alliances based on 70 years of shared values. Americans stand with you even if our president doesn't.
That is remarkable.
MARTIN: Yes. SAHIL KAPUR, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, BLOOMBERG: And apart from John McCain and Senator Ben Sasse, we have seen radio silence from members of his party who were not comfortable with this, but as Jonathan pointed out --
KING: They're afraid of him.
KAPUR: They are afraid of him. They have no appetite to confront him, to wage battle with him five months before a midterm election. I mean, this foreign policy debate, it goes all the way back to Alexander Hamilton and Andrew Jackson. Do you have this Hamiltonian view of, you know, whether the United States should advance its principles and whether American power in the world is a good thing?
Most American presidents, especially on the Republican side, have embraced that view. The Jacksonian view, which Trump takes, that American power should be used only narrowly to advance American interests in specific instances, that is not something that I think members of his party embrace if they're going along with it.
KING: The incoming from the other international diplomats is stunning about the president because they simply think he doesn't get it. They think his view is shaped from the '20s, '30s, '50s and the '60s that it's not informed.
On tariffs, for example, is right. The president is right. Canada does slap a 270 percent tariff on some U.S. dairy products. However, what they would say is, every country has sacred cows, if you will. In Canada, they are literally the cows. But the United States slaps a 350 percent tariff on some tobacco products. The United States slapped 132 percent tariff on some peanut products.
That there are some industries in every country that either are sacred to the country, they're vulnerable, or they have political allies with big money. If you look at the big picture on tariffs, the average U.S. tariffs 2.4 percent, European 3 percent, Canada 3.1 percent.
[08:15:06] Their argument is he focuses on this one thing and when you try to make the broader argument, he just gives you that Trump glare and he won't listen to you.
KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Look, but this is -- I mean, we've been watching this president for 18 months now. This is -- that he has a populist message to deliver on every policy issue that may have more nuance to it, and so, this isn't really, I mean, different in that regard.
I mean, you know, the president is speaking to the American audience when he does the strong America first thing. Clearly, the message is also being heard by everybody else at that meeting. But it's -- this is basically a pattern at this point. He is trying to play a little cleanup by saying that everything went well at the meeting when it clearly different.
But -- and then to the point we were talking about before with the -- you know, lack of reaction from the GOP, they have also fallen into a pattern on this stuff, which is that they don't usually proactively comment on this sort of thing until they are directly asked by reporters. And lucky for them, in a way, the reporters probably will not have a chance to grill Ryan and McConnell until Tuesday and the North Korea summit --
KING: The ball would have moved on, which is exactly what they are betting on, why speak up and risk his wrath when you think the ball will move.
We're going to continue this conversation. The substance and more importantly, the style point you made there. But as we await the president's arrival in Singapore, a look back at how the Trump style shook up the G-7 summit.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:15:17] KING: Live pictures here of the summit in Singapore. President Trump due to arrive any moment now for his historic summit meeting with Kim Jong-un. You see the delegation waiting there for the president to arrive. Kim is already in Singapore, has met with the prime minister and return to his hotel, a high stakes diplomatic play and state in play for the president of the United States. We'll take you back there live as soon as Air Force One arrives, to watch the president's arrival and to discuss the summit's stakes.
More now, though, on the president's remarkable and consequential feud with America's most dependable traditional allies. There are deep policy differences at play here. As we just discussed trade, also Russia front and center at the moment.
But the president's style is as big a factor in the tensions as the substance. Watch here the president strolling in late Saturday morning, this is a session on women's empowerment. Just want to let the pictures play out for a second here. The faces of Angela Merkel and Christine Lagarde there looking at the president, not happy he's s late, let's just put it that way.
And then the president skipped out early, instead of attending a session on climate change where he was guaranteed to be the odd man out. His personal attacks on this year's host, Canada's Trudeau, didn't set well with any of the other leaders, nor did his Russia surprise. Changes in club membership are meant to be discussed privately first, but that's not this president's style.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Russia should be in the meeting. It should be a part of it. You know, whether you like it or not, and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run. And in the G-7 which used to be the G-8, they threw Russia out. They should let Russia come back in, because we should have Russia at the negotiating table.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Again, the substance is important, trade, Russia membership. You mentioned this a bit earlier. The president's style though is also what rubs a lot of the other leaders the wrong way.
They all have domestic political audiences, too. They can't snap their fingers and make their legislators, their parliaments do what they want.
The club is built on consensus. If you want Russia back in, you don't announce it on the South Lawn. If the host is giving a speech on women's empowerment, you show up on time. You don't walk in in the middle disrupting everything.
That's what angers them. They think frankly, a lot, if you read my e- mails yesterday, they think he's a jerk.
TALEV: But some of this is U.S. domestic messaging. The president knows that the narrative of the story was never going to be U.S. embraced by European partners at G-7 meeting. It was either going to be the rest of the G-7 turns its backs on President Trump or President Trump is the one in the driver's seat laying down the law and everyone reacts.
And he would much rather have a narrative where he is in control especially heading into the summit. So I think part of it is that messaging.
But the other part is the fundamental question that we were just talking about before the break, the idea, does the U.S. have to pay more, does the U.S. have to do more? And one of the kind of tenets, sorry to be so conventional of leadership, is that if you are in charge sometimes, you have to do more, right? And that's what this has always been predicated on.
I think what a lot of U.S. allies are asking is, does the U.S. still want to be the most powerful country in the world. Because normally if you are the most powerful country in the world, if people ultimately kind of have to do what you say they have to do, it's usually because you're pulling the purse strings and you are putting more of your own stuff on the line. That's -- it's all wrapped up in the same package.
KING: And again to blend the substance or combine the substance of style, the president on the South Lawn of the White House says, let's let Russia back in. No advanced notice to the other members there. Again, more disruption.
Here is the Canadian prime minister, his response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)]
TRUDEAU: I said very simply that it is not something we are even remotely interested in looking at at this time to have Russia return to the G-7.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Here's what's even more striking. Russia was kicked out after it went into Ukraine and annexed Crimea, a violation of international law, and international norms. It was kicked out of the club.
And the very same day the president of the United States says they should be allowed back in, his director of national intelligence in a speech in Europe says this: As Russia is still meddling in the United States election, still meddling around the world, doing things outside of the norms, these Russian actions are purposeful and premeditated and they represent an all out assault by Vladimir Putin on the rule of law, Western ideals and democratic norms.
Putin's actions demonstrate that he seeks to sow divisions within and between those in the West who adhere to democratic norms.
MARTIN: Those are words you would never hear from the president's own mouth.
KING: But on the very day he says Russia let back in, his own director of national intelligence says these guys are crooks and --
(CROSSTALK)
DEMIRJIAN: You saw the splintering between the president and everybody else in the administration when it comes to Russia, everybody else in the administration, Dan Coats included, have basically said, I believe what's in the intelligence community assessment of what happened in the 2016 elections to the letter. President Trump feels like that is too much of a personal attack on the legitimacy of his presidency, he's never been in lockstep, in line with everybody's advising him on this front.
And it seems like many of the decisions that he is making especially when it comes to Russia at the G-7 were -- his mindset is in North Korea. That seems to be all that matters to him right now. And a lot of the posturing is for a domestic audience, but it's also for saying I'm the boss, I'm in charge, as you're going to a very high stakes thing. He thinks it's going to define whether -- how you're to the historic books as the president.
And the one thing also, sorry, just on Russia is that, you know, we were up in arms last week about the ZTE deal with China, right? That's kind of a sweetener to the person who actually pulls the purse strings with North Korea. In a way, this is for Russia, too.
I mean, with the economic sanctions, yes, those are a big deal, but there is a rally around the flag effect that happened in Russia over that. The G -- getting kicked of the G8, there was no rally around the flag effect, that really has in the gut, and it's the thing that he, it's a sweetener for him --
(CROSSTALK)
KING: And based on what does the president think Russia deserves a sweetener right now. I get the North Korea complication, but forgive me. This is Senator Ben Sasse, conservative Republican from Nebraska: This is weak. Putin is not our friend and he is not the president's buddy. He is a thug. Using Soviet style aggression to wage a shadow war against America and our leader should act like it.
Here's the top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer: Are we executing Putin's diplomatic and national security strategy or America's diplomatic and national security strategy? After the last few days, it is hard to tell.
But just one last point here, I want to show you the cover of "TIME" this week. The president of the United States and his king me moment, he thinks he is right. He think he's right.
We're watching the American delegation here arrive in Singapore. We're going to keep track of this. The plane is on the ground. There are a couple planes with the American delegation.
When the president pulls up to the tarmac and deplanes, we will certainly talk about that. If I could have the "TIME" cover, I want to show to our viewers as the plane tarmacs here.
This is the president's mindset is the king me moment. Look, as he frequently says, I'm president, you're not. He thinks he is right.
MARTIN: Well, he has no grounding in America civic life. I mean, look, I think before he came to the presidency, his entire connection to American politics was through the prism of donors coming to his office asking for money. He did not understand -- I mean, he wouldn't have known the Ways and Means Committee from a hole in the wall. It wasn't his frame of reference, right?
But two fast things on Russia. I asked a conservative last night, I said, you know, you guys are Russia skeptics. Doesn't this bother you?
And he said was so striking, as to your point, he said Trump's words and policy of the administration are at odds. This is the thing, is that even while Trump is sort of coddling Putin in some ways, we're taking hard line measures in some circumstances. So, that's striking.
The other thing is, you know, Trump didn't mention why Russia was cast out of the G-8. You mentioned this it was because they annexed Crimea. Trump will say he doesn't really care about that. He doesn't have any stake in that.
But what is remarkable is that this is a country that hacked into our election in 2016. And forget who one or lost, they interfered in our American election. If that happened to any other country and the leader of that country soon after was welcomed back to the group of nations, I think it would be met with a much bigger reaction than this is here.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: And he also, in his remarks in Canada incredibly down played the consequences of Russia's actions in the world. Russia took land from a sovereign nation. MARTIN: Correct.
KING: It annexed parts of Crimea. President Trump said that is Obama's fault. It did happen during the Obama administration. And maybe he thinks President Obama should have started a war at the time.
You can have a debate about whether the Obama administration reacts tough enough.
MARTIN: Right.
KING: But the idea that that happened in the last administration therefore never mind, they can come back in --
(CROSSTALK)
KAPUR: I mentioned, just a couple days ago, the Russians are actively seeking to divide our lines and must not allow that to happen, unquote. This is the president's director of national intelligence a couple of days. And that's exactly what happened this weekend.
Putin could not be scripting this any better if you are having the United States, you know, a trade war with its allies and France and Germany, Canada and the E.U. The part about McCain, you know, he talked about 70 years of shared values, I think the point he is trying to make is this world order is not the natural order of thing. This is based on the global powers coming together after two wars that killed tens of millions and setting of institutions like the U.N. and WTO that, you know, protect against in sort of thing and this economic interdependence on trade and things like has furred that alliance.
KING: But is McCain's statement, I don't mean it the way it's about to sound I think, but is McCain's statement almost cute in the sense that Donald Trump is president for the next two and half more years. Donald Trump, if he had a beef with European Union or Canada, could go to the World Trade Organization, it's not the way he plays, he does not like international organizations. He's not going to go to the United Nations and make complaints about international policy. He's not going to go to the World Trade Organization and make complaints or file complaints about trade policy.
[08:25:02] He is going to tweet and walk into meetings and disrupt or agree at the G-7 -- again, we're watching him land here in Singapore, we're not sure this is Air Force One. Often, there are two 747s in the U.S. delegation. Air Force One, the president on it, we'll watch and see who comes off here.
But the U.S. delegation including the president landing in Singapore right now. His way is -- he campaigned on this. We shouldn't be surprised I guess. Sometimes the volume, that stupid people built these institutions, they don't know how to negotiate. They don't know what they're doing, and I'm going to come in and disrupt it.
Well, we laugh about it, but this is one of the reasons he got elected, because people look at Hillary Clinton and said she's not going to change these broken ways, at least he is going to try. You have to give him credit on that one. The question is, now, we're 15, 16 months in, are we seeing in his disruption any progress on the substance?
He has not for example -- he is trying to negotiate now what would be a historic nuclear deal with North Korea. He has said he wants to rip up this deal, rip up that deal, rip up that deal.
He's walked away from TPP. He's walked away from, Paris climate. He's walked away from the Iran nuclear deal.
He has not, at least correct me if I'm wrong, he has negotiated one major international agreement or even a major bilateral trade agreement, correct?
KAPUR: That disruption set him apart from other candidates and previous presidents. But it remains to be seen what the light is at the end of the tunnel. What are Americans are going to get that's a better deal --
TALEV: He has reset the U.S relationship with Saudi Arabia and we'll see to what end.
KING: Right.
TALEV: We will see to what end that plays out.
KING: That's the key point. Disruption to what end? Still a question mark.
MARTIN: And real fast, to borrow from that great Washington philosopher, Sam Rayburn, he said, any old fool can knock a barn down. It takes a smarter man to build a barn, right?
It's a lot easier to blow up these institutions, to blow up a trade deal, to walk away from the Paris climate accords. It's a different deal all together to rebuild something and create anew.
KING: And so, the question is, as we watch the stairs being brought up here to the 747 on the tarmac in Singapore, the president of the United States there moving from one diplomatic meeting that turned into a mess and a confrontation, to another one on one diplomatic meeting, the stakes of which you just cannot describe, you cannot put it to full context, sitting down with Kim Jong-un, that in and of itself is history, sitting across from a North Korean leader who now has ballistic missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching at least the West Coast of the United States if not deeper into the mainland United States.
What is the president's mindset after leaving the G7 or on the G6 plus one, if we want to have it that way, and angering U.S. allies?
Now, as we heads into this, our Kaitlan Collins is standing by in Singapore as the president arrives.
Kaitlan, just a remarkable back to back if you will. The president disrupting the G-7, in some ways people think he wanted to get out of there as soon as possible so that he could get to Singapore for this.
What is the president's biggest takeaway here? What is it -- if the president has one goal, I will leave Singapore with X, what is X?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, that's' the million dollar question here, John. Everyone thought this was going to be the tense summit and then the president essentially threw the G-7 in are to disarray as he had already left on Twitter. But now we're here, the president has arrived.
This is real. This is actually happening now, something people have doubted ever since President Trump first announced in March that he had accepted this meeting with Kim Jung-un. But now, it's real. Both of the leaders are here, they're both in the same area, square mile radius of each other and they are actually going to meet in just a few days here.
So what is on the table here is the question. Is it denuclearization, is there is a potential peace treaty, more meetings. But what the real question is, what we really need to pay attention to when we walk away from this, when Kim Jong-un goes back to North Korea, when President Trump goes back to the United States, is did they achieve just symbolic gestures here, or did they get concrete commitments from North Korea, and that is what is at stake here.
These are both very unpredictable leaders, of course. they both want to have a good show here and want to talk away with a win. Critics argue that Kim Jong-un is already getting a win by sitting down with the U.S. president, but will he raise the question about the 25,000 troops on the border.
For President Trump, a lot of critics and experts say that he really needs to have something concrete when he leaves here so he can say that he achieved something instead of just giving Kim Jong-un stature by letting him sit down with a United States president. So, what is clear here is President Trump wants to accomplish something. We don't know what that something is. It could be anything that the president wants to walk away with.
But we do know he wants to walk away here having done something that no other president has done before. But the question of what that is remains to be seen here, John.
KING: And, Kaitlan, the president's words have been quite remarkable, as we wait for him to get there. On the one hand, he said just a few days ago, this is a getting to know you plus, if you will, getting to know you plus, trying to lower the expectations.
And then just in recent days he has said in his view -- and there is the president of the United States stepping out waving as he lands in Singapore ahead of this historic summit -- saying that he will know in a minutes, that he is the art of deal president, this is about attitude, and that he will know within the first minute, the president's words, whether Kim Jong-un comes to the table serious.
[08:29:46] He has also -- am I correct -- left open the possibility that he will
stay for a couple days if he thinks the talks are fruitful or he will get up and walk out if he thinks the North Koreans came to Singapore without a true willingness to negotiate.
COLLINS: Yes. John -- nothing is concrete here. We could be here for one day. They could be in that meeting for five minutes together and the President can leave; or they could be here for several days. The President has floated the possibility of extending this summit to a few more days.
The President has made two comments in the recent days leading up to this meeting that have raised the eyebrows of the experts. And that is that he didn't feel that he needed to prepare because he said he has been preparing all his life for this.
That does certainly speak to something. This has certainly been on the President's main priority list since he got into office last January. North Korea has always been his biggest national security threat, he has said. He even said that before he was in office, that North Korea was at the top of his list if he ever became president. So that certainly is true.
But about those concrete preparations, sitting down with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, his new national security adviser John Bolton -- those are the questions that have been raised in recent days. As the President was leaving the G-7, he said that he would know within a minute if he was going to be able to make a deal with Kim Jong-un.
Now, that is a question up for debate here. How would you be able know? You are sitting down with this unpredictable North Korean dictator. What would come out of that? And what would the President's main goal would that be?
So that is what experts are worried about because as the President walks in there and as he said, this is going to be a spur of the moment thing. That is what worries people if the President is going to go and sit down and he doesn't have a concrete list of what he wants to walk away with, what will he end up walking away with in the end here -- John?
KING: Kaitlan Collins on the ground in Singapore. Kaitlan -- stay with us as we watch the President is now in limousine. We'll watch him leave the airport and make sure he gets away safely and make sure there's no news on the ground there.
As we do so, let's come back to the room for a minute. I want to play a little bit more from the President here. The President on his way, again as Kaitlan just said, the President said he'll know within a minute, is he serious?
The President is hoping to get a commitment from North Korea that he can hold up as worthwhile, that they are willing to negotiate a complete and verifiable denuclearization -- that's a process that would take years. Anybody's skepticism -- everybody's skepticism is warranted because North Korea has a history of saying one thing and then immediately cheating on deals. But listen here to the President say for Kim Jong- un come to the table serious, this is your one shot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think within the first minute, one time shot. And I think it is going to work out very well. And that is why I feel positive because it makes so much sense.
And we will watch over and we'll protect and we'll do a lot of things. I can say that South Korea, Japan, China -- many countries want to see it happen. And they will help. They will all help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: An enormous test of the President of the United States and his ability to motivate and to negotiate; an enormous test of Kim Jong-un who frankly the world doesn't completely understand. Mike Pompeo has had some face-to-faces with him, but it is the Hermit regime. It's the least understood regime on the face of the planet.
I guess part of my question is, is the President's mindset at all shaped -- Richard Haass, the former U.S. diplomat, now at the Council of Foreign Relations saying the President heads into the G-7 knowing the wreckage he left -- heads into the Singapore summit knowing the wreckage he left behind. And in Richard Haass' this helps Kim Jong-un because the President now doesn't want to fail twice in a row. He doesn't want to be seen as the problem twice in a row. Therefore Kim Jong-un comes to the table maybe asking more. Is there logic to that?
KAPUR: One thing overlaying this is that President Trump left the G-7 basically signing a document, essentially unsigning it -- ripping up the document that he signed while he is going to negotiate, you know, another deal with Kim Jong-un.
How does that play if you are Kim Jong-un and the North Koreans? You know, do you think that this is a president who's a, going to be able to cut a deal and will stick to his word and also get these allies on board that he is now kind of, you know, struggling and has tension with.
The polls are interesting. President Trump is getting high marks for his efforts, you know, with diplomacy in North Korea by 72 percent to 21 percent -- Quinnipiac poll, they approve. Americans have low expectations as well -- 68 percent to 20 percent they say North Korea probably won't ever give up its nukes.
TALEV: On the style versus over substance question, this is another sort of interesting element and I think that is a fascinating point is what cues does Kim Jong-un take away from you're in a communique, you're out of a communique.
But what makes the President tick? Why does he say that he doesn't need to be prepared when we know that for a couple hours every day for weeks he has been preparing? He has been learning about what the nuclear regime is. He's been learning about weapons. He's been learning about the history of these talks in the past.
They had (INAUDIBLE) in yesterday like they just -- there has been a ton of preparation for this trip including with the President directly. And so why he would say that he wasn't preparing when he was completely preparing.
Now, how much of it stuck, how much of an expert the engineering (ph) is --
KAPUR: Right -- that's what I was going to say.
TALEV: -- that is a completely different issue. But he absolutely has been preparing. So it's again that messaging -- the message to the world is like I'm instinctive. I'm going to do this on instinct. He has been in there drilling, crash coursing to be ready for this.
[08:35:02] MARTIN: What I'm curious about is how much latitude the hawks in his own party will give him. Look, the Republican Party has taken a hard line on North Korea for a long time. There has not been much of an appetite for negotiation especially negotiation with no sort of, you know, clear ground rules going in. This is totally open- ended.
I mean there's right, as it stands, it is a huge win for Kim just getting this kind of legitimacy on the world stage from the American president with no pre-conditions.
What does the party say if Trump comes home and says you know what, I'm not so sure we need the U.S. Army still in South Korea, the fourth (INAUDIBLE) there. I mean what is the reaction if he is seen to sort of go soft on Kim and give away long-standing tenets of American foreign policy.
KING: His Secretary of State has been insisting that won't happen. But as we've seen on any number of issues with this administration, what people in the cabinet say --
MARTIN: Correct.
KING: -- what people at the podium say about the President often turns out not to be what the President does.
DEMIRJIAN: Right. And I think the GOP gives him latitude for as long as he stays in those discussions with Kim. Because as long as they're still going on, they have this, you know, the narrative as well the President is --
MARTIN: Sure.
DEMIRJIAN: -- able to switch gears. He's a disrupter as much as he is a deal maker, and so that will keep Kim on his toes.
MARTIN: Art of the Deal.
DEMIRJIAN: Right, exactly.
But so as long he -- and that also this comment of I'll know in the first 30 seconds or whatever, that again lowers the expectation. So if he is in the room for three hours, you know, all of a sudden that is a little bit more of a victory than it might have been anyway even if it doesn't result in anything substantive which it kind of can't.
KING: Right.
DEMIRJIAN: There is too much here on the table to actually do anything that is going to be -- look I beat my predecessors and I have more --
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Right. The question is at this point, they are going to meet. And so I don't care of your politics, every bit of skepticism is healthy. They're going to meet -- everybody should wish them the best. If the President can get the United States in to a diplomatic exchange, series of exchanges that keep them from testing nuclear weapons and firing missiles over Japan and threatening South Korea, for some that would be progress.
The issue is he's laid down a pretty clear bar of the administration, laid down a clear bar of what the end goal must be. The administration has said no relief of sanctions until you prove to us you are willing to get to the end goal. That is the hard part.
But the summit is going to happen. We're going to watch this; the President of the United States on the ground in Singapore on the way to his hotel.
A quick break. INSIDE POLITICS will be right back.
[08:37:11] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Some big primaries this past week, also some new data points as we try to keep track of the changing of all the midterm election climate. Let's look at some of the numbers.
This one, good for the President. In the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, his approval rating up to 44 percent. That matches his high in NBC/Wall Street Journal polling; as you see the President of late moving up just a little bit. Still well below 50 percent, but that is progress for the President.
This, not so good for the President. In that same poll by a 50 to 40 margin -- ten points now, Democratic advantage in which party do you want to control congress after the midterm elections. As you can see that is progress for the Democrats from April to now. Not good new for the President.
Nor is this. NBC/Wall Street Journal asked this question. If a congressional candidate promised to provide a check on Trump, does that make you more likely or less likely to vote for them? And you see more likely -- voters are open to the idea of let's elect a Congress that will be a check on the President. That helps the Democrats.
Keep an eye on this from now to November. The top issue right now, health care; number two, economy and jobs, then guns, taxes, spending, immigration.
Republicans want to change the dynamic, essentially combine economy and jobs with taxes. Saying we cut your taxes, the economy is booming, vote for us.
Watch the competition. Democrats want to say the Trump administration is now trying again to undermine Obamacare. Your health care is at risk. Your middle class life is at risk. The Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says if the Democrats can keep it on health care, the middle class -- they think they will have a big November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: We are focused in our caucus like a laser on the middle class, helping those who are not in the middle class get to the middle class, helping people -- helping people who are in the middle class stay there.
What is the number one thing that is bothering people right now-- average Americans? Rising premiums. The premium -- the increase in premiums is giving -- is taking away more out of their pocketbooks than the tax breaks have given them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: There is a fascinating tug of war on the data if you will. The President's going up a little bit but Democrats, if you look at the House map, feel more confident this week than they did last week on that health care issue.
The Trump administration goes to court and says it will no longer defend parts of Obama about pre-existing conditions. It is consistent with the Trump administration's approach, Obamacare is a failure in their view, let it collapse.
Is it a political bad call?
MARTIN: Yes. Yes.
KAPUR: Republicans certainly believe so. I mean the Republicans in the House that my colleagues and I spoke to say this is an unwise political move. It essentially puts every Republican candidate on the ballot in the position of being attacked by Democrats, you know, and asked do you support the President or do you support these protections on pre-existing conditions. This is the one part of the ACA that Republicans have taken pains to say they support and they don't want to be seen as you know, having to argue against it.
The NBC poll that you cited, health care is the top issue for voters, Democrats have a 3:1 advantage over Republicans on this issue. They want to talk about it. MARTIN: Yes. Democrats are going to make healthcare the centerpiece
of this midterm. But let's look at the last 45 minutes of this show. We're talking about the here and now, which is unavoidable. That is the news -- this President acting in ways that are vastly (ph) different than modern American presidents.
And I had a very smart Democrat point out to me, he said look, you guys meeting us in the press -- he said you guys, it's going to be all Trump all the time. He said the thing to watch for, and I think there is truth to this is the media is going to be sort of Trump focused.
Democrats I think are going to have to use all their paid advertising to drive the health care message, to drive economic questions, to do sort of non-Trump policy messaging. The kind of stuff that in past midterm cycles you would see play out in the media.
I just think that it's going to be so hard for Democrats to get a message through because this president every day is breaking norms and making news that the health care issue, which is enormous, can easily get drowned out.
[01:45:05] KING: And he wants to talk about, there is a spending fight coming in September, I want my border wall money or else.
MARTIN: Yes. Correct.
KING: This past we learned he wants to keep talking about the NFL and the anthem which you might call --
MARTIN: Culture wars.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: -- cultural issues. Some people in his party depending on where you are in the country say fine; other people more in the vulnerable House districts that tend to be around the suburbs are like "uh-oh".
MARTIN: Yes.
TALEV: Yes. I think President Trump is betting that somehow he can take the health care message and turn it into if your health care is bad or tenuous or dangerous or falling apart it is because Obama and the Democrats gave you a bad plan.
MARTIN: Right.
TALEV: What Democrats are trying to do is recapture a narrative that was working for them and that they felt would help them get over the finish line on the midterms which is to say hey guys, we gave you a health care plan, the Republicans began undercutting it and now President Trump is trying to make it so that you don't have the health care that you were promised.
Who wins that fights? And it is a high stakes fight, but President Trump is heading -- KING: And by traditional rules, and so far the primaries in last
year's special elections have followed traditional rules. Most things under candidate Trump have not followed traditional rules. Most traditional rules are midterms about the President. The President's numbers are up a little bit.
Look at this in the Quinnipiac poll. His handling of North Korea, 52 percent of Americans approve; 49 percent on the economy -- that's under 50 but it's moving up a little bit; foreign policy, 40 percent; immigration, 38 percent. To Jonathan's point, you know, the President is always front and center especially in his first midterm.
DEMIRJIAN: I think that the numbers -- and there is a lot that can happen between now and the election. I know that is a very kind of cop-out answer, but it is true. I mean I think it depends how he conducts himself going forward, how the results of all of these things that we're paying so much attention to because they are the top line items, what they actually result in or don't, or how he comports himself as they do or do turn out to be successful.
So that will dictate whether we start talking about some of these other policy issues and whether they kind of come up more to the top of that list of what we're talking about closer to the election..
KING: And for the days ahead, we know we'll be talking about the summit in Singapore.
Our reporters share from their notebooks next, including the latest smoke signals coming from the special counsel's office.
[08:47:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Let's head one more time around the INSIDE POLITICS table, ask our great reporters to share a little something from their notebooks to help get you out ahead of the big political news just around the corner.
Margaret.
TALEV: Keep your eye this week on John Bolton, of course, the President's national security advisor. And it is possible that this week in the summit in Singapore will give us some clues as to what is really going on in terms of any tug of war policy-wise or power-wise between Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and how much influence that the national security advisor really is wielding.
And we know on North Korea, before he took his current job, in his past life that Ambassador Bolton took a much more critical posture toward negotiating with North Korea than this president does. But the White House has insisted now for weeks that this notion of a rift between Bolton and Pompeo and Trump is really quite overblown. I think in terms of what meetings Bolton participates in and what we hear from him and what we hear about his interactions behind the scenes may get a better sense of what is really going on.
KING: It seems a lot more visible at the G-7 than one might think for a national security advisor. We shall see how that plays out.
Jonathan.
MARTIN: John -- when the President gets back state side, he's going to dip his toes back in the midterm waters. He is headed to the Iron range of Minnesota. And the reason why this is notable is because it's a little different from what he's done so far on the campaign trail.
It's one of the few House seats that the GOP has had a chance to pick up this year. They are largely playing defense in the House. There is an open seat there. And President Trump actually carried that part of Minnesota as you know -- they're trying to sort of maximize his popularity in one of the pockets of the country where are competitive House races that his party can pick up.
It's not a trip though that's not going to be totally without some sort of action. I think afterwards, he's leaving from there and heading and next door to see his good friend Senator Heitkamp in North Dakota -- one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the senate in year, someone with who he has actually developed a pretty warm relationship with. But I think Senator McConnell has some different ideas for this trip -- John.
KING: Yes he might but the Minnesota part will be interesting. The President very rarely travels to states that he lost. So it will be interesting to see him on the road in Minnesota.
Sahil.
KAPUR: John -- we're deep into primary season. We've talked about the midterms. And I want to mention one lesson we've learned from these primaries which is that the Democratic resistance of today is not trying to purge the party's moderates the way the Tea Party of 2010 did to the Republicans.
You have this week Dianne Feinstein crushed her liberal challenger by 33 points; Jon Tester, the Montana moderate coasted to renomination; the same thing has been true of Joe Manchin, Joe Donnelly, Dan Lipinski who helped in the right plank of the Democratic Party. That's a huge contrast to what Republicans did to figures like Bob Bennett, to Bob Inglis, to Dick Lugar in the Obama era which is if you're a moderate, if you're a centrist, if you compromise you are out of here.
Democrats do not have that same level of antipathy toward their party establishment. They're aiming their knives at the other party.
KING: Resistance not revolution. Maybe that is the way to put it.
Karoun.
DEMIRJIAN: Well, the biggest thing on the President's agenda this week is clearly North Korea. But two days after that summit, we are going to be seeing a fairly conclusive report coming out which is the Justice Department's inspector general announced that we should expect Thursday June 14 to be the day that we see the IG report into the Clinton e-mail probe.
Now, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are definitely interested in seeing what this says to resolve a lot of questions and political accusations that have been swirling about how the FBI handled this. We've seen this come up over and over again over the last year.
But I think the most interesting place to see the reaction is going to be the President's Twitter feed. This has been a favorite topic of his and it is very, very likely that he's going to take whatever comes out of this and opine about it at the very least.
KING: It is his birthday, the 14th.
DEMIRJIAN: It. That's right (ph) --
(CROSSTALK)
[08:55:01] KING: The President says he is expecting a gift too. We shall see.
I'll close with this, somewhat related -- they admit it is tea leaf reading, not inside information, but people long familiar with Robert Mueller and how he works see a message in his latest indictment. Paul Manafort is aggressively challenging the special counsel's mandate and his practices in court. Mueller's response on Friday -- new obstruction charges against the former Trump campaign chairman.
Also charged in that case, a long time Manafort business partner prosecutors say works with Russian intelligence. Now, the charges have nothing to do with the 2016 campaign. But they do pull another Russian into the special counsel's web and they illustrate how closely the special counsel is tracking even encrypted conversations between key players in his investigation.
Two long-time associates familiar with Mueller's methodical style see these new charges and their timing as a clear message hard ball at a minimum, one suggesting the arc is bending toward what he called, quote, "the main event". We shall see there.
That is it for INSIDE POLITICS.
Again, thanks for sharing your Sunday morning. Hope you catch us weekdays as well. We're here at noon eastern.
Up next, President Trump's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow -- a lot of questions to answer on "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER".
Stay with us here. Have a great Sunday.
[08:56:11] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
