that just tastes better. with more vitamins. and less saturated fat. only eggland's best. better taste. better nutrition. better eggs. i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. we welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. a big week is winding down. one in which i think we moved from the political to the legal realm, but my first guest dilbert cartoonist famously predicted a trump victory says facts of overrated. i'm about to convince his otherwise. plus, the president on a 12-day trip to asia. refusing to downplay his

rhetoric. what could possibly go wrong? and i'll introduce thomas friedman as well as two veteran advance men with their own traveling from presidents clinton and bush, and is trump running the u.s. government like it's his own private company? "moneyball" author michael lewis investigated and found many unqualified friends of trump within the administration. he, too, is here. it is a prime time lineup on a saturday. first, what we learned this week and why it matters. monday, a huge day. paul manafort and his associate rick gates surrendered to federal authorities facing charges of tax fraud and money laundering and we learned george papadopoulos lied to federal authorities. that day the president spoke with former adviser steve bannon, reportedly encouraged trump to take a harder public line with special counsel robert

mueller. maybe good political advice, but this was the week the story became more legal than political and while the noise will certainly continue, the outcome of the special counsel's probe will not be determined by critical thinking and the rules of evidence. not the nightly exchange of competing capable tv narratives. much has come into focus. we now know that george papadopoulos had conversations about the e-mails of clinton two months before there had been any wikileaks release of john podesta's e-mail and long before the dnc having been hacked. the timeline, podesta the e-mail hacked and then met with a director of international relations claimed substantial connections with russian government officials at which time he was told the russian government collected dirt on hillary clinton in thousands of e-mails. june 3rd donald junior similarly told in an e-mail russian

representatives wished to provide dirt on hillary. he took a meeting along with manafort and jared kushner and june 14th, detected the hack. july 122nd, wikileaks dumped e-mails and october 27th, within hours of donald trump's "access hollywood" tape exposed, wikileaks dropped podesta's e-mails and carter page in contradiction of many previous statements told the house intel committee he met with a russian government official during the july 2016 trip to moscow and sent an e-mail to the campaign. altogether, that timeline substantiates lots of interaction between trump campaign and just as hacking was taking place and rolled out to the benefit of the trump campaign. the unanswered question, whether anybody from the trump campaign

aided the hacking, whether there was actual coordination within that chronology. recent developments call into question the president's assertion made february 16 that he knew of nobody from his campaign who had contacts with the russians. attorney general jeff sessions said likewise in a january hearing before the senate judiciary committee. what exactly the president was told as a march 31st meeting where papadopoulos was present with trump and sessions, that's going to be critical. meanwhile, the president is clearly continuing his public campaign against the probe. that was reinforced with his tweet storm as he left for asia yesterday, but the only way that any of that matters is if the prosecution derailed or if the congress ignores it. throughout the campaign and in the first nine months of president trump's administration, his base has supported him regardless of what he says or does. with the russian probe, it seems there will again be no impact of

his words or actions, but for the opposite reason. because no matter the president's bluster or tweets or capital letters or threats, mueller's not listening to any of that. now it's all about the rule of law. that's how i see it. but what about a soothsayer who claims, well, facts are overrated. back in march, 2016 when this was happening behind the scenes, experts were giving trump a 2% chance. my next guests one of the earliest predictors that donald trump would win. he saw what others including myself couldn't see. trump's remarkable talent for persuasion. he's now written a book about it called "win bigley: persuasion in a world where facts don't matter." all right, scott adams, i will put it in your terms. how were my persuasion skills, i guess, not quite master

persuader level? >> well, i won't judge your master persuasion skills, but if you're looking at president trump's skills, i have a background as a trained hypnotist and studying the ways of persuasion for decades as part of what i do, and i noticed early on that he had the full arsenal of persuasion like i've never seen. probably the strongest talent stack i would call it, a grouping of talents that put together are extra strong and it really was something i thought was extraordinary and for me easy to predict someone with that much firepower would win over 18 months, when all you're trying to do is move maybe 2% of the public during that entire time. >> and you make a very compelling case in the book, but aren't we now entering a new realm where no amount of persuasion on his part through the twitter feed or the public statements, the speeches, all of

the social media efforts on his behalf, they're just gnot going to matter to bob mueller? >> depends. it you're johnnie cochran saying if the glove doesn't fit, you must not convict, is pure h hypnos hypnosis, assuming o.j. was quilty, it worked. and notice the judge curiel candidate, president trump roundly criticized saying there might be bias from his heritage. he worded it wrong, of course, but there might be bias there. what happened when the judge ruled when the trial would be held, before the election, terrible, or after the election. once candidate trump raised the issue of bias it became kind of hard for judge curiel to say, let's do it before the election and change the result. so i think that persuasion has

very much a role in the legal system. >> you identified what you regard as a persuasion gem in your twitter feed. put it up. it's actually from president trump. what it says, the real story on collusion is that donna b., donna brazile's new book, "crooked hillary" stole the democratic primary from bernie. why is that a persuasion gem? >> the first thing you want to do when you persuade, move people's energy to where you want it, maybe also because you're moving it away from something you don't want them to be talking about. so his linguistic kill shots or nicknames for these characters he's mocking are so incredibly wrong in the terms of things a president shouldn't be saying but just wrong enough you can't look away, but not so wrong that you want to impeach him for that, or he doesn't start a nuclear war. so he has the technique of having just enough wrongness to

grab your energy and put it where he wants it. >> here's another of what you regard as a linguistic kill shot. the pocahontas reference prone to make relative to elizabeth warren. why is that so effective in your mind? >> i would say that's his weakest of his various nicknames. but it does -- it gives you a silly image of someone who's a sitting senator. so if you said senator blah blah says this, you're thinking, that's a senator. i'll give it credibility. if you say pocahontas said something, automatically your brain goes to how seriously can i take that? >> so here's the question -- is he vulnerable to what you regard as a linguistic kill shot, and if so, what is it? >> i've thought about what you could do in this case, and the trouble is that he's -- he's so good at this, this persuasion game that i think he could get out of almost anything.

do you remember when somebody tried to call him dangerous donald, and it was the worst attempt ever, because danger is actually why he was elected. they wanted him to be a little dangerous to isis. maybe be a little dangerous to the swamp, as they say. so if you have a nickname that can be turned into a positive, that's a fail. so it's really hard. i think there was also chito jesus they used against him, hilariousthat part was good, but people like chee-tos and they like their jesus. didn't work on that part. >> your blog august 2015 you said at a time nate silver and others saying he's got a 2% shot, you were saying it's a 98% shot. i should also point out in terms of your abilities to see his skills of persuasion as far back at 1990. via "dilbert." you were drawing about the persuasive powers of donald trump. so what is, in short oerter, the

skillset had brings to the table? >> well, a lot of people don't know that his pastor was norman vincent peale, when he was a kid. >> right. >> and norman vincent peale wrote "the power of positive thinking" we see that mind-set in everything he does. for example, when talking about the economy recently the gdp, he said, well, it was 3%, but i think it could sbbeen 4% except for the hurricanes probably be 4% later. actually thinking the economy into that state. because the economy, if you don't have a resource constraint, is really driven entirely by psychology. if you think next year is better you say, well, i better invest this year. that actually makes next year better. he's actually using persuasion from, you know, all the way back to his church days as a kid, and now we see him as a brander, a salesperson. we see him, you know, as someone who wrote a book on negotiating. and these are all in the same field of persuasion. >> scott, i thoroughly enjoyed

"win bigley" thank you for being here. >> thank you so much. >> what are your thoughts? tweet me or go to my facebook page. i'd read some during, i know, i know. i'm dope. i'm a dope. but that camera back on me. look at this -- i can't say it. papadopoulos. papadopoulos. papadopoulos, and if you watch my facebook live this morning you know i was fearful of my ability to not be able to say it correctly and i blew it and i knew it as soon as it left my lips. papadopoulos, papadopoulos. papadopoulos. smerconish, you practiced yesterday. i know, on sirius xm on poedopo potus i just can't say this guy's name. no more tweets. up ahead, president trump is visiting five countries in asia including china and south korea, and if he follows the advice of h.r. mcmaster will not tone down

his rhetoric. i'm about to ask, what could possibly go wrong? and is trump running the government like his private company? i'll ask "moneyball" author michael lewis what he found when he reported inside the departments of energy and agriculture. oving. ...and help you feel more strength and energy in just two weeks! i'll take that. -yeeeeeah! ensure high protein. with 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. ensure. always be you. it's a like, a dagger?a worm! a tiny sword? bread...breadstick? a matchstick! a lamppost! coin slot! no? uhhh... 10 seconds. a stick! a walking stick! eiffel tower, mount kilimanjaro! (ding) time! sorry, it's a tandem bicycle. what? what?! as long as sloths are slow, you can count on geico saving folks money. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

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since trump became president the news cycle accelerated before anything we could have imagined. is the nation's explainer in chief, the man who told us the world is flat and "new york times" columnist has his latest book in paper back. thank you for being late. an optimists guy to thriving in the age of accelerations. tom, i don't think that you set out to explain the rise of populism, but you did. you say that technology creates uncertainty, and donald trump clearly capitalized on that uncertainty in the election. here's my question. now we're ten months in without him having much to show for it, so why is he still able to harness the angst that you wrote about? >> very good question, michael. let's think about the accelerations we're in the middle of. first of alling acceleration in

the movement's people. there's more refugees, migrants around the world than ever before. you noey go to the grocery store, the woman at the cash register may not be wearing a baseball cap. that has some unsettled. then a huge scaacceleration and the rest room, someone of a different sex there. the flow of technology change has, as we all know, accelerated. now you're at the office and your boss rolled up a rob bot next b robot next to your desk. and the days of getting a four-year degree and expecting to dine out is gone, that lifelong learning becomes the single note competitive advantage. put the four together, michael, it's not surprising a lot of people were susceptible to a guy that said, i can stop the wind. stop the pace of change. he's failed, of course, you can't actually stop the pace of

change. what we need to be doing is not building walls but building floors. creating floors under people so they can actually thrive in this age of acceleration. >> the democratic party arguably in the worst state since reconstruction. is it because they have failed to seize upon what thomas friedman is writing about? >> my view, michael, both our political parties are dead. just one of them thinks it's alive because it's in power, but they're actually blowing up, because they were actually designed to answer questions of the new deal, the industrial revolution. the early i.t. revolution and civil rights, both race and gender. what a party has to actually respond to today how do you enable people to get the most and cushion the worst of three giants in globalization and technology and the parties haven't made the shift. because they have money, they can thrive on the fumes. they're both blowing up.

the next election will be unlike any we've seen. >> and i always take note of your dispatches from around the globe literally. what stop interests you the most on the president's asian trip? >> the china one really is so interesting to me and it's just the contrast. again, what my book argues, we are in the middle of a change in the climate of the climate. what is china doing? investing massively in clean energy and green power. we're in the middle of the change of the climate of globalization, world's going from interconnected to interdependent. china is massively investing, one belt, one road. the asian development bank and lastly, in the change of the climate of technology. so what is china doing? a made in china 2025 project to massively invest in all the new technology of the 21st century from new materials to a.i., to all kinds of cyber et cetera. what are we doing by contrast? our president is denying climate

change. on globalization, yes, pulled us out of the asean free trade agreement and may pull us out of nafta and at home we have a tax bill based on no theory of change whatsoever. based on the idea of cutting taxes for corporations, without technologically what do we want to invest in, what don't we. thanks frankly just stupid. when you look how they're responding to accelerations and how we're responding, there's a shocking gap. >> i made reference earlier in the program to h.r. mcmaster saying, don't expect he's going to doan town the rhetoric. i was interested to see and paraphrasing, you said recently that a little crazy is maybe not a bad thing when dealing with china and north korea. what did you mean? >> what i meant is, these people do take us for granted. and so i think keeping them off balance is fine. it's good. it can be very helpful, but you have to have an underlying strategy behind it. and that's what's been missing here. you know, you were talking with

the dilbert creator, i thought a very interesting conversation, what is the way to sort of get to trump? and i think trump is a chump. i think that that's what the chinese believe. because think about it. he's going to go and negotiate trade with them now. hoping to. what did he do before he went over there? he tore up the trans-pacific trade partnership, basically an alliance of 12 nations that control 40% of global gdp. the alliance is based on our interests and our values. he could have been sitting across from xi jinping next week saying, hi, mr. xi. i represent 40% of the global economy. instead tore it up for nothing. got nothing from china. now going to the chinese and they will sell us old carpets they've sold us before and use north korea, i believe, as a shiny object to distract trump. i think xi has his number. they think trump is a chump and the reason he's a chump, michael, because he doesn't know anything. he doesn't do his homework. he's just out there tweeting. if you don't do your homework

and don't build real leverage up with the chinese who can smell your power from 100 paces, they know exactly how much power you have. they will play you. and they will play him. >> thomas, the book, thank you for being late now in paperback. a terrific read. thank you for being here. >> pleasure. thank you, michael. still ahead, the president en route to asia. so how exactly do you structure a trip abroad and avoid pitfalls for a commander in chief? two men with me. one who did it for bush 41 and 43 and another who served bill clinton. and is trump running the government like he ran his company? is that a good thing? michael lewis, author of "moneyball" investigated the department of energy and agriculture. his findings are next. for my me? i'm open to that. lower premiums? extra benefits? it's open enrollment. time to open the laptop... ...and compare medicare health plans. why? because plans change, so can your health needs.

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chances are you've read a book by michael lewis or seen a movie based on one of them. his books "liar's poker," "the blind side" sold over 9 million copies in the u.s. alone. these three became hit movies. his latesest just out in painback is "the undoing project: analyses of two israeli psychologists and research into decision-making" his latest project a series for "vanity fair" how departments of the government are faring posttrump transition. lewis reveals there was no transition. in september wrote about the department of energy. the latest issue, he delves into the department of agriculture for a piece called "made in the usda." timing couldn't be better.

the usda chief scientist sam clovis withdrew his nomination amidst news during the campaign he was aware campaign adviser -- uh-oh -- papadopoulos -- i got it right -- was talking to russians. i recently spoke to michael lewis. michael, sam clovis was always an odd choice for not the at least of which reason he wasn't a scientist. >> well, you know, as i've wandered around the trump administration, there are like two categories of appointees. they're the people like rick perry, at the department of energy, and sam clovis, who when they were offered the job should have said, no, because i'm not qualified for it. and the idea that you're putting in charge of a $3 billion a year science budget that is trying to figure out, you know, how to direct money so we can grow things in a changing climate, 50 years from now, a guy who has absolutely no science background

at all. his chief job, qualification, was he was a right wing radio talk show host in iowa who helped trump, and he put that guy in charge of that office is insane. and you just look at, you know, the thing i've written. profiles the person he replaced. a woman who for 50 years devoted herself to agriculture science and knows everything about it. so you -- it is -- it's quicksotic and makes you wonder, you got to give your friends political jobs in the administration, put them somewhere where you don't need to know something and this was a place you really need to know something. >> and not an outlier. what you write in "vanity fair." into usda jobs some of which paid $80,000 a year the trump team inserts add long haul truck driver, clerk at at&t, a gas company meter reader, country club cabana attendant, the owner

of a scented candle company with skills like pleasant demeanor listed on their resumes. >> give credit will due, it was a politico scoop. got their hands on the resumes of people who piled into the department of agriculture on the day of the inauguration after the administration had basically skipped the transition period. i mean, they'd sent in, made a very half-hearted attempt to send in one or two people between the election day and the day of inauguration to learn how this place functioned. they basically hadn't. on top of that, seemed to think it's a place to, like, "stuff" people they owe favors to. and in addition to that, failed to even nominate people from most of the senate confirmed jobs of running the place. so, you know, i think that -- like, you know, one of the things that gets neglected in the day-to-day discussion of

trump is that underneath the noise of what he does, shehe's showsed to be running the government. and we take for granted what it does and demonize it. if he disables it, it's going to be very hard to get it back and it's things it does are critical and we take them for granted. >> well, the big picture view what you wrote about the department of agriculture, much like you wrote about the department of energy in september, is that there never was a transition. is the reason there never was a transiti transition, perhaps, because the trump campaign never expected to win? >> i'm sure that's part of it, but it's even a little more odd than that in that he did have a transition team, and it was run by chris christie, and he fired him the minute he was elected. so -- you know, it just seems -- it's so funny we have this situation where a business guy has been elected president and

presumably underneath that is a sort of subliminal message that i know how to run things and finally we have someone who knows how to run things here and the degree of management ineptitude is like nothing the federal government has ever seen. >> are you telling me if i'm an employee of the department of agriculture i'm not permitted to utter or print the words "climate change," and if so, why not? >> so they never explained why not. i will offer a guess why not. but when the first person a month after the election who rolls into the department of agriculture has a, he has apparently one real interest, i was told by people inside the department of agriculture. it's rooting out people who had worked on the climate change. the same thing happened in the department of energy. where the one guy who rolled in there asked for a list of anybody associated with climate change things. so and then they sent out a memo saying, don't use the phrase "climate change." you've got to use other things.

why are they -- why are they so obsessed about this one thing? i mean, i think it's just that they were behind them, fossil fuel economic interests, businesses, that don't want the climate change agenda to be messing with their business. but i'm guessing about that. >> i'd be dare flect my derelicf i didn't have a "moneyball" question. houston astros, analytics or instinct? >> either team that won, dodgers or astros, we're well beyond analytics, analytics both sides. both general managers were in the game because of billy beane and wouldn't have been in the game -- both analytics people. and you could see that on the field. right? you saw that every -- where the players were, how they approached their at-bats, how pitchers approaches hitters.

underneath it all was a lot of study. the point i would make about it is when i wrote "moneyball" everybody says, the analyst will take the fun out of the game. that was a thrilling world series. analytics did not take out the fun of the game. added intellectizing it. >> couldn't have been better. even if the mlb forces would have liked to have seen the yankees and dodgers, you couldn't have asked for more than we just received. >> i agree. it was wonderful and it's fun to watch people -- i mean, not just at the level of the player but the level of the general manager. people who really know what they're doing. it's now an actual skill. running one of these teams. and the value of that job. i mean, one of the big things that's happened last 15 years in sports and especially baseball, look at the relative pay of the manager in the dugout versus the general manager. it's flipped. used to be the manager got paid all the money.

now the general manager is the prize creature, because everybody understands the talent decisions and the big strategic decisions are, that's where the leverage is, what's important. >> michael lewis, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. let's check in on your tweets and facebook comments. wa do we have, katherine? >> smerconish, i hope donald trump isn't running the u.s. like his company. can't declare bankruptcy for the entire country when he messes up. christopher, read that piece to my guest michael lewis. it speaks to the lack of transition that ever took place between the outgoing obama administration and incoming trump administration which can be explained by even the trump campaign was shocked by their victory. one more, if they have time. >> smerconish, not sure why someone of your talent would fib/lie. we all know trump has done more in ten months than obama in eight years. brad, please use that same

twitter feed on my facebook page and lay out that record. i'd like to know it. if you convince me, i'd be thrilled to broadcast it, because i'm not seeing it. we have a chief justice of the united states supreme court zero legislative achievement. maybe a change in a lot of regulation, but not a strong record. and i'm just being objective. still to come, nuclear policy discussions and a game of golf, both on president trump's itinerary for his current 12-day trip through five asian countries. presidents in asia experienced awkward moments in the paftst. here to give trump helpful tips. e sugar in your family's diet coke, dr. pepper, and pepsi hear you and we're working together to do just that. bringing you more great tasting beverages with less sugar or no sugar at all. smaller portion sizes, clear calorie labels, and reminders to think balance. because we know mom wants what's best.

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throughout my career, i've been fortunate enough to travel to many interesting places. i've always wanted to create those experiences for others. with my advisor's help along the way, it's finally my turn to be the host.

when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise by listening to an thiaudiobook on audible.ame and this guy is just trying to get through the day. this guy feels like he can take on anything. this guy isn't sure he can take it anymore. unwavering self-confidence. stuck in a 4-door sedan of sadness. upgrade your commute. ride with audible. dial star star audible on your smartphone to start listening today. gives you better taste and better nutrition in so many varieties. classic. cage free. and organic. only eggland's best. with president trump heading to asia for a 12-day trip of

five countries some hoped it would moderate his fiery rhetoric. h.r. mcmaster said that's not going to happen. >> i don't think the president modulates his language. have you noticed? he's been very clear about it. aware of the discussions about his flamer to -- what's inflammatory? it's the north korean regime and what they're doing to threaten, to threaten the world. >> i wondered what advice former presidential advancemen might have for trump's trip. joining me now, spencer geisinger worked for bush 41, and director of press advance and bush 43 at director of presidential advance, josh king was director of production for presidential events in bill clinton's white house. he helped plan seven trips to asia and is the author of the book "off script: an advanced man's guide to white house campaign spectacle and political suicide." spencer, as you look at the

itinerary, what's the hardest stop to advance? >> i would say probably china. one, because they're an adversary and tougher negotiators. on my trips to china, versus to japan or korea, i always found it was tougher to negotiate with the chinese. >> well, and you tell a story about being in flight on air force one to beijing for the olympics and still didn't have credentials. how did that pan out? >> well, that's exactly right. we had -- i had made several trips to beijing. i think three trips prior to the actual trip itself to negotiate everything from hotel rooms to vehicle placards to credentials to the events and we had -- at the time of the departure from andrews, we still had not received any credentials or any passes to any of the events. we weren't exactly sure what the schedule was going to entail and president bush called me up to

the conference room on air force one as we were flying and asked what events he could go to. i had already talked to my lead advance on the ground and the secret service and decided we were going to just go to whatever we vents we wanted to and figured the chinese would not stop us. when the president called me up to the conference room, asked where he could go to, i said, sir, you can go to any events you want to go to. give me a heads up what you want to go see and we'll make it happen. and that's exactly what we did. ordered up the motorcade, told chinese security where we were going and were never stopped. went to swimming events with michael phelps and beach volleyball and even a baseball game between the u.s. team and the chinese team. >> josh, a trip of this magnitude requires deep reading. on the flight there, do you read or do you sleep? >> well, it's a ten-hour flight from andrews to hawaii, that first leg that president trump has already taken, michael.

he emerged to get his lasse on the tarmac at honolulu and looked sprite at pearl harbor. my sense, he and the first lady probably got a lot of sleep on that first leg. it's another ten hours over to his first stop in tokyo, and i hope that on that leg, they're taking off in the morning from honolulu. that they'll spend a lot of time in the conference room, with h.r. mcmaster, with john kelly, with dina powell, poring over the briefing books, because from this point forward, every trip, every stop, has diplomatic pitfalls that need to be avoided. there is a slow ramp on this trip. on sunday he's playing golf with prime minister shinzo abe. that should be a pretty easy layup. they've spoken 14 times on the phone. also shared a round of golf when the prime minister visited the united states. things get a little trickier on monday as spencer said, once you get into beijing. what i have seen about this

white house unlike going to michael phelps' swimming meets of the olympics is, this white house doesn't have a lot of creativity or a lot of people to put on a lot of bells and whistles on these trips. so they're staying very much in a narrow diplomatic protocol lane, almost giving yourself over to your host. go where the host asks you to go. show up to the meetings that they ask you to show up. don't take a lot of risks. don't do a lot yourself, because, frankly, they don't have the personnel or expertise to do it. >> hey, spencer is there a rock band quality to this? when doing five nations back-to-back, that you almost forget where you are and it's, you know, hello, cleveland! even if you're not in cleveland? >> no. not so much. i mean -- throughout the -- yeah. throughout the whole advance, you're talking to your teams on the ground. so you have a really good understanding and feel for what's going to happen. these trips are highly scripted. they're thought out months in

advance. every step that the president's going to take has been walked by the advance teams and security. every route that the motorcade will travel has been traveled previously, and practiced. so there's a lot that goes into this thing. what you have to avoid is a self-inflicted distraction. you want to stick to the script, go to the event, as josh said, go to the events they want you to go to. be prepared when they're there and then execute the trip that you have planned, and not try and do things, you know, on a whim or sort of ad hoc. you want to stick to the script as best as possible. because things will happen. and you will have to react to them, you know, on any trip there's always something that comes out of left field you have to deal with. >> and, josh, you're going to have to wear the native dress. we were showing images of bill clinton. your former boss. if you're with the saudis, you might be expected to hold hands. there are always those wrinkles at every location. true?

>> yes. this is a shot of the apec conference, this is a palace in indonesia. second or third apex conference. the first one we hosted in seattle and our dress code, come casually to the island where the leaders were meeting. once we started going to these asian conferences they said, please wear the native garb. the patek shirts we were asked to wear. president clinton was already about 12 inches taller than all counterparts of apex leaders and stood out to begin with and that guy with his pale complexion didn't look great in a patek shirt either, but you go along to get along and that's a rule of requirement when you go to these apec conferences. >> spencer, just 30 seconds left. >> i can tell you -- >> any fun for a president on -- i know he's going to golf with abe. is any of this fun? >> oh, yeah. absolutely. there's so much history in asia. >> yeah. >> on these trips. you really get an opportunity to learn so much about their

culture. so, yes, there are fun times, and there's times to relax as well. those apex shirts, there's not a president that has served in our country that likes oning those apex shirts. i can tell you. >> okay. there's one thing that can bridge the partisan divide, not liking those shirts. it's like the ridiculous sweater at christmas. gentlemen, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you, michael. >> thank you, michael. good to be with you. still to come, your best and worst tweets and facebook comments, like this one. smerconish, what's the well, he's not going around north korea. i guess you mean in close proximity, but we talked about this here. he will not be going to the dmz. we talked about it two weeks ago. should he go? he's not going. back in a sec. non-insulin victoza® lowers a1c, and now reduces cardiovascular risk.

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good morning. so grateful for your company. i'm christi paul. >> i'm martin salve individual savidge in for victor blackwell. president trump starts his longest international trip since taking office and arguably his

most crucial. >> multiple meetings with world leaders. in just hours he's leaving hawaii to get to japan, where he'll meet with one of the united states top allies in that region, and on the agenda, of course, confronting growing nuclear fears in north korea and re-establishing power in that region. >> this trip comes after the struggles facing his administration back home, including a russia investigation that is making its way closer to the west wing. we're covering this story now from just about every angle. our correspondents and our contributors. we're going to start with cnn's ryan nobles, who is traveling with the president. ryan, packed schedule ahead for the president. >> yeah, that's right, martin. his trip has already been busy up until this point. he touched down here in hawaii yesterday and had two different military briefings, one with the leader of the pacific command and then with other military leaders. he then had a very solemn moment at the u.s.s. arizona memorial at pearl harbor, w