everyone else, no way. we let calls from any of your devices come from your business number. them, not so much. we let you keep an eye on your business from anywhere. the others? nope! get internet on our gig-speed network and add voice and tv for $34.90 more per month. call or go on line today. this is "gps," the global public square. welcome to all of you in the united states and around the world. i'm fareed zakaria. today on the show, mr. trump goes to europe. how did he do? first we'll tackle the nato summit. >> i think what we have seen -- >> you're just making russia richer. >> and visits with the queen and prime minister may.

what did he accomplish? what did he disrupt? then trump's next big meeting with russian president putin. what can we expect? will the president get an artful deal or a bad one? i'll talking about it all with a terrific panel. also this week, nikki haley, u.s. ambassador to the u.n., wrote a scathing response to a united nations report about poverty in america. haley called the report patently ridiculous. i will talk to the author of that report, phillip alston. first, here's my take. president trump's trip to europe has been portrayed by both him and his critics as revolutionary. he tells us that single handily and miraculously, he got members of nato to increase their defense spending sharply. his critics claim that single handedly he wrecked the western alliance by sowing doubt and

discord among america's closest supporters. neither is fully true. president obama routinely asked for increased defense spending from nato's allies. trump's loud charge that germany has become too dependent on russian natural gas does have considerable merit. the germans signed up for an energy relationship with russia that is strategically dangerous. it's not so much that by importing large amounts of natural gas from russia, berlin can be blackmailed. the russians are equally dependent on german cash. but the new pipelines being built could allow russia to threaten eastern european countries by withholding energy supplies and jacking up prices. and moscow has used and abused this energy card in the past. but again, trump's complaint was often voiced by the obama administration. and in neither of these cases is there any indication that donald trump's crude and aggressive

approach has produced any results. the real revolution, however, in what donald trump is doing with his foreign policy, lies at home. he is continuing with his project, by intent or instinct, to remake the republican party. his foreign policy appears to be designed to create a new republican foreign policy that is actually much closer to the party's historical roots. distrustful of foreigners, alliances, treaties, and in many senses, flatly isolationist. in his rallies, trump describes america's closest allies as our worst enemies and says they kills on both security and trade. jonathan chait writes in "new york magazine," trump is training his base to hate nato and like putin. 51% of republicans now believe that the united states shouldn't

defend nato allies unless they increase defense spending. even more astonishingly, trump seems to have reversed republican attitudes towards russia and vladimir putin. at a recent rally, trump said -- >> you know what, putin's fine. we're fine. we're all fine. we're people. >> republicans are now twice as likely as democrats to express a favorable opinion of putin. and 56% want to cooperate and engage more with russia. the republican party has proved remarkably malleable ideologically. the party of law and order now has deep distrust for the fbi. the party of free trade is now far more solidly behind protectionism than the democrats. the party that celebrated ronald reagan's optimism about immigrants now contains a majority that supports separating families at the border and criminally prosecuting undocumented immigrants. trump's political genius continues to be that he

recognizes that the base of the republican party is ripe for this ideological revolution, that while the old reaganite formulas may still be subscribed to by republican elites in washington and new york, it is not embraced out there in the grassroots. five years ago, one establishment republican wrote, the specter of isolationism is stalking the republican party. it is hardly certain that isolationist sentiment will prevail. but it is critical that national security republicans can answer the questions being raised, restore a coherent party platform, and thereby thwart the new isolationism. those words were written by john bolton, trump's national security adviser. it seems that even the most stalwart national security republicans have an accommodated themselves to the trump revolution. for more, go to cnn.com/fareed and read my "washington post"

column for this week. and let's get started. ♪ let's get right into the discussion of trump's trip to nato and the uk. joining me now are a brit, a frenchman, a german, and an american. the editor in chief of bloomberg. a french writer and philosopher. the former editor in chief of a german newspaper. and a columnist for "the washington post." ann, you're an american who spent many, many years in london, and you have a house in poland. what do you think -- you know, what's the headline from trump's european tour so far? >> i think the headline is this is a pretty who confuses

europeans and leaves them with a very weird choice. should they believe that the reason he's talking about increasing their spending on defense is that because he cares about their defense, or is he creating chaos around nato and other western institutions with the desire to break them up? increasingly, most people here, by "here" i mean in poland but also in britain and elsewhere in europe, feel that he's acting like a wrecking ball. he's seeking to wreck nato, he's seeking to wreck the european union. he's seeking to wreck the old special relationship between the u.s. and the uk. all of his actions, speech, and body language is negative. that's left people scrambling to figure out what they'll be doing next. >> bernard, when you listen to that, emmanuel macron, the president of france, thought he had found a way to kind of manage donald trump, to flatter

h him. so did theresa may, for that matter. does it feel to you like that hasn't quite worked? >> i think it was a mistake. you cannot drive and cultivate such a big baby as the one which was in the sky of london. very difficult to do that. no, what happens today is very sad for america, number one, that is losing part of its credibility, when you have an ally and when you say to the rest of the world that this alliance might be worth nothing, is very bad for the west in general, which is losing consistency and substance. what we used to call a few years ago still, the west, is

collapsing. and it is good for mr. putin and a few other autocrats in the world who are -- who feel so reinforced in their dream to crush and to destroy and to destabilize europe and the west. so you can consider it the way you want. it's a pure disaster. >> let me ask you about the germans, because president trump had some very tough words directed at germany, at angela merkel, at the pipeline deal with russia. how did germany take that? i notice the foreign minister bristled and said we are not a vassal of russia but neither are we a vassal of the united states. it sort of suggested that when you push like this, you're going to get some pushback from european countries. >> definitely. and you see germany has a feeling that it's constantly

being picked on by the united states, especially by donald trump. you remember he's constantly talking about german cars on american streets, apparently forgetting that bmw has the biggest plant worldwide, the biggest factory for cars in south carolina. so there is a growing sort of sentiment of being bullied. and it's quite obvious that he's trying to cater to his own electorate, his own voters. but he's not going to bully any government, any head of state, into making a deal, because those heads of state, angela merkel, other leaders of european countries, have se self-respe self-respect. and they're not going to go home to their own electorate and tell them i've just been strong armed into a deal by the bully who is u.s. president. >> put this all in perspective for us. theresa may also tried, she

corded trump acssiduouslassiduo gave him a black tie dinner, she was the first foreign leader to visit president trump when elected, and he gave her a hand grenade wrapped in a newspaper. >> trump, whether we like it or not, is emerging as a figure of consequence in policy. the things he's doing are making a difference. they made a difference in asia, they made a difference in the middle east. now they're making a difference in europe. he throws leaders into discombobulation. bernard is exactly right about macron. you look at theresa may, she's had this nightmare week. at the very end of it, donald trump arrives. even when she thinks she's got

him tied down at blenham, sitting beside her, this article comes out, and then he's off to the queen. this guy is coming, and just on the purely personal level, these people do not know how to deal with him. merkel, an extremely skilled person. theresa may has less skills in those departments but she seems unable really to know which way he's going to go. >> stay with us. next, we're going to talk about what trump said about immigration in europe. he called it a very negative thing. it is changing the culture. i want to know what people think of trump weighing in on that and broader european politics, when we come back. across the country, we walk. carrying flowers that signify why we want to end alzheimer's disease. but what if, one day, there was a white flower for alzheimer's first survivor? what if there were millions of them? join us for the alzheimer's association walk to end alzheimer's.

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prewashing and removing stuck-on foods, the first time. wow, that's clean! new cascade platinum. a hotel can make or break a trip. and at expedia, we don't think you should be rushed into booking one. that's why we created expedia's add-on advantage. now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. ♪ add-on advantage. discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. only when you book with expedia. and we are back with our panel. bernard, let me ask you, when trump talked about european

immigrati immigration in these kind of dark tones, he was essentially echoing the arguments made bit national front, some of the right wing groups in germany and northern europe. and it seemed to me, it must be very unhelpful to the mainstream political parties that have been trying to integrate europe. europe, after all, has as many foreign-born people now as the united states. it is already an immigrant society. and this is not something that can be reversed at this point, can it? >> of course not. it's complicated stupid and complicated crazy. it does not work this way. any american citizen knows what immigration means and how a society can be well-regulated and enriched by immigration. number two, these sort of speeches of national front in

france, in hinungary and so on,t only increases the fire, the flame in the brain. it puts more fire in the brains of the citizens. donald trump is playing with a matchbox in europe. this is another way to destabilize europe, as i said before, about putin. >> even though he didn't this time mention merkel by name, he has previously described what merkel did with regard to taking refugees in as a disaster, as a horrible mistake. merkel has still been paying for that decision. so, again, this must not have come as a welcome surprise to angela merkel or her party, to have this assault on immigration come from the american president.

>> no, but i think by now everybody is actually used to those assaults. the problem is, and it's the same with donald trump talking about germany not spending enough on its military budget, which is partly true, that of course germany is tackling a massive problem due to the refugee crisis, but even before that, the system was flawed for i would say at least a decade. the whole unrest that was within the population only sort of came to the surface during the refugee crisis. and of course mistakes have been made. on the other hand, germany has millions of immigrants who helped not just the economy but also the cultural adversity. and to have interference from abroad, we're used to having vladimir putin causing unrest and controversy. we're not really used to that coming from our actually closest

ally, which is the united states. >> john, that is part of the puzzlement here. the president is interfering with domestic politics of other countries. it's rarely done. if other leaders were to start doing the same to him, he would be appalled. >> he would be upset. >> do you think that -- is this something that people are just going to have to it used to? is it the new normal? is trump this authentic new political animal who just says what he wants? or is this going to be a bizarre aberration and we're just going to go back to normal? >> i think it's probably an aberration. we don't know. overseas, again, trump is breaking all the standard rules. merkel and may would never dream of interfering in each other's politics. they would apologize if they did it. again, he's trampling over that. the enact thfact that he's sort succeeding, whether we like it or not, he's having an effect in

germany. when he's talking about immigration, when he talks about nato. the possibility is there that he is changing something. and more people might be encouraged to do this. >> ann, what i'm puzzled by is, what is the purpose of it? it doesn't seem to serve america's strategic interests to undermine prime minister may, to undermine chanene chancellor me. one possibility is he's speaking to his base at home. the second possibility is there's an intention to disrupt the western alliance. is that too dark? >> i think you've put your finger on what's exactly so confusing about him and the reason why he's so hard to understand. he's not acting in america's interests. he's not coming to europe to speak for the united states. he's not doing good for american business or for american tourists or for anything else, really, about the united states,

and certainly not for american security. he seems to be acting in his own interests. and second of all, he seems to be speaking to the people who he defines as his base, who like this divisive language and who like him talking about immigration and who like the emotional charge that a discussion of immigration and the implications of racism, of white supremacism, of hatred of one part of society for another, that seems to be what he's doing. your second point about whether he's actually trying to break up these institutions, it seems to me that he's toying with that idea. he certainly has some people around him who want to break up the eu, who want to break up nato. certainly john bolton is somebody who is very anti-eu, very anti-international-organizations , steve miller. trump doesn't understand these institutions, he doesn't know that much about them, he doesn't know how they work.

for the moment, the charge he gets, personally and politically, out of creating chaos seems to be what he's aiming for. stay with us. trump's meeting with vladimir putin one on one. what can we expect? iwi wil let's get someone to say it with a really low voice. carl? lowest price guaranteed. what about the world's lowest limbo stick? how low can you go? nice one, carl. hey i've got an idea. just say, badda book. badda boom. badda book. badda boom. nice. always the lowest price, guaranteed. book now at choicehotels.com

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on monday, president trump and president putin will meet at a summit in helsinki, finland. the two men will begin their meeting by talking mano a mano, without any aides around them, according to sources. trump said before departing for europe that of all of the meetings on this trip, nato, the prime minister, the queen, the putin one might be the easiest. when later asked if putin was a friend or foe, trump said he couldn't really say. then on friday, 12 russian military officers were indicted for hacking the dnc by robert mueller. so what to expect from the trump/putin meeting? joining me again, a french philospher, a german newspaper

editor. john, you spent time in st. petersburg with putin. putin thinks very strategically and rationally. do you think he understands what to make the trump? >> i think putin looks at everybody and examines their strengths and weaknesses. there is a weird connection with trump, trump does the same thing in a more emotional way. trump is like the schoolyard bully who comes in and finds somebody to go for. putin thinks much more rationally, this is the weak spot for merkel, i think i'll push. particularly what's happened with the indictment, that puts putin in a slightly awkward position. what's happened throughout all this, he has roughly the same motive as trump. he wants to make russia great again, he's keen on being part of the conversation. he doesn't want it just to be about hacking and about the things that his people have done. and so he's now going to find trump in a somewhat defensive,

strange position. i think it's going to be quite a complicated meeting for both people. putin may be better at that complication than trump is. >> when you look at the situation, again, from germany's point of view, trump is accusing germany of being soft on the russians, but it's the germans who have put in some pretty tough sanctions and maintained them. do you think that angela merkel is worried that trump will give away too much with putin? do you think that -- do europeans, do germans worry there is some strange connection between trump and putin? >> i think there is reason for concern. first of all, it's also great that actually the u.s. president and the russian president are talking. it just depends on what they're talking about and what the outcome will be. the reason for concern is maybe not so much for germany but for the baltic states, for the ukraine, will the u.s. president actually be tough on crimea, on russians still interfering in the east of ukraine.

and from all i've heard from president trump so far, you cannot be sure he's taking a stance that is actually helpful from a european perspective. >> ann, the point she makes is an important one. when we think about europe's problems with trump, we often think of western european countries, britain, france, germany. but the real nervousness i sense is in eastern europe. poland, the baltic republics. they face a considerable new threat from russia, ever since the annexation of crimea and ukraine. what does it feel like in poland where you right now? >> one of the reasons you don't hear much criticism of trump here in poland but also in this region is partly because people are afraid. they are afraid of a resurgent russia. they're afraid of what that means not just militarily, but

economics. russian political influence is very strong. people have been counting for many years on the united states as an important piece of -- not just really as a member of nato, but also as a spokesman for democrats, as a spokesman for liberal institutions that could push back against russian corruption and against the russian political system. they were hoping for support from the united states. and now of course people are very afraid that they are not getting it. i mean, it's important to remember what the united states has stood for in this part of the world for so many years, for democracy, for human rights, for an idea of security, for an idea of security, economic progress, economic freedom. to suddenly have the united states appear to be doing some kind of strange deal with the country that stands for the opposite of those things frightens people. the russian relationship with trump is one of the deepest mysteries of this presidency. it's one of the oddest things about trump.

this is -- putin is the one world leader who he never criticizes. he'll criticize his allies, he'll country xi jinping, he'll criticize his allies in congress. but he'll never criticize putin. it may be we'll learn something from this meeting about why that is, or it may be that we won't, and that will simply increase the sense of paranoia in this part of the world. >> bernard-henri levy, the united states has tried to lead in certain ways with regard to human rights, democracy, liberty, not always practicing what it preached, but at least preaching it. what about the west without a moral leader, bernard? where does that leave the west? >> this is the most sad part of the story. america has been, since decades, the moral leader of the world. the shining city upon the hill.

this is how american pilgrim fathers conceived their country. this is how most of the americans today still conceive their country, as a shining city, showing the path to democracy, embodying liberal values and so on. so the shining city is now switching off like a light which goes out. and it is true, that it leaves the world, the rest of the world, and europe, orphaned. the west without america cannot be the west. democracy without american leadership cannot be democracy. this is a great source of distress for all of us, americans and europeans. >> we'll have to let that be the last word. thank you all very much for a fascinating conversation, from different parts of europe and of course from the united states.

next on "gps," how is a world leader supposed to act in the age of trump? i would suggest that japanese prime minister shinzo abe has perhaps figured it out best. i'll explain. e pretty much the . but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management.

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is trump again getting played by putin, or is he conspiring with a man who helped put him in office? if paul revere and other patriots had waited to act until it was safe or politically correct, we would never have the country we have today. it's time for congress, republicans and democrats, to put their political interests aside and act on behalf of our country.

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friendly countries with steel and aluminum tariffs. but if america's allies are panicking as trump's hostility, there is one leader who at least for now appears remarkably calm. japan's shinzo abe. around the g-7, while justin trudeau and angela merkel shot back at trump, the japanese prime minister was aloof, criticizing protectionism generally. it's not that abe isn't nervous. if trump goes ahead with automobile tariffs, japan could be hit hard and abe has spoken out about these tariffs. but it appears that prime minister abe is playing out a shrewd strategy marked by a deep pragmatism. keep trump close and figure out a contingency plan in case of disaster. the first part has been going on for some time. abe was the first foreign leader to call on the president-elect at trump tower after the 2016 election. he presented trump with a gold plated golf club worth about $4,000.

they've had dozens of conversations since, reuters notes. the upshot? >> we have a very, very good bond, very good chemistry. >> what's interesting is abe's newfound leadership on multilateral agreements without his american counterpart. let's start with trade. japan was dragged into a massive free trade agreement with the trans-pacific partnership by washington, a rather familiar dynamic for the two countries. trump, as promised, abandoned the tpp as soon as he entered office. but then japan, surprising everyone, saved the deal minus america. that the agreement was signed by the 11 remaining countries in march of this year was a huge victory for abe and his negotiators. in japan's parliament earlier this year, abe sounded remarkably like an american president, saying, quote, i will spread to the world a 21st century economic order based on free and fair rules, according to "the wall street journal." he'll continue that trend next

week when he and european union leaders are expected to sign another trade deal which would result in one of the biggest trade blocs in the world. these agreements are not just about money. they are about knitting countries together to provide strength in the face of aggressors, the liberal world order that trump seems determined to erode. japan needs these ties more than ever before, amid threats that trump will suspend military exercises in the region and of course an increasingly dominant china. perhaps that's why abe is ramping up defense spending and working on security ties beyond those with the united states. japan and france are engaged in a dialogue involving shared military cooperation. the united kingdom announced british troops will go to japan later this year to carry out joint exercises, a first for non-american troops. there is clearly a sense in tokyo that japan can no longer rely on the united states alone to bring it into the western

alliance and it's forging its relationships at its own, says a professor at columbia university. abe is hoping foreign the be best -- hoping for the best but planning for the worst, along the way breaking patterns of japanese post-war passivity and shepherding his company toward a new dynamism. there was a white flower for alzheimer's first survivor? what if there were millions of them? join us for the alzheimer's association walk to end alzheimer's. register today at alz.org/walk. ♪ ♪ ♪ raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ♪

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phillip olsten spend two weeks touring the united states last december but he wasn't hitting the tourist hotspots. instead he visited places like skid row in los angeles, appalachian in puerto rico, places where poverty and homelessness are rampant. he conducted his tour in order to write a report on whether poverty in america undermines human rights here. and he did so under the auspices

of the united nations where is the special reporter on extreme poverty and human rights. he says the trump administration facilitated his visit. however his response from the white house since then has been scathing. last month he published his final report. we'll get to the conclusions in a moment. first let me read to you what u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley wrote this week in "national review." "it is patently ridiculous for the u.n. to spend its scarce resources studying poverty in a country where the vast majority is not in poverty and where social safety nets are firmly in place to help those who are." joining me now is the author of that u.n. report. a pleasure to have you on, sir. >> thank you. >> so explain first why you decided to take on this assignment and what the

objective was. >> well, my role in advising the u.n. human rights council is to visit a number of countries each year. i most recently went to countries like china and saudi arabia, for example. it seemed to me that the united states has a very major influence on issues of policy relating to poverty and human rights, and it was an ideal time to undertake a visit. >> and when you went, were you surprised by what you started to discover or were you already aware of some of the problems? how would you describe your journey? >> i knew basically what i was going to find. but the contrasts that one actually comes across in a place like skid row in los angeles, in appalachian and so on, in puerto rico, of course, the poorest non-state in the union, those contrasts are really dramatic.

and when you consider the statistics, which i think was the really important thing, the starting point for the trump administration was that it inherited the most unequal society in the west, and it inherited 40 million people living in poverty. but while i was there, it was very busily putting in place policies that seemed to be deliberately designed to exacerbate both of those problems. >> and explain, if you will, just the problem even before the trump administration, that is, kind of the more jenngenera gen problem, which is, as you say, 40 million people in the united states living in poverty. this is unlike any other really rich country in the world. in other words, if you look at the world's richest countries, the oecd countries, certainly the top half of them, this level

and extent of poverty is quite unusual. >> the united states is a champion. it comes close to the top on almost all of the bad indicators. so whether it's child poverty, whether it's number of people in prison, whether it's the health outcomes, whether it's healthy life expectancy, the united states does extremely badly. and yet, as nikki haley said, it's one of the wealthiest countries in the world. >> and in a sense what you're highlighting is that contrast, which is despite the fact that it is one of the richest countries in the world, by some measures the richest country in the world, it has these -- and it's not fair to call these pockets, these are large pools of extreme poverty. >> you've got 40 million americans living in poverty. that's a very large percentage of the -- something like 14% of the population.

in most countries that i visit, the justification that's offered is that the government simply can't afford to offer more generous benefits to provide decent health care, to provide decent education, childcare and so on. they just don't have the money. in the united states, where the congress was busily finding $1.5 trillion for tax cuts for the wealthy, that clearly is not the explanation. and so what it seemed to me was that there is really an ideological push behind this effort to stigmatize the poor, to announce that a lot of the programs are going to be very significantly cut, and effectively that they have to fend for themselves. >> were you surprised by nikki haley's response, given that the administration had cooperated with your visit? >> ambassador haley's response

was very strange, because apart from saying that my report was biased and i got all my statistics wrong and so on, but never specifying what those were, she essentially said that the united nations should focus all of its time on countries like burundi and the democratic republic of congo because that's where the real human rights violations are taking place. but as she knows, the focus of the program is china, russia, australia, which has major problems in turning away asylum seekers in ways that violate human rights law. the whole notion about human rights guidelines is that they apply to all countries. with soft surfaces that trap odors and release them back into the room. so, try febreze fabric refresher. febreze finds odors trapped in fabrics

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since president trump came to office, his administration has been working hard to roll back environmental regulations in the united states. but other nations are taking drastic measures to actually crack down on pollution. it brings me to my question. what country said it detained nearly 500 officials for violating environment protection laws? was it china, canada, costa rica, or russia? stay tuned and we'll tell you the correct answer. my book of the week is "our towns: a 100,000 mile journey to the heart of america." tom friedman said, if you want to be an optimistic about america, stand on your head.

the country looks so much better from the bottom up. that's what the book's authors did, they took off in a small plane and looked at small towns' heart. they found optimism and dynamism. if you feel grim about america these days, read this book. if current trends continue, there will be 13 billion tons of plastic waste polluting the plant by planet by 2050. starbucks announced it will tackle the problem by phasing out plastic straws, after its hometown of seattle went strawless, banning single use plastic straws and utensils. and halfway across the world, an unlikely group is doing its part to save the environment too. the al qaeda-backed terrorist group al shabaab based in the horn of africa, in june one of the group's governors announced

a ban on plastic bags for the entire somali region of jubaland. the governor said, quote, plastic bags are a threat to humans and livestock. any person breaking the law has to be arrested and brought to the islamic court, unquote. our sources in somalia tell us there was little news coverage as this was generally taken by the public to be a joke. in fact the somali government called it a pr stunt. the terror group's apparent interest in human welfare is of course ironic. it has actually spread death and destruction across the region. just last week, al shabaab claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack on the interior ministry that killed 12 and injured 19. the answer to my "gps" challenge question is "a."

china said officials had been detained for violating environmental regulations, all part of the chinese government's crackdown on pollution, now in its fifth year. yet another area where as american leadership recedes, china fills the vacuum. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i'll see you next week. all eyes are on helsinki. i'm brian stelter and this is "reliable sources," our weekly look at the story behind the story, at how the media really works and how the news gets made. this hour, "art of the deal" co-author tony schwartz is here with insight into trump's european adventure. and later in the hour, facebook says it's cracking down on fake news. why is this hoaxer still on the platform? but first, one of the world's big mysteries. how will we know what really happens when trump and putin get together? right now, hundreds of