share and meet their financial obligations. >> instead we are here to offer partnership based on shared interests and values. >> but 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they're supposed to be paying for their defense. >> i also promise that america will not seek to impose hour way of life on others. >> this is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the united states. >> i stand before you as a representative of the american people. >> the best of times, it was the worst of times. >> keynesian. >> good morning, y'all. how are you doing? it's friday. it's good to be here. >> it is. >> president trump, he kind of struck a really different tone on sunday when he was in saudi

arabia, and actually even when he was in israel compared to how he actually talks to our allies in europe. the president's policy was on full display in moscow, man handling the representative from montenegro. look at this move. >> this is am missing. >> gives a whole new meaning to america first. >> that is what some in europe would call the ugly american, that sort of action. >> he ripped off -- the poor president of france. he's a young guy, macron. >> pulls you in, right? that's his move. >> tried it on gorsuch. he was, no, i'll stay right here. >> welcome to "morning joe." done any is with us along with

author of the book "a world in disarray," haass. also, senior reporter at "usa today" -- do you want it to be the "morning joe" pronunciation or chris matthews pronunciation. >> let's just say "morning joe" here on forward. >> heidi przybilla in washington, d.c. >> what's the alternative. >> przybilla! i got a question for you. >> it's not quite that bad. i've got to defend him a little. >> of course it's not as bad. ahead we'll go live to montana where the guy who beat up a reporter for asking about budget scores actually won that state state's election. we'll pay his victory speech,

apology and we'll see if he beat the hell out of anybody else. >> never want to issue an apology at a victory celebration. >> jimmy super fly snooker. >> off the top rope. >> yeah. >> not like the guy was sticking a mike in his face saying i understand you've got a mistress in des moines and you have three families -- it's not like they were going ep into the really person -- the congressional budget office scored the health care plan -- >> not again. you guys do this all the time. >> richard, really quickly, we'll get to the news. we know what we're supposed to do. before we read it, what was your takeaway. we showed clips of how she was in saudi arabia versus how he was with the democratic leaders of europe. what was your takeaway.

>> saudi arabia he was, if anything, too slis us to, you would have thought that saudi arabia had nothing to do with the rise of groups like al qaeda and isis, bent over backwards to be solace tis. all this is against the backdrop of a campaign where he called a nato obsolete, differ on trade, russia, refugees. it was low hanging fruit yesterday, to send a message that an attack on one is an attack on all and he consciously didn't do it. what this does, it signals that what used to be unconditional is now conditional. this means -- this sets in motion history. for 70 years it's been uncharacteristically stable. think about the last seven years and the first half of the 20th century, we had two world wars. europe has been stable for seven

years. why? because the united states has beenunconditionally. >> unconditionally. and when we have needed it, since 1945, when we have needed to go somewhere to a group of allies in a crunch, we've been there. >> not as a favor them. the whole idea is we're there for them as a favor to ourselves. their stability and their security is an american national interest. that concept seems totally -- >> does not seem to understand, we're in the doing what we're doing for luxembourg. we're doing what we're doing to protect this country. jim mattis -- i love what jim mattis does. looking through history, countries with great allies across the globe are countries that thrive. countries that are isolated are countries that collapse. we need as many allies as we can possibly have, especially now. it seems the only ally donald

trump is interested in outside of saudi arabia is russia. >> stephen miller wrote that speech yesterday. he's also the author of the travel ban. his foreign policy adviser, he has said over and over again during the campaign and as donald trump has been president, where he got the idea that nato is obsolete he got from stephen miller. that's miller's world view coming through on the stage. now to say it as the leaders are standing there -- these are live pictures, by the way, at the g7 in italy right now. but to make that speech and give those campaign-style comments in the presence of those leaders where he had a chance to be presidential to say, yes, we are committed to this. we are committed to the concept -- >> by the way, 20 little girls got blown up going to a concert in europe earlier this week. that terrorism could have been

the center of it. not the 2% -- by the way, i agree with him. i couldn't agree with him more. barney frank and i -- the one think barney frank and i always agreed on when on the floor of congress and afterwards was we shouldn't carry europe on our back, they should pay their 2%. they should carry their load. they don't get to escape from history. i agree with that. but do not call them out. the entire world is watching and, of course, most importantly vladimir putin is watching. it seemed like yesterday was his love note to vladimir putin. it really did by, first of all, attacking the allies and then by not moving forward and saying they were going to do what we've always done and defend any country that was attacked. >> that was the stunning part,

too, to your point, saying we've got to even the score dollarswise, but not go to article five, not send that signal to our allies, you strategically go why, what is the logic? sometimes you can look at trump and go, he's sinister, but there's this kind of twisted machiavellian logic. there's no there there. >> you'd probably agree with me. so many times donald is shooting his mouth off, and shoots his mouth off in complete and total ignorance. he's never been interested in the history, in our history, in our constitution, our heritage, our civil -- the civil order. but i will tell you, this is a motivator of him. he is an isolationist. he doesn't believe the united states should defend our allies if they are attacked by russia.

>> i actually think it's a larger issue with him. he looks at everything we do in the world and it's almost to put it in business terms, our return on investment isn't big enough. we do so much in the world, it costs us too much. if you go back to the inaugural speech, he blames a lot of our ills on that. again, it's just missing the larger take. >> by the way, university of alabama fan. my entire -- the community down there in tuscaloosa, northern alabama, a lot of my friends that live there, their lives have been transformed because mercedes actually has built now -- i think it's two lines that they're building in northern alabama. it's completely transformed that communi community. why do they do it? because the germans find it's the most productive and the most cost efficient factory of

mercedes benz in the entire world. i've got friends in greenville, south carolina. walk up and down the streets of greenville, south carolina, on a friday night. do you know what you hear? you hear people speaking german, and they're speaking german because bmw, because of carol campbell and a lot of other visionaries brought in, not only bmw, but other german companies to greenville, south carolina. our relationship is germany has transformed two southern communities in an extraordinarily dramatic way that has improved the lives of those people and those regions. >> tennessee is the same, volkswagen. >> tennessee is the same. there's some dispute this morning, the your company commissioner said the translation of donald trump saying the germans are acting very badly might not have been quite correct and he was strong in what he said about germany.

but i think generally the contrast we showed at the top of the show, saudi arabia on the one hand and these allies that we've had, as you've said, richard, for 70 years in europe, why the hostile tone to them? these are the people who have been at our side so many times through history. why are we confronting them? >> just look at these pictures. >> willie, you're right about that. i was a german major. boza is angry or disagreeable. it's not evil, the direct translation. the point stands, why is it necessary to use insults? if your goal -- if your end goal is really to try and rectify the trade imbalance despite all the german investment in our company, is it really necessary to use insults. that just speaks to the broader issue of how he conducts himself with all foreign leaders and just kind of the level of his skill in terms of rhetoric and

not realizing the consequences of using insults. >> you look at the pictures we're showing right here. done any, on top you have lavr v lavrov, as john mccain said is an old kgb stooge, one of putin's henchmen. then below you have the most important democratic leader outside the president of the united states, and he won't even shake her hand. not right, not good. what is he trying to get at here? >> two points, to pick up on richard -- you used the term and i love this term, you call trump a day trader. sometimes trump can literally only see an inch in front of his nose. as a guy who looks at a balance sheet, he sees, wait a second, we're contributing to this to nato, the rest are only contributing that, versus three steps out of that. he can only look at that one balance sheet.

the second point that i keep coming back to, there's only one explanation for all of this, and it's all the other stuff that his ally, that his brethren, his cake is being buttered somehow with the russians. >> everything that happens -- because i have said on this show, from everybody i've talked to in the intel community, everything i've heard, there is no -- right now, there may be letter, but there is no evidence of direct collusion between russia and trump. that said, everything that happened yesterday, richard feeds into the suspicion that there is, or that putin has something on donald trump. yes was bizarre by any post 1945 diplomatic standard. it was bizarre to be that hostile towards america's

greatest allies on the planet since 1945 versus his treatment of vladimir putin. >> no argument. yesterday was another good day for vladimir putin when he sees this kind of disarray in the western alliance. i will say there's one other thing that donald trump has shown a consistent pattern of cozying up to strong men, erdogan in turkey, "new york times" today has videos of his thugs beating up on people using their first amendment rights. you have duarte a confessed killer being treated positively. he goes to the middle east and he embraces these guys, none of whom has anything remotely like political rights in their country and he goes to europe which is the most free democratic part of the world, and you have suddenly this chill in the air. >> that was my greatest takeaway yesterday, is that. he's very comfortable around strong men, ought krats and

people democratically elected make him very, very nervous. he respects authoritarians. it's very obvious, he respects auto kratz, leaders able to cut people's heads off if they protest. he respects leaders that are able to shoot journalists. he's very uncomfortable around democratic leaders and it was very clear yesterday, very uncomfortable around people that run democratic countries, willie. >> and what was the one relationship he had, the one interaction he had with our greatest ally, theresa may, her scolding him because of leaking intelligence to newspapers. >> the administration claims that behind the scenes merkel and trump now have a very good relationship, same with theresa may. they say just wait six months,

you'll see. but if that's the case, that's a secret that angela merkel and theresa may -- >> so far the only secret we've been able to hold. >> exactly. >> by the way, we should go without saying. we have a good relationship with germany and britain. i hope so. now to the news that a member of the president's family who doubles as one of his closest advisers is being looked at by the fbi in its russia probe. multiple u.s. officials tell nbc news investigators believe jared kushner has significant information relevant to their inquiry. that does not mean they suspect him of a crime or they intend to charge him with anything. "the washington post" first reported last night a senior white house official close to trump was a person of interest but did not name the person. the official said kushner is in a different category from paul manafort and michael flynn who are formally considered subjects of the investigation. "the post" reports investigators are focusing on a series of

meetings held by kushner. in late 2016 kushner met with russian ambassador sergey kislyak. he also reportedly met in december with sergei gorokhov, the head of a bank the subject of u.s. sanctions following russia's 2014 annexation of crimea in support of separatists in eastern ukraine. nbc's peter alexander joins us from the white house, "the washington post" came out with their reporting immediately afterward. the co-author of the story, adam entis is also with us. good morning to you both. peter, just so it's clear to everyone watching, what exactly is jared kushner's role? what is the fbi looking at here. >> let's just clear about why this is striking. this is obviously one of the most powerful men in the country because he may be the closest adviser in this country to president trump and strikingly very few americans have heard his voice. the fbi certainly wants to hear

from him. as you reported, multiple u.s. officials are telling us he is now under fbi scrutiny, meaning they want to talk to him about significant information he may have, may be able to provide in their russia investigation. we are told he is not a target, he is not the focus on the probe in the way that individuals like paul manafort, the former campaign chair and former national security adviser michael flynn are right now. what we don't know specifically is what activities in particular the fbi is interested in speaking to him about. we have heard from the attorney jamie gore relic, for jared kushner, she gave us a statement. she said mr. kushner previously volunteered to share with congress what he knows about these meetings, referring to the russia meetings you were talking about. he will do the same if he's contacted in connection with any other inquiry. we've already reported to nbc that kushner volunteered to speak to the senate intelligence community in terms of their

investigation right now. for now, what's relevant, they want to talk to him and the story goes right to the door of the oval office, to one of the people who is closest to this president. >> i wonder, adam, if that's why the fbi actually wants to talk to him because he is at the center of everything. he took all the meetings. donald trump didn't have a secretary of state, so he was pretty much the acting secretary of state. so the guy had 50 meetings with saudis before going to saudi arabia. he had 50 meetings with the chinese. if anybody has information for the fbi, again, even though he's not a target, that would be the first person you'd want to talk to, right? >> there's no question. he is the point person that the president and at the time during the campaign and again during the transition, he was basically trump's point person dealing

with the russians. so it's very logical what was goings-on here was the phish and national security agency were listening to russian communications and hearing discussions about jared and mike flynn and others in trump's orb orbit. based on what they were getting from that intelligence and other intelligence and the secrecy with which these meetings were taking place, they obviously, according to our sources -- scrutinize is a very nice way to put it. they're investigating jared's participation in those meetings with the russians, trying to get to the bottom of what was discussed and how does it relate to anything else. you have to understand, with fbi investigations this starts with counterintelligence investigations. if they, as part of that, pick up information that's criminal in nature, such as related to business interests, that can

spin out of this. >> right. and if this goes somewhere with donald, with anybody, i'm sure they'll be looking at donald trump's 20, 30, 40-year relationship with russians, russian bankers, et cetera, et cetera. in this case, really quickly, i'm curious, there was a term it seems like the fbi made up here, person of interest. there's great ambiguity around that. i'm not sure why person of interest was used originally. you guys, though, have sorted through what that means. he's not a suspect, but it las to do with, again, just the information. why did the information put out that, quote, person of interest label on jared. seems like a deliberately ambiguous label? >> my understanding is it's not a term they put out. it's a term used occasionally to describe somebody who is not a target, which implies that the

investigation is further along. i think the best way for people to understand this is just to understand that the investigation is focusing on a relatively small number of people, and jared is the person in the white house who is now a focus of this investigation, and he's a current official, whereas the others are no longer current in the sense that mike flynn was fired as national security adviser, paul manafort was dismissed as campaign manager. >> heidi przybilla has a question. >> peter or adam, do we know how recent this actually is, that kushner has become a person of interest? it feels like based on what we've known for the past couple months, it would be clear they would want to take a look at him just based on the timing of the meetings. here he is meeting with kislyak, meeting with the head of one of the sanctioned banks after it

was already publicly known about wikileaks and about flynn and possibly discussing sanctions. how recent do you think this is? >> reporter: it's a great question. i can't say exactly how recently this is. we know bob mueller is going to try to get in there and sort this out as well. as adam said, it makes sense they'd want to speech with jared kushner, given his contact with the russians. in the 2016 he was one of the people running the data analytics operation as well. what is striking about those meetings with the russians, the one with sergei disyack taking place in december, after president trump had won. the white house says it would be normal and routine for meetings to take place like this during a transition period. these meetings were not initially made public. the secrecy about which those meetings took place and the way about which we learned of them, i think is added to the

scrutiny. it's notable jared kushner and his wife's van ka were with his father-in-law. they are now i'm told back in washington, d.c. as this immediately, very quickly turns from the white house wanting to focus on the overseas travel, try to get a win out of this foreign trip that you've been talking about pour the last several minutes. as soon as we get back after memorial day, it will be all-in as we get back to the russia investigation. >> peter alexander, thank you very much. "washington post's" adam en tus, thank you as well. former nato commander, retired admiral james tra individual dis. also retired ambassador nicholas burns and former press secretary to president george w. bush donald rumsfeld here onset. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. s was built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count.

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bottom line is tell me, let me get back to one question. why do you think the walton family needs a $52 billion tax break? >> you're basing that assertion on the only tax deal we have in the budget. >> the repeal of the estate tax. >> if you want to talk more about why we're doing that, i'd e be happy. >> let's do it. >> ordinary people are doing more. >> ordinary people don't have the wealth of $132 billion. you're not answering the question. answer the question. the wealthiest family in america gets a $52 billion tax break as a result of the repeal of the estate tax. tell the american people why you think that's good when you cut medicaid and programs for kids. >> we don't cut medicaid. we're talking about repealing obamacare. the results -- >> 23 million people with health

insurance. >> a cbo number that you just agreed could be wrong. >> i didn't go e to that at all. >> if he said -- did he say we don't cut medicaid? >> yes. >> that is just a lie. that's a cert find lie. you can debate the 23 million number, you really can. you can debate, maybe that's people who choose not to be -- i understand those arguments lt i disagree with them, but i understand them. but $850 billion is real. those are real cuts. why does he keep lying? why do the republicans keep looking into cameras and lie? who do they think is stupid enough that you can't read the numbers in the "wall street journal"? okay. maybe you call this fake news. you can't call this fake news if you're a conservative. it's very clear you're cutting $850 billion in medicaid for the

poorest of the poor. if you want to do it, embrace it. don't lie about it. stop lying about it. we know you're lying about it. we're not stupid, and you republicans in the house have been lying non-stop about what you're not going to cut and who is not going to lose health coverage. we're not dumb. i understand there has been a core sending of political culture. i understand that donald trump lies all the time. and you're thinking he got away with it, right, so you can get away with lying. you can't. this is like bill clinton. david geoff fen was right, he was an unusually good liar. bill clinton somehow survived being a liar and lying every day. hillary couldn't. you can't. stop with the course ening of political culture. you know what the meaning of "is" is. you know what $850 billion is,

so do not go to capitol hill and lie through your teeth every day. that's all i've got to say. it's so maddening. this is my party. my party is going straight to hell politically, they really are. they're going straight to hell. they have embraced the courseening of culture where the truth means absolutely nothing. conservative values mean absolutely nothing. our traditional allies that have stood by us shoulder to shoulder bleeding and dying, scaling the cliffs of normandy to free a continent, that means nothing to these people. they will embrace vladimir putin and russia if donald trump does. again, i know democrats don't like me saying this, but this guy was a democrat his entire life until we discovered birtherism in 2011. he gave money to chuck schumer

in 2010. why do you sell your soul, and not just your political soul, you are selling your soul if you just keep lying about things that you know are not true. >> joe, the president is the behavior-in-chief. that's where this starts. you have a guy that has made over 440 lies since he's been in office. he's setting the agenda. the scary thing about these numbers, if you're 64 and poor, you pay $1700 a year in premiums. you will go up to $13,000. somebody at home who is 64 and is not -- middle class or below, that's eight times the number. but yet if you ask them and confront them, the answer is no. the answer is they do assume the american public is stupid. that is the assumes. starting with donald trump, he sits across from every human being and says i'm smarter than you and i can say anything --

>> how ironic it is that he says that. what about the words of douglas macarthur, duty, honor, country? where does that fit in here? i'm not talking about ideology. be as conservative as you want. if you want to abolish medicaid, then just say you do and explain to us why, but just tell us the truth. stop lying and start remembering duty, honor, country. that is what should drive you, not some bizarre obsequious loyalty to donald trump. heidi, the republicans on the hill, they know how bad this is. they know they're headed towards a minority. they know they are lying for a man who will throw them under a bus in a second. yet they keep doing it. what do you hear on the hill?

>> they are just seeing how toxic this health bill, how toxic this budget is becoming. i went to so many news conferences across the hill on this budget, and they are starting to -- democrats paint this health care plan as essentially darwinian, as darwinian survival of the fittest and they can use these numbers from the cbo to back that up. for example, there's no doubt y, you can't argue with it, one in six people, the sickest people in our country, are going to have to pay way more for less for their health care coverage as a result of this. they are right, republicans are right that the reason why we may, people like us, pay less under their plan is because they're taking the poorest, the oldest and the sickest, and they're putting them into these pools and letting them fend for themselves. that is not insurance. that's not the concept of

insurance. insurance is risk management and spreading it all out knowing that in society, all of us at one point will be old and sick and maybe poor. but under this plan, the reason why they're right, that maybe the rest of us would pay less is because we're segmenting those people out, and now you have democrats across the capital like al franken calling this darwinian survival of the fittest health care. >> nick mulvaney yesterday, i think with ang gugs king was asked, it's your testimony that cuts to medicaid won't hurt elderly, disabled, children. he said yeah, i believe that's true, it won't. how can you cut $800 some million from medicaid and those people not hurt. he said well, i think there are efficiencies in the system that we're pushing out and it won't hit these people the way you say it will. my point is where are the republicans standing up to

donald trump when they see their party being lit on fire? what's the benefit of standing beside him when that happens? i was listening to mark sanford yesterday. he said 3% growth is a fantasy. we ought to say that out loud. that's a lie. it's not going to happen. it means this budget doesn't make any sense. he also talked about the incident with the guy in montana choking and body slamming the reporter. he said there's a weirdness out there when i see my friends and colleagues in the republican party coming out and defending this guy. this is the first amendment. we're supposed to be conservatives that defend the constitution. this is the first amendment. and the term he used as a republican is there's a weirdness out there in the way we're behaving. >> he also said this is very, very dangerous. mark sanford, if every republican would be talking like mark sanford right now, republicans would actually win the house next year. but instead, they're going to lose it because -- we'll give you an example. richard haass had this idea. he said this is such a bad bill

politically, why don't you mock-up 30-second ads. all the kids in the back that work for us, they're out in the street playing stick ball. hey, kids, uncle richard has an idea, they're jumping around the fire hydrant, they come up and drop their sticks. these kids are really good. they came up with this 30-second ad -- i said draw up an ad that will look like what we're going to see next year. this is what they came up with. >> i'm doing okay. i'm president. hey, i'm president. can you believe it. >> the republican health care plan, while they're laughing, 23 million americans lose their coverage. protection for pre-existing conditions gone, medicaid slashed and older americans hit especially hard. all to give huge tax cuts to the rich. another broken promise by politicians. >> i am going to take care of everybody. everybody is going to be taken

care of. >> donald trump's republican party, bad for your health. not an actual ad, but probably will be. >> how about those kids? >> i'm offering my services right now because the easiest job in the world will be -- we around this table could cut ten more like that. the visuals we talked several weeks ago with the 50 white guys behind trump is going to be the backdrop. it's stunning. >> what they did in the rose garden ceremony was one of the stupidest things i ever did politically. they also sent the message, we got this done. people at home are going to think you got rid of obamacare. by the way, people watching the show now that may be concerned, sitting there, just changed from "spongebob" saying why do you want to be so mean? i said the same thing about obamacare. i predicted obamacare would

cause democrats to lose in 2010. we're equal opportunity offenders. heidi? >> the one thing missing from that ad and i will wager to make a bet on this is that what the democrats are going to do is put the faces of real people out there. already this past week on the hill they were bringing up children with cancer. there's going to be so many stories like that out there of people who could lose their health care, people who literally will die if they get it taken away. >> it's going to be devastating, heidi. there's so many people, you not only can look at the medicaid part of this and look at our most disadvantaged americans that are going to be shoved into emergency rooms at 11:00 at night as their pry meyer care providers again which, by the way, conservatives cost us more money than having a health care system that is rational. what you're doing is stupid and shortsighted and will end up

costing us more in the end. but also, the cuts to the national institute of health, s alzheim alzheimer's research, cancer search, these budgets are as toxic as in i've seen. >> the thing is, they don't even get the conservative bounce out of this, the praise from the far right because it's kind of -- they're not even looking at the part of the budget where we would need to make the cuts. here is what's happening. if you look at the budget in terms of mandatory spending, the part of the budget that's growing out of control is medicare and social security. that is our debt to our elders and society, that we have to figure out a way to fix that. that's where most of the spending is going. what's happening is they're putting the entire burden on the so-called discretionary side. what is that? that is our investment in the

future. that's our investment in our roads, in our education of children, and all the things that we need to make our country successful going forward, our future. >> another thing mark sanford said, something the "wall street journal" said a couple days ago, stop with the cutting on discretionary spending, stop with the gutting of r&d and transportation and all the things we need to grow. you're going to have to look at the massive entitlement programs to figure out how to save them. okay. we've got to go. i'm under so much pressure, alex keeps yelling at me. go, willie. >> heidi, thank you very much, always good to see you. up next we'll bring in two men who know nato better than anyone, former commander james stavridis a

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we're getting breaking news, a deadly shooting this morning south of cairo, egypt. egypt's ministry of health confirms 24 dead and 27 wounded after gunmen opened fire on a

bus full of coptic christians, the bus was traveling to a monastery 140 miles south of the egyptian capital. no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. we'll bring you more details as we have it. >> richard, a grim situation for christians in the middle east and keeps getting more grim. >> probably between five to ten million coptic christians. i think what we're beginning to see is a beginning of exodus of christians through the middle east. they are targeted and don't feel safe. it not only reduces the nature of these societies, but these people have been central to economics and entrepreneurial behavior. this reminds me when the jews were forced to leave the middle east. this will be just as bad for the middle east. >> last sunday, two bombing at the christian churches in egypt. right now to former nato supreme allied commander, dean at tufts university, retired

four-star admiral james staph read disand former nato spokesman nicholas burns from the harvard kennedy school of government. gentlemen, good morning. >> good morning. >> admiral, let me start with you to assess the president's performance. what did you make of his tone and the way he spoke about our allies there? >> well, to make kind of a cheap pun, i guess you could say when push comes to shove, i thought the move, sort of knocking the monteneg montenegron nation out of the way to get to the front of the queue, woody allen said 90% of life is showing up. compared to where he was during the campaign, nato is obsolete, we're going to talk about getting out of it, vastly better. he actually did show up. but the tone, the style is just

not what we want to do in front of our best pool of partners in the world. i'll tell you, when i was a nato commander i signed sadly several thousand condolence notes to those killed in action in afghanistan. i signed hundreds and hundreds of those to europeans. we ought to have a better approach to them. they are contributing, we should get the 2% spending, but we ought to understand they are the best partners we'll ever have in the world. >> nick burns, fox news had a poll out that said something like 75% of americans did not think russia was our ally and yet about the same number thought that donald trump considered russia to be our ally. if that is the case, 64% of americans see russia as the enemy. only 28% as allies. 73% believe that trump sees russia as an ally. only 20% as an enemy. that is bizarre, a bizarre situation we find ourself in.

yesterday if trump does see vladimir putin as an ally that most americans think he does, yesterday was a very good day for donald trump's ally. >> this is the crux of the problem for europeans, they're focused on the russia threat. the president has had the weakest policy on russia than any president in 70 years. the your companies are concerned about that. as you know, any primary khan president would have gone to that summit and be seen as the leader of the west and would have rallied nato to stand up to russia, to keep the american and european sanctions on the russians and the president didn't do any of that yesterday and didn't reaffirm article 5, the collective defense agreement. he didn't act like the strong leader that ronald reagan was. the europeans are concerned

about this. most see angela merkel as the leader of the rest white now. she doesn't want that role. i was thinking this morning, is this the single -- >> what should we be doing to make it less tempting for vladimir putin to make it less tempting, what should we do to get him to back off there. what's your agenda. >> we can do that rotationally. we need to bring more battalions at play, more brigade combat

teams. we need to get into the baltic and black sea with further warship deployments and allies engaged in maritime exercises on both those fronts. we need to do better with the intelligence and sharing and, finally, we need a better cyber policy within the alliance. those are leadership roles in the military operational dimension that i think would be very effective for us. >> richard, i would just add to what was said. we can make these alliances to show putin that that article v line is a real line and do what jim and others have advocated, beef up the american armored presence in europe. we who will owed it out for the afghan and iraq wars. finally, there's something that the president needs to stand up and commit himself, and commit our country to the continued support of these european allies. it was striking. a lot of people noticed this.

striking how differential he was to arab autocrats he was and how disrespectful he was to prime minister markovich, to chancellor merkel of germany. that kind of leadership, respect for the democratic base of this alliance, the key to the whole enterprise. that's what truman and marshall understood. >> for people who are thinking that trump supporters -- oh, this is just the press -- eli stoekels, wall street journal at the white house just tweeted this. i just got this text from gop national security official, quote, had to apologize to a european defense right now. i'm sorry. he's an idiot, close quote. also, same source, european counterparts are not in a forgiving mood, especially with the russians set for a massive exercise in the baltics. >> there is only one

explanation. of course, i will challenge anybody to give me any other explanation of why trump behaves like this. and it is very simple. he is beholden to the russians. they have things on him. we know for a fact his sons, over the last six or seven years, talked about all the russian money coming in. when we start to peel this onion back, you'll see levels of business connections of ownership of the russians of donald trump. there's no other explanation. >> only thing i'll say on that is it's the old woodward and bernstein line. follow the money. he cowtails to autocrats in the philippines because he has massive property there. his sons have both said that most of their money comes from russia. i'm sure that the russians helped him out. >> it's a -- let me give you a few other -- not alternative but additional explanations. trade issue.

he continues to see the world through a distorted balance of trade. the other is sharing confidence. this administration is still not staffed up. you have people handling this trip who don't know the first thing, necessarily, about nato. the state department and the pentagon are still empty on the civilian sides. nick burns and admiral tsavides have been part of -- >> quick thoughts, final thoughts. admiral, i'll start with you. the dangers of an adversarial relationship between the united states and europe? >> enormous. and let's hasten to say we're not at an adversarial relationship but we're slipping. you feel that transatlantic bridge cracking in the wind. it would be an epic geopolitical mistake for the united states to walk away from this pool of partners, their trained soldiers, their ability to

operate with us and desire to sacrifice alongside us. best pool of partners we'll ever have. >> ambassador? >> europe is our largest trade partner, largest investor. this is our largest alliance. we have major disagreements on russia, climate change and trade. we've got to close those. this is a very important set of relationships for us. >> ambassador nicholas burns, retired admiral james tsavrides, thank you. >> bianna golydryga. "morning joe" is coming right back. or plan for tomorrow? at kpmg, we believe success requires both. with our broad range of services and industry expertise, kpmg can help you anticipate tomorrow and deliver today.

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he had what turned out to be maybe his most controversial handshake this morning. >> congratulations. >> thank you very much. >> let's slow that down so we can really examine it, get into all the details. now, they locked hands for so long, their knuckles actually turned white. trump tries to get -- tries to wiggle out of it, but macron held on, which i think we just surrendered to france. >> welcome back to "morning joe." it's friday, may 26th. donny deutsch is still with us.

finance anchor at yahoo! bianna go goldryga. >> remember that handshake on "superman"? >> yes. >> unbelievable moment. you could hear the crunching. donald trump has this history, bianna, of these weird handshakes. he tried to yank gorsuch his way and gorsuch was like, no, i'm going to stand right here. it's really gross and repulsive. it's like he yanks people to him. it's just -- and he did it yesterday and he's shoving people out of the way. show the slow mo of him shoving our newest nato ally out of the way as he's walking up. he pushes the guy out of the way. here. now look at this move.

>> with the suit. oh, it's great to be in nato. what? oh, okay. >> that's what vladimir putin would have liked to have done. >> who does that? >> and then when he met with macron, the handshake was just he yanked him at him. i thought he was going to rip his arm off "the wall street journal" even as trump and macron's handshake grabs the spotlight in brussels and then you have him also attacking germany. >> angela merkel is like, hey, i didn't even need a handshake. having seen all this, it's probably better we didn't shake hands. >> the winner yesterday, vladimir putin, by a landslide. >> by far. the body language. i've never seen, given all the photos we've seen of this president so far, i've never seen him happier or more at home than the picture of the two sergeys in the oval office. >> yeah. >> that seemed to be the most jovial, at ease president trump

thus far. >> look at the split there. he was jovial, happy, beaming, through the entire russian meeting. we didn't have to pick a frame. the whole time he was smiling like a dupe for putin. and then merkel, our most important ally right now, most critical economic ally now, the center of europe right now, he won't even shake her hand. she has to whisper, do you want to shake hands? and he ignores her. >> joe, i'll reiterate the words you summed up. follow the money. the money is in the top half of that frame not the bottom half of that frame. >> by the way, vladimir putin smiles more in photos with european leaders than president trump did yesterday. >> he was happy in saudi arabia. you said he was probably happiest in russia. sawed a arabia trip where he was feeded the way he was, they projected his face on to the side of his hotel. >> he was embracing their human rights. >> he was very happy there.

as joe said earlier, he seems very happy around autocrats and people like the leaders of saudi arabia where there are no right zpls take a look at that scowl. >> contrary to the hopes of some nato members, president trump stopped short of endorsing article v, the attack on one ally in nato is an attack on all of them, after he referenced that in regard to 9/11 but did take the allies to task for not paying their fair share. >> our nato allies responded swiftly and decisively, invoking for the first time in its history the article v collective defense commitments. the recent attack on manchester in the united kingdom demonstrates the depths of the evil we face with terrorism. all people who cherish life must unite in finding, exposing and

removing these killers and extremists and, yes, losers. they are losers. i have been very, very direct with secretary staltenberg and members of the alliance in saying that nato members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations. 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense. this is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the united states and i never asked once what the new nato headquarters cost. >> bob costa, obviously, our european allies were not

thrilled with his performance yesterday, in a speech not committing to article v. what was the reaction inside the white house? were they happy with the way the day went? >> they know that the president has not embraced western institutions for his entire political life. he has not embraced nato. he has not formed tight bonds with the uk and france in the same way that previous presidents had. of course, he's friendly with them in the way that the u.s. has always been. i think this trip has been striking because there's a realignment in how the u.s. thinks about the world and how he approaches not only countries in the middle east but those in the west. >> and do you think -- what's the motivation behind the posture he took yesterday? donny has his thoughts about why. he seems more comfortable sitting in the oval office with russian leaders, seems comfortable in saudi arabia, but not around angela merkel, theresa may or macron now.

what's behind that, bob? >> i think partly eagerness to move away from having these broader relationships with institutions and to have bilateral relationships. you see that push from the administration on trade. now you're seeing it applied to other policies as well. he's just not someone who comes out of the traditional foreign policy establishment in the world, in the way we think about nato, in the united nations, in different projects. trump does not think of those things at all in the way that most american politicians do in, actually, the democratic and republican party. >> bianna, it was almost like he was running a new york real estate deal. if you don't put in your 2%, there's no deal. we're talking about nato, not a russian new york skyscraper. >> right. 23 of those countries had started contributing even more. they made a pact to start contributing in 2014. as bob said, this president and vladimir putin share a common

interest in that they prefer bilateral deals over multilateral deals. you can't help but wonder how much of this is still hurt feelings from the election. it's no secret that most of these european leaders supported hillary clinton and didn't have the kindest of words for donald trump throughout the campaign. >> that's true. i'm not sure, based on my reporting, how deep those feelings go in terms of the president's ire at western european leaders. certainly he does not have a friendship with them that's deep. he's not trying to fake it at all. if you look at the end of the campaign, bianna, you're so right. he ran on this populist, hard-edge message that turned off some of the political class not only here in the united states but abroad. this is someone coming in as a disruptive force to the global political consensus. >> also yesterday, trump administration official says the white house is, quote, looking at changes to u.s. sanctions on russia. national economic council director gary cohn made the

remark en route to cicely yesterday. when asked about the administration's position on russian sanctions, cohn said, quote, i think the president is looking at it. right now we don't have the position, adding the president has many options. >> i don't know how many options. bob costa, he doesn't have any options when it comes to lifting russian sanctions. john mccain and others in the senate have said they'll codify it if the president makes a move that way. what was cohn talking about yesterday? >> cohn was doing what most advisers do. the president doesn't have a firm position on these hot button issues and don't want to stake out a position he's not comfortable with. they leave it vague. they're not saying he's ruling it out or moving forward with it. the white house -- i was there last night. they're quite sensitive when it comes to u.s./russia policy with jared kushner, the senior

adviser, now being reported as someone who is a person of interest in the russian probe. other people in the white house are somewhat alarmed the way this special counsel is moving forward at a rapid pace. the idea that they're going to move ahead on sanctions amid this cloud of the russian investigation, i don't see that happening just yet. >> you know, he had so many options yesterday, bob, with the russian investigation going full steam, it just seems strange, his behavior yesterday. you would think that he would get out front, talking about article v, talking about how nato has been a stalwart against russian aggression. were you surprised? >> no. when you think about this white house and this president, remember that steven miller, who you talked about a lot, joe, former aide to jeff sessions, the attorney general, and steve bannon, in spite of their up and downs with the administration, remain the voice and message

driver of this president. they're the people, more than anyone, i'm told, who are shaping the speeches, shaping how the foreign policy is articulated. yes, you have mcmaster and gary cohn and others not seen as hard liners close to the president. when it comes to these speeches in steven miller, his fingerprints are over these texts, not others. >> so while the president is overseas, today at the g7 in italy. back here in the states, early night in montana as greg gianforte cruised to victory. it comes a day after he was charged for assaulting a reporter from the guardian newspaper. during his victory speech, gianforte apologized to the reporter, ben jacobs, saying life is made of hard work and hard lessons and he got one of his own wednesday night. let's bring in msnbc correspondent garrick hake. good morning. what was the margin out there?

>> reporter: thanks. last time we checked, they're still counting votes. slow-counting state. weird vibe in the room last night. gianforte's supporters were almost inspired by this altercation from a day and a half ago. republican groups who were affiliated with the campaign told me that they found people really like this had idea that he was a fighter. and their initial statement sort of doubled down on that, blaming this incident on a reporter. last night when gianforte came out to make his victory speech and his tone turned to contrition, people in the room were surprised when he gave this fairly long apology right in the middle of his victory speech. take a listen. >> when you make a mistake, you have to own up to it. that's the montana way. last night, i made a mistake. and i took an action that i can't take back.

and i'm not proud of what happened. i should not have responded in the way that i did. and for that, i'm sorry. i should not have treated that reporter that way and, for that, i'm sorry, mr. ben jacobs. that's not the person that i am and it's not the way i'll lead in this state. rest assured, our work is just beginning, but it does begin with me taking responsibility for my own actions. >> reporter: we heard republicans yesterday, including paul ryan, that gianforte should apologize. that speech probably takes some of the political pressure off him to do more. this is still an open legal issue here in montana.

gianforte has to appear in open court by june 7th. he's going to show up in a county courthouse to deal with that assault charge. willie? >> garrett haake in montana. thank you so much. >> i want to go to donny here, the expert in apologies, probably had to give more than any at the table combined. >> yes. >> one of the ten commandments. but anyway, go ahead. what do you make of the apology and also people in the audience? it's amazing. >> two things interesting, going back to your earlier, passionate thing about lying. his spokesperson came out after that and weaved a completely, completely false tale. >> a line. >> where there was a fox news reporter in the room who said that's not -- just an out and out lie. the next day, there's the lie. the scary thing is what was felt

in that room to garrett's point, a lot of his supporters liked that. i am going to say it again. it starts at the top. bullying behavior is now not only tolerated but, in a big part of this country, applauded. more than anything, the tone that this president sets for how we behave and now he has one of his minions -- literally. visualize in your head, this reporter came up, asked about a cbo score. threw him to the ground. >> and punched him while he was on the ground. >> punched him in the face, broke his glasses. he gets elected. people say amen. there's still a big part of this country -- it's not in this room as we sit here as elites -- i guess new definition of elite is someone who doesn't believe in smashing someone's face in. >> these people have children, right? they have children. do they want their children -- when somebody asks them, hey, what do you get for number three

on the math test? basically that's what the question was about. they want them to throw them to the ground and smash their face in? >> we got an e-mail from a mutual friend of ours who lives in montana who basically said you're getting this story wrong. a lot of people in montana will say, you're damn right. this pencil neck reporter came from new york, washington, d.c., wherever he came from, got in his face and stood up for them. he wasn't advocating whatsoever but he said i'm going to tell you what happened. and it did. that's the way it played out last night. what's your general sense, bob costa, from those on capitol hill that you cover about gichlt anforte coming to washington? >> i want to build up on what donny was saying. think about what mark sanford, south carolina congressman said yesterday. president trump has released the demons within his party, within some of the country in terms of people feeling women comed to be

more gres nif public. the big picture for me when i talk to lawmakers this is not just a gianforte issue for the republican party. in georgia, in the special election there, karen handle is facing constant questions about president trump's conduct and his behavior and, of course, in montana, gianforte putting his hands on the neck of a reporter. if, for a party that for so long fought battles with democrats on intellectual grounds, policy grounds, now it is, ahead of 2018, really becoming about character, conduct, complicity. these are the issues dogging the gop in the trump era. >> you know we tried to stay away from other networks. we don't talk. we just don't talk about other networks here. >> cartoon network, we do. >> well, yeah, cartoon network, and showtime and netflix but not

other news networks. we don't talk about our competitors because, you know, it's just kind of gross. and we're supposed to be talking about things that are bigger than that. but, bob costa, you touched on something that requires us to talk about somebody at another network. this is a party that, when it was in the wilderness in the 1970s, got its best and brightest together and they created heritage foundation. you had people like bill bennett. you had people like jack kemp. you had people that were pushing to make conservatism what bill buckley wanted conservatism to be when he started the national review in the 1950s. now we are reduced to fake news and sean hannity ripping the hearts out of parents for their

son, their young, gifted son who was shot in the back and trying to twist that into something that somehow helps donald trump. it's gross and it's repulsive. and it's also something that i know about personally a good deal because i've had liberals on the far left, extremists doing this to me for 20 years on a story that brought immeasurable pain to another family. but for this to be where conservatism has sunk, bob, is really unbelievable. and it explains a lot of the republican party's problem right now. >> well, there's a lot to unpack there. i think -- i don't like to indulge in conspiracy theory. what you're referencing to sean hannity's coverage of conspiracy theory of a murdered former

democratic national adviser for being some kind of -- let's leave it alone. >> right. >> that has been covered on fox news. and it has angered the family. and it is something that, you're right, there are elements right now of the right in this country, the political right who they do have people like paul ryan, the house speaker, and others elected who don't associate themselves with conspiracy theories but there are more mainstream voices like mr. hannity who have covered these kinds of things. >> and yesterday, bianna -- thank god conservatives like jenna goldberg, john pedoritz, others like that, who have spoken out against yesterday. other conservative thought leaders in the past, they're no longer conservative, who were actually applauding a reporter

being beaten up, are mocking the reporter that was beaten up. >> calling him a wuss. >> calling him a wuss. i'm talking about people who used to be conservative thought leaders, significant voices who have now sunk to the lowest depths of actually defending an assault against a reporter because he asked a question. not about their children. not about a personal scandal. not even about finances. about a congressional budget office score. >> compare this to the reaction from the corporate world, right? compare this to the united scandal where a passenger was roughed up and the ceo equally tone deaf in his initial statement saying he stood by his employees and they did the right thing. you saw huge reaction. shareholders outraged. the stock price taking a huge dip. everybody in america really outraged by that scandal. and then them coming out and offering a sincere apology.

maybe because it was the day before an election, this person is rewarded by being elected. >> i want to go back to the hannity thing. i could speak a little freer because i don't have a show on the network. it was despicable what he did. it mirrors another time where there was a person who had zero empathy to another family who lost a child. we all know what happened with president trump and the gold star family. it's the same thing with hannity and trump. at he will stoop to, to continue hisozy relationship with trump. it'sdisgusting. the way he has behaved is disgusting. >> all you need to do is read what the family said and how broken hearted the family is. i don't know who would -- i just don't know who would do that. i really don't know what type of person -- they pleaded for weeks. what type of person does that?

i mean, no -- i'll tell you what. a person that has no shame and no core. >> it's despicable. >> and no core. unfortunately it's where too many of these people who claim to be conservatives are in 2017. so, bob costa, i don't -- you have no reason to know this. but every friday night, willie and i do the same thing. go to holiday inn over on 57th and 11th. cartons of cigarettes and we just smoke. >> yes. >> only time we smoke but like -- we go through the whole carton. >> waiver on the no smoking thing. >> what else are you going to do? this is like old-time washington. you see bob costa take control of the airwaves. it's like merl in on done. no, costa in washington. 8:00 pm tonight, washington week. you're doing it. willie and i are loving it at

the holiday inn. beckham -- sometimes beckham comes in and takes half the carton and we watch it together. wh are we ing to see tonight? >> we'll have great reporters around the table and peter baker, from "the new york times," back from the foreign trip. we'll talk about that foreign trip and also what the white house is going to do legally, politically, to deal with these new questions about russia and about how they've handled it, and the special counsel. try to put it all together in half an hour and have a candid reporting based conversation. >> willie? >> another big night. >> it will be another big night for us. >> raw steaks soaked in scotch. >> i'll bring the slim jims. >> no, you can't come in. it's a pretty small group. >> that's scotch marinade for our steak is amazing. we'll be watching tonight, we swear. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> still ahead the president reportedly calls germany, quote, very, very bad, even threatening to stop german car exports to

the u.s. we'll have the clarification just issued from the trump administration. plus, live to manchester, england, as police continue raids there, the wake of a terror attack at an ariana grande concert. ♪ ♪

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in connection to the manchester terror attack. officials announced the new search in mercy side county this morning after officers carry out raids in southern manchester yesterday. meanwhile, secretary of state rex tillerson is in the u can k this morning, offering condolences for monday's attack on behalf of the united states. bill neely. good morning. what are you hearing as police search for possible come polices there? >> good morning, willie. more raids this morning. one more arrest. police are calling them all significant. eight men now in custody and being questioned about being possible accomplices.

police are now once again sharing information with u.s. intelligence after that row over leaked photographs. meanwhile here, the emotions still pretty raw. this carpet of flowers just getting bigger every day. but the fears here, too, are very real. >> it's an unrelenting manhunt. a race to stop another attack. more raids this morning. one more arrest and for the first time in britain, armed police patroling trains ahead of a holiday weekend. the threat level a its highest. hospitals warned to prepare for another attack. the bomber is dead. this, the first video of the killer film bid neighbors outside his home. but he had accomplices and reports suggest enough chemicals to make more bombs. his victims have now all been identified. so many, so young. so many dreams that died in an instant. 15-year-old megan hurley, the

last to be named. this was a biker's memorial for their hometown girl who never made it home. 15-year-old olivia campbell's mother overcome by tears, surrounded by love. one tiny english village remembered their two girls who died in the bombing. little safi rose and georgina calendar. two other girls who survived that night lost in their embrace. a country standing still and still shocked by the killing of the young. they are still remembered here. rex tillerson in the past few minutes has been paying his own tribute here in britain, standing still, alongside the british foreign secretary boris johnson, signing a book of condolence. just a few small gestures, just like the flowers here, gestures

of sympathy and solidarity. willie? >> to see those young faces, 8 years old, 14, 15, it's just gut wrenching. bill neely in manchester, england, for us. thank you so much. the president running out of lifelines to save one of his signature national security policies, the controversial travel ban. we'll break down the administration's remaining legal opgs after another defeat yesterday in the courts. that's next on "morning joe." safety isn't a list of boxes to check. it's taking the best technologies out there and adapting them to work for you. the ultrasound that can see inside patients, can also detect early signs of corrosion at our refineries. high-tech military cameras that see through walls, can inspect our pipelines to prevent leaks. remote-controlled aircraft, can help us identify potential problems and stop them in their tracks. at bp, safety is never being satisfied.

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general jeff sessions says the trump administration now llsk the supreme court to overturn the block on the president's travel ban after an appeals court in virginia voted 10-3 to uphold the ruling from a federal judge who declared the ban unconstitutional. the order, quote, speaks with vague words of national security but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination. the attorney general now vows

to, quote, vigorously defend our duty of the executive branch. chief legal correspondent ari melber and in washington, law professor at george washington university, jonathan terley. professor, i'll start with you, if i could. what's your reaction to the ruling and the way it was written yesterday? >> it's a stinging defeat. i don't actually agree with what the court did. they took a case called mandel from 1972 and twisted it in a way that i would be surprised if the justices themselves didn't find that troubling. that case said that you should, in fact, look at the face of these types of orders. you should avoid going deeply into things like campaign statements. they went all in. and what sort of resonates from this is that they view trump, not terrorism, as the clear and present danger that they were concerned with here. they used his statements repeatedly. and this is a case where the

department of justice did a much better job defending the second order but the other side would wheel in donald trump like hanibal lechter in a courtroom. they would pull out these clips of trump who became the greatest liability of the government. >> the defense has been yes, they are muslim majority but 33 other muslim majority countries we leave alone. this is not a religious ban, targeted national security ban. what did the court say about that yesterday? >> that's the detailed defense. broader defense is one that's recognizable from politics. should you take donald trump seriously or literally? and what was so fascinating in these arguments is that the swrus department basically saying, don't believe him. he didn't really mean it about the muslims. that's all over. >> i'm sorry. i don't mean to interrupt here but he's changed his position on that so many times. and i hear people going back to what he said in december of 2015. and, yes, we said it was

abhorrent. but look at what is in this ban is now reduced to six countries. you can't go back. it's not like figuring out the intent of a lenlsilation. you can't go back and cherry pick what a guy said in december of 2015 to try to take power away from him as executive. if he said different things from 2015 forward. far be it from me to defd this guy right now -- >> sure, i know. >> but this is preposterous. we need to call it out when there are political ramifications to these. the next democratic president will hate. >> one thing you said you didn't mean to interrupt but this is "morning joe." as a matter of procedure, i don't think you can interrupt on the show that you host. >> there you go. >> number two, i think you're articulating exactly what the oj is going to continue to argue at

the supreme court. it was interesting to see these judges go back to the campaign statements. joe, to your point, there is a lot of doctrine that supports that presidents can change their mind and they're not bound to things they say on the campaign trail. you have two federal appeal courts who looked back to the campaign statements as a context saying that makes these six countries -- the ban never says the word "muslim" anywhere in it. while not on its face doing t t that, they say they read that as animus, as a context. >> jonathan, listen, there are so many things to talk about here. first of all, barack obama would be horrified, having the courts take -- stop him from doing this as he was, obviously, when they cherry picked, found a judge out of dallas to stop him on his immigration executive order. but here you have something that is clearly within the

president's purview, clearly within his authority. the statute gives him almost unlimited authority in this one section. >> right. >> to figure out how to protect our borders, to figure out what to do with immigration. and i just want to ask you, again, it's speculation, but i've been noticing it. i've talked to some conservative federal judges, conservative federal judges who were just as angered by trump's statements about federal judges, so-called federal judges and their authority, questioning their authorities, just as angry as liberal federal judges. and i just wonder whether this guy is ever going to get the benefit of any doubt, moving forward, from federal judges who he has been openly hostile to. >> i think that's a legitimate

question. you know, the federal courts have a long tradition of being unbiased. they do a pretty good job in trying to separate themselves from their own personal feelings but they've never faced a president who has been so aggressive in denouncing individual judges. i don't -- honestly, i'm mystified by this decision. i don't understand how you could twist mandel like this even moderate and liberal members of the supreme court would have equal trouble. i'm not sure where you go from here. if you can include political statements going back years and pick the ones you want -- >> pick the ones you want. ignore the ones you don't want. again, this isn't a court trying to figure out what the intent of legislation was by going to committees and listening to testimony. they're cherry picking what he says on the campaign trail when the guy contradicts himself five or six times after that.

jonathan, if this isn't a 6-3 at the supreme court in e president's favor, i would just shocked. >> a lot of those justices have, in fact, taken the position of mandel in the past. they will have to shed a lot of precedential baggage in order to get where the circuit is going. fourth circuit is viewed as a conservative circuit, the most differential circuit on national security issues. so, this is a shot that came out of nowhere for the administration. they really fast tracked the fourth circuit because they thought they would be singing to the choir on this one. >> it really is unbelievable. he is getting hammered by judge s on islands in the pacific -- it's called 50th state, by the way. >> they got statehood? >> they got statehood. don't tell jeff sessions that. a lot of these judges, not only appointed by republicans but

look what they're not doing on voter incht d. laws out of north carolina. i'm telling you, he has lost every single significant case there. and i'm not so sure they're looking for any chance they can to push back against a president that does not respect judicial authority. >> and professor terley believes the law is still on trump's side on this. do you believe that, too, when it hits the supreme court? >> there's no doubt that it gives the present's huge immigration powers, broad and often powerful. this is one of those cases where the ban is somewhat unusual so it's hard to predict what the supreme court would do. immigration only second to the war-making power as the apex of presidential authority. >> jonathan, stick with us. we want to talk about jared kushner in a minute. did democrats help derail joe lieberman's chances of becoming the next fbi director? we'll play through what he

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ias disappointed. when i stepped back from it, i wasn't surprised. everything is so partisan in washington. there's still a group on the far left of the democratic party that still doesn't forgive me. >> that's former senator joe lieberman, explaining to nicolle wallace why some democrats oppose the notion of his becoming the next fbi director. he withdrew his name, citing the appearance of a conflict of interest after the president retained a senior partner from lieberman's same law firm as his personal attorney in the russia investigation. >> just one side note. every fbi person i've talked to, every friend of mine that has contacts in the fbi, the entire community says the same thing. do not pick a political person. i love joe lieberman, but lieberman didn't need to be it. love jon cornyn. he was good to take himself out there have. they have to have an fbi professional. trump will make his life so much

more difficult if they pick a political person. >> good for lieberman for taking himself out. it wasn't the white house that did it. because that have conflict of interest. now to the to the news that kushner is being looked at by the fbi. multiple officials believe kushner has significant information relevant to their inquiry. that does nt mean they suspect him of a crime or even intend to charge him. "the washington post" reported that a senior -- said kushner is in a different category from manafort and paul flynn. what does this mean exactly? he's the subject of an inquiry by the fbi? they're not looking at him as a suspect, so what does it mean? >> in this scenario it sounds like he has significant information about the issues under scrutiny, the links to russia and the potential financial transactions. we don't know how linked those

two different buckets are. in federal parlance there is no statutory defined term person of interest. we hear it a lot. the real categories are witness, which means you saw something, subject, which means you're involved, or target, which means that an investigation is at a real far pace and has decided that they are about to charge you. this is somewhere between witness and subject. >> so professor, should it come as any surprise that in this broad investigation at some point will want to talk to jared kushner? >> no, i don't. but it does raise a complication for particularly the white house counsel. he was privy to conversations with the president. he probably did convey information to the president from these meetings. that gets into very sensitive areas. the white house has obviously been uneasy with the appointment of mueller which they did not view as a neutral selection.

mueller shares some pretty deep history and values with comey in comparison he shares about as much in common with trump as a hot and to tt. they are very different. i think the white house views this selection as somewhat hostile. to have this follow that i think raises alarms. but legally it's going to get very difficult for the white house when you start to interview people that were privy to these types of con fidential communications. there are legitimate privileges that can be raised by the white house, but it means that the white house counsel is going to get involved in those privileges. >> i don't think mueller is hostile in any way. they might view a lot of questions being asked as problem m -- >> he considered comey to be hostile. that's how he -- that's how he defines hostile. >> and that is instructive.

>> and that is his problem. >> and quick question. earlier in the year jared said that he would in fact testify. he volunteered to do so. given what we now know, what are the odds that he will? >> i'd say the odds are much lower and that's for good reason. to be fair to anyone involved in an inquiry, as soon as you find out there are criminal aspects, even if they're just witness interviews, you're likely to give interviews in other settings. ultimately they'll keep that open. the kushners wanted to show receptive, but it would be reasonable to hold back and say we'll go to the fbi first if they come to us. final piece of news, the kushner attorneys saying they haven't been contacted yet. >> which is really strange. he was willing to testify in front of the senate. made that very public. willing to testify in front of the senate. willing to talk to anybody. and they haven't contacted him. but it's leaked out.

i mean, i don't know -- i'd be a little pissed off. saying i'm going to talk to you guys. you know my phone number but you leak it to "the washington post" to make me look bad when i said i want to talk to you. so anyway. this makes it so much tougher inside the white hse. who's talking to the feds? >> right. it really is looking at everybody. >> they've always thought the leaks were the real story. not actually what was leaked. thank you both. still ahead this morning, if you're scoring at home, president trump gives the leaders of turkey and russia high marks. england and germany, not so much. the president has staked out some unusual alliances. we'll go live to italy where g7 leaders are meeting right now. also joining the conversation, two time defense secretary and former u.s. ambassador to nato donald rumsfeld. "morning joe" is back in a moment.

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then there are moments it become♪ clear, together always was, and always will be, a better way. ♪ . we are not here to lecture. we are not here to tell other people how to live. what to do. i have been very, very direc in saying that nato members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial

obligations. >> instead we are here to offer partnership based on shared interests and values. >> but 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense. >> i also promise that america will not seek to impose hour way of life on others. >> this is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the united states. >> i stand before you as a representative of the american people. >> it was the best of times. he was the worst of times. hey, good morning, y'all. how y'all doing? it's friday. it's good to be here. president trump, he kind of struck a really different tone on sunday when he was in saudi arabia and actually he even, when he was in isreal, compared

to how he actually talks to our allies in europe. the president's america first policy was on full display. look at this. man handling the leader of mont na montenegro. look at this. >> gives a whole new meaning to america first. >> that is the -- that is what some in europe would call the ugly american. that sort of action. and then he ripped off the poor president of france. he's a young guy, macron. he tore his arm off. >> he pulls you. that's his move. >> he tried it on gorsuch. gorsuch was no, i'm going to stay right here. welcome to "morning joe." friday, may 26th. donny is with us along with author of the book "world in

disarray" haas and senior reporter. heidi, do you want it to be the "morning joe" pronounceistino. >> heidi here in washington, d.c. >> it's not quite that bad. i've got to defend him a little. >> of course it's not that bad. you exaggerate to make it work. ahead we're going to go life to montana where the guy who beat up a reporter for asking him about budget score actually won that state's congressional seat a day after he won that state. we'll play you his apology score and we'll see if he beat the hell out of anybody else. >> you never want to issue an

apology at a vit ctory celebration. >> the best body slam from jimmy super fly snuka. >> it's not like the guy was sticking a mic in his face going i understand you have got a m s misstress in des moines. it was like hey, i'm curious, the budget office scored the health care plan. >> not again. you guys do this all the time. >> all right. richard, really quickly, we're going to get news. we're going to read the news. before we actually read it, what was your take away? we showed clips of how he was in saudi arabia versus how he was with the democratic leaders of europe. what was your take away yesterday? >> saudi arabia, if anything, he was too solicitious.

you would have thought they had nothing to do with groups like al qaeda. he then goes to europe which with our allies and he berates this them. we differ on trade. we differ on russia. we differ on refugees. it was low hanging fruit yesterday. it really was low hanging fruit to reassure, to send the message that an attack on one was an attack on all and he didn't do it. what this does, it signals that what used to be unconditional is now conditional. this means america will have more influence. this sets in motion history, joe. we're messing with the part of the world that for 70 years has been uncharacteristically stable. think about the difference between the last 70 years and the first half of the 20th century. we had two world wars. europe has been stable because the united states has been there unconditionally. we're going to see europeans

begin to move away -- >> and when we have needed since 1945, when we have needed to go somewhere to a group of allies in a crunch, we've gone to europe. >> let me say it's not that we're there for the allies as a favor. we're there for them as a favor to ourselves. their stable and their security is an american national interest. and that concept seems totally missing here. >> it just does not seem to understand we're not doing what we're doing for them. we're doing what we're doing to pro te protect this country. jim mattis, you can look back through history, countries that have great allies across the globe are countries that thrive. countries that are isolated are countries that collapse. well, we need as many allies as we can possibly have, especially now. it seems the only ally donald trump is interested in outside of saudi arabia is russia. >> he knows steven miller wrote that speech yesterday. he wrote the nato speech.

he's also the author of the travel ban, trump's foreign policy adviser. he has said over and over again that nato is obsolete. so where did donald trump get the idea? he doesn't study nato. he got it from steven miller. that is miller's world view coming through on the world stage. it was one thing to say on the campaign trail, but now as the leaders are standing there. to make that speech and give that campaign style comments in the presence of the leaders on that stage when he had a chance to be presidential and explain yes, we are committed, would we like you to pay more money? sure. >> by the way, 20 little girls got blown up going to a concert in europe earlier this week. that terrorism could have, you know, been the center of it. >> yeah. >> not the 2%. by the way, i agree with him. i cldn't agr with himore. barney frank and i, the one thing barney frank and i always

agreed on when we were on the floor of congress and afterwards was that we shouldn't carry europe on our back. they should pay their 2%. they should carry their load. they don't get to escape from history. okay? so i agree with that. but that -- but do not call them out when you have the entire world watching and of course most importantly vladimir putin is watching. it seemed like yesterday was his love note to vladimir putin. it really did. bio by first of all attacking the allies and then not moving forward and doing what we've always done and defend any country that was attacked. >> that was the stunning part. to your point, to say look, we've got to even the score dollars wise, but to just not go near article five, to not send that signal to both our allies and the rest of the world, you

kind of strategic go what's the logic. there's this twisted logic. >> actually, i will say in most, and richard, you probably agree with me here, so much of the time donald is just shooting his mouth off. he shoots his mouth off in complete and total ignorance because he's never done this before. he's never been interested in doing this before. he's never been interested in our history, in our constitution, our hair teritage the civil order. but i will tell you this is a motivator of him. he is an isolationist. he doesn't believe the united states should defend our allies if they are attacked by russia. >> i actually think it's a larger issue with him. he looks at everything we do in the world and puts it in business terms, our return on investment isn't big enough. we do so much in the world, it

costs us too much. if you go back that the inaugural speech, and then he seems to say we're doing nothing for it. we're getting screwed by allies over trade. >> there you have donny on top. then you have lavrov who as john mccain said is an old kgb ststo, and then you have the most important democratic leader on the planet outside the president of the united states and he won't even shake her hand. >> yeah. >> not right. not good. what is he trying to get at here? >> two points. to pick up on richard, you've used the term and i love this term trump is a day trader. sometimes trump can only see an inch in front of his nose. as a guy who looks at a balance sheet, we're contributing this,

the rest are contributing this versus three steps out of that, what does that mean. this is why that is. he can only look at the one balance sheet. the second int and i keep coming back. there's on one explanation for all of this and it's all the other stuff that his ally, that his brethren, that his butter, his cake is being buttered somehow with the russians. >> everything that happens, because i've said on this show, from everybody i've talked to in the intel community, everything i've heard, there is no, right now, there may be later, but there is no direct evidence of collusion between russia and trump. that said, everything that happened yesterday, richard, feeds into the suspicion that there is. or that putin has something on donald trump. yesterday was bizarre by any

post 1945 diplomatic stand. it was bizarre. to be that hostile towards america's greatest allies on the planet since 1945 versus his treatment of vladimir putin. >> no argument. yesterday was another good day for vladimir putin when he see this is kind of disarray in the western alliance. i will say one other thing. donald trump has shown a consistent pattern of cozying up to strong men. erdogan of turkey. the videos of his thugs beating occupy people using their first amendment rights. you have duterte, the president of the philippines who is a self pro fessed killer being treated positively. there's something else going on. and he goes to the middle east and he embraces these guys, none of them who have political rights in their country and he goes to europe, which is the most free democratic part of the world and you have suddenly this chill in the air. >> still ahead on "morning joe",

you can't get much closer to donald trump than jared kushner. the top adviedsser and son-in-l. peter alexander joins us next. plus nbc hallie jackson is in italy covering the g7. first a look at the weekend forecast. >> let's dive right into it. first of off the storm still plaguing new england. rien will lighten up throughout the day. one million people at risk with a storm, kansas and areas east of denver. this could be interesting. unfortunately possibly damaging. hopefully won't be deadly. 51 million people under a threat on saturday. that's the area of greatest concern. as far as tornadoes go, if we get them form, they would likely form in southeast kansas,

oklahoma and spread it to missouri. still watching the athlete through the ohio valley special into big cities, dallas, austin. we'll be tracking those storms over the weekend. wrap up of the memorial day forecast. big cities looking decent in the east on saturday and sunday including boston and all of new england. monday is the day chance of some storms. washington, d.c., storms on saturday. you get a decent day sunday then on monday the storms could return. memorial day weekend in atlanta. a threat. dallas actually looking decent here sunday and monday. could be a few storms to the east of you. we'll take a look at the midwest. chicago stormy weather for you on monday. not exactly beach weather. little chillier than we'd like. looking at capitol hill, it seems like it rains about every other day. that will continue through the upcoming weekend. ♪

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mistre . now is being looked at by the fbi in the russia probe. multiple officials tell nbc news investigators believe jared kushner has significant information relevant to their inquiry. that does not mean they suspect him of a crime or that they intend to charge him with anything. "the washington post" first reported that a senior white house official close to trump was a person of interest but did not name the person. the official said kushner is in a different category from paul manafort and michael flynn who are considered subjects of the investigation. the post reports investigators are focuses on a series of meetings held by kushner.

men in this he m country. very few americans have even heard his voice. the fbi certainly wants to hear from him. as you reported, multiple u.s. officials are telling us that he is now under fbi scrutiny meaning they want to talk to him about significant information that he may have that he may be able to provide in their russia investigation. we are told that he is not a target. he is not the focus of the probe near the way that individuals like paul manafort, the former campaign chair and the former national security adviser michael flynn are right now. what we don't know specifically is what activities in particular the fbi is interested in speaking to him about. we have heard from the attorney for jared kushner. she gave us a statement. she tells me mr. kushner previously volunteered to share with congress what he knows about these meetings, referring to the russia meetings you were talking about. he will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry. we've already reported to nbc that kushner has volunteered to speak to the senate intelligence community in terms of their instigation right now. but for the moment, what's relevant here is that they want to talk to him and this puts this basically -- this story now goes right to the door of the oval office, to one of the

people who's closest to this president. >> so i wonder, adam, if that's why the fbi actually wants to talk to him, because he is at the center of everything. he took all the meetings. donald trump didn't have a secretary of state. so he was pretty much the acting secretary of state. so the guy had 50 meetings with the saudis before going to saudi arabia. he 50 meetings with the chinese. if anybody has information for the fbi, again, even though he's not a target, that would be the first person you want to talk to, right? >> there's no question. he is the point person that the president and at the time during the campaign and again during the transition, he was basically trump's point person dealing with the russians. and so it's very logical what was going on here was the fbi was and national security agency were listening to russian

communications and they were hearing discussions about jared and mike flynn and others in trump's orbit. and so based on what they were getting from that intelligence and other intelligence and the secrecy with which these meetings were taking place, they obviously, you know, according to our sources, we're not certainly scrutinize i think is a very nice way to put it. they're investigating jared's participation in those meetings with the russians, trying to get to the bottom of what was discussed and how does it relate to anything else. you have to understand with fbi investigations this starts off as a counter intelligence investigation. as part of that if they pick up information that's criminal in nature, such as related to business interests, that can spin out of this. >> right. >> still ahead on "morning joe" you know it's a tough news cycle when -- joe explains why time is

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"morning jo . let me get back to one question. why do you think the walton need a tax break? >> you're basing on t-- >> if we want to have a talk about why we're repealing tha i'll be more than happy to do that. >> tell me. >> because ordinary people are paying more. >> no. ordinary people do not have $128 billion. that's not an ord appear person. >> the average increase across this nation -- >> you're not answering -- answer the question. the wealthiest family in america gets a tax break. tell the american people why you think that's good when you cut medicaid and you cut programs for kids. >> we don't cut medicaid. we're talking about repealing obamacare. the results -- >> for 23 million people off of health insurance. that's right? >> which is a cbo number that i

think you just agreed could be wrong. >> i didn't agree to that at all. >> if he said -- did he say we don't cut medicaid? >> yes. >> that is just a lie. that is a certifiable lie. listen, you can debate the 23 million number. you really can. you can debate well, maybe that's people that choose not to be on it. i understand those arguments, right? i disagree with them, but i understand them. but $850 billion is real. those are real cuts. why does he keep lying? why do the republicans keep looking into cameras and lie? who do they think is stupid enough that you can't read the numbers in "the wall street journal"? maybe you call this fake news. you can't call this fake news if you're a conservative. it's very clear you're cutting

$850 billion in moedicaid. for the poorest of the poor. if you want to do it, embrace it. don't lie about it. we know you're lying about it. we're not stupid. you republicans in the house have been lying nonstop about what you're not going to cut and who's want going to lose health coverage. we're not dumb. i understand. there has been a coursening of political culture. i understand that donald trump lies all the time. and you're thinking he gotway with it, right? and so you can get away with lying. you can't. all right? this is like bill clinton. david was right. he was an unusually good liar. bill clinton somehow survived being a liar and lying every day. hillary couldn't. you can't. stop with the coarsening of political culture. you know what the mean of it is is and you know what $850

billion is. so do not go to capitol hill and lie through your teeth every day. that's all i've got to say. it is so maddening. this is my party. my party is going straight to hell politically. they really are. they're going to straight to hell. they have embraced the coarsening of culture where the truth means absolutely nothing. conservative values mean absolutely nothing. are traditional allies that have stood by us shoulder to shoulder bleeding and dying, scaling the cliffs of normandy to free a continent? that means nothing to these people. they will embrace vladimir putin and russia if donald trump does. again, i know democrats don't like me saying this, but this guy was a democrat his entire life until 2011.

why do you sell your soul and not just your political soul. you are selling your soul if you just keep lying about things that you know are not true. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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he didn't act like the strong leader that say, ronald r reagan was. most of them see angela merkel as the leader of the west. i was thinking this morning is this the single least effective visit by an american president to nato in 68 years? i think you have to say it is. >> and by 68 years, former u.s. ambassador to nato nick burns meant the least effective in nato's entire history. that was him this morning. joining us now from italy, hallie jackson. good morning.

the president yesterday made a comment calling germans very bad. now the administration pushing back on that translation or the intent of what he said. what more can you tell us? >> so the rest of that quote in there talked about cars and manufacturing apparently. the white house didn't dispute that. but we did hear from top economic adviser gary cone. i want to read you what he said a little bit ago. he said according to gary cohn the president said germany is bad on trade but he doesn't have a problem with germany. his dad is from germany. i don't have a problem with germany. i have a problem with german trade. more diplomatic damage control for the white house as they turn into the summit. already a series of meetings for trump walking back some of those comments. the idea of being tough on trade is something we will be hearing again and again at g7 because this is what the president's promise was on the campaign trail. he said unfair trade deals, unfair trade practices. now he's here with some of these

leaders with whom the u.s. has trade deals and that is going to be a topic in the spotlight along with these leaders pressuring the president to stay in that landmark paris climate agreement. i think those are the two headlines that will drive the day. the other part is that today the president is meeting with some of these leaders just a day after blasting them in brussels at the nato summit you're talking about. you ran that sound bite. this was dramatic. i don't know if you've seen the headlines from some of the newspapers but one says heaven and hell and has angela merkel with president obama and one with president trump. another had the headline attack after the president just lashed out with this lecture essentially on nato nations that are not paying their fair share. this is want a new complaint from the president. this has been one of the biggest kpla complaints all along and i know you saw some of the body language from the leaders. we were in brussels watching this unfold.

you could see i would call it visible discomfort or perhaps be will derme -- now he's here for round two. you've got angela merkel and others. the president is holding these one-on-one talks. we'll watch and see how this develops. we're sort of in this down moment. the president had a meeting this morning. we won't see him for another few hours where he heads to a theater to watch a performance with melania trump. i've got to tell you it's a picture perfect backdrop, but the backdrop is obviously very tense here for president trump finishing up the last leg of his overseas trip. >> pretty extraordinary pictures. the picture of the world leaders standing on the stage. bring in don for more on the trade. what's the reaction been on germ

germany being very, very bad on trade? >> it's interesting to put it in expect. y -- perspective. it's no secret america buys more from the rest of the world than it sells to thend that trade deficit is one of the biggest points of contention between trump and his administration and basically all of our biggest trading partners. when it comes to germany, trade imbalances are a big deal to the president because germany is the third biggest exporter of goods in the world after the u.s. and china. here's the data. according to the census bureau the u.s. had a $65 billion with germany. it's important that many of the biggest things sold by germany to the u.s. and its consumers are of course cars. but you've already got some big german automakers with large us manufacturing. in south carolina they've got 8,000 employees there. about 1,400 they produce a day.

mercedes benz has a big plant in alabama. they made 300,000 vehicles there last year and volkswagen has a big manufacturing presence in tennessee as well. germany is america's fifth biggest trading partner. to put that in perspective, we had the total trade volume of about $579 billion with china last year versus $164 billion with germany. this is a very big deal and those trade deficits are going to be a big part of discussions. >> that's the point we were making. all those auto manufactures operating in the south creating jobs. with us now at the table former secretary of state for public diplomacy, rick. >> great to see you. >> hallie was talking about how beautiful the coastline was. there was also that beautiful scene in the "godfather." there was also that scene where he took his lovely bride out for a car ride.

what i'm insinuating is it's beautiful, but there's going to be some drama. i don't want to go for the cheap hit, but it is hard not to ask. how disappointed were you by you what you saw yesterday from the american president? >> i think it was a sad day for the atlantic alliance. nick burns, you can't go deeper than what he said. the single worst visit of an american president to the nato. even saying the words atlantic alliance is powerful. it's something w created. we're the host. they're looking for us to lead and be stable. he went to saudi arabia and said i'm not going to lecture you and then he came and lectured the heads of nato. >> does the president seem more comfortable around autocratic leaders than he is around democratically elected officials? >> by the way, autocratic leaders do the smart thing. they roll out the red carpet and put the trum pets.

democratic leaders don't do. that you have to walk there and hold your own umbrella. i think he finds they are leaders who tend to question him and don't take him as a monarch. >> what should he have said that he didn't say yesterday? was it the article five piece that was most disturbing? >> when you travel a broad to nato countries, the word they tell you to say is iron clad. our commitment to article five is iron clad. say that over and over and over again. he just did not say that. and he did talk about the russian threat. i'll give him that. but people are looking for the u.s. to stabilize things. for us to be the foundation. to not be unpredictable. despite what trump talked about in the campaign, we are too predictable, no. isis is unpredictable. the united states should be predictable. tha that's what people want.

he doesn't show that. >> "the wall street journal" take the other point of vau. donald trump creates many of his own problems but sometimes he can't win no matter what he does. by speaking at an event commemorating article five and praising article five's invocation on nine 11, mr. trump was really trying to send a message that he zdoesn't believ in article five? who knew he was capable? mr. trump started his credibility problem on nato with his campaign comments that the allian alliance was obsolete. we criticized him. he has walked at least 90% of that back. it's fair to whack mr. trump if he indulges bad -- to suggest without evidence that the u.s. n't hop or its nat commitment or drive a wedge between allies simply to make mr. trump look bad. >> no one is suggesting the u.s. won't honor them. the vice president said we will honor them. but it still means more than anything else when those words come from the president of the

united states. i think it rattled a lot of russia's neighbors, especially when you heard comments like gary cohn's yesterday saying they hadn't made a decision when it came to russian sanctions. why say that at all? why not say the sanctions are in place and we support what's in place? >> i don't want to sound so grim, but trump was -- putin was only bargaining for maybe that he'd get a president that would unralph t unravel the sanctions. not unravel article five. nobody had counted on that. "the wall street journal" is a little clever. trump knew people were waiting for him to say i support article five. and then he did not do it. i mean, i do think he was there in an occasion that was celebrating all those things and i don't think we'll walk it back. what putin is doing in ukraine, in the baltics is that he's trying to test article five. >> too clever by half because

regardless of what editorialists might say, people know from history, from custom, from tradition, the president of the united states uses these events every time they are together with nato to say that we provide an iron clad commitment. if you attack a nato member, you are, tacking all nato members. so it's not like -- it's not like donald trump's people didn't know what was expected of him. >> and by the way, that's why those meetings are so boring, because everybody says the same thing that we've been saying over and over. that's also why they're important. and i think he created -- he's stabilizing the atlantic alliance which is ultimately when putin's goal is. >> and you have donald trump praising the use of article five after 9/11 going back 15, 16

years, and yet he won't say it's still relevant 16 years later. >> toii want to ask the questioa bunch of people, why? give me the motive, give me a reason, a logical strategic reason for him to do that. i can't come up with it. >> listen, the only -- things have been so erratic. the only connection is bob woodward's voice. follow the money, joe. why does he allow an auto kracr from turkey come to the united states and beat up his and do nothing. why does he praise a leader of the philippines who brags about going out and shooting people on his own, killings? he's got a place in manilla.

why is he giving the russians the breaks that he's giving the russians, the nods and the winks to the russians every day? both of his sons have bragged, most of their money -- don, jr., most of our money comes from russia. that's not even the bank deals that we don't know about yet but that bob mueller will inform us of in due time. >> there's so much that we don't know of things in large part because we haven't seen the president's tax returns, but i think it's another -- it gives more reason to the theory that this president never thought that he would actually win. i think that when you go back to some of his business counter parts, even his family's business counter parts, they go back to russia many, many years. the difference between russia and the u.s., and there are many, is that unlike the billionaires and businessmen in the u.s. who may have no relation to washington, every sing single billionaire in russia is tied to one person and that's vladimir putin.

>> and even as we talked about jared kushner and he's now being the subject of the fbi inquiry, not under investigation, but a person they wanto talk to, that meeting that they're rried about, one with kislyak, another with a russian banker. >> who was sanctioned. >> but also the russian banker who graduated from spy school. >> they don't go to business school in russia. they go to spy school. >> by the way, it's a strange coincidence den coincidence both sessions, flynn and kushner all forgot to put down their russian meetings. all three of them. very simple thing. have you had any meetings with foreign -- just all three of them. somehow that spllipped all thei mines. >> and that came right after the weekend we sue the massive protests in russia where hundreds of people were arrested risking their lives fighting over corruption, fighting for democracy. for that news to come out then that he met with the ceo of a

sanctioned bank, the optics are terrible. >> everybody has operating theories trying to explain why sessions forgot. and why kushner forgot and why flynn forgot. but donny brings up a good point. what are the odds that in all of their disclosure forms they would all forget that they met the same person? >> here's my theory of the case which i'm actually not going to give. now that there's an investigation, i'm going to wait to see what the investigations say, what the house and the senate says, what mueller says. my explanation for what trump did is a little different and more superficial. it was petulance. if they expect black, he does white. look at the state of the union speech where mcmaster said let's please not use islamic extremism. he went right toward it.

i think everyone expected him to say my commitment to article five is iron clad and he didn't. that immaturity in the president of the united states is tragic. >> we're just getting an update on the breaking news out of egypt. we've been following. a deadly ambush on a group of christians. egyptian officials now confirm 26 people are dead and more are wounded after gun men driving alongside their bus opened fire. w wire reports indicate there are children among the victims. the bus was traveling to a monastery south of the egyptian capital. no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. the u.s. embassy had warned of a potential attack in egypt just over 24 hours ago. this of course comes just over a month after the two bombings on palm sunday of churches, christian churches there in egypt. rick, thank you for much as always. still ahead this morning, last year donald trump said the u.s. turned iraq into the harvard for

terrorists. yesterday he said the future of nato needs to be a greater focus on terrorism and immigration. ahead we'll bring in former ambassador to nato and two time defense secretary donald ♪ this is a story about mail and packages. and it's also a story about people. people who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams they're handing us more than mail they're handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country,

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the former defense secretary to presidents george w. bush and gerald ford, also former u.s. ambassador to nato, donald rumsfeld. also about us, retired colonel tom manyon whose son travis was

killed in fallujah in 2007 while rescuing fellow marines. mr. secretary, we should start with the president's trip. he went to nato yesterday. what was your take? >> it's important went there. it's critical alliance for the united states. and i've heard critiques of the fact that people were worried that he talked to them about the fact that they were not contributing and investing the target shot of 2% of their gross national product in defense. and he sounded like i did 30, 40 years ago when i was ambassador. it has to be done. they're not doing it. i think there are only five countries hitting the 2%. and it's important that they do that. i think it's particularly important that the president of

the united states look tm in the eye and talk to them about w important it is. when i went -- when eisenhower was president, it was 10% of our gdp going to defense. today we're below 4% of gdp. we've come down considerably. but those countries, for the most part, are simply not meeting the nato target. and they should. someone needs to tell them. that i'm glad he did it. >> what do you think of his posture more broadly to our european allies? a bit more hostile, perhaps, than past presidents? >> i wouldn't call it hostile. i think he has a style that's unusual, different. i think you also have to cut him a little slack. he's been in there how many weeks? months? he doesn't have the undersecretaries, he doesn't have the assistant secretaries. it takes so long to get people in place. and normally what a president would do is sit down with the team and discuss all of these things. but he's got a very small team

so far. it's a good one. i think the cabinet and the supreme court nominee, i'd give them high marks for picking good people, vice president. i think tim mattis is an excellent choice. he's thoughtful, measured, experienced. >> colonel, wanlt i want to tur you. you passed a solemn anniversary, ten years since your son was killed in an incredible act of heroism that saved all the other men on his patrol as he drove in and taken out by a sniper. you carried on his legacy since that day with the foundation. can you talk about what do you for veterans? >> sure. well, we started the foundation shortly after we lost travis. and, you know, we wanted to always be there for our veterans, the familiar lives the fallen. and my wife when she started things talked about being there for that next generation, hoping to define the next generation and support them and what

leadership is all about we have a character program. and so it's evolved over the years. we're ten years out. one thi we're doing with our veterans and famils o the fallen, we're getting out within the communities and having those people who can inspire those within the community to talk about leadership and character and service and how important it is, whether you're in uniform or not. we can all make a difference within our communities. and who better than these heroes that step forward and serve so selflessly for us? >> can you talk, mr. secretary, about how important these kind of organizations are to the federal government as well? bridging the gap for some of the things that the government can't do or that the va can't reach? >> i will. i was involved in congress in introducing legislation to create the all volunteer military. back before we have this wonderful arms forces we have today, the finest in the world

and i think in the history of our country. they're all volunteers. they all raise their hand and volunteer to serve. the outside of having a volunteer military is many fewer people are brought into the military. and, therefore, fewer people have an understanding or a relationship or a relative in the military. and what the foundation does, they go out and connect military families and families of the fallen with people, young people, so they understand more about the arms services and the volunteers. and i think it's terrific to have the colonel on particularly around memorial day so people can focus on the service that people are providing and better understand and value what they do on behalf of our country. >> colonel, i just so sorry about your son. obviously, he was an incredible hero. what do we need do better to

take care of veterans in general in this country? as somebody who lived through your son with the ultimate sacrifice, what can we -- what should we be doing better on behalf of your son? >> well, there's a lot ofood people out there trying to help our veterans and they have a lot of issues. and there's so many great organizations working to address that. but for us, a big part of it is to understand what our veterans represent for our country. and how resill yenient they are we can look to them for inspiration and really just getting more connected. it's a lot about what we want to try to do within the communities, connect our veterans, make people understand and appreciate why these selfless service members step up. why they put on the uniform, why they put on the line for us. i think there's got to be more awareness of that and a more

appreciation for what that really means. >> all right. >> amen. >> and willie, really quickly, we want to point out the secretary's mobile app, the profits of that are going to the foundation. so good for you for doing that, sir. >> part of a $500,000 grant. all right. thank you, colonel. thank you for being here. reminding viewers what monday is going to be about. and mr. secretary, it wasn't as exciting as "the view" yesterday. which was very, very strange.