we got a reminder, a special all in with chris hayes live with a live in-studio audience here tonight at 8:00 eastern. everyone, whether you're religious or not religious, i call that you pray. my thanks to doug, reverend al, kim. i am john heilemann in for nicolle wallace. my week here is done. "mtp daily" with chuck todd starts right now. ♪ if it's friday, it's an emergency on edge over the economy, president trump's unpredictable and dangerous behavior got even more unpredictable and perhaps dangerous today. world leaders are on edge as well, not just over the economy but over president trump at how he will act at this weekend's g7

meeting. plus, as the crisis in the white house grows, so does the talk of primarying the president. and can one of those presidents be anthony scaramucci? we'll ask him live. welcome to friday. it's "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd here in washington. here is an overused phrase. we are in uncharted territory as the president prepares to meet world leaders in the midst of the latest crisis of his own making. if you thought we hit peak presidential chaos, the rest of the reminder that, oh, no, there is always more chaos to come with this president. president trump sent the stock market tumbling today escalating his trade war with china, lashing out that the chairman of the federal reserve, the chairman that he appointed, mind you, calling him a, quote, enemy of the united states and comparing the federal reserve chair to china's authoritarian president xi. he also ordered u.s. manufacturers to cut ties with china. it was all part of his bizarre

twitter tirade after china slapped retaliatory tariffs on the $75 billion worth of u.s. goods. right now we are waiting for the white house and an apparent white house. we say apparent because the president tweeted hours ago that he would be announcing something shortly, but that is still not happened. and white house staff is not 100% sure something is going to happen. but they did say stay tuned to his twitter feed. if it feels like the president is playing with fire, that's frankly because he may be. if it feels he is careening from crisis to crisis, that's because he is. if it feels like the president is acting even more erratic than usual, it's because he is. if it feels like all of this is because the president is a bit rattled, well, more than a bit by the possibility of a recession that's because he is. and that's the breaking news of this moment as the president prepares for his trip to france for the g7. just a reminder, this photo sums up how well the last g7 meeting went.

the deep divisions then between the president and those world leaders who are among america's most important personal allies, but they had splits on issues like trade, the environment, and foreign policy. and if anything, those divides are deeper today than they were last year. one of france's main objectives as host of this weekend's group of seven summit is simply to minimize the chances that president trump will blow it up. maybe he already did. so to be clear, the leaders of the world's greatest democracies, some of those the most powerful people on the planet are meeting for what are the world's most complicated issues including this potential for a global session. but they may be tip-towing on the toughest topics because they don't want to upset the volatile american president. and as we have said the president is especially volatile this week, and no one knows what's about to happen. let's bring in a really good group of experts this friday to break this down and try to make some sense of today's news.

ian bremer is the president of the eurasian group. david ignatius knows his way around this. aisha. ian, i want to start with you. there's nothing i enjoy more than your very blunt and newsletter of your trip around the politics of the globe. what's going to happen at this g7, and did today just make it nearly impossible that anything productive happens? >> i am supposed to be on vacation. >> i'm sorry. [ laughter ] >> but not this year. i mean, look, this is the most challenging u.s./china relationship we've had in decades. there's massive escalation on the trade front. taiwan is getting heated up. there is confrontation on technology too, given that the one thing that should be working is the g7, right?

if you have big confrontation with the country that is increasingly saying we don't want to play by the rules of the west, then you should have alignment on things like hong kong and taiwan and free trade and rule of law and open technology and cyber and you name it. and, yet, trump is coming into the g7 and these countries are very deeply divided internally, all of them. they're increasingly weak, their institutions are eroding. >> i was just going to say -- let me ask you this, ian. is there a single one of these leaders in the group of of seven that have any sort of strong political standing at home right now? is it really just abe? is he the closest? >> it's pretty much abe. i mean of them certainly even though merkel is leaving, whoever replaces merkel, you have a very strong center right and center left in germany. you don't have euro skepticism. so i would say germany is not all divided although at this

moment they have a weak leader. but if you look at the g7, yeah, it's abe. and japan of course is a little bit constrainted in terms of the role they can play internationally. they are on the tip of the sphere in terms of concerns of their relationship with china. and even though they pretend to have a nice relationship with trump, abe personally really tip-toes around him just as much as the other leaders do. >> we did get break news tweets from the president. essentially, the retaliation on china is this. everything that was being taxed at 25% tariffs is going to move up to 30. and everything that was being taxed at 10% is going to move up to 15. the 15% moves up to -- is on september 1st, the increase of 30% on october 1st, let me quickly bring in kristen welker at the white house north lawn quickly. kristen, we see the news here. and these are different from the tariffs that the president

postponed in december because he was worried about it hitting the pocketbooks during the holiday season. >> reporter: that's right. bottom line, these are retaliatory, president trump saying that china shouldn't have imposed $75 billion worth of tariffs on u.s. goods earlier today, which is of course how we started this day. president trump signaling several hours ago that he was going to take some type of retaliatory action. and now here it is. ramping up these tariffs against china. we saw, chuck, today, the market dip by more than 600 point. of course it closed down by that much. and there are already a lot of anxieties and concerns about a potential recession. and all of that's the backdrop to president trump leaving in a few hours from now, chuck, to head to the g7 summit where he's going to have to deal with these other world leaders on this critical issue. and they see this trade war with china as one of the key reasons

why there is not just concerns here about a potential recession, but globally, frankly, as well. so, this is something that was expected but, bottom line, this is something that could royal his allies once he heads over to the g7 summit. >> and i hope you can stick around with me for a few hours now. i especially want to get ian back and david i want to get you on this. ian, this tariff -- this retaliation actually seems fairly minor. i think -- i'm curious how you think the markets will greet this. obviously, the president showed some restraint and he waited till the markets closed. but these tariffs have been in place a bit. is this a major retaliation in your mind or a minor one? >> it's significant. for me the most significant thing that trump has done recently was when he came out about a week ago and said that

he wouldn't do business with hickenloop huawei. that is the bigger problem for china if huawei is not going to be able to do effective business, one of their most important technology companies. i do think that was a big piece in why they decided to hit hard with tariffs. this is a move, there is no question. and the fact that -- if they ramp up 30% and it hits in october krchlt as opposed to december, that's going to hit the average american voter in the check book in christmas season. it's going to be a real problem for trump a lot more people are going to talk about recession. but i do think that this feels like a turning point in terms of the relationship, economic relationship, and technology relationship between the world's two largest economies. i think it's really hard to dig out of this in the next few months. >> that's what it sounds like. >> and start talking about engage. for me it's not the numbers. it's the fact that we've kind of broken the bilateral conversation. >> yeah. i was just going to say, david, that to me, this feels like the president's digging in, and i

guess it also means -- look, i think he underestimated china's patience. they're willing to take more heat here than -- >> he has believed that they're vulnerable to pressure because their economy is weakening. >> he does know they're not a democracy, right and that those pressures don't exist. >> i think the significant point about the announcement that was just made is that it continues this escalatory cycle. china has hit, we responded, whether it's a lot or a little matters less than. we just keep going up this ladder. financial markets ian can correct me if i disagrees, but financial markets have expected that trump would eventually settle this. you look at what the market reaction assuming that he's going to come back from the brink when he delayed the imposition of the tariffs from september until december and everybody said, okay, the deal's coming. 15 smart people with money at risk, tell me that. it turns out he keeps going for

that last bit of the deal, and it's getting him in trouble. >> aisha, i think i'm guessing you hear this from white house staffers saying this isn't going to escalate the way you guys think it is, and yet it keeps escalating. >> the thought i think from the white house is that china would give in or at least give some face-saving measure to the president because -- >> give him an exit ramp. >> give him something so that he can not have to feel like he's been disrespected as he said this week he does not like to be disrespected. but that just hasn't happened. and i think president trump wants to deal with china the way he dealt with mexico. he did the deadline and they came to the table. and he got to do that. >> mexico needs america more than china needs america, i think. >> but he's run up against an opponent who it doesn't easily give into his tactics. and the question is what does he do now, and that he's doing is

continuing to escalate. >> this is a case where his personality is getting in the way of the negotiations. he hates to look like -- that he has to course-correct. and so he only will do this. that is i think what has -- and i know people around him are trying to get him to stop thinking and they can't do it. >> well, you know, republicans, conservatives, i think have been supportive of the press. and because we thought these dealings with china because we supported the idea of being tougher with china, different democratic presidents, republican presidents, have tried to deal with china, haven't been successful. but we thought like it was mentioned that at some point it would end that they would strike some sort of deal. but this now is a full-fledged trade war. and politically what does that mean when as it was said when this starts hitting consumers, and it was larry kudlow a year before accepting his position as economic adviser who said that our tariff is a tax on the

consumer. >> he said it a month before he took the job on air. in that op ed who he wrote with stephen moore of all people. sorry. didn't mean to correct you, but it's even more striking. >> i even think larry kudlow thought the same thing. i think, look, you can use tariffs like he used it with mexico. short-term if you're trying to put pressure to get a result right away. but in the case of china they are playing trump. this is concerning politically for a lot of republicans. >> you know, ian, if you're going to take on china, you need more allies. i look at the makeup of this current g7. how ready are some other members of this g7, how ready are they to start working more with china than the united states? >> uh, you know, i wouldn't say they're ready to work with china more than the united states. but, my god, they want a hedge. the funny thing, chuck, is the timing's actually good. the u.s. economy is doing quite well. the chinese economy is weaker.

they have got these problems in hong kong. they're real, they're significant. you know, the fact is that the united states doesn't need labor in the supply chain the same way they use to. so there are a lot of american companies that would love to be able to get rid of some of their chinese high-priced labor, not have as many labor costs. it's all kind of working, the united states doesn't worry about the energy inputs. energy prices are low, the u.s. is a big producer, except that trump is so toxic to multilateralism and so many american allies. steve bannon when he was chief strategist did talk about a lot of this. like, if we're going to have a confrontation with china, let's have it early. but trump is transactional, he's very short term. so none of these american allies, even though a number of them are populist themselves, are aligning up to get on the trump band wagon to work with trump. in fact, the reason why they are

not doing a communique since the first time the g7 was put together in 1975 is because they can't agreement after he turns from china, he's going to hit the europeans. that's a real problem for america. >> kristen welker, is there anybody -- you had gary cone, you had john kelly, you had a previous team around the president that essentially i think sort of with was alfonso was, yes, get tough, but there is a point where we're not going to play a game of chicken and get into a head-on collision. we will swerve, but we're going to swerve at a reasonable point. is there anybody given the president counter advice here, or is all the advice he's getting is sort of, yes, sir, that's a smart move, sir. >> reporter: well, it's a good question, chuck. and, look, he was meeting with his trade team earlier today. that included the likes of larry kudlow, someone who would likely argue not to be escalating the

trade war in this way. but then you have other voices, lighthizer, for example, who was in the room essentially making the alternate case. how many people can actually say to the president let's pump the brakes and have him listen? it's not clear that there's one similar person. we know his new chief of staff mick mulvaney is someone who can give advice but not someone who he would necessarily bow to. so i think that you have a number of competing voices in the room to the broader point of what happens to the trade talks, chuck, i mean, president trump had really stressed his personal relationship with president xi. he always held that out there. think about how he referred to him this morning in a tweet. he asked the question who is the bigger enemy of the american people, jay powell the fed chair or president xi jinping of china. so the president is digging in by imposing these new tariffs but also seems to be backing away from what he has touted as a good personal relationship

with xi jinping. >> david, there's been this idea among sort of the larger thinkers about how is this new world order, however you want to talk about it, are we really setting up two economic philosophies here and countries have to pick -- you're either with china or you're with the united states? >> we are heading in that direction. i was with some chinese visitors a week ago talking about the situation, u.s./china relations. and one of the chinese said we believe in blagojevich theijing heading toward a decoupling of the u.s./china relationship. >> i mean, corporate america. i look at the top 20 -- >> you wouldn't have thought so in a globalized economy. but since donald trump has taken office, in part, he's been making war on globalization. and if we see to china's best

company, huawei, we will not do business with you at all. that's about decoupling, and the chinese understand that. so i think the financial markets are waking up today to the reality that this is a lot longer and tougher than people thought. there are a lot of people just to conclude this who think that it's appropriate now to alter the terms of trade with china, that a rising china needs to be confronted now with our insistence about protecting our markets, jobs, intellectual property. so a lot of people say something like this was necessary. it's just a lot bumpier than people realize. >> alfonso, one of the different way when's we thought how is donald trump going to fit in the republican party? trade was always the one issue we would talk about. and everybody has just gone along with him. does this lead to the break? like, is this a breaking point, or are we just, you know, trump has so dominated the republican

party that no one is going to counter him? >> no. he dominates. i think you're going to hear more criticism from senior republican leaders about where this strategy towards china is going. but i think there is a wait and see attitude. there is still some hope that at some point, a deal with china may still be reached. and that's still within the realm of the impossible. but i don't know how this helps. but if that were the case, then we would be in a very different position. >> ayesha, there was this wonderful writer, he had this piece the other day, does xi want trump in for another four years or not? meaning if he does want trump for another four years, at some point he might hand him a deal. then again, maybe he's accomplished everything he's going to accomplish diplomatically around the world with trump in there for four years and maybe he can't take it anymore. i mean, i think that trying to figure out what does china want, do they want four more years of trump or not? >> and the thing is that a lot of this could be in their court

because they're able to wait it out. and so if they want to cause the pain and they are causing pain for farmers by what they've done with that. they are causing real pain in this economy. and so the question is what is trump willing to withstand, and so far he hasn't wanted to deal with any issues whatsoever. and so would he be willing to actually deal with that pain? he's been kind of hinting at it this week that maybe we'll have to go through a little bit short term, it doesn't matter what we have to do is we have to just see this through. >> very quickly, i want to give you the last word. we're going to be letting you go, which is simply this, that what does xi want? david was being a bit, you know, conspiratorial about it, but what does xi want? does he want another four years where the america first mindset allows china to sort of build up its own world portfolio?

or if four years enough he doesn't want to deal with this economic uncertainty anymore? >> um, look. i wouldn't say they feel strongly on one side or the other. the russians clearly want america to be weakened. they want america's allies to be weakened. they found trump and america-first useful in that regard. the chinese actually would like a pretty stable global order and to be generally left alone so that they can continue to grow and play the long game. there are some things that trump does that's very useful for them. he's not talking about human rights and the uigharrs. and if trump is the one guy that could really create a confrontation over taiwan that you wouldn't expect, for example, with other leaders. that's a serious red line for the chinese. they don't want to see more of that. so i think it's an open question. >> ian bremmer, thank you, so

sorry to interrupt your vacation, but we are all getting hit hard for the tweets. and i know you got to get ready for nightly. up ahead, while the field of 2020 democrats is shrinking, the list of potential republican challengers is growing. one republican that has been calling out erratic behavior from the white house used to work there temporarily. anthony scaramucci joins me next. oins me next chair is just a chair. that a handle is just a handle. or... that you can't be both inside and outside. most people haven't driven a lincoln. it's the final days of the lincoln summer invitation event. right now get 0% apr on all lincoln vehicles plus no payments for up to 90 days. only at your lincoln dealer.

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welcome back. president trump's increasingly erratic behavior has vexed almost everyone but his most ardent followers. that seems to be fueling potential growing bids. bill ward threw his hat in the ring weeks ago. and others like former governors mark sanford and john kasich, jeff flake and anthony scaramucci. now scaramucci has publicly turned against the president this summer and he's asking republicans to do the same. he's not running for president but it sounds like he's trying to get the conditions for somebody to run for president. and of course a former trump supporter. hello, sir. >> hey, chuck. it's good to be here. i'm running for re-election in my marriage, chuck, so i won't

be running for president. but, you know, unfortunately for they they're like one-day term. i don't know what your marriage is like, but i'm running every day. >> the best thing about my marriage is i don't talk about it in front of the camera because that'll get me in trouble. it'll probably get you in trouble, too. >> i probably have term limits on my one-day terms. but, anyway, i'm not running for president. but what i am doing is i'm going to put a coalition together to help the republican party reengineer itself in time because we're watching a full-blown meltdown of the president of the united states. i am actually sorry to see it. and it's nothing personal to him. but we've got to change pitchers here. he's pitched six good innings but he's all over the place in the 7th inning. we're going to lose the game. >> i guess there are some people that are skeptical of your turn on this because what you're seeing now a lot of other people saw a long time ago. i got to play your opening

minutes as communications director. let me play it. >> i think he's got some of the best political instincts in the world, and perhaps in history. i love the president on a very, very loyal to the president. and i love the mission that the president has. the president has really good karma. and the world turns back to him. he's genuinely a wonderful human being. i've seen this guy throw a dead spiral through a tire. i've seen him at madison square garden with a top coat on. i don't see this guy as a guy that's ever under siege. this is a very, very competitive person. i think the policies are fantastic. i think he's done a phenomenal job. >> that was you july of '17. and we're hearing you now. >> can i respond? >> go ahead. >> loving the president, still

love the president. again, this is not personal to him. i did see him hit clutch things. i was giving some examples of things i saw him do that were in the clutch. and, by the way, he has great political instincts. you can't go from being a reality television store. >> does he still? all right. >> but, wait. but you're not listening, chuck. you are talking about 2017. at that time he was six months into his presidency, and he had just slayed 18 or 19 people who were establishment politicians. so you have to look at it like a presidential historian would look at it. he went from being a reality television star to the american presidency in 17 months. that's pretty good instincts prima fascia. the problem is as president of the last two years as president, he has been melting down like a nuclear reactor. the last three weeks as president i'm very shocked that my fellow republicans that are in elected positions, that are

in senior leadership in washington are not coming to a microphone and saying, okay, this is not sustainable. >> why? what's your explanation? >> i'm sorry? why are they not doing that? >> because i know you have talked to these people privately. what do they tell you? >> so what they're basically saying is three things. it's all cognitive dissidence. i am trying to help the situation by being on the inside. i am trying to help the situation by trying to put a lid on it. you know the president's personality. if you say one syllable out of place for the president he goes bonkers on you on twitter. i don't want to be primaried. it's this sort of stuff. but i'm asking people in the republican party to step above their personal self-interest and leap up into the words of patriotism and move and ask for the president to take a step back now. he has totally and completely lost it. there is nobody that can look at the situation, read the tweets,

look at the press phrase, and say he hasn't lost it. he's now calling -- >> what does that mean lost it? define that. >> i think he's having a full-blown mental breakdown on the job. i think he's recognizing that he's stuck at 40 on his way to 36, on his way to 20. i think he realizes that he totally miscalculated and blew the xi trading situation. he totally misunderestimated the president of china. and he totally overplayed his hand. and so they're locked in. remember, they starved 50 million people 50 years ago. they don't care. you guys are talking about whether they want him there or not. they may still want him there because he's so disruptive to the global alliance and he's fracturing the western canon of liberal democracies that they may want him there just to create more havoc on the civil position. but my fellow republicans can't want him there. number one, he's going to lose the election in 2020.

number two, he's completely unhichbled. and, number three, let's just be honest like business leaders would be. the guy is out of his realm now. it's time to take a powder. if you were the chairman of a board of a publicly traded company looking at this situation, you'd say no mas and it's time to replace him. i mean, this is like -- >> it sounds like you think he's no longer -- it sounds like you think he's totally unfit for office. >> oh, there's no question about that. he's like captain in the scene in mutony where he's melting down on trial. >> let me ask you about this. we have two mechanisms to deal with a situation like that. one is the 25th amendment which would be a pretty -- and the other is impeachment. i mean, do you think we've reached those two points? >> well, no.

i think senior leadership should go to his family members and say, listen, enough is enough. you know, he may not be in early stage dementia, but he's in full blown early stage fascism. he is going after individual citizens like my wife on his twitter account. this is not acceptable behavior in the longest standing republican democracy. so senior leadership in the republican party, the chairwoman, ms. mcdaniels should go to the family and say, hey, let's get him to resign before he completely embarrasses himself and he stains all of the good things he's done. we can say he won for america for this period of time. let mike pence take over. then let's have a qualifiable -- i'm not from washington, i'm an entrepreneur and i believe in the impossible. you're shaking your head, the white house -- >> no, i'm not. i just -- i'm watching the -- >> you're thinking about the status quo. >> what i'm curious --

>> i'm telling you the status quo can't hold. the status quo is over. >> anthony, i've been reporting about this all week about sustainability. exabl thely where are the elected republicans. let me ask you this. you want to do a super pac. how are you going to convince mitch mcconnell that he should publicly do what you're recommending? >> well, look, i like mitch mcconnell. i donated to his last re-election campaign. i think he's a very savvy guy. and i think he is making the unfortunate calculus right now. he probably personally wants to help the president, and he probably doesn't want to pull the pin on him yet because he's looking at the math and he's hoping that he can still win. but when you look at you guys were pointing out in the last show the cross stabs, there is virtually no way that he's going to win. virtually, i am going to be spending a fortune of money speaking out to suburban house wives all over the swing states and i'm going to elicit what he

did to ted cruz's wife, my wife, jeb bush's wife. you and i both know that bullying is totally unamerican. >> anthony, i will say this. i don't disagree -- it's hard to do these satellite interviews. i wasn't trying to be rude in my interruption. >> no, no, please. >> i hear all that. he was a bully during the primary. why did you think you did -- why do you now see in him what you see in him and you didn't see it then? >> because i'm a flawed human being, and as i wrote -- >> we all are flawed. >> well, let me just explain it. you asked the question. so i looked at the totality test and i said, wait a minute he's going to help the people i grew up with. he's going to help people like my dad who was a crane operator. he is focused on a blue collar group of people where there's been a vacuum of advocacy for those people in washington for 30 years. and so i was weighing the

totality test and i did everything that people have to do when they're supporting the president. they have to go through a matrix of personal dishonesty. and for me the red line was send them back. i wrote in the ft they said that to my nana. they told my nana to go back. she produced two world war ii veterans. one was a decorated purple heart hero on normandy beach. and i am calling on my fellow republicans. you know enough is enough. i know enough is enough. just admit the mistake. it's like we made a bad hiring decision as entrepreneurs, and let's replace him. we can do this. and we can do it in a comfortable way that can protect him and his family. then we'll have a fair fight in 2020. right now we are not going to have a fair fight. and, trust me, people have called me from all over the country looking to donate into this pac. we have to get rid of this guy because he's acting like a demagogue and he's acting like a tyrant, chuck.

>> anthony scaramucci with some blunt talk about somebody who was a boss for a very brief period of time. >> that's new york talk, brother. that's not washington talk. >> no, it's not. >> we need more new yorkers down there to fix this thing. >> come on, anthony, the water could be a little warm. >> i had my extended stay, chuck. i'm good. >> anthony scaramucci, i have a feeling we're going to be talking again fairly soon. thanks very much for coming on and sharing your views. up ahead, the democratic field for the president is shrinking. one of the remaining contenders has had it. man: i've been diagnh age-related macular degeneration, which could lead to vision loss. so today i made a plan with my doctor, which includes preservision. because it's my vision, my love of the game, my open road, my little artist. vo: only preservision areds 2 contains the exact nutrient formula recommended by the national eye institute to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression. man: because it's my sunset, it's how i see my life.

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welcome back. in tonight's 2020 vision, michael bennet has had it. the consider. october senator spoke at a dnc meeting in san francisco today. he had plenty to say. he laid into party leaders over the qualifications required for the third debate next month. he obviously knows his campaign won't meet them. and let's just say he sure

wasn't pleased about it. >> the dnc process is stifling debate at a time when we need it most. we're rewarding celebrity candidates with millions of twitter followers, billionaires who buy their way onto the debate stage and candidates who have been running for president for years. these rules have created exactly the wrong outcomes, and they will not help us beat donald trump. i'm not going to be on the debate stage next month, but i am going to be out in iowa and new hampshire and south carolina and nevada building the constituency for change this country needs. [ applause ] >> there is one other democrat who we know won't object that stage either. it's massachusetts congressman seth moulton who announced today that he is officially bowing out. is the republican field expanding? as we said earlier a growing number of republicans, a little bit of a rag-tag bunch right

now, but they're disillusioned with this president and they are considering a run against him in 2020. vanity fair has coined them the gop suicide squad. the chance of a primary candidate gaining steam against president trump is highly unlikely, and the trump white house is not surprisingly been a bit dismissive and unconcerned. kelly an conway told t"the washington post" none of them has risen to the level of a nickname. so that's your meter there. joining me now to this part of the conversation with my great panel here is from milwaukee is charlie sykes, msnbc contributor of the bulwark. david, ayesha and alfonso are back. i know i had this long intro that i wanted to talk about anthony scaramucci. charlie, did you -- i hope you heard the whole thing. what do you make? >> i did. >> what do you make of it? >> well, it's always great when people have their road to damascus conversion, and i

suppose the enemy of the enemy is my friend. but, you know, there is a certain, i don't know, don quxote. there is no question about it. we know it's not the racism. we know it's not the lying. we know it's not the crazy. but potentially a donald trump who appears to be unhinged and is tanking the economy might change the dynamic. but i don't see anything in the near term. but i would urge everybody to remember what happened back in 1967, 1968. nobody wanted to go into the primary against lyndon johnson. eugene mccarthy said i'm not going to win. he does well in new hampshire, and then other people come in. so right now you don't have an a-list candidate. let's be honest about it. >> none of these guys are going to beat donald trump. but if they can ding donald trump and the economy continues

to wobble, the poll numbers continue to collapse, is it possible that you will start to have a crack? who knows. we've been here before. ayesha, first of all how's the white house handling this scaramucci because he's been doing this for a weeks now and we know it's under the skin of some. >> i can't say that they're really super concerned about scaramucci. but i'm sure that it annoys the president. he doesn't like it when people are disloyal to him. and he felt like he was good to scaramucci. i really don't think that they can be concerned about almost anybody, even if you've got an a-list candidate which seems unlikely at this point. at this point you can say if you disagree with me, but he is the republican party. there is no space there. there's no distance. like, they are one. >> the numbers are the numbers. 86 to 90% in just about every poll. >> so who is going to come out against that? it's just not going to happen. they will be the last people, even with the economy going back, i would think that republicans would be the last to

turn on him. >> the republican leaders are going to come together, and i'm thinking of two very quickly. lindsay graham and mitch mcconnell would have to be two of those people. running for re-election in fairly red states who know that a primary challenge could actually kill them. it just doesn't happen, right? >> you need a major change in the economic political circumstances to have a real political challenge to donald trump. you are absolutely right. he totally controls. i must say regarding scaramucci because i guess we needed some comic relief. it's friday. >> i didn't know what to make of what he was saying. other than, well, this is the trump era and he makes perfect sense in the trump era. he has no influence in republican politics. scaramucci idealogically is not conservative. right before 2016 people forget that he will supportive of hillary. in 2008 he was supportive of obama. he fund-raised for obama. >> it's sort of your typical

sort of center-right wall street guy. if the wind is blowing in one dress, he will go with a moderate democrat. >> so the only person in the white house who is paying attention is donald trump. and i think this is another really omarosa moment. >> i continue to go back to these elected republicans. what do they think their life is going to be like after trump leaves? why do they think that somehow they can just hunker down, stay in a bunker and then rob portman is going to come back out and everything is going to be -- i get to be rob portman again. do they really think this? >> so you wonder, they seem so petrified of trump of the threat of being primaried. they have to understand that this era will end and that history will judge them. their constituents will judge them pretty harshly. i just would note, and i'm going to disagree with my colleagues. i think if the stock market, the dow falls another few thousand points, which is may well if we

have other indices of real economic disorder, the basic backbone of trump's re-election claimed i'm a businessman, i know what's good for the economy, begins to weaken. in that case i can republican a republican challenge. if it feels like the country's in a freefall, i bet you will see a credible candidate challenge donald trump. >> i agree with that. and we've been asking this question when are the republicans going to stand up for years now and nothing's happened. but i think david is right. this is the one thing that i think might trigger it because it would be an existential, you know, challenge to the republican party if they see that there's going to be an absolute wipeout. and the fact that the trade war is really out of control, this is one of the few issues where there have been willing to push back just a little bit.

but, again, there's a long way to go for this. now by the way, the polls, i think there is one thing that people ought to understand. there's been polling that would show that even though there's these huge top-line numbers, there's been 47% of republicans that they are open to the idea of somebody other than donald trump. so there is a potential softness there that has not yet been exploited. and if it looks like that that represents, what, you know, 30 to 40% of the electorate in new hampshire, then you do have a changed dynamic. >> i think republicans need to realize if things remain as they are for the next year, the economy growing, unemployment down, that president trump could be re-elected. >> it's winnable. not easy but it's winnable. >> so they are going to wait and see decision right now. let's see what happens. but right now he is the candidate. he can lead them to victory. and there is another point. and that is while, and that's the position i'm in. i always have to explain do you

support trump or not. look, i don't support his behavior, his tweets. but there are many conservatives that are happy with many of his policies. he's done certain things that other republican presidents who were not willing to do. so idealogically, they say the guy is terrible, but he's doing certain things that we support. >> you know what i've learned from all of this and watching this, and, ayesha, i agree with you that everybody has different rationales. but everybody has a break point. it just happens to be in a different spot for different people. what we're seeing is what i can't figure the math problem out is i have yet to meet the hillary voter that said i'm going to vote for donald trump. and that to me is the math problem he's dealing with, ayesha. >> that's the issue. what the hope is, and when you talk to people that support in the campaign is that they will be able to tear down whoever the democrat is to the point where people will just be fed up, and maybe they will hate donald trump a little bit less and that he'll win those voters. that's pretty much what happened

in 2016. and he was able to win those people that hated both, he was able to win those. so that's kind of what they are hoping to do. but even among people that support donald trump, i am always shocked or surprised by say they support him. they really like him. when you ask about specific things he says, dhoethey don't to defend it. >> they can't. >> i have this other theory, david, that simply we're short attention span society all the time. we actually watch thing goes viral and disappear. trump may be a virus. meaning as fast as he rose, people get burned out on it. i'm done. sort of the way they're done with a certain music. >> i think the antibodies to this virus is forming, the body politic, if you will. i think trump is exhausting the country. i think people are frazzled. i think he just, you know, every day is a panic attack for

america. so i do think it's a moment where there is an opportunity for a real turn. >> charlie, david, thank you all. up ahead, a picture perfect g-7? maybe not. t g-7? maybe not. announcer: fidelity is redefining value with zero account fees for brokerage accounts. and zero minimums to open an account. at fidelity those zeros really add up. ♪ maybe i'll win ♪ saved by zero so, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. the united states postal service makes more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. e-commerce deliveries to homes a lot of folks ask me why their dishwasher doesn't get everything clean. i tell them, it may be your detergent... that's why more dishwasher brands recommend cascade platinum. it's specially-designed with the soaking, scrubbing and rinsing built right in. cascade platinum's unique actionpacs dissolve quickly...

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maybe it's time to retire. each time these leaders get together they all stand side by side and pose for this photo. i have to say, lately it's getting pretty awkward. here's the g-7 in germany from 1978. yeah, that wasn't too terribly awkward, right? although nobody noed where to put their hands. and here is 1990 g-7 summit in texas. that's a good one there. like straight out of the trailer for armageddon. these days, however, the g-7 class photos, well, they look more like something out of the unusual suspects. by the way, are we allowed to do that movie anymore? here's the one from last year. no one comes out of this one unscathed. no one knows what to do with their hands. although again, those guys didn't know either. so what about 2017, you ask? it's even worse. to be honest, does anybody look comfortable in this one? they're all as stiff as the flag poles behind them. these are the most powerful people on earth.

and what's first thing they have to do? hash out the world's complex problems? no. stand in formation in the middle of a field like rockettes. come on, everybody. these are not sixth graders on class photo day. these are the people in charge of our planet! so i say be gone with the foremalts. lea formalities. how about candid shots? in the past, they need to stay in the high school year book. you don't want those out there anyway. trust me. hmm. exactly.

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>> that's all we have for tonight. i was getting a quick update. are the talks still on or off with china? it's something we're still trying to figure out from the white house. we'll be back monday with more "meet the press daily." if it's sunday, hopefully we have that question about meetings with china. we'll have "meet the press" on nbc. the beat starts right now. >> chuck, good evening. do you have time for a quick joke? >> sure. okay. >> you are hereby ordered to have great weekend. >> i appreciate that. i have to say, i will -- if you add the year by, it does make it officials. >> i learn as i go. the 6:00 hour, the hour of ari. >> amen.