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The co-hosts of MSNBC's "The Weekend" were beside themselves with laughter on Saturday morning as they discussed Donald Trump advisor Vivek Ramaswamy angering the MAGA faithful with a "screed" he posted on X that has led to a schism within the president-elect's base.

With co-host Michael Steele bestowing "screed" on the Ramaswamy post where the entrepreneur maintained, "Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer)," co-hosts Alicia Menendez and Symone Sanders Townsend all piled on when they weren't laughing at each other's comments.

"He laid out basically you white folks out here should have been focused on doing a little bit more Urkle than anything else," Steele joked before adding, "You know, Symone, I'm tickled. I'm tickled by this. Who would have saw this coming? "

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"Well, I mean definitely not the folks who voted for Donald Trump and they're American workers," Townsend Sanders replied. "Look, this is, you know, my mother told me this is just some business that don't involve you. You don't need to step in it, so I have been watching, because this is what happened."

"And that is the point," Steele added. "But what you have happening here is the very thing that white folks have said about Black people and for generations. They were saying that about white people and they don't like it. "You're not lazy, you're not slow, you're not stupid. Well, that's what we've been saying for 400 years, yet here we are."

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While introducing his guests on MSNBC's "The Weekend," co-host Michael Steele promised they were going to cover "A whole lot of stupid," and then proceeded to mock Donald Trump's out-of-nowhere fascination with buying Greenland.

Getting right to it, the former Republican National Committee chair sarcastically joked to his co-hosts and guests, "Let's start with this smart idea that we are somehow going to take control of Panama and that we want to go and buy Greenland."

"Why?" he continued. "Because it is there and it is green and I guess that is what Donald Trump wants to do."

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Turning to guest Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post, he asked, " Is there any appetite, do you think, from your reporting and your coverage of these things with this coming Congress, the idea that they are going to entertain legislation to do these crazy fantasy-driven ideas of Donald Trump that, somehow, he not only wants to rule the United States but he wants to rule the world?"

"Absolutely not," she shot back. "Honestly among Democrats and definitely among Republicans, they don't want to be doing these things. There are so many things Congress could do, not to mention raising the debt ceiling in just a couple of weeks Janet Yellen just mentioned that Wednesday night saying this should be the priority of the conversation even before Trump is sworn in."

"How are they going to tackle something like this? Trying to acquire other nations or other nations' properties?" she added.

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A never-Trump conservative thinks MAGA's recent division over immigrant visas is one of what he expects will be many rifts "coming down the pike" and took a shot at the movement, telling CNN on Friday night it would take a "heart of stone" not to laugh at the chaos.

The rift emerged between two factions. On one side, tech allies such as billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — who have been tapped to slash trillions from the federal budget — are advocating for more visas to attract highly skilled foreign workers. On the other side is the MAGA base, which has opposed expanding H-1B visas, seeing it as a threat to American jobs.

A Michigan Democrat took a shot at supporters of TikTok as President-elect Donald Trump tries to block a looming ban set to take effect next month.

Trump on Friday asked the Supreme Court to hit the brakes on a law that could ban the popular social media site nationwide starting Jan. 19 if its owner, who is Chinese, doesn’t sell it to an American company.

Donald Trump's top issue next year is fixing immigration, and an MSNBC political panel thinks he set up his supporters for an internal civil war over it.

Speaking to Ayman Mohyeldin, who is filling in for Nicolle Wallace, Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson said Trump has spent the past decade blaming immigrants for all that ails them. Meanwhile, Trump has welcomed the billionaire class, in stark contrast to the MAGA ideology.

A Massachusetts lawmaker on a House committee focused on China's government told CNN on Friday afternoon he's seen no evidence to support Donald Trump's claim the country is essentially strongarming the Panama Canal, and said the president-elect's focus on the waterway "makes us look petulant."

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said that while two Hong Kong-based shipping companies are in the Canal Zone, he hasn't seen evidence that they present a "security threat" to the United States.

MAGA influencer Laura Loomer appeared on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast on Friday to warn President-elect Donald Trump against letting X owner Elon Musk into his administration.

In an interview with Bannon, Loomer charged that Musk had major conflicts of interest and said that it could turn into a major scandal if Trump keeps him in his inner circle.

Reacting to new unsympathetic comments from Donald Trump's pick to be his "border czar" about the fate of children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants, conservative political advisor Brendan Buck suggested the president-elect rein his nominee in.

During a recent NBC News interview, Tom Homan was asked about a move in San Diego by the Board of Supervisors to restrict local law enforcement from helping round up immigrants which led the Trump nominee to reply, "I'm shocked that San Diego did it and, bottom line, we're going to come to San Diego and do our job. It is more difficult, but we're still doing it."

Pressed about the American-born children, Homan bluntly stated, "Our plan, we have to plan to separate children from parents. The parents will have to make a decision. That is parenting 101. If you choose to have a child here in the United States while you know you're here illegally and on a court order to deport, that is on you."

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Asked about the border czar's candid response, conservative Buck first told MSNBC host Christina Ruffini, "The how is really important, not just the what here. Immigration enforcement as a concept is very popular and there is a lot of things that Donald Trump could be doing in a few weeks here, in a few months, that I think would be really beneficial to him."

"When it comes to the interior enforcement, though, I think Donald Trump appreciates that," he elaborated. "When he gets asked about this in any more specificity, he always pivots to, 'We're going to start by going after the criminals and the dangerous people who are here.' Now that is a much easier said than done. If people knew that there were dangerous criminals here, we would be deporting them already. So, I think he understands after the experience of his first term that there are ways that you could do this to become really unpopular."

"If we know anything about Donald Trump, he wants to be popular," he continued. "I think Tom Homan here is a political liability. Tom Homan clearly has so much zeal for this issue and such disregard for the views of other people on this, that if he's let loose to run wild on this, he could do stuff damaging to Donald Trump politically, not to mention the real world effects to the people here in this country."

"So I think this is something that Donald Trump needs to keep a close eye on, not just let Tom Homan do whatever he wishes," he advised.

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CNN's Pamela Brown on Friday grilled attorney Tim Parlatore about the seemingly contradictory statements made by Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, who was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Defense.

During the interview, Brown pointed to seemingly contradictory claims that Hegseth was both completely innocent of any wrongdoing, but also that he was a "changed man."

CNN's Sara Sidner dismissed a Republican strategist's analysis of the MAGA clash between Donald Trump's business allies and his anti-immigrant base.

Right-wing influencers attacked Trump's wealthy advisers Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy over their support for H-1B visas allowing skilled foreign workers to stay in the U.S., but GOP strategist Neil Chatterjee insisted the president-elect's political opponents were trying to crack the MAGA coalition.

The Republican-controlled House may be headed for more chaos when it comes to voting on a speaker with no GOP alternatives to current Speaker Mike Johnson and Donald Trump's patience with the Louisiana lawmaker waning.

Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," one former Republican member of the House claimed his party has no credible replacement for Johnson which may save his job, but there is also the Trump factor.

"I'll tell you, the best thing he has going for him is that there is no credible alternative," ex-Rep Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) stated. "The men who would be in position to challenge Johnson, [Reps.] Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, Tom Emmer, these are men who tried to ascend to the speakership and failed just a few months ago –– so Johnson has that going for him. "

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"The reason he got elected is because he really had no strong enemies inside the House Republican Conference and even though some people like [Kentucky Republican] Thomas Massie are upset, they really don't have any where to go," he continued. "So I do think that that, combined with the fact that Republicans are still traumatized from all their speaker drama during this Congress bodes well for Johnson and I think he's very likely to stay in his position if he decides to stand for re-election as speaker, which everything indicates he will."

That led "Morning Joe" host Jonathan Lemire to interject, "People I've talked to in Trump's orbit down in Mar-a-Lago say there is increased unhappiness from the president-elect toward Speaker Johnson, though. We'll see if he really tries to push for his ouster."

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Sports podcaster Pablo Torre pulled double-duty on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday morning first commenting on Netflix broadcasting NFL games on Christmas day and then being asked about a recent social media post made by Donald Trump advisor Vivek Ramaswamy which has caused a MAGA blow-up.

As "Morning Joe" co-host Johnathan Lemire pointed out, Torre and Ramaswamy were classmates at Harvard University where both graduated with honors and were members of Phi Beta Kappa.

Donald Trump has been threatening to take over sovereign territories and reclaim control of the Panama Canal, and sources revealed the motives for his bluster.

The president-elect has been fascinated with buying Greenland since his first term in the White House, although the autonomous Danish territory isn't for sale, in addition to apparent jokes about making Canada a state and taking back control over the crucial canal, and CNN's Alayna Treene spoke to advisers to learn what's behind his threats.