'Fascinating': Morning Joe bemused as Trump lets Putin 'embarrass' him
June 17, 2025
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough wondered why President Donald Trump keeps letting Russian President Vladimir Putin embarrass him on the world stage.
The U.S. president made historically inaccurate claims to argue in favor of readmitting Russia back into the Group of Seven, arguing it had been a “very big mistake” to punish the nation in 2014 for annexing Crimea, and the "Morning Joe" host asked why Trump would push for expanding the group despite the war in Ukraine.
"It was fascinating yesterday – fascinating, I guess, is one word you could use – fascinating yesterday that the president continued to talk about and lobby for Russia's admittance," Scarborough said, "Putin's admittance into what would be the G8 when he was kicked out for invading Crimea, and now these pleas by the president are being made, or these complaints being made at the same time he is killing more more residents of Kyiv and an overnight attack and bombing hospitals in Ukraine."
The timing struck Scarborough as odd, and he pointed out that Putin and Russian state media have repeatedly disrespected Trump.
"So again, a very strange, bizarre time to start talking about readmitting someone who had been kicked out in the first place for breaking treaties and invading Ukrainian space," Scarborough said, "and also also bizarre, too, because Vladimir Putin has, you know, he's basically, he's embarrassed Donald Trump, and Russian state television has had fun at president Trump's expense, and yet he's still lobbying using his position as America's president to lobby to get Putin and Russia back into the G8."
"I'm sure, again, a lot of head-scratching going on in Canada yesterday," he added.
Co-host Jonathan Lemire agreed Trump's position was baffling, saying that even the president's allies wondered when he would get tired of Putin embarrassing him.
"I wrote a piece a month or so back when Putin denied another U.S. offer for a ceasefire and talked to people in Trump's world who speculated [that] eventually Trump's going to feel humiliated by Putin and maybe turn against him," Lemire said. "Well, that hasn't happened yet. Last night was one of the deadliest attacks of the war on Kyiv, on the Ukrainian capital, and we have seen this moment from President Trump continuing to try to cozy up to Putin, lobbying for his admittance to the G8, suggesting that Putin could, that he and Putin might be the ones to negotiate a peace deal between Israel and Iran, trying to elevate Putin on the global stage again by putting him in that position."
"He has, despite over 80 sponsors, 80, completely bipartisan effort, really tough sanctions against Russia and secondary sanctions against those who do business with Russia, which could really cripple Moscow's economy that's sitting there, ready for him – he will not endorse it," Lemire added. "He has not said he would sign it, at least not yet."
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