Trump's leaving Syria to cash in again on real estate deals in Russia and Turkey: MSNBC's Morning Joe

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said President Donald Trump is running another money-making scam by pulling U.S. troops out of Syria, against the advice of Republican lawmakers and his own administration.

Trump announced Islamic State militants had been defeated, which he later walked back, and ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for a full withdrawal of American forces in the civil war-torn Middle Eastern nation.

"This is the scariest thing," said "Morning Joe" contributor Donny Deutsch. "He's not beyond a 'wag the dog' (scenario). 'Wag the Dog,' of course, was a movie where a politician was in trouble and they created a fake war against Albania, and he's doing the opposite right now."

Deustch said the president's baffling decision was intended as a diversion from the various investigations consuming his life's work, as well as a string of political defeats.

"His latest production is an absurd lie that will end up possibly costing American lives," he said. "We might be able to do a dotted line six years from now from a terrorist attack in this country that happened because we didn't finish the job there."

Scarborough said taking troops out of Syria was a "favor" to Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has already publicly expressed his approval, and Trump sold out Kurdish allies to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who considers them terrorists.

"There are two Trump Towers in Turkey," Scarborough said. "As we always say here, it's not about foreign policy and it's not about political money, it's about his money."

Scarborough said the decision to leave Syria was part of Trump's long con.

"I'll say it again," Scarborough said. "He's not running for re-election. Everything he's doing right now is to line his pockets two years from now."